M+K Wedding Part 2: Wedded Bliss

Warning: Looong post ahead.

Our wedding was 12 years in the making and we couldn’t have had it at a perfect time. We initially wanted a really small destination wedding… no bridal entourage, no traditionals with just a short ceremony and with about 50 guests on a yacht in Boracay. Unfortunately, the yacht has since moved to El Nido and with the size of our families and wedding supplier friends, it would be impossible to trim our guest list down to 50 (at least we achieved our initial target of 80 guests, yey! -mimi).

Our next option was to have the ceremony at the Elizalde Private Beach Resort. Not only was it the place where we spent our first few trips in Boracay but also the secluded nature of the resort was just perfect for the intimate wedding we had in mind. We are grateful to Mrs. Lisa Macuja-Elizalde for granting us permission.

The details of our wedding were not our ideas alone. We’re lucky to be friends with the most creative wedding suppliers on this side of the planet and their inputs are what made our wedding truly unforgettable. With that, we’d like to thank the following:

Amanda Tirol
Amanda is a God-send. Having a destination wedding is a daunting task. Even the simplest of problems can logistically turn into a train wreck when you’re away from your comfort zone. It’s a good thing Amanda has a fix on anything that can go wrong.

Amanda was privy to our wish to get married on a yacht. She graciously offered the use of their speed boat for a short ride to Discovery so we could still get those boat shots. We wanted benches instead of the usual monobloc chairs for the ceremony; she had a carpenter build the benches. We didn’t want fireworks but she did suggest sparklers for our grand entrance. Thank you Amanda!

Ernest Pascual
At first, we were just keen on getting married and skip the details part. But Ernest was adamant that by hook or by crook, we’ll be having details for the wedding. From his prodding, the Mango+Kalamansi shakes, M&K earrings, yacht escort cards, personalized ring holder, among other details were born. Ernest also surprised us and came up with all the printed materials — ceremony program, trivia stickers for the shakes, napkin holders, drinks lists, menu cards, and the Just Married sign. Thank you, Ernest. You are our Details Diva!

Teddy Manuel
We didn’t have plans of getting an event stylist either. I mean Boracay is gorgeous as is but when we saw Teddy’s work styling Discovery Shores in the Wedding Essentials Destination Magazine, we fell in love with the setup. Teddy, being fabulous Teddy, produced his first mock-up that was too fab for our personality. We wanted “simple pero rock”. His second mock up though was spot on and what was done during the reception. He made a nice switch though using plastic ice cubes with LED’s instead of votive candles to light up the tables. Those ice cubes were a hit with guests! He even took care of the jellybelly place holders (he’s the unofficial jellybelly guy -mimi). My brother who works for Discovery in Legaspi received raves for the styling from the Discovery big-wigs who were in Discovery Shores for a meeting. Thanks Teddy!

It was a blessing in disguise that the day before the wedding we switched to Plan B. The tents with draping made the event even more intimate. Mimi always wanted long rectangular tables for our wedding which was different from the C-shaped setup for Plan A.

We let Teddy design Mimi’s lovely bouquet and my only request for my boutonniere was to have a fly-fishing lure incorporated.

Veluz and Niko for our threads | Cecilio Abad for our parents’ attire
Mimi had only two requests for her gown: the dress should be light and have no train. Other than that, we let Veluz weave her magic. Veluz was mentioning something about the usual choice of fabric for beach weddings would be chiffon; she wanted to be different and used various fabrics for Mimi’s gown instead. (During fittings, Veluz would always ask, “Happy ka Mi? Happy ka?” So to answer your question mother V, yes, I’m VERY happy with the gown. Ganda! Thanks soobra! -mimi)

I told Veluz that I didn’t want to wear a suit for the wedding but somehow Veluz used her charm in persuading me otherwise. Thanks to her, I looked dapper in my linen suit and I even had three looks for the wedding (3 tops and 2 bottoms with the reception top having a customized hand painted design of the camera straps intertwined logo). My ear had to pay the price though for having my suit steamed and for not telling Veluz that my mom does a really mean Hardanger embroidery which we could have used for one of my tops. (Masakit pumingot si Tia Veluz.)

Niko designed Mimi’s shoes which she wore at the reception and the lovely M+K yellow handbag. Niko surprised Mimi with the yellow purse after telling her Veluz didn’t approve of using a colored bag. (I hate and love you talaga Niko! -mimi)

Thank you to Cecilio for our parents’ outfits. They rock our socks!

