The Wedding

If you'd told me two years ago when I started this blog that I'd be getting married...in Spain nonetheless...I'd have laughed my butt off. Funny how things change. Well, here it is--the big day. The wedding!

In case you've missed it, you can see the day's events leading up to the wedding here (for me) and here (for Diana).

Back in June, I had a crazy thought that must have somehow fallen out of my mouth. Diana and I were on the Metro here in Barcelona when we were talking about what we were going to do next in terms of our relationship as well as what country (or countries) we were going to end up in. Somehow, Diana thought that I had asked her to marry me right there but I didn't remember ever asking. You can go back to the engagement story to see that I was able to recover somewhat a couple of days later with the help of friends.

Move the calendar forward about three months or so and there I was, the first person to arrive at the church for the wedding. I waited outside the locked church alone, nervous, for about ten minutes before I saw my dad and Ginny arrive. About three minutes later Xavi (cha-vee), the priest, got there. Good, I thought, I'm here on the right day.

Someone from the church opened the doors a couple of minutes later and I went in to setup my computer to broadcast the wedding for the out-of-town folks. Over the next half hour or so people started arriving. It was all kisses and hugs for a while there. I honestly don't remember if seeing everyone made me more nervous or less. I do know that having my cell phone reset and become unusable while I was setting up the video rattled my cage. Diana's cousin Carol saved the day by allowing me to use her phone's data connection and everything was ready...for the broadcast.

I patiently waited at the altar but curiosity got the best of me and I went up to the front door of the church where I could see the car carrying Diana. I immediately got shushed away and went back to my post by the altar...and waited some more.

When the time was right, I went back towards the front door where my sister was waiting escort me to the altar. As we walked together to the front of the church, the music started to play and all I remember was thinking "Who are all these people?", "What are they doing here?", "Why are the taking photos of me?", and "OMG! I'm getting married!".

Since Diana's dad couldn't make it to wedding, she asked my dad to walk her down the aisle and we were off...

The wedding took place at the more-than-500-year-old Sant Ramon de Penyafort Catholic church on La Rambla Catalunya. Diana had wanted her favorite priest and good friend Xavi do a traditional Catholic mass, which he did an amazing job with.

I've mentioned it before but my mother would have been very happy that I ended up getting marrying to a great girl (that is a lot like she was) in a church. I know that she would have been proud.

I'm not sure if it was just our wedding or if it's how things are done here in Spain (I really need to learn Spanish) but we didn't have a maid of honor or a best man. Instead, Gema and Victor served as witnesses and document signers. Thanks guys!

During the mass, Carol, Pili, Andrea, and Victor all did readings (thanks!). We did the ring ceremony and a traditional coin (money) "pouring" ceremony (thanks Carol and Juan) as part of the wedding. I was able to fumble through all the Spanish that I had to say without too many problems. By the end, we were husband and wife:

Another thing that's different here in Spain than what I've seen in the U.S. is that you sign the legal documents during the service while still at the altar. In the U.S., the documents usually signed "offline" either before or after the wedding. For me, it was a strange "break" in an otherwise solemn ceremony.

I took advantage of the signing time to take some "self portraits" of Diana and me. See, Diana's always asking me to take photos of the two of us everywhere we go. I never really "got it" until just before the wedding when I was looking for some pictures of the two of us. All the photos that I ended up choosing and really liking were those self portraits that we had taken of ourselves during our travels around Spain and the world. This one, taken while Gema and Victor were signing, shows the altar and the church's La Moreneta statue. (Curiously, in a small-world kinda' way, churches at both Montserrat near Barcelona and Montserrate in Bogota are famous for their "brown Mary" statues.)

We also wanted to take a self portrait of the two of us with Xavi during the ceremony. He was kind enough to grant (put up with) our wish. Thanks for everything Xavi!

And so it was...we were married. We went out the front of the church where we were immediately ambushed by rice-and-bubble-wielding crazies:

Finally, one of the other things that Diana and I wanted to do was to take a "team" photo with everyone that was at the wedding. Almost everyone is in this one:

As a place holder and in case you missed it, this is the recording of the live broadcast of the wedding:

Thanks to everyone who was able to come to our wedding (in person, virtually, and in spirit). We appreciated having you share in our big day and for your support!!!

Before The Wedding: The Bride

In my last post, I wrote about me getting ready before the wedding. Today's is about Diana and her day leading up to the big event.

