It was so lovely having an amazing room to relax in and get ready for the wedding. It was such a wonderful treat and in one of the most gorgeous hotels I have even stayed in and just when I thought it couldn’t get any better…we returned from our evening wander the night before the wedding to find candles, rose petals, swans (not live ones) AND 2 dozen red roses in the room! It was so beautiful and made our night! We really were in the mood for a wedding when we woke up. We spent the morning blogging a little bit and then I made time for me! I plucked my mono brow, I painted my chipped toe nails and had a fabulous hot shower. Believe it or not from the pictures I DID style my hair and took my time putting my makeup on. I spread my measly make up bag all over the side, chose my lovely special occasion earrings from Alex’s Mum and just generally girled out for a good hour! I asked Anita if she would mind if I used the beautiful roses for my wedding bouquet and she said she would be happy for us to use them so I made up a posy and buttonhole and I was ready to go! Normally we rush around getting ready in the van so it was true luxury! I helped Alex get ready and he fastened up my dress just in time for the photographer to arrive.
We were mixing things up a little (just for a change) and heading out into Antigua for some photographs before the wedding as we wanted to hold the ceremony at sunset to make the most of the stunning view at Hotel Meson de Maria.

There were alot of M’s and Jose’s going on for the day with our photography crew, we had Jose Pablo Martinez (photogrpaher), Mariano Luna (Photographs and lighting) and Maria Jose vielman (videographer) …all of these romantic names and when said in beautiful Spanish accents…well, romance was definitely the feel for the day! We set off onto the cobbles and wow did we turn heads! We strolled up the middle of beautiful streets, posed under the stunning lemon yellow arch and leant against rustic terracotta walls. We even got coo’d at by a bus load of French tourists, they told us we were beautiful and wished us luck. We were still giggling when we turned the corner and were face to face with the local school out on a day trip. They giggled and clapped and almost immediately started chanting in unison ‘Beso, beso, beso‘. We giggled and laughed not really knowing what they were saying, Jose told us they were shouting ‘Kiss, kiss, kiss‘ so we did and they applauded and then started chanting again! It was such a happy moment and I will never forget it, we were laughing so hard while we were kissing its a wonder we managed at all! It was one of those floating on a cloud feelings and one we have not experienced anywhere else. It was like our happiness and love was infectious and everyone on the streets around us could feel it too, it only made us love Antigua more!
We were outside the impressive La Merced Church. Its beautiful colour and spectacular baroque style facade takes your breath away. We had stood in front of it with our mouths hanging open the night before on our night stroll and were so happy to have a picture taken there. Jose’s idea for the photoshoot was to capture the true Antigua in our pictures and we loved it. Its exactly what we are looking for, we want you all to see these beautiful places and what they have to offer, especially Antigua because of course we want you all to come visit us when we live there haha!

After the church pictures Jose had another bright idea ;-/ he suggested we run into a flock of pigeons! This is another one of my pet hates, its like I have really been thrown into a reality TV show where I have to face all my fears at once, even the ones I didn’t know I had! Sea-sickness, spiders, swirling rivers and NOW pigeons…flying rats ugh! Anyway, never one to say no to a great idea (?) I

sucked it up, Jose, Maria and Mariano threw birdseed like mad people and the birds came a-flocking. Jose got them just where he wanted them and told us to run into them! We stood and held hands and waited for Jose to get into position and did as we were told. We ran at the pigeons…it wasn’t THAT bad but I did let out a little scream and had my mouth open so had to do it all over again! The shot came out perfectly and it is one of my favourites so, Thank you Jose for making me face my fears that day, it was worth it!

We popped into the market next and posed with some great handmade masks and materials and our last stop on the photograph trail was the bus station. Most of you will probably know that the buses that run through central America are called chicken buses. This is because people transport ANYTHING on them…including chickens! When on route they are normally crammed full to the rafters of people, chickens, bags, children, dogs,and there is still always room for ‘Uno mas’! Luckily we were looking for an empty one so popped into the station, we had a great audience there and it was great fun!
After all of the excitement we drove back to the hotel, we were so ready for the wedding, we just had to get changed first!!!

Find out what happens next on our travelling wedding adventure!