shiny, happy people: raynald and emie wedding

raynald and emie are good friends of ours dating back to their days in samsung electro-mechanics. it’s been years since they’ve both left the company for greener pastures (much, much greener… ;-)) but when they decided to tie the knot, selle and i still got invited. woohooo!

raynald is a dependable reccom member when i was handling it back in ’05. we were just a handful back then hence, labored a lot… but we had fun while at it. he also was a member of my samsung cell group circa ’03-’06… (and so was emie. :-)) emie marie is a fellow iskolar ng bayan and a frequent office chatmate of mine – when she left… those chats turned to email exchanges.

emie asked a lot about wedding stuff during their preps. we even even met up one time at a bridal fair for a “double date” of sorts. 🙂 buti na lang may naitulong pala kami sa kanila as she was soooo thankful about our lanie acedillo recommendation. 😀

i had an unofficial assignment (given by emie, cno pa kaya? hehe) during the wedding day – to be the backup photographer. i still have a pathetic d40… with a kit lens and nothing else so it was indeed a challenge. so here are some of the images i captured… one thing’s for sure – raynald and emie were ALL smiles throughout the day. 🙂

congratulations, guys… at “double date” uli tayo after your honeymoon. 😉


the groom… happily strutting down the aisle


the bride preparing for her…


…grand entrance.


just love how the light gives her gown that “ethereal” glow. i wonder if the “official” photographer shooting across me was looking at the same light. hehe




like raynald before… emie was all smiles as she walked down the aisle. 🙂


shooting in san agustin is really hard because of the lack of lighting… but its architecture more than makes up for it.








mr and mrs herrera… 🙂


emie admitted that the gown was one of her priorities… and she had a KILLER gown! just look at the details…


while waiting for the reception to start… i managed to capture this scene. cute, huh? 🙂



the semphil contingent…


i have no idea what they’re looking at… 😀


i had to run from the back row to the front row just to capture this scene. now if i only had a zoom lens… 😉


wacky shot… up close. 😀


shiny, happy couple. 😀


love this one… even in black & white


i’ve done this kind of shot a number of times already… and, just recently, a friend of mine won a contest with a similar shot. cool, no? 🙂


the same girls i shot playing in the garden… this time, sitting still. cute pa din. 🙂


the semphil contingent… just before going home.




my always gorgeous wife… with a brand new dress just bought for the occassion. 😉

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digital gifts

there’s a group of people that say that the best gifts to give (and receive) are those that can’t be bought. i am one of them.

lately, selle and i had the opportunity to exercise this school of thought and put it into action. a couple of our friends were having their birthdays and we decided to give them something they can’t buy at the mall. 🙂



fun facts about neriz’s avp:

• during one of our chats in one of our get-together’s, neriz mentioned she loved this jingle that she heard from a quick-and-easy commercial. she didn’t know then that that jingle was a rip-off of an actual song. 🙂
• the gift was supposedly a simple mp3 but when we later learned that we’ll have time to make an avp (kasi biglang nagka-party) then the mp3 turned into an avp. 🙂
• the avp was made overnight using photos i have on our pc… and video footages from their wedding onsite avp.
• the dvd design was inspired by their honda jazz vanity plate. 😉

fun facts about francis’ avp:

• this was actually kathleen’s idea – who approached us through text with the lines, “kelan ka matatapos sa bc?” i immediately knew then that a favor was coming. 😀
• while francis was in gen san jump-starting a multi-million business, we went to their house to get photos for the avp – this included “stealing” his 2 dvd’s-worth of overseas trips photos – which he was looking for later on the week. 😀
• most video footages were taken using a cellphone.
• other video footages came in real slow and i started editing even without the other expected video messages. some eventually came in and i had to redo some parts of the avp to squeeze them in.
• the choice of song was intentional, knowing that francis was a beatles fanatic. 🙂

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house parties

for the past 3 months, we’ve been invited to 3 house birthday parties. i’ve always believed that house parties are much, much better (and meaningful) than those held at establishments. siguro dahil it’s more intimate… and less structured. plus guests tend to mingle and talk to each other more. 🙂

we’re honored that we were invited to these parties. next year uli ha. 😉

july 17, 2009
neriz’s birthday




august 5, 2009
charles’ birthday





september 12, 2009
francis’ birthday

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paul and emma: a wedding photo coverage

may 30, 2009

covering weddings, not merely attending them, has become a habit of mine. so when it was time for emma and paul’s wedding, i was determined to get that one shot worthy of being framed and hanged on their house wall. here’s some of them… hopefully, i managed to get that one shot. 😉


selle with “mommy” and “daddy.”




the bridal march, taken from different angles.



