My Shabby Chic Vintage Wedding

The beginning of everything else. 

He is a Cebuano. I am a Waraynon. Two people in different cities… So, how did we meet then? Ours is a tale of a whirlwind romance that started in MIRC. That’s right. M-I-R-C. It was not the most romantic place to meet a soulmate, was it? To be honest, I thought chatrooms even how male dominated they are won’t give me Prince Charming or Mr. Right. I did not expect to think otherwise. ;)

Irvin and I first met online in October 2005. We chatted for a while, swapped numbers and he added me at Friendster. Between texting and seeing other people, he arranged to meet up a number of times and mostly I turned him down due to work and strict parents. I know, right? So cliché.

So finally...

Boy meets girl.

I will always think of May 7, 2006 as the day our love story started. I travelled to Cebu for the weekend. We went out for dinner. He took me to Tops to spend more time knowing each other. We laughed. We talked. We clicked. We realised how amazing the other person simply was.

Boy likes girl. Vice versa.

So that summer night while overlooking the city lights and amidst the fog, pinkie to pinkie he admitted he liked me. I am sure I melted! :) I said, “Thanks. I like me, too.” Hahaha Just kidding. I told him quite shyly me liked him too. But that took me forever!

       

October 25th...

Five months later, he took me to Bohol to celebrate my 27th birthday. It was sometime ten in the evening under the night sky of Panglao Island that he knelt down and asked me to marry him!          
I said, “Are you kidding me?!"

(Haha!)

He had me in tears.

Inseparable.

We were inseparable despite of a long distance relationship. We talked endless of hours on the phone until we fall asleep... We waited for each other to come home so we could eat our meals together; he liked reading to me or serenading me with his guitar – over the phone.. Oh yes, we fought a lot too! And we prayed together. Thanks to Sun Cellular, it made things appear easy like we were actually together... 

He met my family, I met his; he declared his good intentions to Papa and asked for my hand in marriage.  We overcame many obstacles along the way and learned to see each other through. We were apart for more than a year before we decided that I move to Cebu.

       

Then an opportunity came. He migrated to England. We were physically not together, yet time zones kept us inseparable still. Five months after he left, I received my UK visa on my birthday. I joined him in England right away and plans of a church wedding came into mind. 

Pre-wedding.

I already knew what wedding I wanted even before I met him and luckily enough, he wanted the same. I have a penchant for all things vintage, retro and sweet; thus the theme - shabby chic vintage. We went for peachy orange, old school blue and blush pink motif being orange my favourite color and blue Irvin's. We added pink because it's cute and why not? We wanted our wedding to be solemn, non-traditional, not elegant but pretty, quirky, laidback and most importantly - a reflection of us. 

         

We started conceptualising and planning early. Being an OC and a control freak, I was very keen on details and making our wedding really personal which led us to shoot our own engagement photos. Our e-session was sweet, laidback, nostalgic, vintage and shot by yours truly. It was memorable and fun for both of us and as a bonus, got featured in many wedding blogs.

Our invites were passport-inspired to represent our love for travel. I included a Bride & Groom Trivia, What We Have in Common, Our Biggest Wish, a love quote and a customised illustration to add that extra bit of zing. Irvin and I pulled an all-nighter cutting out and gluing the pocket envelopes together from a vintage atlas that I bought from the charity shop. We then tied each invite with orange and blue twine strings.

The big day.

Irvin and I started off the day by spending a brief time alone together to pray. I already felt emotional days before the wedding but I am the type of person who hides her emotions from public and family even. During that time when we held hands in prayer, the sentimental feeling was so hard to beat, I got choked up and teary-eyed, happy to be marrying an answered prayer.

         

My wedding dress had the feature of lavish beaded corset bodice with sweetheart strapless neckline that Mama helped me choose. I worn it with a long petticoat to church and after the ceremony, I removed the petticoat to give it a mullet look – short in the front, long in the back, a style popular in the 1980s. The ruffle-shredded skirt with handmade flower accents was matched with bespoke vintage rose pink satin flats covered in pearl trim and antique Swarovski crystal jewelry pieces. I made my own bridal bouquet from recycled, pre-loved and vintage fabrics and laces, which I got for free from dressmakers in my area. I embellished it with old buttons, bottle caps which my friend gave me and Scrabble tiles bearing our initials.

My favourite groom was wearing an old summery shade of blue suit with suspenders, camera cufflinks and blue-striped Converse shoes. He wore an oversized bowtie with vintage camera and luggage print to signify our love for photography and travelling. I let my sister made him a LOVE boutonniere using Scrabble tiles to match my bouquet. Irvin looked great!

