‘We always dreamed of a very unique wedding that mixed the culture of our two countries (Spain and Colombia), highlighting the best of both of them. We chose Colombia because, despite being my home, it is also an amazing tourist destination full of nature and friendly people, so we thought that for our European guests it would be an unforgettable experience.’
Would you tell the readers something about your background? Where were you born? How did you meet your husband?
David was born in Santiago de Compostela in the north-west of Spain, and he grew up in that historical and magical city visited by thousands of pilgrims every year. More than 4000 miles away, I was born in Bogota, Colombia, a capital on top of the Andes Mountain. I grew up there, but I was always travelling and surrounded by nature typical from the South American tropics.
When both of us finished our university studies we decided to move to Madrid to complete our Master’s degrees, we were looking for opportunities to develop our careers, to find new experiences and people, and voilà, we achieved much more than our goals and diplomas, we found true love.
We met because our business school chose us to work together on a project.
How was the proposal?
We planned to visit my family in Colombia for Christmas in 2017, and to escape for a little while from the noise of the big cities, we decided to visit a Colombian island in the Caribean Sea called San Andres. The first day there David asked me to go for dinner in the city centre, and though I was feeling a little bit too lazy to go out then, he insisted on it. Finally, we went to one of our favourite seafood restaurants. After we decided to eat an ice-cream and sing songs that we both love and know, and that night he asked me to choose one from my favourite Colombian singer where the refrain says „I would like to marry you”. During the refrain, he took the ring out of his pocket (he had been hiding it there for one month).
I have to say that while he was singing, I realised that his voice was very strange, he was so nervous he could barely sing!
Why did you choose your wedding location?
We always dreamed of a very unique wedding that mixed the culture of our two countries, highlighting the best of both of them. We chose Colombia because, despite being my home, it is also an amazing tourist destination full of nature and friendly people, so we thought that for our European guests it would be an unforgettable experience to go to a wedding in Colombia and travel around the country.
How and why did you choose your wedding dress, your Daalarna Couture gown?
Our wedding was going to happen in Colombia, David’s costume was going to be made by a Spanish designer, and everyone was suggesting I buy my wedding dress in Spain as well, basically due to the language, but I visited different stores, and didn’t find what I was looking for. One of my Hungarian friends recommended Daalarna to me, I visited the store, and from that moment I didn’t want to check another place. They were super professional, they helped me with all the modifications that I wanted, and the language wasn’t a barrier at all, as all of them speak perfect English.
It was an international wedding anyway, so why not have my dress made in Hungary where we lived for two years? It had a special meaning in our hearts.
How was the big day? What are your favourite memories from your wedding day?
I don’t have another word to describe that day apart from PERFECT. The days leading up to the wedding were magical as we were with our friends and families, so we relaxed doing tourism with them, and when the big day arrived we were confident that everything that we had planned for more than one year would be exactly as we wanted, and it was. We had lovely suppliers who were very precise and friendly, and an amazing wedding planner, who is the best friend of my sister because she did everything with love and passion.
One of the most beautiful moments was the mass. The priest was our friend, and he is young, so the ceremony was funny and dynamic, everyone said that his speech was amazing!
As well, in the middle of the night, we did a typical Spanish flamenco dance with our mothers. David’s mother even wore the special flamenco dress for that!
Which were the most beautiful moments of the event?
I think one of the most beautiful moments was at the end of the ceremony when we sang a typical song about the Virgin of the south of Spain that is very special for Davids’ parents. We prepared it as a surprise for them, so they were touched and moved. Everything about the song was special because the singer was my cousin.
Another very special moment was when we entered the main room where all the guests were waiting to start the dinner, and we entered, to the refrain of the proposal song, and we toasted everyone. We wanted the toast to be more informal, warm and a happy moment for all our guests.
Do you have some special traditions in your country when it comes to weddings?
In both of our countries, the couple should not see each other before the ceremony so that day we took some pictures together but without looking at each other.
In Spain the bride doesn’t throw the bouquet to the single girls of the party, instead of that after dinner the couple goes dancing and gives two presents to the two couples that they want to be next to get married, it is so funny because every couple is hoping and embarrassed at the same time!
On the other hand, in Colombia at midnight we celebrate the “crazy hour”: a theme inspires the music, and everyone is free to dance and dress up as they want. Our theme was Colombia, and we brought a typical Colombian music group called papayera with two dancers to teach our guests how to dance to it, and we gave them colourful masks, sandals, sunglasses, headbands, etc.
Everyone was super excited: foreigners (Hungarians, Spanish, French, Italians, Mexicans, Brazilians) were dancing as we had never seen them before!
If you could give one piece of advice to our future brides, what would it be?
I would say that the most important thing is to enjoy every single moment because the wedding day passes super-fast and you would like to stop time. But to be able to do this I think is fundamental to choose the right service providers in all aspects including the details, with them you won’t need to worry about anything but enjoy every single minute.
Thank you, Daalarna because you played a really important role in our dream day.
Photographer: Garcés Mejía Fotografía, Wedding dress: Daalarna Couture
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