My dear bridal buds I have been a little bit missing in action because of all my wedding planning. It’s been 8 months since the proposal and my wedding is only 3 and a half months away!

Our wedding will take place in Cartagena, Colombia and even though I had decided this over 4 months ago, I actually hadn’t visited since 2007. My wedding planner has been very patient with me, answering my 1 million questions over the phone and email, but she kept telling me to relax and just make a weekend trip there to do all the planning and wrap everything up.

I really did not think this would be possible! I’m used to the USA way of things where you have to make appointments weeks in advance and is hard to have more than 2 appointments per day because things just take too long, traffic gets on the way, distances are big, etc…. and to think of planning an entire wedding, and meeting with about 10 providers in 1 weekend just did not seem possible…. but WE DID IT!!!!!

Magnolia Dude and I flew to Cartagena on Thursday, February 5th. Our flight was only 2 and 1/2 hours, very smooth. We arrived around 2:30pm. At 5pm we had our first appointment with the Director of the music for the ceremony. This was an awesome experience as he sat down with us, played the music we would tell him, and helped us create a program from beginning to end.

The cool thing about doing this in Colombia is that you pay per “package” or “event” and not per hour or amount… so he actually told us that he could play as much music as we wanted but of course we don’t want our ceremony to turn into a Concert! However, it gave us the freedom of choosing a few songs we wanted, and play some in the background and some between lectures. We chose a DUO of Violin and Piano, and a Tenor who will sing some opera.

After our ceremony music appointment we head over to the Decorator (flowers/arrangements/tables/etc). I thought I would just sit there, look at pictures, give ideas, and leave…. but this was yet another wonderful experience. They worked with us for 2 hours to create our “masterpiece”. Whatever idea would pop up in my head I’d just say it and Carlota (our decorator) would run to the back, bring it, and create it. We designed our entire table arrangements and everything else that will go in the wedding. Here are a couple of pictures of our “Draft”.

This is just put together from little pieces but will be even more beautiful on the day… we wanted everything simple, subtle, with beach theme, and using a bit of green which is the color of my bridesmaids.

We finished around 9pm and were done for the day. On Friday, we were visited in the morning by the next Director of music.. this time for the reception. He also offered us a great package consisting of a DJ, an Orchestra, a Saxophone player during dinner time, and a “surprise” for my guests that I don’t want to spoil And again, he told us they’d be there until the party ends! They will switch between DJ/Orchestra every 30-40 minutes. Most parties, I’ve been told, last until 4-5 in the morning…. and we won’t be kicked out! We got the place to ourselves until the party ends

After this meeting was over we head over to the cake place. We had a specific idea in mind and again they had already come up with something to show us. We loved it so much there was not much else we needed to do, besides trying the different types of cakes. We went with 2 different flavors, one white (amapola and orange) and one black (nutella and baileys). They will serve every guests with one of each.

We then met with 2 different photographers and went with the one that offered a better package. My first question was how many pictures we would get and how long they’d be there… and the response yet again was “as many as you want and until you want us to leave”. The package includes 2 photographers/2 videographers one following me and the other following Magnolia Dude before the wedding and then the entire ceremony and reception. They also include an informal photo shoot the day before the wedding, all around the old city of Cartagena. It will come with this beautiful photo album with 100 pre-selected photos, a CD that will include all the photos they take (up to 1000), and a DVD that will even contain bonus scenes! And they also include a chronological DVD with pictures since we were babies

After choosing our photographer we had the fun part! The food tasting! They took us to a hotel were they had a dining room closed up just for us and 2 chefs cooking the food options we had pre-selected.

They explained every dish, we tasted, we picked, we made a few changes… it was just absolutely delicious! We are having a 4-course meal and the presentation is amazing. They will send over 20 waiters because they’re all about presentation and serving.

When we were done eating, we met with our Pastor (we are having a christian ceremony). I thought it would be a challenge to find a bi-lingual pastor (Magnolia Dude is American and does not speak any Spanish) but my wedding planner is just amazing and found us a great great person. He’s from England, his wife is from Cartagena. We felt very comfortable with him and the way he explained everything. We are having him do most of the ceremony in English and his wife will say a few things in Spanish.

And my last appointment was with Diego Moya, a hair and makeup artist. He’s very famous in Colombia as he’s been in charge of most of the Pageants (reinados) and works with a lot of celebrities. We actually did my hair and makeup and he was great! We changed it a few times, and played with the makeup, until I was happy with it. He will be coming to the hotel with 3 of his people to do my hair and makeup and also my bridesmaids.

Finally, on Saturday, we went to visit Teatro Heredia where we’re having the ceremony and reception. What a BEAUTIFUL venue! It is breathtaking.

It’s one of the biggest historical places in Cartagena and where even President Uribe’s son had his wedding party. We are so happy with it and can’t wait… it’s going to be a show for our guests with so much music and surprises.

We will be setting our reception on the stage, and having the ceremony on the front of it with the big curtain down… the curtain won’t go up until after the ceremony when we enter again and then everyone will see the tables lit up. The theater has those big lights they use for shows and I picked green so it lights up all my tables with a shade of green. The big huge lamp you see on the ceiling will be lowered.

Now that the entire wedding is all set and done (deposits have been given, my wedding planner has all the rest), I am just trying to relax and help my guests find hotels/houses/apartments to stay.. as well as looking for our plane tickets. Cartagena is beautiful, the old city is full of tourists and everyone makes you feel at home.