Century Color Labs

View of Rio from our hotel deck
As many of you know I went to Brazil last week. When my fiancé Teddy told me his best friend was getting married and that we were invited to the wedding in Brazil I couldn’t refuse!

The plan was that we would fly out of Bradley on Thursday, get into Rio de Janeiro on Friday morning,
Sugar Loaftake another flight from Rio to Brasilia, attend a rehearsal dinner party that night, and then the wedding on Saturday. After a 12-hour flight, missing our connection, bargaining to get onto the next flight, and having another 2-hour delay we finally made it to Brasilia.

The rehearsal party was at the groom’s parent’s house and it was incredible. The house was completely
Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiroopen with a full bar and kitchen built off the outside patio. Waiters served fresh brick-oven pizza and my drink of choice was caipirinha, Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaca, sugar and lime. They even had a 2 person band who brought their own banners to promote themselves. (Subtle message: order a banner to promote your studio)

The wedding wasn’t until 9:00 pm on Saturday so we spent the day at the hotel by the pool. The sun was sooo hot I felt
like I was baking! I had to apply SPF 30 sunblock about 10 times. After spending some
Pool at hotel in Brasiliatime at the pool we decided to go eat some authentic Brazilian barbecue. You are given a card that is red on one side and green on the other. If the green side is up you are bombarded by waiters with meat on huge skewers. When you’ve had enough flip the card to the red side. Sometimes they ignore the color and bring you meat anyway. Sometimes I forgot how full I was and accepted. After a long nap it was time to get ready for the wedding.

The ceremony and reception was anything but humble. It was a wedding photographer’s dream.
Now that's a cake table!Baby’s breath bouquets filled with Christmas lights lined the aisles and every song was performed by a professional singer. I couldn’t take photos during the ceremony because the photography clan was a group of 4 male photographers and 3 male assistants. It was as if the papparazzi was in town. They had every angle in this place covered. There were lights bounced off the ceilings and 2 assistants followed the main photographers around with lights mounted to poles. Some used Nikon, some Canon, but all digital.

The reception was at the bride’s family’s house and it was unbelievable!! They hired an architect to construct the
Wedding place settingreception hall off of the house. The main dance floor was built on top of the tennis court and the fence was lined with roses. Above each table was a chandelier that held about 100 handlit candles
That's a lot of cake! and a cascading baby’s breath and Christmas light bouquet. My photos do not even do it justice. Waiters served scotch and wine. I learned how to say “un vinho tinto”, or one red wine. I even got a chance to eat caviar and drink champagne. I mean it when else would I be able to say I went to Brazil and had caviar and champagne? And for the record caviar is pretty nasty! We danced all night and I took a ton of fun photos. I think the hired photographers were getting mad at me because I kept instigating some great shots. Ha ha ha!  The celebration lasted until 6 am and yes we were the last to leave.

Since the flight to Brazil was so long we decided not to make it too short of a
Receptiontrip. Teddy had made reservations at a hotel in Rio de Janeiro for the next 2 nights. We flew to
What a centerpiece!Rio on Sunday and it was absolutely beautiful! Our hotel room overlooked Copacabana beach and the top floor of the hotel had a deck with a pool and a bar that was overlooking the city.

On Monday we decided to get up pretty early and go on a 4 hour tour of the city. We went to 2 major landmarks, Christ Redeemer and Sugar
Close to the end of the night...
The bride dancingLoaf. The Christ Redeemer is a statue of Christ that overlooks all of Rio. You can see it from almost anywhere in the city, including our hotel roof! It was amazing!! Because it’s so high up on a mountain the clouds sometimes get in the way. It was such a strange feeling to actually be in the clouds. The other small issue is that I have a fear of heights so as I’m trying to take awesome photos, my leg was shaking uncontrollably!

The 2^nd landmark we visited was Sugar Loaf, a mountain that is shaped like a loaf of bread. We
View from our hotel in Riotook a cable car from the ground up to a smaller mountain, took some photos, and then took

another cable car up to Sugar Loaf. The view from the top of the mountain was gorgeous. We had a 360 degree view of Rio. Once my feet landed on the ground I decided that was enough
Me & Teddyheights for a while.

The next day we spent walking on the beach. All I can say is that I was the only person on the mile long strip that had a bathing suit bottom that covered the majority of my backside. It didn’t matter what shape you were in or how old you were, a little thin
patch was all you needed!

The flight home was pretty uneventful, aside from the screaming one-year old in our row. The day after
Christ Redeemer - Just as clouds moved awaywe got back it snowed 6+ inches! Even though this was a short trip I had an awesome time and it gave me just enough fuel to get
View of the city from Sugar Loafthrough the rest of the busy season. I hope you enjoy the photos!