Rocky and Axl's Mom

I know this post is rather unrelated to what I have been blogging about, however I felt that it would be nice to share a post about our weddings. Thanks to our lovely nanny, whom we totally miss, I’ve had her sort through our wedding photos so I can finally put an album together…3 years later after the fact haha. And it got me reminiscing.

Anyway…

Yes that’s right, we got married twice. Together.

It’s not an original idea so we can’t take credit. I believe other couples do this as well.

Why? Because we felt like it.

Why? Because we wanted best of both worlds: small elopement feels vs. fancy big-ish wedding. It was hard to debate whether we wanted to have a small intimate wedding, with just immediate family versus the big wedding with family, extended family and friends, music, dj, the whole works.

Why? Because we couldn’t choose between having a traditional church ceremony and an outdoor personalized ceremony. Both have equal meaning to us but there were some things we wanted to do at our personalized ceremony that we cannot have at the church. Both of us are born and raised Catholic. Our backgrounds are Filipino. There were elements in our wedding which were important to us and wanted to incorporate in our ceremony, which we could not have at our church wedding (ie. having modern music during our ceremony, reciting poetry, saying our own vows, etc)

Why? Because we wanted the first moments as a married couple to share those new feelings with our parents and siblings before anyone else. I know that sounds selfish, but early on we knew that not everyone would be happy about how we wanted our special days to pan out, so we did it our way anyway. Feelings spared or not, we were adamant to keep it the way we wanted. We didn’t want our parents and siblings to cater to families and friends on our day. We wanted them to celebrate with us, to actually talk to us.

I won’t be sharing the planning of both weddings here (as that is an entirely separate post) but needless to say, we did everything in our power during the planning process, down to the nitty gritty with the logistics, so we would not stress on both wedding days. I hope that made sense. And looking back, there was no picture of us showing any sign of anxiety and running around between both of us. Everything went as smoothly as we wanted.  I would do it again in a heartbeat (don’t know if that’s a good thing! ha!)

Our first wedding was on Friday, September 5, 2014. This is our official wedding day. Signed documents and everything. It had to be like 30+ degrees Celsius that day. We got married in our church surrounded by just our immediate family and a photographer. There were just 13 of us, including the priest, singer, pianist. It was simple and beautiful. We incorporated the Filipino traditions (coins, cord, veil) into our ceremony. My younger sister and G’s sister were our signing witnesses. My older sister was a reader. Our mothers lit the candles and our fathers brought up the host and wine.

After the ceremony, we gathered for pictures outside the church. It went nice and quick. Then had a small dinner reception at Auberge du Pommier. It was in their small Sophie private room, with a set table for 12. It was relaxing and it was everything. We got to speak to our family, bond as a new family unit as both families chatted with each other, share toasts, stories, eat absolutely incredible food, cut the cake and relax. Then it rained heavily later in the evening, but we didn’t care as we were all engrossed in our mini celebration. We still go to Auberge du Pommier whenever we get the chance.

Our second wedding was on Saturday, September 13, 2014. We still also consider it our wedding day, and it just so happens that it was our 10th year celebration as a couple. This day was certainly special in it’s own dynamic. We like to say it’s was a celebration of a decade of love, even though that sounds dramatic but it’s true. We had both the ceremony and the reception at Bayview Golf and Country Club. It was absolutely fantastic!  We chose this venue as it was able to hold our guest count (200) and still feel like an intimate celebration, which was very important to us. We had the venue to ourselves as we did not want to share it (because of course, we are selfish).

Our ceremony started at 5pm. It was 15 degrees Celsius that day, so a completely different vibe from our official wedding day just a week prior, which we loved! Nice and cool for pictures. The groomsmen and G were not sweating excessively in their suits. It was an outdoor ceremony and a Filipino affair, complete with primary sponsors and secondary sponsors in our entourage. We also managed to incorporated the Filipino traditions into our modern-type ceremony.

Immediately after the ceremony, we took a few photos then joined the crowd at the hallway while they enjoyed the drinks and appetizers. Then following that was the celebration with families and friends…you know, with the eating, speeches and of course dancing. And even with all the excitement surrounding us, we still felt so relaxed and chill. That day was also everything.

We loved our Art Deco themed weddings. We loved how everything panned out. It was both truly a reflection of how we wanted to celebrate us. So for those who ask us what date do you actually celebrate?…Well… whenever September approaches, I’d like to call it “Anniversary Season!!!” I’m sure G gets annoyed by that haha. No exact date, but we make sure every September, we do some things “extra” throughout the month. But since we became parents very soon after getting married, the some things “extra” during Anniversary Season are spent going to a fancy dinner (like a few notches above our regular date night… such as dining at Auberge!).

Anyhoots, that’s that.

Pictures post for our weddings are in a separate post over here if you want to check out snapshots of our special days for Anniversary Season!

Til Next Post!

X-J