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Published: April 21st 2012
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We have always wanted to have a wedding, since our unceremonious civil one in New York nearly 6 years ago. But life as it is, always had funny way of distracting your efforts, and gear it toward more important things, such as having a child... and then another one.
We always think of ourselves as very parctical people, thus we wanted to hold off our wedding a little bit longer, to enable us to save a little money for a very simple wedding. A simple wedding for practical people, sounds just right. So come wedding prepearations. First was the wedding gown.
Cue word is simple, Rinka had browse so many website and simple and cheap doesnt go well for her. Then finally we came across this famous Filipina designer who made gorgeous, simple, yet elegant wedding gowns. We made a decision right there and there that we found our simple,but very elegant gown designer. Well simple elegance didn't come cheap, so we ended up shelling more than 2 times our budget for the dress. It was a pina (pineapple cloth) embroidered gown. More often Filipiniana and pina cloth goes well together. We said its ok, we will only splurge
on the gown and thats it.
What can be more dramatic and picturesque than a Catholic church wedding? So here lies our biggest challenge yet. Rinka is not Catholic. I was born Catholic but never goes to Church and practice very little of the tradition the faith entails. But getting married in a Catholic church requires so much paper works to be done. An interview of the foreign spouse by a Japanese priest, an examination of both spouses on the Catholic faith, a connonical interview by the parish priest and loads of documents to be accomplished and submiited to the Church. All we wanted was to get married not to run for a public office, which I now think would be easier to do.
We are based in Japan and those requirements will require us extra trip to the Philippines or longer vacation time which we didnt have. So we made a decision to have an Osaka wedding.
This is where the simple and cheap wedding we envisioned started becoming simple elegance and quit expensive. Rinka's gown is custom made Filipiniana gown, made of pina (pineapple) cloth. If she is wearing a Filipina gown then everything else
should follow, as it would be awkward to have her the only one wearing a Filipiniana gown in a Japanese setting. So I got myself a custom made barong, (Filipino traditional formal wear) and my kid too.
We have to handle reservations for our gown designer and her seamstress. Which we galdly did, since we know she wanted to make sure Rinka would have the look she envisioned come our wedding day.
Wedding photograpers in this country as we observed, dont have the idea of candid shots. So we kinda get this icky feeling watching couples who were gettting married, asked by their photographers to face infront of the camera and do a peace sign. So there, we also have the flew in our photographers from Manila.
A wedding in Japan is not cheap, our guests of 50 people cost as much for an elegant and grand wedding for 150 back home. But came the day of our wedding, everything was sort of flawless. And my wife and oooh la lah that gown. I did try very hard to hold back tears seeing how beautiful my bride is. It glitters when she was walking down the aisle. Japanese
organization and precision combined with Filipino drama, maybe, that we got from our Spanish colonizer, proved to be enthralling for all of our guests.
Our Japanese guests were all smitten with my wife's elegant wedding gown. The gown maker is Veluz Reyes, one of the top custom gown designer in the Philippines and definitely world class. They were also in awe with the prenuptial photo video made by our husband and wife photog team Jeff and Lisa. My Filipino guests were somehow enthralled with the way Japanese hotel crew and staff handles the whole event. They said it was the most solemn, most organized and most precise wedding they have attended. Everything were on cue , from the opening of the curtains, music, food serving, and of course they also love that I do get to wear a kimono. My mother even told me she kinda get conscious making sudden movements from her seat. Because, everytime she does, there would always be a Japanese staff running to stand behind her seat to assist her. Well most people know Japanese work ethic is beyond excellent.
We also loved how our wedding turned out. We believed it showed not only
Aries and Rinka
stunning detail on Rinka's gown our love for each other but also of our strength as a mixed couple. Fully embracing each others traditions, and making sure the other is not alienated from this momentous event in our life. We wanted to celebrate and showed family and friends how we loved each other, and our wedding indeed became a tribute to that.
We have waited 6 years to say I do in front of the people we love. But what was more special in our wedding was that we were able to make our kids a part of this special memory. My son will run to the radio everytime he hears a song from our wedding. And my daughter will take my hand so I can dance with her, everytime she hears the music to our first dance as a couple. Money can be earned but the memory I made with my wife on this very special day can never be forgotten.
Cheers to love and cheers to family !!!
P.S.
Wedding same as traveling can be addictive, We are already dreamingf our next wedding day, maybe a beach wedding somewhere on our 10th, which will be 4 years from now!!!
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ElyseandPete
Wanderlusting Winter
Stunning
Your photos caught my eye, so I just had to read. What a lovely story and I agree that weddings are addictive. My husband and I had a civil wedding ceremony, then a Catholic ceremony 10 months later and just had Chinese wedding photos done since we have lived in China for the last 2.5 years and I see us renewing our vows every 10 to 15 years as I fall in love with him over and over again each day. Your children are beautiful.