In 3 weeks, I will be in Cali getting ready for the big day. We will have 4 days before people from out of town start getting there. We want to show them around as much as possible. The biggest challenge with this weeding and the days before the wedding will be transportation. I don't live there and my parents have a car but it could only fit 3 more and that's it. For the wedding we stayed close to the City so that wont be too hard. We have some recommended drivers that are willing to work any time. We will see how it goes. I'm used to the way it is in the US, when you plan things in advance and expect people to show up on time. In South America, every thing is last minute. You feel like begging vendors to give you an estimate. When you hire someone it could fall off without notice. It doesn't matter if you agreed on something. The words customer service do not exist. If you mess with their money that is something different but if there is no money involved don't expect much. I sound like I have never lived. I love it but the truth is that I moved to the US when I was 18 and my parents did EVERYTHING for me. This is the first time that I have tried to deal with vendors and contracts.
Having said that we are having a hard time finding someone to make the cupcakes and someone to take care of the night before. We don't do rehearsal dinners but there is a get together the night before called la entrega de regalos. This is when the guests bring the gifts and the groom serenades the bride. We can't get 80 people inside my parent's apartment so we decided to find a restaurant. Plus, you can't tell people to go home if it gets late. I need my beauty sleep the night before. We completely forgot to budget for this night and it is quickly adding up. We talked to the restaurant owner and explained this situation. She said not to worry about it. But again, this is the favorite quote in South America. I still don't know how it's going to work out. We decided to call this event a welcome for the travelers. This means all of my family and friends that live in Cali will not be invited. It is easier, less people, and less formal. Plus the ones that don't in in Cali will be looking for a place to go that night. We will be there for a couple of hours and leave early. The others can go anywhere they want. We will offer some appetizers and 2 glasses of sangria per person. The issue is how to manage the waiters after the food that we agreed to pay for is over. This is something else that is different in Colombia, they don't like separate checks. It is a big check and at the end the men split it. This means that my dad will be handed the check and he will be too ashamed to accept money from somebody else. I don't want him to have to pay for another big night of food and drinking.
The morning of the wedding, my boyfriend and I are planning to eat breakfast alone and have a relaxing massage. My hair and makeup appointment is at 11:00AM, the photographer will be at the hotel at 2:00PM, and the wedding is at 4:00PM. We have to be late since most people will be late.
We are going to get married at the court probably next Friday. We want to go alone so we don't believe it is our wedding. Not after all this time and effort. We completed the marriage preparation class and paperwork here and already have a priest to marry us in Cali. This was a LONG process that we didn't expect to take that much energy out of us.
The things left to do on my end are small hand made projects that I wanted to do. I did a thank you sign that I saw on Etsy for the thank you notes. I also did some lips and mustaches for fun pictures. My mom had her painter friend, Henry Tejada, do a Cali theme painting. She took it to a print and got a huge banner for the photobooth background. I am bringing the original painting home. I love it. I still don't know where to hang it but we will figure it out when I get there. I showed the pictures in an older post a few months ago.
We are also packing to move in the next few weeks. Packing for the most important trip and packing an apartment are probably the 2 most stressful tasks at this point. Also it has been hard to get an RSVP from some of the guests that keep saying that maybe they will come. We need a final count and this week we have to call them and tell them that we need to know NOW.
I need help finding the best spanx or something similar that can make my stomach flat!!!! any recommendations? what brand or style to get??
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| We got our wedding bands last weekend. We will engrave them in Cali |
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| My mom did this for our rings |
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| My red shoes :) |
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| The flowers I picked for the reception |
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| Photobooth background |
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