Blog

With so many friends and relatives scattered around the world and unable to travel to DC because of illness or distance, Maria + Luis Gabriel decided to plan an intimate Watergate Hotel wedding with just 18 guests. The number of people joining them via FaceTime and Skype — from Mexico, Colombia, India, Italy and the Netherlands — very well may have doubled the in-person guest list! Almost everyone, it seemed, had a phone in hand so that some other far-flung loved one could catch a glimpse of their sweet ceremony. Maria + Luis Gabriel’s day was loaded with thoughtful touches. From the balcony of the Presidential Suite at the Watergate where they exchanged vows and rings, for instance, they could see the bench along the Potomac River where they sat on their first date. She wore her mother’s earrings and pinned a broach that had belong to Luis Gabriel’s mother into her bouquet. Her bright green shoes paid homage to the emeralds of Colombia while he wore a Liqui Liqui, the formal, hot-weather national attire of Colombia. The ceremony music consisted of a Beethoven violin concerto that was a favorite of Luis Gabriel’s father (and the first record he ever owned!) and a Rachmaninov piano concerto that is Maria’s absolute favorite. (As an additional surprise, Luis Gabriel hired Colombian musicians to play the musical pieces during the ceremony rather than the recording that Maria had planned and to play a short concert of Mexican and Colombian music after the ceremony!) The most striking aspect, however, of this marvelous day was the love and joy simply radiating out of all of those in attendance — and especially the newlyweds. Here are many of my favorites from their beautiful day: