Y’all. We are on an international wedding roll this week. Today’s wedding is from The Philippines, and it will explode your pre-conceptions of Filipino weddings, in the most bad ass way possible. I mean, I’m not even sure where to start. It’s an indie-DIY-ice-cream cart-picnic-church wedding (I know, right?) But what really gets me about this wedding is Camyl’s deep respect for her husband, and her joy at the fact that he loved their wedding, and helped make it happen. You don’t hear that a lot in wedding media. Just sayn’. And finally, when she talks about her seriously ill mother and how she wanted to help with wedding planning, she breaks my heart. Because I’ve been there, and she is wise.
You have no idea how much APW has helped me deal with the insanity of wedding planning, even if i am so many miles away from all the other APW brides and graduates. Most of the ideas that my husband and I implemented at our wedding came from this site—while still putting our own brand of style on it. We got married in April this year, but even now, after attending several other weddings (all our friends seem to be settling down this year too), my husband still raves that ours remains the best he’s even been to. Of course he’s biased in a MAJOR way, but I realized that hearing him say that is all I ever wanted to hear while planning the event. No matter how many people I wanted to please or impress, his opinion was the one that mattered to me most (and I feel stupid for only realizing that belatedly). And I have you and all the other APW brides to thank for this, among others. So, here goes, my APW post from a little country in Southeast Asia.
Most weddings in our country still tend to go the traditional route—big church, reception at some hotel ballroom, restaurant, or one of those faux-garden or tent venues. Ryan and I definitely did not want to do things traditionally; in fact, at the very start of our planning, we decided to plan a wedding that would be: 1) unique, 2) totally un-extravagant, and 3) fun, casual, and relaxed.
We are not church-goers, but we come from families that are, and we respected their request that we have a church wedding instead of our original plan of having a garden ceremony. So to meet them halfway, we decided on holding the wedding mass at the high school chapel of our university, the Ateneo de Manila University. I spent four years as a Lit major in that school (this is where I also met my husband), but Ryan is the true-blue, die-hard Atenean: he went to Ateneo for elementary, high school, and college, and in fact has taught in the high school department for the past ten years. Having the wedding there was incredibly meaningful to us.
Continue reading Wedding Graduates: Camyl & Ryan