a couple of photo-journalistic shots. key to photojournalism is having an alert eye… cause these moments don’t last that long.




emma was all laughs during the ceremony. fun, fun, fun… 🙂

yes, it’s a BIG clan. 🙂

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kiddie party #3: jubilyn

august 9, 2009

just a day after miggy’s swimming party, we’re off to another kiddie party – this time just within calamba. ruby (or mama ruby) and jun are former colleagues of selle and their 2nd child just turned one! and where else to celebrate? at every pinoy kid’s favorite fastfood – jollibee!

more than just a kiddie party, it was a sort of like a reunion for selle and her former tantal officemates. she spent most of her time with mariel (or manang), a neighbor but somehow we don’t get to spend much time with. sadly, mommy rose was not able to attend but kate, selle’s inaanak, was there and we “baby-sitted” her during the party. 🙂







sometimes, you got to be creative in choosing your subjects – shying away from the obvious ones. 🙂


in this shot, i used the other guests who were taking photos to frame the subjects. worked out well, in my opinion. 🙂




happy, happy birthday, jubilyn. 😀

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kiddie party #2: miggy

august 8, 2009

it was miggy’s 8th birthday party and it was at my sister’s condo in pasig. not knowing how to get there, we got instructions from my sister and then followed it to the letter. everything was going smoothly until we near her place and her instructions were to turn right. i got confused because it was impossible to turn right. 🙂 buti na lang familiar na kami dun sa condo and made the correct decision of turning left. 🙂



miggy had a swimming party! ok sya kasi it’s a different kind of a kiddie party. sobrang ok kasi the kids were enjoying themselves at the pool to the fact that no entertainment was needed na. they only stopped when it was time to eat… pero after eating, back at the pool they were. 😀 it was a good thing that the weather cooperated… it was raining all week-long but that day it was just partly cloudy – enough to block the sun rays from the kids. 🙂







the birthday boy having a quick chichacorn break with my lovely wife. 🙂



we left after the blowing of candles – a brief pause to the kids’ playtime at the pool. we still owe miggy his transformer ironhide toy… something we have yet to see at the stores.

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kiddie party #1: chloe

“sir…..”

that was the subject title of a blank email i got from cinderella, a friend and a former officemate, a few months back. yes, a blank email… meaning, walang laman.

“ha? ano to? may problema ba?” those were the thoughts going through my mind as i stared at the blank email. i then quickly shot back a reply asking what’s going on?

“eh kasi sir… nahihiya talaga ako eh. mag-bday kasi si baby chloe ko… eh kung pwede sana kayo mag-cover ng party. eeeee… nahihiya talaga ako sir.” or something to that effect (hehe) was the reply i got from cindy. ok, ok, i got the message. but why me? i mean, she’s got plenty of friends who have better cams than our pathetic d40. tsaka, sa taas ng kinikita nilang mag-asawa eh why not just hire a pro? 🙂 whatever her reasons were, i didn’t bother knowing them anymore. cindy’s a friend and it would be an honor to shoot for her baby’s party. plus, it’s one way of giving a gift without spending a single peso. 🙂

may 24, 2009. dahil mga probinsyano’t probinsyana kami (vena, neriz, jade and cedrick (na nag-iisa sa kanyang kotse)), we kinda got lost looking for the place. palibhasa mga d sanay sa fort. 🙂 but we still managed to arrive early and since we were there before the start of the party, i got a chance to snap off a few pre-party pics.








then the party officially started. syempre kiddie games dominated the program – to the enjoyment of the adults.

heck, there even was a game for adults which we guys starred in – and won. come from behind pa nga yung victory eh. 😀




with the vertical movement to consider aside from the horizontal movement, i know that a panning shot of a running person is almost impossible to pull off… but i tried anyway. kinda liked the output. 🙂


i wonder what lara was thinking about? “give me that balloon?” 😀




chloe… with utmost concentration on blowing those candles out. 🙂





babies, babies and even more babies… heck, there were even a couple of celebrities in the party too. 😉

after the party, guests stayed and did some catching up with friends.





not satisfied, we even changed venues and went to bonifacio high street to continue the exchanging of stories. since andun na rin lang, we strolled and went window shopping… eventually making our way to la senza – where the gals did some mega-shopping (especially the millionaire myles ;-)).






