Before The Wedding: The Groom

I've decided to write about and share photos of the wedding in a few different posts. Today's is about me, my family, and some friends hanging out and getting ready before the wedding.

We got really lucky and found a great 100+ year old apartment for rent at an amazing price on airbnb. It was a five-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath place located about four or five blocks from the church. My whole family as well as me and Diana were able to stay there very comfortably and it worked out great for getting ready for the wedding. Thanks for the apartment dad!

We ended up having a lot of fun taking photos and shooting video. The historical features of the place and the lighting worked out really well.

As you can imagine, there are tons of photos of the wedding day. I pulled out these ten photos from around 200 or so that were taken in the apartment by David, our official photographer for the day, as well as those from my camera and others' cameras. It was fun looking through all the photos and remembering the day. This is me with my brother Kevin and my sister-in-law Zahra:

I was amazed at how many really nice photos we ended up with. Just before this photo of me and my sister Jackie was taken, she had handed me my mother's wedding band, which she had brought with her from Philadelphia. It meant a lot that she had thought to bring it and that I got to wear it on a string around my neck for the ceremony. I think my mom would have been floored that I was finally getting married...in a Catholic church to boot! Thanks Jackie!

Lots of the photos were natural but some were posed. This one with my dad giving me "fatherly advice" was one of the staged ones but it ended up being a great series of photos:

I also liked this one of my sister and brother-in-law Larry:

We took some spontaneous photos on the front balconies of the apartment that overlook Calle Valencia. Everyone was playful and I really enjoyed it. This one also gives you an idea of what the facade of the building and the neighborhood look like:

Victor, Bernar, and Pau all came by too. It was great to have "some of the guys" over for a bit.

This was one of the last photos that we took just before I left to go to the church. It's one of my favorites:

David had me stop on the way out to take some pictures in the building's cool antique (working) elevator:

Right after the photo above was taken, I jumped in a cab and headed over to the church to get the (internet video) broadcasting equipment set up. It was good to have a job to do to keep my nerves in check...

Next post, Diana gets ready...