Dear bridalbuds… I have been missing in action for a couple of months because of all my wedding planning… but I am now a married woman! I’m so happy it is hard to describe in words how I feel… Our wedding turned out better than expected, not a single mistake, not a single regret, and all our guests left saying “We have never seen something like this and don’t think another wedding will ever top this one!”…. which was exactly our goal.

Because our wedding took place in another country, we had an itinerary of events from day 1 until the day of our wedding, May 24. In the next few blogs I will write my experience of each day, each event, beginning with this one: Our arrival to Cartagena and our Bachelor and Bachelorette parties.

We arrived on Thursday, May 21 to Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. We had rented a beautiful colonial house for the bridal party (10 of us) in the middle of the Old City, also called Centro Historico “Historical Downtown”. The house was absolutely beautiful, with a view to the ocean from every single room and with 3 live-in service people who attended to all our needs and cooked the most delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday.

As soon as we arrived, we met with all guests who had already arrived and took off on a short walk through the city. Cartagena is truly a magical city, full of old houses that have been remodeled inside, small boutique hotels, beautiful views of the Wall, and friendly people.

On May 22nd, Erik and I had our casual photos taken by our wedding photographers. It was a cool experience as everyone around the city kept clapping and screaming as we were getting our pictures taken… weddings in Cartagena are very popular and we were even asked by a couple of tourists to take pictures with them.

The photos came out wonderful, with a view of the sunset and the wall behind us.

That night we had planned our bachelor and bachelorette parties. Erik and I rented a Chiva, which is an old colorful open bus. We had 35 people at this point.

Chiva

The chiva came with free drinks, food, musicians and an entertainer who really made this a fun experience for all… even my father-in-law who is 100% American was singing-a-long and shaking his booty on the chiva… it still makes me laugh when I remember!

They take you for about 20 minutes on a tour of the city, showing you famous houses and places, while you have 3 musicians playing Vallenatos (colombian music). The entertainer asks each row on the bus to compete against each other, get  up on the chairs and shake your booty, sing, play the maracas, and sip on Rum and Coke! After the first 20 minutes or so they take you to one of the walls to join with a few other chivas and see all sorts of different musicians.

Then it’s back to the Chiva for another short tour and finally a drop-off at one of the main clubs in the area.
We danced all night, had bottles of rum, vodka, tequila, shots of aguardiente, you name it! For about 30 people…. our bill: About $200US total.

This was an unforgettable bachelor/rette party that we will always remember….

Arrived at our house around 4am and we all jumped in the pool… unfortunately, someone had my camera in the pocket…. Bye Bye camera!

We went to sleep close to 5am…. and continued the next day: Our Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner