2 people 1 Life: Wedding Number 19 in Colombia with 3 Photographers!

It’s time to catch up with Lisa and Alex from 2 people 1 life and find out what they have been up to since we last saw them for wedding number 17 back in April. If you’re not aware of what Lisa and Alex have been up to I’ll explain in brief. Over the space of two years they are traveling round the world getting married in every country they visit, you can read more about their adventures HERE.

We are now onto wedding 19 and they are in Colombia, this is another fabulous wedding, and they were totally spoilt as this time they had not one but 3 photographers capture their magical day for them! Lisa says ‘We were again really lucky and actually had 3 photographers at our Colombian wedding in the stunning Villa de Leyva. We contacted Juan Felipe Rubio  and he agreed to come along and brought along two of his photographer friends to get in on the action. Julie  Bayona  and Christinas‘

It’s a beautiful wedding, but my favorite part has to be the cute donkey, I have a huge soft spot for donkeys and one day when I’m old and grey will own a donkey sanctuary, so a wedding with a donkey is always going to get a lot of attention in my book! Because there are 3 photographers this is a bumper post! Lisa has also been kind enough to document the day for us!

I’ll pass you over to Lisa to tell us a more about the day itself……

The day started with…you guessed it…bright sunshine! We high fived each other and hoped and hoped it would stick around for the whole day. We still didn’t know what time the wedding was going to go ahead and we eagerly checked our emails for any news. Everyone came and asked us when the wedding would be happening and we had to promise them we wouldn’t go without them.

Before long it was lunch time and we still had no news on the time for the wedding. The black clouds were gathering overhead and threatening a rain storm of epic proportions. The lightening shocked the sky in the distance and we sat and waited nervously for word from Juan Felipe or Laura. At 1pm we got the call. Juan Felipe had arrived in town, he had driven all the way from Bogota, a good 3-4 hour drive away. He invited us to meet him for some lunch and said he hoped the wedding would be under way by 3. We jumped into Peggy and met Juan within minutes. As we arrived and said our hello’s he told us he had a surprise for us as we walked into the restaurant. We walked over to two lovely ladies eating their lunch and Juan introduced them to us as Julie and Christina ??? who would also be taking pictures and video at our wedding! We were gobsmacked! We had 3 photographers for the day!

As we finished lunch Laura arrived and told us everything was going to be ready by 3 and that we could use her mother’s shop as a place to get changed. We made our way over with Tabitha and a bag of goodies and got ready in the shop while the lady working there crochetted a gorgeous blue skirt! Julie luckily came to the rescue and styled my messy hair for me and we added a few finishing Colombian touches before heading out for a few pictures. Alex wore a beautiful poncho slung over a shoulder and a hat and I had a lovely dainty shrug over my shoulders and high on my neck. I was thankful for it as the clouds were blocking any sign of the sunshine!

Laura came to collect us. She had everything ready in the square for the wedding but had run into a problem with the local pastor. He had originally agreed to hold the ceremony but had not realised it would be outside of the church walls and in the public square. He had told Laura he would hold us a ceremony in the church but we must go to meet him. By now it was 3pm and all of our friends had gathered below the bruised swollen clouds in the square and were waiting for us to make an appearance. We met the pastor and were formally seated and Juan and Julie accompanied us to translate. After a 20 minute meeting that pastor said that unfortunately as we are not catholic or a member of the church and had not had our bands read we could not have a ceremony in his church and he could not hold us one outside of the church walls. He did however say he would dedicate the evening mass to us at 6pm if we would like to attend. We agreed and Julie had an idea for a self-ceremony outside where Laura had set up our ‘altar’ for the celebration. We shook hands with the pastor and thanked him and left the church. You wouldn’t believe it if you couldn’t see the pictures but the clouds had parted and the sun was slanting through the gaps and shone brightly on the square.

We still hadn’t seen much of what was going on in the centre of the square but I could make out hay bales, our friends, a table…and a sheep!!!!!!! Alex was led away from me and I was left standing with Julie and Juan who were talking in Spanish and all I could understand was yes, it will be good. I looked around to see a donkey being led towards me, I knew what was coming and said to Juan, ‘you’re going to make me get on that aren’t you?’ Juan said ‘of course’ and that was the end of that Somehow after what seemed like a mile hike across the bumpiest terrain I arrived at Alex’s side. He was laughing his head off but I could see it in his eyes that he was proud of me for just going with it and not making a fuss. He helped me down and kissed me on the cheek. He introduced me to the sheep that was there ‘just because it was tradition’ and we said hi to everyone who was enjoying the fact that the sun was shining and I had arrived to my wedding on an ass. Laura had done a wonderful job of dressing the centre of the square.

We started the ceremony by explaining to everyone what we were going to do. It was weird doing it all ourselves but a really nice idea and of course totally different to any of the other ceremonies we have had. The ritual involved earth, fire and water and represented us becoming one. We poured water from two separate cups into one bowl where we washed our hands together to represent a clean start together as one. We each took a hand full of rice to represent the earth and poured it from our hands into one terracotta bowl and then we took a lighted candle each and used our joint flame to light a new candle, again representing us becoming one. Someone shouted ‘Kiss the bride’ and never a couple to disappoint we kissed to seal the ritual. Everyone clapped and whooped and we were handed a Colombian beer each and every one hugged us and congratulated us.

As we stood talking a man behind us started to light rockets and send them to the skies with really, REALLY loud bangs which made me jump every time. We turned back to the table to find it full of traditional Colombian wedding fare. We tried local blood sausage, pork and beef all with lovely gravy and mashed Yuca. It was lovely and everyone got to try some before we had to wave our goodbyes to our guests and run off for more pictures around beautiful Villa De Leyva before we lost the light that we had been blessed with. We arranged to meet everyone back at camp after mass unless they fancied joining us.

6 o clock flew around and we made our way into mass where we were directed to sit in the important chairs at the front of the congregation. We had no idea we would actually be sat at the front and we nervously walked down the churches beautiful red carpeted aisle!

Of course the whole mass was in super-fast Spanish so we had no idea what was being said but followed suite by keeping an eye on when Jose and Tineke stood or sat and when we were being blessed by the pastor Jose instructed us via hand signals! The mass lasted an hour and sadly our troop of photographers had had to hit the road back to Bogota so we didn’t get chance to say proper goodbyes. We, as always cannot find a word great enough to thank you as much as we would like to. We had an amazing day, it was such a pleasure to spend it with you all, Laura, Juan Felipe, Julie and Christina, we just couldn’t do it without your help and amazing generosity and general open mindedness!

After mass we were so wiped out we got back to the guesthouse and celebrated with a glass of wine with everyone and once again, packed Peggy up to hit the road the following morning!

The hardest part of making friends is having to leave them!

For more information on the 3 photographers involved go to:
Juan Felipe Rubio –  www.efeunodos.com and FACEBOOK
Julie  Bayona – http://whitejuliebayona.com
Christinas –  http://crestrepoan.tumblr.com/

The wedding Planner Laura Rincon can be found here on FACEBOOK

If you have missed any of the previous weddings you can catch up HERE, HERE , HERE, HERE and HERE

To follow Lisa and Alex’s journey go to – http://2people1life.com/blog/