I Dos and I Don’ts: We Let Our Creativity—and Our Faith—Guide us

Tell us a little about your wedding day as a whole. What was it like?

When we planned our wedding day, my husband, Carlos, and I wanted to share our hearts with our loved ones. Our intention was for the focus to be not just on our love story, but also on the divine love story we believe God is writing on each of our hearts.

So, what did that look like? We selected September 23, the feast of St. Padre Pio, as our wedding date to commemorate one of our favorite saints. Having met in college at the University of Central Florida, we didn’t have a “home” church where we wanted to celebrate our wedding ceremony, so we picked a church in the heart of Orlando: St. James Cathedral. Our celebrant was the campus priest who ministered to the Catholic campus ministry where Carlos and I met.

Carlos and I are creatives, and we designed our wedding invitations from scratch. We sealed them with wax seals depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an important symbol of our faith.

We invited family into the wedding traditions we incorporated into our ceremony, such as the lazo and arras, Catholic Hispanic traditions that our parents and loved ones had used as well. We were even able to use the very rope and coins used in their ceremonies! Our family and friends could follow along with the readings and the liturgy as a whole in the programs that we designed.

At the reception, our “fingerprints” were all over the venue, the Dr. Phillips House. It’s a quirky house built in the 1890s that was refurbished into a cozy wedding reception site. Its various rooms, outdoor dance floor, and lots of small tables brought people together like a big family gathering. We were able to look out and connect with all of our loved ones in the same place! Our families are spread across the U.S., so it was a gift to see our cherished family members together.

We DIY’d our favors, which included a deck of playing cards (since we fell in love playing card games on a March for Life pilgrimage) and a Divine Mercy medal with a quote from Pope St. John Paul II: “Mercy is love’s second name.”

We found a budget video team that recorded raw footage of our loved ones during the reception. They even interviewed guests who wanted to share messages with us. These are some of our favorite memories from the big day!

What’s one thing you’re really glad you included that day, or an element that you felt really reflects you, and why?

I am really glad we included the saints in our wedding day. Before I had anything as basic as a bridesmaids’ color picked out, I knew this was something I wanted to incorporate into my wedding. We included our favorite saints into the table numbers that I drew by hand. My now-husband and I discerned whom to seat at each saint’s table. With small tables of four to six people, we were able to have fifteen of our favorite saints featured on our big day!

I was amazed to hear so many stories from guests after the wedding about how our saintly table numbers stirred up conversations among people who hadn’t met before. In fact, we seated some family members at their favorite saints’ tables and we didn’t even know it.

What’s one thing you wish you would have done differently?

I wish I wouldn’t have questioned my decisions as much. Everyone has a million and one thoughts to share about weddings and how things should be done. As someone who is called “Switzerland” by her family, I found myself getting very overwhelmed by menial things, which could have sucked the joy out of a truly joyous occasion.

When you decide on something—whether it be your dress, the kind of food you’ll be serving, or how many bridesmaids you’ll have in your wedding party—let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. It’ll make the planning process so much smoother.

If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

Don’t stress. People will have their opinions, and they will share them with you. But this day is about you, your future spouse, and if you're a person of faith, God. I know that this is easy for me to say, being on the other side, but at the end of the day, crazy stuff can and will happen. (After all, Jesus’ first miracle occurred because they ran out of wine at a wedding.) I wish I could go back and tell myself to breathe, take a break when I felt flustered, and give all my stress to God. In the words of my spiritual sister, St. Joan of Arc: “Fear nothing. Trust in God; all will be well.”

Editor’s note: Whether your wedding was lavish or simple, traditional or contemporary, we’d love to hear about it. I Dos and Don’ts provides real-life inspiration for brides-to-be, without the pressure and perfection of social media or the latest bridal magazine. Think of it like reflecting on your wedding with a good friend—thoughtful, down-to-earth, and honest. If you’d like to tell us about your big day, review our Readers Write guidelines here.