Madrid Destination Wedding, Part 2
Caroline enjoyed adding special touches to her wedding including wearing a diamond encrusted broach that was her grandmother's that she added to a thin silver necklace and beautiful diamond earrings that belonged to her aunt. Her high school priest officiated the ceremony (he's from Madrid and made the trip out to see his family and to conduct the ceremony). Andrew gave Caroline a beautiful Spanish fan to remember the special day by and also stay cool on their August wedding day.Part 2 is my favorite part of this wedding weekend! Monasterio de San Bartolomé de Lupiana is the most beautiful wedding venue I have EVER photographed. In fact, can I just move in?!??!The first dances amounted to the most spectacular explosion of love and joy. Surprisingly they had such a hard time finding a first dance song, and only found their song two days before the wedding and landed on Jackie Wilson, Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher, which was pretty fast! They were just so happy that they danced their hearts out and had the time of their lives. The father daughter dance was also incredibly emotional for both Caroline and her father. Family is everything to them.They danced to Frank Sinatra's You Make Me Feel So Young. They soon after played Caroline’s family's anthem, Los Pirates by Los Autenticos Decadentes (a really fun but kind of crazy Argentine song). When Caroline was growing up, her father brought home a cassette tape of this silly song and they’ve been playing it non-stop ever since. The dancefloor went crazy when this came on!I’ve been photographing weddings for 12 years now and I have never witnessed such an explosion of joy and happiness on the dance floor during and after the first dance. It was a spectacular scene and I feel so lucky to have been a part of it. I met Caroline in a FlyBarre class with one of our favorite instructors, who happens to also be a former bride/client and friend of mine. We hit it off right away because we were both newly engaged and excited to share our wedding planning stories and worries…. We continued trying out different workout classes together and became fast friends! I never would have guessed that I would get to share in such a special life moment with her in such an amazing place!
In October 2016, they visited 10 venues over 4 days which was a disheartening process. Finally on their last day they had seen two venues and had been in the car for about 8 hours. At this point they were so tired and ready for tapas but in true lawyer fashion, they debated on whether it was even worth it to see the last one. Welp, they skipped the tapas and when they drove up to Monasterio de San Bartolomé de Lupiana, Caroline was in tears….. more like hysterical laughter mixed with tearful joy. They knew right away this was their venue. When the time came to send out the invitations, they decided that they wanted to save that same surprise for their guests, so they kept the exact location and the name of the venue a complete secret.
The ceremony was held in the small town of Guadalajara at Calle De la Iglesia where Caroline and Andrew exchanged vows and also included exchanging 13 arras, which were made in Peru where Caroline’s mom is from and they had never been used before. They chose to have them in their ceremony to signify the 12 months of the year plus the future (signifying prosperity, good, health and wealth). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_arras)
Creative Team: Ceremony Venue: Calle de la Iglesia,17, 19142 Lupiana, Guadalajara, SpainReception Venue: Monasterio de San Bartolomé de LupianaPhotographer:Lisa Blume of Lisa Blume PhotographyCaterer: El Mentidero de la VillaPlanning: Tu Dia PerfectoInvitation & Welcome Paper: Emily Baird DesignsWedding Gown Designer: Odette dress from LouvienneWedding Gown Boutique: Lovely Bride of GeorgetownFlorist: Aquilea FloristsSecond Photographer: Maitha Lunde Hotel room block: Wellington HotelRehearsal Dinner: SerafinaRing Boxes:The MRS BoxFilm Lab: Indie Film LabFilm Supplier: The Film Supply ClubBride’s heels: Badgley Mischka