Cynthia Bauzon-Arre
We just love our invites! Cynthia designed our invitation which set the mood for the wedding. Laid back, relaxed, casual yet stylish. She gave us 3 designs to choose from and from the three, we chose one for the invites and the other one for the wedsite, thank you tags and Boracay Photobooth logos.

Madge Lejano for Mimi and Karl’s make-up | A for Mimi’s hair | Steve for Karl’s hair

Madge was probably more excited for our wedding than we were! She was even looking for details we could incorporate into our wedding while on vacation! Haha. You can’t beat being made up by Madge. Madge is the best magician on the planet! A added extensions to Mimi’s hair to have that island girl look.

Thanks to Steve for cutting and styling my hair before the sunset chillout, as my brother put it… It’s like I had a make-over. Hahaha.

Threelogy
Threelogy + Nada Surf = millions of viewing time by moi of our onsite. What can I say, we’re glad that they’re our awesome friends. Thank you bros!

M+K from Bong Sare on Vimeo.

Jill Lejano and Jake Verzosa
When we started photography, digital photography was pretty new that time and Jill and Jake were blazing the trail at the old ph-photo list. Awesome was the probably the most used word on photos they posted at Pbase. I knew then that Jill would be one of the photographers to cover our wedding. Meanwhile having Jake Verzosa shoot our wedding is the proof of “The Secret”, think of it and it will come. Thank you guys for shooting our wedding!

Unofficial Photographers
Markku Seguerra (our 3rd shooter), Hana Belo (our studio manager), Ben de Leon (my brother), Gerald, Gerson and Mela (Mimi’s sibs), Erron Ocampo (our photog friend). Thank you for all the photos you captured of our wedding! I’m imagining our wedding album to be a hundred page album thanks to all your photos!

Johnoy Danao
Johnoy is better than Dave Matthews! The interview of Johnoy’s band Bridge was the first ever article on Peyups.com way back when. His voice is still the same as when he used to play guitar while working at his brother’s net shop in Vinzon’s Hall. His soothing voice was just perfect as he sang “Stay with You by John Legend” for our first dance and “All I Want is You by U2” for Mimi’s march.

CJ, the Destination Host
CJ is the Best Destination Host on the Planet: Manila, Boracay, Valle Verde. Thank you for all the laughs and the witty remarks during the reception program. I’m sure you’ve heard all the compliments from the top wedding suppliers in attendance. 😉

John and Benz of W@W
John and Benz gave us two personal gifts. One is the customized Mimi and Karl USB figurines used on our onsite and the second is a customized set of unity coins with 12 Loves and 1 Unity (after 12 years of Love we Unite as One). They know how much we love shooting them Love coins.

Discovery Shores
Discovery may be expensive but the A+ service and A+ food made it all worth it. Thank you to Mitel, GM Jun and Gel for the Discovery experience.

Our Family and Friends
We’d like to thank our parents for their support. Our moms for speaking at the chillout, my Dad for delivering the sermon during the ceremony and Mimi’s Daddy for the much talked about Father of the Bride Speech. Thank you to our siblings for coming to the wedding despite work and school. We’d like to thank our relatives and friends for flying and being with us to celebrate the special day. Thank you!

Archie Madrid
Our staff Archie did a lot of stuff for the wedding. He did the calligraphy on our invites, the blue sea canvas for the name cards and the Mimi and Karl Wedding sign at the reception. Thanks Arch!

Pastor Abe
We’d like to thank Boracay’s favorite wedding officiant, Pastor Abe for leading our wedding ceremony.

Boracay Photobooth
Our Cliquebooth in Boracay is now accepting bookings :D. For inquiries fill out the form at BoracayPhotobooth.

Lastly, we’d like to thank all you blog readers for the positive vibes sent via comments, emails, twits, text messages and prayers. We were glued to the Accuweather and the Kiteboarding site which predicted the weather since we arrived in Boracay. The forecast was rain on our wedding day. When we woke up, it was raining pretty hard. We weren’t worried about the reception but we were concerned about the ceremony venue, having our guests walk from Elizaldes to Discovery and also we’d have to scrap our Bada Bong boat ride to Discovery. After eating breakfast, the rain magically stopped and it only came back during the after party. The cloudy day interspersed with sunny moments was pefect for our sunny yellow with gray skies motif. We’re so glad that everything fell into place 🙂