Congratulations to Shane and Daniela

Welcome to my summer of weddings.. Heh. Actually there have only been 2 (mine and Daniela's) and Audrey's coming up on the infamous wedding day 7/7/07.

Last weekend, J and I flew down to Mexico City for a whirlwind weekend getaway for Shane and Daniela's Mexican wedding. Words can't even begin to describe how quickly the weekend went. Sadly, we had about an afternoon to walk around Mexico City. We stayed in the Zocalo area (which is the oldest part of the city - aka Plaza de la Constitución). It was beautiful.

Zocalo from our hotel room.

The view from our window was remarkable. We stayed at the Gran Hotel Cuidad Mexico. The church that sits on the left is the Metropolitan Cathedral, that's built on top of Aztec temple ruins.

The stunning bride and groom, right before their introduction to the reception.

The wedding took place in an old church a few blocks from the zocalo. It was a traditional Catholic ceremony, all in Spanish. (Kudos to Shane for his solid Spanish skills.) The ceremony was about an hour, but we caught the last 20 minutes. Let's just say that the transportation situation in Mexico City is not as reliable as you would like it to be. There was an incident where a cab got pulled over for going the wrong way, and the guests had to pay the cop off.. but that's another story for another time.

The reception was held in a convent right next to the church. The whole place (including a gigantic fountain in the middle of the convent) was lit by candles (here, that would be called a fire hazard).

The convent - wedding style.

I am now a big fan of Mexican weddings.

The wedding went from 7pm to 5am, with a nachos buffet at 3:30am (to help soak up the tequilla shots). The band played non stop from 8am to 4am.. singing everything from jazz to disco, to the Beatles, to Mexican pop. There were a ton of props - a guy on stilts handing out wigs, sunglasses, and who knows what else. A slide was brought out in the middle of the dance floor at one point, and all the guests lined up to go down it. Oh, there was a whole Grease montage that lasted about 30 minutes.. Shane and Daniela, all dressed in grease lightening garb, were propped up on a fake orange convertable with a lighting bolt on the side, mouthing all the words to the songs (atleast Daniela was). After 4am, a mariachi band showed up to accompany some karaoke. You'll just have to take my word on this, as my camera ran out of juice right after the Grease montage (I'll post one up later). I also have pics of the groom and his groomsmen dressed up as luchadores dancing on the dance floor.

Last but not least.. a pic of J and I before heading into the convent for the reception, completely clueless of the craziness that we were about to come upon :)

J & B