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From efeunodos photography… The bride was born and raised in San Andrés and the groom is from Bogotá, they got married in the afternoon in San Judas Church, and after the ceremony they rode a small bus around the island with their wedding party, drinking champagne, and taking pictures in several beautiful locations. Susana, the bride, bought chinese umbrellas for her bridesmaids, and although the weren’t dressed alike they all had a tropical flower on their heads to distinguish them as bridesmaids. Felipe’s (the groom) groomsmen were wearing Guayabera shirts, a white shirt made of cotton or linen that’s typical from the caribbean coast, perfect for the hot weather.

The party was in a private beach called Rocky Cay that belongs to Decameron Hotel.  They first had a welcome cocktail for their guests: sangría, and tropical juices. Afterwards, they served dinner which was delicious, filled with caribbean specialties such as Fruto Pan (bread fruit), lobster and Cherna (a type of fish) with crab sauce. It was really delicious.

The decoration was very simple but elegant, you didn’t have to work that hard in decorating the place, since it was on the beach with the ocean and a beautiful moon reflecting on it.  The centerpieces were local white flowers with white hydrangeas and roses set over white linen table clothes with a light brown and white print of twigs and leaves.

After the toast and speeches were made, Susana’s father and brother (they work with fireworks) lighted an astonishing display of fireworks that lasted a long time and left all the guests mesmerized.

Afterwards the party began and the music was great music from the Caribbean such as danzol, reggaeton, and other tropical rhythms in charge of a great DJ.  The party went on until 2:00 am when we got kicked out of the venue and went to La Perla bar, a beautiful bar with a great view of the sea at night.

Wedding Photography: efeunodos photography / Wedding Gown: BCBG Max Azria + Maria Amparo Giraldo (Alterations) / Bride’s Shoes: MIX No. 6 / Groom’s Shoes: Zara / Groom’s Attire: Custom by MATTEUS Formal Wear / Catering: Decameron Hotel / Event Design: Shirley Díaz / Fireworks: Juan Sebastian Lopez / DJ: Raul of El Reino del Mar / Wedding Venue: Rocky Cay Beach of Decameron Hotel

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: BCBG Max Azria, colombia, Decameron Hotel, Destination Wedding, efeunodos photography, El Reino del Mar, Fireworks, MATTEUS Formal Wear, MIX no. 6, Purple, Rocky Cay Beach, San Andrés Island, South America, White, Zara
Post categories: Destination, Destination Weddings

Click here for more inspiration in the full wedding gallery!

From the moment we decided to get married, Kuba and I knew we wanted to have a small and intimate wedding with the word FUN written all over it. Kuba is Polish (he grew up in Poland and Botswana, Africa and went to boarding school in England) and I am half Colombian, half Ecuadorian (lived in both countries). We met in Canada in 2002 at university and had the opportunity to live in different Canadian cities. After several years living like gypsies, we settled down in Toronto and had our son Mateusz. This particular lifestyle has allowed us to meet many wonderful people from around the world. Our wedding list included people from 32 different countries and we invited only 75 people! From these 75 guests, 50 made it to our wedding (from 15 different countries).

We chose to get married in Cartagena, Colombia because it is one of the most romantic and charming cities in the world. We knew all our guests would fall in love with it the moment they got off the plane. Cartagena is a city which maintains and its colonial roots very much alive and is unbelievably breathtaking. Its Caribbean warmth and its imposing architecture make it a very special setting to the small, unique and intimate wedding we had in mind. Our guests started arriving one week before the big day and we felt really lucky to have a wedding that lasted longer than most weddings (that is how it felt!). We celebrated each night of the week in a different venue of the city and counted down the days to the big day with our family and friends.  Having everyone we love with us for a week was the best wedding gift we could ask for and made for a beautiful wedding experience.

