Camila is obsessed with love, relationships and marriage. The first wedding I took her to was my sister’s in Houston. She was almost four years old but still remembers to this day most of the ceremony in detail. The dress, the kiss, the music, the flowers and the flower girl. Oh, the flower girl. That’s what got her the most. Why was she not the flower girl?

And so it was for years. When would she get to be a flower girl? Her biggest wish. Her biggest dream.

My friend Alex invited us to her wedding in Quito, Ecuador. We decided to make it our family summer trip. My first time to South America and to the Andes region. What better way to visit than with friends and knowing a good party is in store? Nos encanta la fiesta, pa que mentir!

Alex and I were talking trip logistics via Skype one day when she realized that Camila could join her two nieces as a flower girl. I thought she’d never ask!! She seriously had no idea she had just made Camila’s fairy tale wish come true.

I couldn’t wait to tell her. I knew she’d be overjoyed and would go into planning-mode overdrive. Squeals. Her reaction was jumping up and down and teenage-girl squeals.

We got her the dress and the shoes. We got on the flight. We were lucky enough to be able to leave the airport during our 8-hour layover in El Salvador to spend the day with my family at the beach. Camila and her cousin packed in all the love and joy within a few hours…

…and so did we…

The girls hated us for separating them again. But flower girl duty called.

Quito welcomed us with beautiful scenery in the middle of the newly revamped Centro Histórico. A huge, sprawling and chaotic city that still manages to wrap you in history, art, architecture and the realness of its people.

And that makes you want to twirl right where its heart beats.

The wedding was up in the Andes mountains in a remote area in the middle of a green and luscious forest. It was the perfect fairy tale setting for Camila’s wish to come true.

These are the memories we invest in.