extremely late blog post #3: an eight hour wedding

january 2, 2009.

maileen is a friend of mine way back in college. with her fascination for tori amos and indigo girls songs, musically we clicked. heck, we would sometimes even go to gigs together. she was the eclectic one in the barkada. a talker and a poet. she was a rich kid and, consequently, was occasionally my driver. 😆 after graduation, she stayed in the country for a while but she felt her calling was in the states so she migrated there. communication would be in the form of emails since then and it occured by season – there was the season of silence and then there’s the season of rapid replies. then one day last year, she emailed asking about weddings. my friend’s getting married! and it was the season of rapid replies once again. 🙂

initially, maileen wanted a boracay wedding but logistics would’ve been too much for an overseas bride like her. so she switched to a san agustin/intramuros wedding which was appropriate for her desired filipiniana theme – a perfect way for her husband-to-be and in-laws-to-be to get to know the filipino culture. this was their day and she wanted it special. 🙂

from time to time, maileen would email me asking questions and suggestions about different aspects of her wedding. to her, i was “the wedding expert” – our wedding preps email blog was to blame for this reputation. 😀 somewhat pressured, i would give my best answers… hoping they were all right. 😉


i guess my answers were right. 🙂

like in all wedding preps, time flew quickly and before we knew it, it was wedding day already. the ceremony was scheduled at 2 pm. we arrived five minutes before 2 and i was leisurely putting on my barong on the san agustin parking area when i noticed that the huge church doors were closing. nah, it can’t be. maileen can’t be taking her bridal walk this early. it ain’t even 2 pm yet. but curiously, i took a closer look and was surprised that she was just about to take her march. hurriedly, i called selle and grab our camera and rushed towards san agustin. unfortunately, before i was able to get my camera ready, she started her march towards the church already. i tried snapping off a few shots but since i haven’t done any test shots yet, the settings were all off and i ended up with a bunch of blurred shots. 😦

afterwards, i tried my best to make up for it the rest of the wedding day. again, low-light conditions were a challenge but i tackled it better this time around (but it was still tough though).


along with the wedding program, fans were also given away. how thoughtful… 🙂













after the ceremony, we went across the street to barbara’s for cocktails. here we got to enjoy great food and got to chat with college friends. it is also here where we came up with the idea of packaging our “gifts” using souvenir items located on a shop just downstairs. geniuses. 🙂


the newlyweds on their way to barbara’s. checkout one of the threelogy boys in the background taking a quick yosi break. 😀


this combo escorted the guests from san agustin all the way to barbara’s where they played ambient music.


after their post-ceremony pictorial sessions, the newlyweds dropped by barbara’s and joined in the chit-chats of their guests.





another round of photo sessions for maileen and nick. 🙂

after more than an hour, the celebration ain’t over yet as we proceeded to the reception venue – the metropolitan museum.



yes, a wedding reception inside museum. not only did it give the guests something to do to spend the time while waiting, it also introduced the foreign guests to philippine culture. ang galing. 🙂


the bishop’s and the salazar’s through the years



like any typical filipino, the only times we’ve been into a museum in our country were during class field trips. 🙂 after seeing this museum, i think we should visit them more often.
btw, this was filipiniana wedding but it was only a couple days before that i realized that we should be in filipiniana attire (duh. 😛). so my barong had to be unearthed from our cabinet and selle had to get filipiniana accessories. her pearl necklace and her handbag were all bought just for this occasion. 🙂



the venue was unique… the program was unique also. none of the usual wedding reception programs and ceremonies. no emcees were needed too. from time to time, someone will give a speech about and for maileen and nick. the speeches were entertaining and captivating. the speeches were so good that it felt like it was a game of can-you-top-this. bravo.




in-between the speeches food was served, guest get to talk and maileen and nick mingled with the guests also. how cool is that? 🙂



my fellow “photographers” lala and migoy. they’re way better than me… 🙂



conversations varied throughout the reception. some were serious… while others were not so serious. 🙂


anna talking with arguably the richest guy in our pisay batch, lemlem of mimi and karl.



eight hours of wedding celebration and we stayed – and ENJOYED – every minute of it (or at least almost because we left a bit early). hats off to you maileen and nick, this was one unique wedding. 🙂