How We Pulled It Off: A Big, Fat Gay Wedding in Bogotá, Colombia

Yahoo

27-05-2025

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Jillian Mitchell
The love shared between Priscila Garcia-Jacquier and Lio Sigerson, two screenwriters who are now based in Los Angeles, was undeniably fated—though they tried to ignore it as long as they possibly could. They were introduced by a mutual friend at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, when Lio was a student and Priscila a high-school senior visiting the campus. Jetting off for a Colombia destination wedding was just as meant to be.
'He was just like, 'Oh God, you're both these mean, pretty girls who are bossy [theater] directors from big cities. You guys need to meet,' says Priscila, who was born in Bogotá, Colombia. 'We pretty much fell in love instantly,' says Lio, who is from New York City. Over the course of many years—and a lot of flirting, kissing, tears, estrangements, and semi-serious marriage proposals written on class notes—the pair finally got together for good in 2021, and were engaged in April 2022.
'[Colombia] is where I feel the most at home, of anywhere in the world,' says Priscila. 'I wanted to be able to, for the first time, bring all of my American people there to understand me a little better.'
After visiting Bogotá herself and seeing how her fiancée lit up there, Lio was completely on board. 'Of course everybody who loves you deserves to have this experience that I'm having—getting to see you be your fullest self, in your home,' she says. Even with Priscila's connection to the place and her grasp of the culture and language, planning a wedding there from their home in Los Angeles was not without its hurdles. Ahead, the couple explain how they plotted an immersive, rowdy, utterly romantic celebration for 90 guests in Bogotá last August.
The couple's first stop was finding a planner, which sadly proved more difficult than anticipated. 'While gay marriage is completely legal in Colombia, and even has more protections than in the States, I will say it's still not totally accepted culturally. I actually got shut down a lot,' Priscila says. 'People would say, 'Oh, we're so happy for you. Unfortunately, we do not perform or plan any 'egalitarian' weddings.''
Only more determined, Lio dug further into internet research and found Juanita Suzunaga, who founded the LGBT-focused wedding-planning firm Proudly Weds. 'I think I manifested her. There was not a corny rainbow to be found [in her portfolio], so chic,' says Lio. 'She jumped right in right away and was horrified that anybody had rejected us. She made us feel so taken care of, instantly.'
Juanita was quickly tasked with venue options, though the couple's vision once again brushed up against the realities of Bogotá. 'I wanted to get married some place that felt like a hacienda, that old Spanish vibe, but it's a very modern city, with very modern architecture,' says Lio. Their new planner gently pointed out that the only way to nail down that look was by seeking bigger houses in more rural areas, but the pair were dead-set on staying within the city limits.
Then Juanita took a closer look at Lio's Pinterest board and realized she recognized one of the venues—Compañía Casa de Rey, a soaring restaurant set inside an old house with exposed brick, multiple courtyards, a veranda, and a mezzanine overlooking a bright atrium, located in the colonial neighborhood of La Candelaria. Plus, it had availability for their event. 'It was kismet,' Lio says. They opted for a buyout and took over the restaurant for all their wedding-day events, maximizing the venue's side rooms and spaces. 'We wanted people to be in the space long enough that they could go off into corners and have more intimate times together, stretch out,' says Priscila. 'Juanita set up a couch and seating area for everyone to sit and relax if they wanted to chat.'
The couple readied their loved ones for the big trip with a series of emails addressing the big things like flights and hotels, as well as just about every detail they could think of. 'I'm extremely type A and very meticulous,' Priscila says. 'A month before the wedding, I sent an email with 'Here's the packing list I recommend. Here's the sunscreen you need. Here's where to change your money. Here's the best curb to grab a cab outside the airport.'' While some family members gently suggested the emails might be received as condescendingly detailed to their well-traveled guest list, they decided to err on the side of being too informative. That attention paid off when everyone's travel went off without a hitch.
In addition to logistics, Priscila was careful to provide cultural explanations. 'Here are all the stereotypes I'm going to be breaking for you,' she remembers, though she wasn't just referring to any negative ideas folks might have had about Colombia's political past. Instead, it was about things like climate—seated at a high altitude in the Andes, the city would be quite cool even in August—and fashion. 'It's an abnormally formal city,' Priscila says. 'If you wear sandals or shorts, people will look at you weird. Bogotá is a more conservative town.'