We had our wedding at a 500 year old colonial mansion in the old city called “Casa Don Sancho”. The house has a gorgeous salon on the second floor where we held our civil ceremony and a stunning pool area on the main floor where we had our reception.  The house is full of history and has an air of colonial romanticism throughout the space. Kuba and I are fans of The Beatles and feel many of their songs represent our life together and our dreams and hopes for the future. For that reason, The Beatles were a salient element throughout the wedding. Our first song was “And I love Her”, our tables were named after Beatles songs and our altar had a banner that read: “Stand By Me”.  These personal touches made us feel like our wedding was really ours, like we were making ourselves felt in sublet and delicate ways in every aspect of the ceremony and the reception.

Our wedding was a small, intimate and fun. Our main priority was to have as many of our friends and family that day with us. We wanted everyone to feel welcome and feel how much we appreciated all the effort they made to be there. That is why we came up with the idea of welcoming them with goodie bags.  The day of the wedding, we welcomed the ladies with some adorable paper fans (in turquoise and pale pink) which we decorated ourselves with stamps (fish and our initials in each fan). We also crafted the flags for the ceremony ourselves and put them together a couple of days before the wedding as well as the big banners. I designed them myself even though I have no background whatsoever in graphic design… let’s just say it took a lot of trial and error (and a lot of sleepless nights) before I got the desired results! We made the letters for the altar (“Stand by Me”) with gorgeous crafting paper we found at Michael’s and stringed the letters to form a banner. We had some paper hearts and circles hanging from the small bench we used during the ceremony. We bought these hand-punched hearts in Etsy (seller: theCandyShoppe) and they are from a 1920’s world atlas. They symbolized our love for travel and our dream of traveling the world as a family. They were also a way to express our gratitude for having people come from all over the world to be with us that day. We also made the cards that went in the frames at each table. I got the frames custom made by a designer I met in a design fair in Colombia’s capital, Bogota. All these little D.I.Y. details added a little bit of a personal touch to the whole day.

Wedding Photography: efeunodos / Flowers: Gladys /Event Design: William Banea / Event Planning: Caribe Cordial / Wedding Venue: Casa Don Sancho – La Heroica / Invitations: D.I.Y / Shoes: Forever21 / Dress: Tailor-made / Music (DJ, violinist and carnival): Grupo Manhattan / Hair and Makeup: Diego Moya / Wedding Suit: Paul Smith

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cartagena, Casa Don Sancho, colombia, Destination, Do-It-Yourself Inspired, efeunodos
Post categories: Destination, The Blog

Here are a few details from the AMAZING photographers behind the day, Valeria and Juan…

The bride and groom are really good friends of ours, Carlos and Laura, both industrial designers. All of the decorations were handmade by the beautiful bride Laura: the center pieces, the flowers around the altar, the sugar mushrooms in the center pieces, the bouquet…you name it, all was carefully planned and designed by her. The beautiful groom prepared the candle sign in cursive type that you see on the pics as a surprise for Laura who was absolutely thrilled.

The food was a Thai Stir fry, amazing, because once you picked your vegetables you went to a place where there were 4 cheffs each of them with 4 woks and they prepared your dinner with the exact ingredients you wanted: rice or pasta, curry and orange, pepper or tamarindo (a local fruit) sauce, peanuts or sesame. The wedding was catered by Banquetes Santa Mónica. The picture with the chalk board shows how the serving of the food was explained to the guests.

Don’t you agree that there is just something special about this affair? It’s thoughtful, it’s beautiful…and yet it seems so effortless. So lovely in it’s simplicity and style. Thank you so much to Valeria and Juan for introducing me to your work. I can’t wait to see more weddings from you!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: colombia, Medellín, Rionegro, Valeria and Juan
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Cultural Beauty

This particular wedding was held in Rionegro near Medellín, in Colombia, at the bride’s parent’s home…

The bride’s gorgeous gown was made by the very talented Juliana Correa, designer of the Colombian brand OnA and is total perfection. Actually, everything about this wedding is as close to perfect as you can get. The music during the ceremony was all performed by friends who are musicians (the best man was actually playing the piano!). At the end of the ceremony, the couple gifted their guests a cd with the music that had played throughout the evening.

More on the way!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: colombia, Medellín, Rionegro, Valeria and Juan
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Cultural Beauty