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.

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As most of you know by now from my previous Destination Wedding entry, my wedding is being held in Cartagena, Colombia.  Planning a destination wedding is tons of fun even though it is a bit stressful.

This has taken a lot of planning and thinking ahead of time.  I want my little Magnolia Dude and I to have our dream wedding, but I also know a lot of our guests are making a big effort by traveling there to be with us. I understand the worry and stress of traveling to another country, especially one where they speak a different language, so I have taken all that into consideration and made sure that I make this as easy as possible not only for myself but for them.

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So I will tell you a little bit about my story and how I decided to have my wedding in a different country. When I became engaged, all images of that perfect wedding I had ever dreamed of came into my mind. I knew what I wanted, and it was something very special, classy, and beautiful and something my family and guests would remember but most importantly something my honey and I would cherish forever.

I live in Miami and my first thought was to search venues on the beach…. after all we do have beautiful mansions, museums, convention centers, etc…I found a couple but was in shock at the cost! I continued my search anyways and continued raising my budget.

Soon I realized I was way over budget and that I’d have to scratch things off my list. But this isn’t a good feeling… I AM that girl who has dreamed of a wedding since I was a little kid… and to think that I was going to have to restrain myself from everything I wanted was not what I had planned.

And suddenly…. the word of wisdom spoke into my ear… my mom! She said to me: “have you considered having your wedding in Colombia? You know you’d be able to do it all and more for 1/5th of the cost…”.

I am after all from Colombia and I have a lot of family and friends there. I was a bit skeptical because my fiance is American and his family has never even travelled outside of the US. My mom offered to go there, find out about the whole shebang and prepare a budget for me.

Soon we realized the wedding of my dreams would be possible in Colombia for under 10k Including plane tickets! And that’s how I made my decision… and amazingly my fiance was super excited and so were his parents.

We had traveled to Cartagena to visit last year and we had both fallen in love with this city… it is an amazing city, different from anything we had ever seen anywhere in the world. It’s full of romance, nice friendly people, the most beautiful hotels and the best restaurants.

As usual, my mom always offers to do it all herself… but after her first visit she realized that planning a wedding, in a different country, and just with a month at a time, would be a challenge…. so a friend of ours recommended a very well known wedding planner, who specializes in Cartagena weddings…. we hired her and since then the process has been nothing but fun. Yes, if you have a wedding in Colombia you can even afford the wedding planner. heheheh!

She heard my story, my ideas, my dreams and helped me chose the venue… an old colonial theater that has been restored and now is a wedding venue… but inside it still looks like a theater.

Teatro Heredia

Teatro Heredia inside - ceremony is held here

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I’m so excited to be a part of this wonderful blog!

First I’ll tell you a little about myself… I’m originally from Bogota, Colombia. I lived there until 1992 when I moved to Miami, FL and have been here since then. My friends say that I’m a very loving and caring person but I also tend to be a little bit “controlling”! Which is usually the case because I love to plan things ahead of time and make sure everything turns out perfect, and on schedule!

I’m known as the “planner” of our group… from planning surprise parties, dinner parties, get togethers, movie nights, to group travel.

So as you can imagine, I’ve had nothing but fun planning my wedding… although I keep trying not to control my bridesmaids too much and I’m doing my best not to become a bridezilla!

My fiancé and I met through very weird circumstances… well, weird to some Our entire story is on our website which I created through www.weddingwire.com.

He has been great trying to keep up with my change of moods… we all know how this process can be and how much our fiancés love to plan weddings

Our wedding will be in Cartagena, Colombia this coming May 24, 2009….at an old colonial Theater called Teatro Heredia.

Teatro Heredia

I hope to be able to contribute great information to all the brides-to-be. I have been planning my wedding for over 5 months and have another 5 or so to go… I look forward to sharing my journey with you.