Diana started her day much earlier than me; my guess is at least two hours before. She had taken it upon herself to buy fresh-cut flowers and assemble all the flowers for the church on her own. I don't think I've ever heard of an entire wedding's flowers being done for so little money while still looking so great. My little Colombian girl makes me proud. Here's what I saw when I got out of bed last Friday morning:

Diana did all her prep at her friend Gema's house about a 15-minute walk from where we were staying with my family. She left to go get her hair and makeup done about 11am right around the time that I left to go to the church and place all the flowers she had put together. I'm not too sure of all the details of what actually transpired for the next few hours but I know for sure that she looked amazing. Here she is with Gema and Bernar:

Our friend Victor, who served as one of our witnesses, had taken it upon himself to write three different poems for Diana, one in Spanish, another in Catalan, and a third in English:

Unfortunately, one of the side effects of having the wedding in Barcelona was that very few family and friends from outside of Spain could make it. One of the ones that was there from Colombia was her cousin Carol who happens to also live in Barcelona. This is Diana with Carol and her husband Juan:

A special thanks needs to be given to Carol and Juan as I ended up using her cell phone's internet connection to broadcast the live wedding video. My phone had reset while I was setting up and I was unable to unlock it due to not knowing the security code for the new SIM card I put in it the day before. With her phone, we were able to get the video system working, which allowed friends and family from around the world to watch the wedding live. Thanks Carol!

As with the pre-wedding photos that our friend David took of me and my family getting ready, Diana had a whole bunch of photos taken that day too. It was hard to pick out only a couple of good ones to share here but these next two I thought were both super. I liked the lighting and angle of this photo and Diana looks particularly happy:

And what can I say about this one? My beautiful bride-to-be. Lovely!

Just prior to leaving to go to the church, David took a couple of group photos of everyone who was at Gema's place.

Our former roommate David (not the photo-taking David) arrived to drive Diana over to the church and got in a couple of photos. This is David, Diana, and Victor just before they left for the church:


As I mentioned above, not too many people from Diana's family were able to make it to the wedding day. One who did, her (second) cousin Cynthia and her husband Stefan, came down from Germany:

And, finally, here's the happy bride-to-be in the (surprise!!!) Mercedes that David had gotten to take her to the wedding in. Thanks David!

Now, off to the main event...the big day...the wedding!

Before The Wedding: The Groom

I've decided to write about and share photos of the wedding in a few different posts. Today's is about me, my family, and some friends hanging out and getting ready before the wedding.

We got really lucky and found a great 100+ year old apartment for rent at an amazing price on airbnb. It was a five-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath place located about four or five blocks from the church. My whole family as well as me and Diana were able to stay there very comfortably and it worked out great for getting ready for the wedding. Thanks for the apartment dad!

We ended up having a lot of fun taking photos and shooting video. The historical features of the place and the lighting worked out really well.

As you can imagine, there are tons of photos of the wedding day. I pulled out these ten photos from around 200 or so that were taken in the apartment by David, our official photographer for the day, as well as those from my camera and others' cameras. It was fun looking through all the photos and remembering the day. This is me with my brother Kevin and my sister-in-law Zahra:

I was amazed at how many really nice photos we ended up with. Just before this photo of me and my sister Jackie was taken, she had handed me my mother's wedding band, which she had brought with her from Philadelphia. It meant a lot that she had thought to bring it and that I got to wear it on a string around my neck for the ceremony. I think my mom would have been floored that I was finally getting married...in a Catholic church to boot! Thanks Jackie!

Lots of the photos were natural but some were posed. This one with my dad giving me "fatherly advice" was one of the staged ones but it ended up being a great series of photos:

I also liked this one of my sister and brother-in-law Larry:

We took some spontaneous photos on the front balconies of the apartment that overlook Calle Valencia. Everyone was playful and I really enjoyed it. This one also gives you an idea of what the facade of the building and the neighborhood look like:

Victor, Bernar, and Pau all came by too. It was great to have "some of the guys" over for a bit.

This was one of the last photos that we took just before I left to go to the church. It's one of my favorites:

David had me stop on the way out to take some pictures in the building's cool antique (working) elevator:

Right after the photo above was taken, I jumped in a cab and headed over to the church to get the (internet video) broadcasting equipment set up. It was good to have a job to do to keep my nerves in check...

Next post, Diana gets ready...