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!!!