yah, from kiddie party to a lingerie botique… it was quite a day. 🙂

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a super highway, a pristine island and a lovely wedding

may 2, 2009

are you willing to travel 700+ kilometers both ways by land just to attend a wedding? that’s the test-of-friendship question thrown by rex and imee to us, their friends – and our answer? heck, yeah! 🙂

so, together with cedrick and wengi, off we went to zambales. we were told that the approximate travel time was about 6-7 hours and expecting such a loooong drive ahead, we devised a plan with cedrick and i alternately driving. but what happened was i did most of the driving. 😆 (ok lang, binawian ko naman cedrick because he did all the driving on the way back. 😀). the road trip was long but not boring. the scenery was beautiful and the roads were in tiptop condition. they were so good we had to stop quite a number of times and just to take pictures. 🙂










it took us almost nine hours just to arrive at the resort prepared for us by rex. yes, nine hours. aside from the photo stops, we had other delays along the way:

• horrendous traffic jam from trinoma to nlex exit (oo, alam namin. ang lapit na nun… pero it took us almost an hour just to traverse that distance)
• lunch stop at petron station in nlex (gutom na kami so we stopped at the very first establishment we saw. dapat pala sa shell kami kasi mas malawak at mas maraming choices.)
• traffic at nlex (huh? nagkaka-traffic ba dun? wala eh, na-timing kami ng road maintenance works)
• “typhoon” somewhere in zambales (the visibiliy was so bad that i had to turn my fog lights on for the first time – not that it helped. 😆)

it was nighttime already when we arrived and we didn’t get to see the beach anymore so we just settled in our cottage. for dinner, cedrick and i went out to the nearby jollibee (wala eh. no choice. :-D) for takeout. nakakatuwa nga mga tao sa drive thru kasi they were so enthusiastic… not sure so sure why though. hehe

after dinner eh bagsak na ako and slept early. pero si cedrick eh nagpuyat kakanood ng tv… palibhasa d napagod mag-drive. 😀

early morning the next day, selle and wengi decided to checkout the beach. 🙂





afterwards, we prepared ourselves so that we can go and visit the famed potipot island. after breakfast, we took the very, very short boat ride to potipot.




potipot island is like a deserted island (wait a minute… it is a deserted island. 🙂). very small yet extremely beautiful. we didn’t have much time to stay so inikot lang namin island at nag-picture-picture.








we then hurried back to mainland and went to trinidad bay resort to prepare for the wedding.

at the resort we were greeted by the very hands-on groom, rex… who was both nervous and excited at the same time. (don’t worry, rex, we understand… we’ve been there. :-)). rex had his preparations at the same room as ours so we had “backstage” access to this wedding. a few shoots here and there and then we were off to the church… with the groom. (btw, muntik na maging instant bridal car yung aming focus… but that’s another story. :-)).







at the church, we saw the other guests:

• karl and leah who made the trip in a short time of 5 hours (speedy. :-)).
• ferdi, joel and roju who went through their very own amazing race experience jumping from one public transportation to another (talk about passing the test of friendship w/ flying colors :-)).

then the wedding began. after taking shots of the guys from the entourage, i ran out of the church to take a shot of imee. i was pleasantly surprised when imee saw me and said, “hi dyoks!” surprised because i only saw her once and, according to rex, that was their first “date” pa. makes me wonder kung anu-anong pinag-kwe-kwento ni rex kay imee about me. 🙂





anyway, rex and imee were very candid throughout the wedding ceremonies. that’s very nice because it’s just so natural. you could really see and feel their love for each other… as can be seen in the pictures below. 🙂

at the tail-end of the wedding, it was very humid and i noticed that it was getting dark outside. i was thinking, “no, no, no… pls don’t let it rain.” when we left the church going to the reception venue, rain fell… and it fell real hard. we felt really, really bad. outdoor kasi yung reception eh. sobrang lakas ng ulan that we couldn’t get out of our car to get to the reception. we waited a while for it to die down. eventually, humina din ulan (no, it did not stop) so we finally were able to get in. seeing the tables all wet crushed our hearts. this was a time that the newlyweds really needed us… so we had to stay.

and the guests must really love the couple as most did stay. so what if it rained? the reception program was extremely fun… and i was busy taking pictures. 🙂











btw, vena and neriz arrived at the reception… just fresh from vigan… and got somewhat lost in the process of going to the wedding (that’s yet another long story. :-D).

with the program about to end… even if we really, really wanted to stay pa (kahit overnight pa)… we couldn’t. si cedrick kasi – the best man – had to go to work the following day. so we had no choice. nalungkot nga kami noong nagpaalam kami eh. but we vowed to make it up to the couple (especially to imee).

we arrived home at around 4 in the morning. 700+ kilometers were logged by our focus during the whole trip. would we do it all over again? for friends, heck, yeah. 🙂

congratulations, rex and imee. lovely, lovely, lovely wedding…



checkout the official wedding photographer’s photos here.

