All posts tagged: melia

It’s OK to get Married in Cuba Just for the Havana Photo Shoot

I left Cuba married and heartbroken. You see, I fell madly in love with Havana. I adored her pastel hues, crumbling architecture, and the vintage cars. I loved the doorways that lead to concealed courtyards coated in dust and draped in nostalgia. Most of all, I loved the city’s decaying beauty; it’s as if Paris was stowed away in an attic for half a century. The love affair was a brief 16-hour whirlwind romance; I left Cuba intoxicated by Havana and wanting more. Two days after the wedding we drove to Havana in a 60+ year-old vintage Chevy  to don our wedding attire one last time for a photo shoot. As the city awoke we wandered aimlessly photographer in tow, champagne and cigar in hand. We ducked through walkways, into lobbies and through public squares. By mid-morning we had attracted a small crowd of admirers and paparazzi. I wondered what they’d do with the photos they snapped of us. Would they print them and put them on their fireplace mantles? Likely not, so why the invasion? They fired away with such dedication …

My Melia Varadero Destination Wedding: the good, the bad & the ugly

Photos by Wild Whim Photography + Design by Wade Carr Where are all the Cuban wedding blogs? One of the greatest challenges of planning my destination wedding was a lack of real wedding blog posts. I scoured the internet and bridal websites like TheKnot.com for more resources. To my initial surprise, there were few-to-no personal stories. Presumably, this is because most wedding blog posts are voraciously penned by American brides…American brides who can’t travel to Cuba. A second challenge was Cuba’s web presence, or lack there of.  It was, and to some degree still is, offline. Official statistics indicate less than 5% of Cubans have access to open (non-state controlled) internet. Lest I conclude, Cuban vendors (venues, photographers, florists, etc) are not creating promotional web content for prospective brides. This even applied to the resort we eventually selected. There were few wedding photos apart from a small white gazebo and pictures of a dated, pink satin-draped reception. TripAdvisor had some user-contributed images but nothing which really inspired romance, wanderlust or a dreamy (modern) wedding. This …