Our parents looked dashing too. I made the fathers some charming flower boutonnieres made from fabric patterns, buttons, felt leaves and windy stems. While my sister made similar ones for the mothers but crystals were added. One of our family friends, who is a fashion designer, made the mothers' dresses. I ordered the rest of the dresses for the entourage online. Their dresses were eco-friendly and shabby as they were made from recycled materials and paired them with chic Vivienne Westwood bow wedges. The little flower girls wore dreamy tutu dresses. I made fabric and felt hearts bouquets for the bridesmaids, maid of honour and matron of honour. The groom and my sister made butterfly bouquets for the flower girls. The groomsmen were so cool for wearing the pink felt hearts boutonnieres accentuated with vintage Beetle cars I made for them along with pink bowties and coulored socks. I also made the best man a blue felt heart with lips/kisses buttons.  The bearers were looking cute with my handmade domino boutonnieres filled with colorful old buttons. The men and boys wore oversized bowties with prints to complement the boutonnieres and Converse shoes. The principal sponsors’ boutonnieres were blue and pink rolled felt rosettes that I especially created for them. My brother who is a coin collector gave us seven old coins from his collection as our arrhae and my sister personalised the here-comes-the-bride sign.

Papa’s friend lent us his 1986 Mercedes Benz car and it was Papa who lovingly drove me to church. Irvin and I were wed in an old chapel where my Mama went to school. I loved the worn, faded and imperfect state of it. When I heard the trio sang “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis, it brought a loving feeling and a proud smile to my lips as I envisioned my groom walking down the aisle… When the Here-Comes-the-Bride bearer walked on before me, the trio sang the song “Grow Old Along With Me” by Mary Chapin Carpenter and with jittery feeling I slowly walked down the aisle, keeping my eyes focused on where my groom was standing. Our eyes locked and I noticed he was crying! I was halfway through the aisle to meet my parents when he excitedly walked towards me ahead of time and took my hand from Papa - whose eyes were red from crying the night before, which surprised me more than anyone else! I can’t help laughing each time I remember this. The first thing he whispered to me when we reached the altar was, “Gwapa kaayo ka, Palalabs.” He made my dopamine levels go all silly.

We opted for an afternoon garden reception in a farm approximately thirty minutes away from the city proper. While waiting for the wedding party, all the guests were led to the terrace hall for cocktails before they were ushered to the main reception site. We had an unplanned couple entrance, thank God for the rain! Holding hands, we skipped through the field as colourful confetti was popped into the air. I had mud on my dress, but I didn’t care. I was very happy. People told us it was like watching a feel-good movie.

I guess it is fair to say we are a couple who are never afraid to break the rules. Instead of tossing my bouquet, I presented it to my sister, the maid of honour. We had the groomsmen blindfolded to dance Lambada and the weakest dancer gets to release the garter from the bride. Well, that was what we told them. Little did they know, it was Irvin who was wearing the garter all along. Irvin wore my long petticoat to give an impression he was the bride. Everyone had a great laugh at this twisted game. We also had a Guess the Bride game, thankfully, Irvin guessed correctly. That was a huge relief on his part! There were prize raffles and awards to the best dressed in vintage, who travelled the farthest and who guessed the child on the photos. My cousin and her dance troupe performed two dancesport numbers for us. My brother made a tribute video for both parents and it was played on the reception followed by a slideshow of our childhood and sweetheart photos, courtesy of the videographer. The tribute video was our way of expressing gratitude to our parents for everything they had done for us through the years and to show them how honoured we were with their presence on the biggest day of our life.

We danced to APO’s “Wala Nang Hahanapin Pa.” Part of what we collected from the prosperity dance we donated to the Franciscan Hermits in Ormoc. We had vintage flattened bottle caps as giveaways to the guests which we made ourselves and preserved butterflies in frames for the sponsors. I included in the photo gallery my favourite love letter and a drawing my nephew surprised us with before the wedding.

We had tables custom built for the photo gallery, cake and guestbook areas. We are no fan of gigantic cakes, so we chose a three-layered, small tier cake. My sister’s boyfriend catering business was to be blamed for the mouthwatering menu.  The acoustic band filled the air with songs from the 70s to the early 90s. My favourite videographer gave our video a Super 8 effect and our photographer captured the romance, emotions and details that we had worked so hard to bring together. The stylist did an awesome job on the decorations. They made the church and reception venue so vintage chic and shabbily beautiful. We were all smiles. And our planner and his team were good.

We flew some lanterns just after sunset and there was a fireworks surprise to end the celebration! I only found out a few months later that it was my brother’s idea, his wedding gift to us. He walked a long way to set it up, thus missing out on the lanterns, as he wanted to start the fireworks while everyone was still flying the lanterns. Bless him!

My sister flew home and organised the hen party. Irvin’s sister and our brother-in-law said they couldn’t make it home only to surprise us in the end. Irvin’s brother and our sister-in-law took care of the Cebu guests. We are deeply moved by the countless thoughtful efforts and support from both families and friends. Most of them took time off from work and were absent from classes to come on a Thursday including our godparent, the Vice President of the Philippines and other politician friends and relatives.  The former President of the Philippines, Joseph Estrada, was one of the godparents too. Many of them came home for the occasion and others travelled to Leyte for the first time. My bravest guest was a long time friend who I met for the first time after the ceremony. Mind you, he travelled alone just to attend the ceremony. Irvin and I were so blessed to be surrounded by great people. 

Overall, we had an EPIC day despite of the panic attacks and the rain! (God knows best!) I married the man God had sent for me and he is mine - forever, for always and no matter what. Vice-versa. 

F E A T U R E D !