The day before the wedding

After a whole week in Tampa, I'm finally recovered from the jet lag. The first week at work was hard! After almost 4 weeks off, I had to make a big effort to keep my concentration and my energy. I needed LOTS of coffee last week.

I will start blogging about the big day, the things that went well and not so well, and the details that we did the days before. I got all the pictures now and I will publish some of my favorites.

I wrote a couple of posts about Cali before and after the wedding if you want to read about the madness. Those 10 days went by very quickly.

The day before the wedding (Friday) was probably the busiest day of the trip, even worse than the actual wedding day. On Thursday night, we went to a bar with some of Andre's friends that arrived from Quito that day. I didn't know that the bars in the City were closing at 1:00 AM, but it was good for us since we had a long day ahead of us. I almost had a panic attack Thursday night because the cellular networks were down in the WHOLE Country!!! I had no way to confirm the time or where we were going to meet the photographers, or to confirm the transportation for all of our foreigner guests. I really had no idea how long an issue like this could last. The first thing I did when I woke up on Friday was to check my cell phone. It worked! I was relieved and ready for the busy day ahead.

We had planned a photo session for months with our wedding photographers that was going to take place Friday afternoon. I knew that it was not the best idea, but they live in Bogota and this was the only day that we could do it. We also had a cocktail party to welcome the travelers at 7:00 PM. We had lots of small details to finish, and I also had an appointment for my hair and makeup at 10:00 AM. Early that day, we took all the alcohol to the hacienda and all the hand made decorations for the party and the ceremony. I went to my salon appointment, my mom brought me lunch to the salon, and we headed to the Country Club where we would have the photo shoot at 2:00 PM. We had a driver pick us up at the salon, pick up the photographers, and take all of us to the Club. The Club Campestre is located about 40 minutes from my parent's home without traffic.

We spent about 4 hours taking pictures around the golf course, the lake, the pool, and the polo field. This club is a beautiful place. I originally wanted a Cali theme for this photo session, but the reports of robbery and the safety issues in the City were scary. It was better to go to a private place instead of walking around the streets with two big cameras.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Friday Afternoon. We have 220 pictures from that day. I think I even like them more than our wedding pictures.

Amazing trees everywhere!

My favorite picture of the session

My hair is so long! now it is fried and long

We loved the purple flowers of this tree

Cholados are very typical in Cali! It is shaved ice with fresh fruits and condensed milk!!

The traffic on Friday afternoon is always bad, and we didn't have a lot of time to get ready for the cocktail. We spent about 1.5 hours in the taxi back. We got home at around 7:30 PM. We were not too late because the guests were also late because of the traffic.

This cocktail took a lot of effort to plan and at the end we had to improvise. The restaurant where we wanted to have the event canceled our reservation two weeks before the day. I know the owner and I saw her at the airport the night that we got to Cali. She said that other event was canceled, and we could have the place for us again. By this time, my mom had already order food and reserved the club house from their condominium. I didn't feel I could trust anyone anymore, and if we had more control it would be less stressful. I was wrong. It was more stressful. We ordered food, but had to find trays to serve the food, rent chairs, tables, table cloths, glasses, and get some flowers to decorate the tables. Furthermore, I was gone all day for the pictures. I really thought that my mom and sisters were ready to kill me because I left them with all that work. I was lucky that they were just happy to have everyone together. A few guests were flying that day into Cali and their flights were delayed. We had planned for 40 people and we were around 25 or 30. My mom takes blurry pictures but I wanted to share a few. She also LOVES taking pictures of the food and me posing with the food. I hate doing that, but I had to make her happy after all the work that she did for me.

At around mid night we checked in at the hotel and had a good night sleep. Thank you Valeria and Juan Felipe! We loved the pictures!!!

Airlines going downfall?

