From Friendship to Forever

#WERealWeddings Featuring Gio Gandionco and Patty Huang

Although Gio and I already knew of each other, we weren’t exactly that close to each other since he had always been traveling for golf tournaments and studied in the US for college. But in 2017 when he finally moved back to Cebu, we ended up being in the same friend group because of all our common friends. To me, he had always been the “Mr. Nice Guy” in the group. He got along with everyone and he’s always so fun to be around. He would often talk about all the music festivals he attended in the US and from there we would send each other songs to listen to throughout the day. Our conversations consisted mainly about music, or what our plans were for the weekend which eventually turned into watching our favorite shows together.

One random Wednesday night when we were out drinking with our friends, we ended up being the last ones to leave for some reason. We both had a lot to drink about that night and ended up drinking until the sun was out.

What started out to be a fun and easy friendship turned into the best kind of relationship. As friends, we have seen each other at our best and worst days. So when we started dating eventually, we never had that awkward dating stage and being with each other just felt so natural.

We may not have started out as best friends but eventually as months passed, we’ve become each other’s best friends. Being with each other felt so right and it just all fell into place. We had only dated each other for less than a year when the pandemic started and lockdown happened and all of the sudden everything had changed. All our plans for the year had been cancelled, but the pandemic despite the hardships had brought us closer together and we got to spend quality time with each other’s families.

Things got serious quickly and all of the sudden, we couldn’t miss a day without each other. We were together for only 3 years when he proposed, but it felt like we’ve known each other our whole lives.

When it came to planning our wedding, I always thought I had it figured out. I always wanted to get married somewhere on a beach during sunset or have one of those intimate destination weddings abroad. But because I wanted our company to be the one to style our wedding, it narrowed down a lot of things for us. We knew we needed to have it in Cebu to make it easier for everyone logistically.

Just like any other wedding, we had to deal with a lot of challenges. Months leading up to the wedding I’d wake up from so much anxiety and had sleepless nights. But luckily, we had so much support from all our suppliers, family, and friends.

What I realized now looking back at our wedding was what made it truly special was how our wedding was just so us in every way. We made sure that the guests felt part of our story. Since Gio and I love the beach, we had our ceremony overlooking the ocean during sunset. Down to every little detail of the wedding, we had something that was personalized. From the packaging of our favorite snacks inside the welcome bags, to the plates and ice cream cones for the cocktails. Even the servers and baristas were wearing our personalized hats and aprons!

For the music, we made a playlist for each part of the wedding; the welcome dinner, cocktail hour, entering the ballroom, dinner playlist, after dinner playlist, and the after party. We were so determined to make sure everyone was having a great time.

One of the funniest moments during our wedding day was when my mom came into my room to get her makeup done that morning. I remember asking her what happened to her face. She still had her makeup on from our Welcome Dinner the night before. “I only slept for an hour!” she said. She was working until 4 am and got up at 5 am and the night before that, she had barely any sleep to set up for the Welcome dinner.

I was awed by how my mom was able to wear several hats to make this all happen. She had taken on her toughest project and at the same time she had to be the mother of the bride. We fought and argued so much the months leading up to the big day, we are both so extra in our own ways. But I am forever grateful to her, after all, she made the wedding of our dreams possible.

On the day of the wedding, I felt so overwhelmed by how quickly it all went by. Now looking back at it, I’ll always remind my friends who are in the planning stages of the wedding not to stress about every little detail and to learn to let things go when things don’t go your way. They usually never do. The most important part is to just live in the moment and to savor every second of it.

After years of not being able to have big celebrations and seeing everyone together, being able to celebrate with everyone was the icing on the cake. Gio and I had a hangover that lasted for 2 weeks after our wedding. We had the best time celebrating and dancing the night away just like how we always wanted it to be.