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extremely late blog post #11: w@w 10th year anniversary party

march 20, 2009

the weddingsatwork online community celebrated it’s 10th year anniversary last march and we were there to join in all the fun. what’s not to like about the party? it was held at the fernbrook gardens – a venue we have yet to step foot on. bonding time with friends – both w@wies and suppliers. free food – that’s always good. 🙂

so, along with vena and neriz, we trooped towards daang-hari. traffic was bad in alabang (but not as bad as those coming from manila) but we eventually made it to fernbrooks. the party has yet to start when we arrived so we loitered around – taking pictures, partaking of the cocktail food and abusing the free photobooths. 😀


the wall of w@wies… we’re there. 🙂




we took lots of photos… here’s a few of vena and neriz. sana yung pics namin from their cam eh magka-copy kami. 😉



syempre, i took photos of my favorite subject. 🙂

soon the doors of the main hall opened and we went in to find seats. unfortunately (or fortunately), we found ourselves seated at the back. ang bilis mapuno eh. we reserved seats for bob, lette and company as they were still stuck in traffic.

dinnertime was then announced and since we were seated at the back, we had quick access to the buffet line. syempre nauna kami ni vena sa pila. 😀 we decided that it’s better for our wives to stay at our table at baka biglang may umupo pa while we’re getting food. yun pala d rin cla nag-stay dun while we were at the buffet… sila naman eh ni-raid ang dessert/pastries buffet located at the main hall. 😀




bob arrived as the program was about to start. the highlight of every w@w party is the supplier of the year awards. the way it is presented – with avp’s ala oscar awards – makes it even more interesting. this year, bob was tasked to do the avp and we were excited as to what masterpiece he came up with this time. and, syempre, we were cheering for kaye (of k by cunanan)… that she wins the whole thing this year. 🙂

the supplier of the year avp was jaw-dropping. jason magbanua‘s comments after the avp was shown said it all, “i think we should let bob make the supplier of the year avp EVERY YEAR.” it was that good. 🙂 see it for yourselves:

and read more about it here.

we were sad though that kaye didn’t win the supplier of the year (para sa amin, sya pa din panalo… hands-down. :-)). but we were happy na din for cecilio abad… who seems like a nice person and the wedding community loves him. so congratulations to him. 🙂


everyone was glued to the screens when the avp’s were shown.


bob chatting with fellow videographers, the guys from mayad studios.



the party ended with an unexpected guest… kamikaze. yup, a rock band in a wedding party. 🙂 pero since led, kamikaze's guitarist, is the son of wedding photographers edwin and ellen tuyay then, i guess, the guesting makes sense after all. 🙂





we saw kaye – our favorite caterer – just around the time we were about to leave. it’s always nice seeing kaye because she is a nice person. meeting supplier friends were the highlights of the night for us… a night well worth the traffic-laden trip. 🙂

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extremely late blog post #8: a touching renewal of vows

february 15, 2009

we’ve attended plenty of weddings before but a renewal of vows, this was a first. last february, rene and lalaine celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows in front of family, friends and rescued streetchildren.

adding more meaning to an already meaningful event, the couple decided to forego a grand ceremony but instead decided to share their love (and the love of their guests) with the children of tuloy sa don bosco foundation – a foundation built to rescue children off the streets. knowing ma’am lalaine, this act was expected as she has always been known to have a caring and loving heart. 🙂



the church was lovely. you wouldn’t have thought that this was resting along the busy streets of zapote road in alabang.

the ceremony was solemn and touching… all nestled inside the beautiful church inside the tuloy sa don bosco foundation. with the kids taking part in the ceremony – acting as sakristans and choir members – 25 years of love was even more magnified.











the ceremony was then followed by a short program prepared by the tuloy sa don bosco kids. what started out as an entertaining presentation of martial arts and sports…





…ended up with a moving rendition of josh groban’s you raise me up – which moved the hearts of everyone.




afterwards, instead of the usual cocktails to kill time while waiting for the start of the reception, we were ushered to a room telling the story of tuloy sa don bosco foundation. an avp was even showed showcasing what the foundation has done for streetchildren. then, at the middle of the room, a tree was situated and hanging on its branches were the wishes of the kids of the foundation.




during the reception, ma’am lalaine’s subordinates reciprocated her love for them back to her by taking the helm of the program. a song number by the logistics boys and a narration of the couple’s love story during their dance were only a few of the things they prepared for her. emotions then overflowed as the couple took the mic to say a few words.

ma’am lalaine enjoying the soulful voice of the boys. 🙂




the couple started to get teary-eyed as their kids say their well-wishes to their parents.


the unique “first dance”… with their love story being narrated. touching. 🙂






it was an inspiring sequence of events. we were touched… we’re sure all the other guests were, as well.

congratulations. 🙂

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