Before I start writing about the wedding I need to vent about American Airlines!! We lost our flight to Honolulu thanks to a mechanical issue that was "only going to take minutes" it actually was a 3 hour delay. We were in the airplane for 3 hours and they didn't even give us water. After the delay we had our normal 5 hour flight. We lost our connection from LAX to HNL. We prepaid for everything in Hawaii, so we lost 1 day of rental car and hotel reservations. When we got off the plane, we had no idea if AA was going to cover our hotel stay. After the mechanical problem was announced the weather had the Miami airport closed for a while. Airlines are very good about blaming the weather for delays and not compensating travelers for their hotel or anything at all. We walked towards the customer service desk to book another flight to Hawaii. We had one of the rudest customer service agents that I've ever had in my life. She was rude and she treated us like we missed the connection on purpose. She gave us a voucher for $20 for dinner and breakfast and a voucher to stay at a holiday inn by the airport. I was offended by the holiday inn voucher since I know that even their crew stay at better hotels. It was the beginning of our honeymoon and I refused to stay there even if I had to pay for a decent room myself. I requested a better hotel and she denied, then I asked for the credit of the holiday inn to pay for a better place and of course she wouldn't do that either. I asked for at least a group 1 boarding pass the next day and she refused again. That is the easiest upgrade and she wouldn't do it. She was holding her Blackberry messaging someone the whole time. Finally, I moved away from her feeling frustrated and mad and looking for a hotel somewhere close. Andre asked again for a better hotel and she finally called someone. We got sent to the Marriott by the airport.

Finally at the Marriott they were nice. The concierge checked us in and he felt bad for us. He gave us a better room and also doubled our food voucher to use at any of the hotel's restaurants. I was still upset but relieved since he called the hotel in Waikiki and the rental car company to let them know of our arrival the next day. We asked him what airline was the worst with cancellations. He said what I was afraid he would say, that they are all bad!!! He said it happens in cycles and now is the American Airlines cycle. He said something that changed our bad mood. He said: "your honeymoon starts now" and just like that our attitude changed. We went to the hotel's restaurant to have wine and dinner and we went to bed early to catch our morning flight to Hawaii.

We sent a lot of tweets that night directly to AA complaining. We got no response.

The next morning we left on time and got to HNL around noon. Our checked-in bag didn't make it. I was afraid this would happen. I asked many times to the rude agent to guarantee that the bag would be there. She said that it would be sent automatically in the next flight with her attitude. We should have gotten that bag and checked it in the morning again. After reporting our missing bag we went to get our rental car and drove to the hotel. We had only 3 days in Honolulu before flying to Kauai, and we had everything planned to see as much as possible. We couldn't see everything that we wanted to see.

I'm aware that delays happen, BUT every time that we fly AA they have mechanical problems!!!!!!! When do they do their regular maintenance?? I have had this issue so many times that I am considering not using AA anymore. I love the miles and the awards. Our honeymoon was a reward ticket, but I don't know if it is worth it anymore. I will use this opportunity to stop accumulating AA miles since my balance is low, and to get another free flight I will have to deal with many other mechanical issues.

Is there an airline that I can trust? I've had good and bad experiences with all. At the end I think they are all the same. However, I don't want to stay loyal to a company that does their maintenance in MY time. I love AA's miles program, and I use the dinning program as well as their shopping mall to earn miles. I have a debit card with delta and I might start using them more often. Unfortunately, for South America AA is a better carrier because it flies from Miami instead of Atlanta and to get an international reward ticket in delta you have to use a lot of miles (even in low season). However, I think that my time is worth a lot more than the miles.

3x5 Folded Card

Classic Collage 3x5 folded card

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

I just sent these cards to print and there was a link to post it to your blog ang get $10 off your next order. Since I will be printing a lot of pictures I took a chance to do some advertisement in my page. I hope that the cards they come out as they looked in the preview. I've had many issues when the scale of the pictures is changed to fit the standard printing sizes. I always use snapfish for prints and I love it. For photobooks I like blurb and their software is great. My friend Kyle recommended mpix to print a large picture and it came out perfect. Is there a photo printing service that you like for photobooks or prints?

PS: Those are the hearts that I did based on the ideas that I got from etsy. I blogged about this months ago here. When I add the wedding pictures you will see how everything else came out. The photobooth, the candy bar, and the flip flops were a complete success!!

Last full day in Hawaii

Today is our last night in Hawaii. I love the fact that we never got used to the time and we are waking up at 6:00 AM every day. It rained last night and it is cloudy today. I feel the same way that I felt when I was little and my vacation came to an end. It is almost the same feeling of not wanting to go back to school on Monday. I used to say that San Andres, my favorite vacation spot as a kid, was crying because I was leaving when my last day was a rainy day. Today, Hawaii is sad because we are leaving tomorrow.

