Wedding Digest Philippines Grooms Edition | Page 200

waiting for its new owner. We had our own time after that, capturing her reactions using my DSLR camera, the contagious tears of delight (or shock), while people around us (who may have started to assimilate what’s happening) began to cheer for us while the carriage is still going around. Meanwhile, our unsuspecting coachman still doesn’t have an idea that the two young adults he’s touring around just become the happiest couple in the world. The Weddings Oh, the fun part. As I said, we were married twice. Twice the fun, eh? The first one was a civil wedding. We decided to hold that on January 2, 2015, as it’s the most feasible timeto schedule itafter all the holidays, and since we also had our vacation trip in Palawan late December, and then I was leaving for the US first Sunday of January 2015. Moreover, being lawfully wed can help Ana start with her papers for the planned move to the US to be with me later on.Ultimately, my grand plan happened the way I carefully crafted it— from the proposal, the seemingly haphazard and hastily organized civil wedding, to the US petition papers. Well, it takes two to tango, remember? We had one whole year to spare and prepare for the second wedding, i.e., the church wedding. Before I left, we worked on identifying and booking our target church. We learned that booking popular wedding churches, such as Barasoain Church, requires several months to a year or so in advance to reserve a slot. We started contacting our relatives, friends, colleagues, etc. and invited them to our special day after securing the church. We also started searching and reaching out to potential suppliers, as they usually need to be booked way ahead as well. I have had experience in organizing social events in the past, but planning and coordinatingmy own wedding proved to be a stressful and timeconsuming endeavor. Admittedly, Ana handled thehuge chunk of the preparations, by virtue of her being physically available to everyone and everything! I handled some of the tasks of course, and we even set up an online worksheet, where we collaborated and documented the wedding timeline, to-do lists, ideas and everything related to the celebration. Filipiniana-themed wedding was easily agreed upon, given the connection with the proposal venue, the historic church and Ana’s field. Besides, we can never go wrong with our traditional attire! Ana’s gown and my suit were made by different suppliers. Ana’s Maria Clara is absolutely stunning and beyond compare. It took her designer and team excessive amount of time putting together the beads and embellishments through hand embroidery. It’s weighty, and includes an alampay (shawl), bead- and embroidery-heavy as well. The outfit of the entourage, our family members and relatives was also made by Ana’s designer. My suit is another story. With the goal of wearing a unique barong for my wedding, I did an extensive research for over a year. Sherwani of South Asia got my attention even before due to its elegance, regality and elaborateness of the traditional designs. Since our wedding theme is Filipiniana, I decided a fusion between our traditional barong and sherwani would be a perfect combination. Another challenge was the willing and skilled designer who can create the wedding barong. Finally, after contacting multiple suppliers, one braved and accepted the challenge. The ultimate masterpiece: Sherwani-inspired, fully hand embroidered piña fiber over satin fabric, trench coat barong. My suit designer, who’s usually being frequented by well-known Filipino fashion designers for his fabrics, was excited about our project. He said that he hasn’t seen and worked on such an elaborate wedding suit before. We had multiple calls and traded emails day and