The chosen venue

After all the drama during my flight and a second short flight from Panama, I arrived in Bogota. There I planned on staying the first week, look for wedding dresses and to buy things for the "crazy hour"

When I arrived at my cousin's appartment, my iPod automatically connected to her Internet network. All type of sounds went on: Viber messages, emails, reminders,etc. I went to check my email accounts and there was one were I had 39 messages on it. Now, that's spamming! I wonder if our newbie really knows the meaning of such word, as she calls 1 comment, spam and its author a troll. Oh well.

The 39 messages were all from our wedding planner. I said to myself, it better be an awesome venue or he will be in trouble. Wth?
I sat, opened the first email and I liked the picture I saw. I continued opening the other messages and I fell in love with the venue. I couldn't wait to hear Daniel's opinion about it -he also got spammed-

This house is located in one of the most beautiful streets of the Walled City. It is a colonial house with Caribbean flair. On the first floor it has a large pool and spaces with lots of green. On the second floor the house has a colonial living for maximum 60 people -where we plan on having the dinner/party-, it has a big balcony and a great decoration between lamps and mirrors. We can have the cocktail on the third floor where there is a large terrace, also for 60 people. Climbing the "snail" type stairs there is a terrace where we can have the ceremony. It has a great view of the city and the dome Cathedral.





The house has many advantages -money wise-: we do not have to pay corkage, we can bring our own catering, the price includes accommodation -up to 24 people can stay there the night of the wedding-, and we do not need so much lighting and decor.

This is actually an hotel boutique. We reserved it and are now debating whether we stay there the whole time we will be in Cartagena or not. Instead of 6 nights, we would have to pay 4. The thing is, we like the house, but are not so sure about the rooms. So we will see.
We signed a contract with the manager and paid to reserve it in full house. Every day I pray the manager doesn't run away wtih our money or just dissapear.
This is the downside of having a destination wedding: you can't be there the whole time, making sure everything is alright and that you will indeed get what you got promised. I want to stay positive, but man, sometimes people just suck. And there are many bandidos -like my SO would say- out there.

Wedding dress shopping

From the beginning I knew I did not want to spend millions on my wedding gown, I do not care what others think or say. Buying an expensive dress was out of the options to consider.

In January, weeks after Daniel proposed, I contacted via WhatssApp, a fashion designer whose designs I liked and they did not seen expensive at all. We talked about the prices, his way of working and so on. I told him I would like to meet him in Bogota and discuss ideas. He agreed, however I told him I'd contact him again when the date of my trip was closer -march-, to make a proper appointment.

I messaged him a day before my trip. He never replied back. The night I arrived, as I sat reading and seeing the 39 messages from our wedding planner, I asked my cousin to contact this designer through her WhatsApp because mine was not working. She did and guess what? He just said: "Oh I'm sorry, I had to travel to -insert name of the city-. I can send you sketches via email and then you decide. I will be here until saturday" -I was leaving on Sunday-
What kind of lack of respect is that? How does he think I'm going to decide about my wedding dress only through a sketch, without meeting him and without him meeting me, seeing my body type, my measurements. Was he out of his mind? or am I too picky?. His lack of reliability and respect towards a prospective client bothered me and it was right at that moment when I decided I would not do any deal with him and moved on.

Fortunately I had already checked and written down different wedding and party dresses stores in Bogotá.
The next day in the morning, I called one of them to make an appointment. The girl was very friendly. There were no appointments available for that day, but I explained the situation to her and she then gave an appointment that same day in the afternoon.

I was very excited to try on different dresses. I did not have a very clear idea of ​​how I wanted it, even if I had already seen thousands of inspirations on Pinterest.
The store was nice and seeing all these wedding gowns filled me with excitement. We talked about general things and then we begin to check the dresses out. I remember I picked at least 5. All very beautiful and at a great price because they are second hand dresses. They have been wore once. You can't even tell. They are in perfect conditions, like new. Exactly what I was looking for. :-)


In the picture you can see one of the dresses I tried on. I almost cried of excitement and joy with every dress I tried. I felt all beautiful and special. I am sorry I am not posting pictures of the dress I chose. My SO has access to my blog and I do not want him to see the dress. But don't worry, I will make sure to share pictures after the wedding.