Yesterday, we got back from the island of Kauai to Oahu. We are staying in the North Shore this time. I don't like Waikiki too much because it feels like Miami's South Beach. I flew so many hours to be in a different place and that place was Kauai. It was magical. At times I felt in a different world. Here are some pictures from the helicopter ride that we took yesterday. It was an open door helicopter. First time I had been in one and I loved every single minute! except when it turned my way!! I will write the details of the trip when I get back home :)

Open door Helicopter Tour in Kauai

Flying over the north west side of Kauai

Aloha!

After spending 5 days in paradise, I'm completely disconnected from the world. I don't carry my phone every where, i dont have a watch, and I don't even know what day it is today. We spent 2 days in Oahu that were non stop and thanks to american airlines we had 1 less day in the island. I will write all the details about this later, all I will say now is that I am done with AA.

We are now in the island of Kauai. It is wild and beautiful. I wish I could add pictures from the phone to my blog. I still don't have any of the wedding pictures.

I have to get ready. We are leaving to see the Waimea Canyon today.

Mahalo!!

The wedding is over

Today we returned to Tampa for less than 12 hours to take our flight to Hawaii tomorrow morning. We are beyond exhausted after a flight from Cali to Miami and the 4 hour drive to Tampa. I'm downloading all the pictures to clear the memory sticks for the honeymoon.

I cried today when I said goodbye to my parents. I used to cry every time I left Cali until I got used to saying goodbye to my friends and family. I hadn't cried at the airport since 2004. I'm not sure why I cried today. I know I will be back and I know that I would have a hard time moving back if I wanted to live in Cali again. I guess it was a way to release all the emotions of the past week. It was probably one of the most intense weeks of my life.  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were non-stop with fewer hours of sleep to do everything and also spend some time with friends and family.

Before leaving for the honeymoon I wanted to upload a few pictures that I have from the trip. The photographers said they will send us a low resolution gallery to share and the CD with the pictures in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to see how they turned out.

Here are a few pictures of the days before the wedding. These are from the first few days when we had more time.

Delirio's new show - July 29th

The dancers get off the stage to dance with the audience

My favorite City landmark

Part of my new family

my dad and my in-laws

testing the hair style

Andre loving the tostadas

On our way to the mountains to have typical food

My fabulous wedding planner

Plantain trees

Restaurant in Dapa

The view from the restaurant

Best brownie ever!! Ventolini

The day before the wedding

Heliconias ready for the decoration

Update from Cali

I have lots of pictures to download and lots of videos from delirio last Friday. Delirio is the salsa show that I'm obsessed with.

What we have done, besides eating, is coordinating lots of details. The day after we arrived we went to take care of the paper work, checked the hacienda, and had a little rehearsal with the priest. We also found out that we were missing some papers. Luckily we had electronic copies. That night we went to Delirio. Saturday was a laid back day, we went shopping, had a few drinks with a friend and just relaxed. I drove for the first time in 7 years. I still have my driver's license from 1998. It does not expire but I had misplaced it for many years and I was not allowed to drive my dad's car without it. Most of the main roads are broken-down because of road improvements and the bus rapid transit system that the City is implementing. It is total chaos to cross the City from south to north.

I still have no earrings to wear. I need to do that tomorrow after we meet with the band. Tomorrow our first big group of guests arrive so we are planning on a night of dancing to welcome them to the salsa capital of the world. I have also planned lots of small hand made decorations to be done this week with my family. We just started today. We are very caught up and I might have to forget about some things. Friday will be the busiest day since we have a 4 hour photo session with the photographers and it is in the other side of the city. Meaning 2 extra hours in the car and at 7:00pm we will be hosting a welcome cocktail for the travelers.

I had the makeup and hair trial yesterday. It came out great. I love my stylist here. I trust him and I told him an idea of what I wanted and he did a great job. On Saturday, 9 of us will be getting ready at his salon. The in-laws got here yesterday and we had a dinner party to welcome them. They helped me today with my crafty projects. We also went to a salsa class yesterday and we are now able to dance salsa together. I'm beyond happy about that. I wish I could do more classes.

I can't believe we have been planning for this day for so long. I could not be so relaxed if my mom didn't have everything ready for me. My to do list is long but I'm enjoying the moment. We also had 2 people confirm TODAY that they will come. I'm really upset with the RSVPs since we have a lot of guest that cancel and confirm like if it was a birthday party.

I have to go to bed or I won't be able to do all I have to do tomorrow. We had 20 less guests than we expected and our hands are full!!!