Guests needed to pack well, because once they arrived, the couple had designed quite a four-day weekend. On Thursday evening, the celebration kicked off with a welcome drink near Parque de la 93, at Vista Corona, with drinks and small bites at a rooftop bar with a panoramic view of the city for sunset. 'It's a city with the most unbelievable mountain views you've ever seen, so we wanted to greet everybody with a view of the city behind us,' says Lio. From there, the group headed to Andrés DC, a famous restaurant-night club with live music and seven floors themed around Dante's Inferno. 'We were just passing around tequila shots to our 90 guests dancing to traditional cumbia until 4am,' says Priscila. 'It really set the stage!'
Friday morning, Priscila and Lio arranged a walking tour of Bogotá with TK TOUR COMPANY. 'They give you the context of the city and its politics. It was sort of radical, which is important to me—not to whitewash the city and its very complicated history,' Priscila says. 'I think if you're bringing your guests that far, you kind of owe it to them to sightsee.' That night, there was a more intimate dinner for just their closest friends and wedding parties at Harry Sasson, the eponymous fine-dining restaurant of one of the country's most famous chefs.
Saturday was the wedding day, and on Sunday, they held a farewell brunch at the Four Seasons, one of three hotels in the same neighborhood where they'd blocked off rooms for guests. The goal, says Priscila, was to show off the diversity of her beloved city through its most famous spots and neighborhoods. 'I didn't care about flower arrangements. I cared about showing people Bogotá and making the biggest splash possible,' she says.
The flower arrangements by Flowerland were more Lio's domain. 'I wanted something that was extremely verdant. Because we were going to be inside all day, I wanted to bring the outside in,' she explains. 'I think the typical wedding florals are, I don't know how else to put this but: fluffy? I wanted things that felt eclectic, and I love color, but not kitschy color.' Lio also wanted to juxtapose the lived-in, antique-y texture of the restaurant, in which stucco was breaking away in spots to reveal tile underneath, with fresh, lush floral arrangements.
Another modern touch, which Lio's dad was against, were a half dozen disco balls hung from the ceiling. 'Disco balls at a wedding may be a little bit of a cliche, but guess what? They make everyone look amazing on the dance floor,' she laughs.
The ceremony was made entirely unique by their choice of officiant. 'We picked a very handsome, 6'3 German-Italian bisexual theater director—the same person who introduced us in college, Ben. He is one of our best friends,' says Lio. 'He's a writer himself, too, so the ceremony he put together was so lovely.' He did such a great job that a pair of Lio's parents' friends even asked if they could hire him for their daughter's wedding.
As they held their wedding in a restaurant, working out the food was easy. 'The food in Colombia is so delicious. Specifically, the red meat is so fresh, and the produce is like nothing else you've ever had in your life,' says Lio. 'We wanted to give people really hearty, delicious food.' Among the passed hors d'oeuvres were mini empanadas and chicharrón, while dinner offered giant pieces of salmon and full ribeye steaks. For dessert, there was a chocolate cake from a local, trans-owned bakery, as well as a croquembouche, in a nod to Priscila's partially French heritage.
The music by DJ Winston Howard featured reggaeton—'I'm a reggaeton friend,' Priscila says—but also the hits of the couple's past. 'I wanted the songs that we danced to from middle school to college, just bops,' says Lio. 'So it was a combination of Daddy Yankee, the Backstreet Boys, and Kendrick Lamar.'
There was one more dish, served on the dance floor, to sate their guests later into the evening. 'We had passed cups of soup to keep people dancing and revive them at the end of the night,' Lio says of the 'very, very, very traditional' Colombian soup (and beloved hangover cure) called caldo de Costilla. When she shared the plan with American friends before the wedding, they thought it would be too weird. 'But everyone loved it. They were so happy to have something warm and delicious and nourishing to offset all that dancing.'
The sustenance was needed, as dancing carried on until 3:00 am. There was no need for an after-party, as the venue expected the wedding itself to go on that long, unlike the typical end point for American weddings.
It's been less than a year since Priscila and Lio's wedding, but the highlights keep coming. 'We've had multiple guests, since our wedding, book trips and go to Colombia in the last year: 'We loved it so much we had to go back,'' Lio says. 'We were like, Ahh, we've succeeded!''
Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler
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