Nicole and Ramiro Mirabeau Spa Wedding

mirabeau spa wedding kristin chalmers photography

Nicole and Ramiro were married on June 17th, with a ceremony and reception at the Mirabeau Spa.

These two met at CrossFit Southborough, where Nicole was Ramiro’s coach. After about 6 months of friendship, Ramiro asked Nicole to compete in a partner competition and then asked her out to dinner to say thanks. But when the night came and went, they had a bit of a communications mix-up, and both thought the other person was blowing them off! Thankfully, they sorted it out and got to go to dinner that Saturday night. They ended up talking for 6 hours and have been together ever since.

This February, the CrossFit gym where they met was going to be sold off to new owners. So, they decided to have a party for everything the old owners had done. Ramiro and Nicole had been part of the gym for so long that they were invited, too. Ramiro told Nicole that he would be giving a speech, and he stepped out onto the floor where everyone was set to work out. He talked about everything the former owners had done, including introducing the two of them—at which point he got down on one knee!

Now, before I talk about the wedding itself, I need to talk about a little surprise that happened before the big day. I was scrolling through Instagram and came across a photo of Nicole and Ramiro kissing and holding up an ultrasound photo. I stopped and did a little counting and some baby math and realized: “Oh my god, she could have the baby on her wedding day!”

I thought about it for a moment and decided it could either be a great thing or a crazy thing and gave Nicole a call. “So, congratulations, this is amazing!” I told her. “Buuuuuuttt . . . when are you due?”

“Oh, I was supposed to be due like the week of my wedding, but now they think it’s a couple weeks before. But it’s cool,” Nicole replied.

Now, in my head, I was impressed with how mellow she was about the whole thing, but what I said out loud was, “Okay, well, do you have a Plan B if something happens like a C section or if you have the baby at the wedding?” (I have to admit, I was kind of hoping that would happen, because it would be an amazing photo op! I already had it planned out—I’d go to the hospital with them while my second shooter, Vanessa, would take care of all the guests. It’d be no biggie; I’d done live births and labor shots before.)

But Nicole continued to be so chill about it. “I’m sure whatever happens, it will be great. You can do that if it happens, but hopefully, it won’t, and all will be smooth,” she said.

Sure enough, 2 weeks before the wedding, Nicole gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, and everything on their wedding day went smoothly. And I was super excited, because I have always wanted to photograph a bride nursing a baby!

Nicole and Ramiro’s Mirabeau Spa Wedding

On the day of the wedding itself, Vanessa and I arrived at Mirabeau in the morning to do all the getting ready, behind-the-scenes stuff. Watching Nicole and Ramiro keep a balance between being there for their baby and enjoying their wedding made me truly understand how relaxed and in love they are. It does take a village—and all their friends and family were by their side to help with whatever they needed.

Ramiro is part of the GetUp Crew on hot 96.9FM with Pebbles, Melissa and Wiggy, so the music was off the hook all night long, courtesy of the famous DJ Deirdre Dagata. At one point, Deirdre broke into a full-on freestyle that blew the roof off the place.

When Nicole and Ramiro had their first dance, Nicole surprised Ramiro in the middle of the dance by playing his favorite song: Delfonics’ “La La La I Love You.” He normally hates to be the center of attention and gets self-conscious when he has to dance in front of people, but he literally melted when the song came on. He sang it to Nicole while they danced, and it was absolutely amazing.

It was so fun to watch these two loosen up and party with their friends. Nicole had even changed into a cool dress from Australia so she could get into the music. And once Ramiro had a few drinks and loosened up, he was amazing out on the dance floor!

Nicole & Ramiro, thank you for not only letting me capture your day but trusting me with photographing some truly intimate moments with your newborn and allowing me to share them with the world. I adore you both.