Full circle, fully home

Featuring Alex van Schoonhoven and Salve Villarosa

Alex and Salve’s story began with the kind of high school plot twist people usually save for coming-of-age movies. They went to prom together in junior year, were even voted Prom Prince and Princess, then drifted apart after graduation. Five years later, life pulled them back into each other’s orbit, and this time, they stayed.

What made their relationship work was not just how much they had in common, but how beautifully different they remained within those shared interests.

“We maintain our individual identities in the relationship, while still always enjoying the other person’s company,” Salve shared. More than anything, they were best friends who simply loved being around each other.

Their engagement was just as personal. While they were doing long-distance, Salve in LA, Alex in Berlin, Alex asked her what her favorite place in the world was. Her answer was simple: “My room in Tagaytay.” Months later, he flew to the Philippines for her birthday and proposed at her family home, in that very room.

Knowing Salve’s love for history and Anastasia, he proposed with a vintage ring inspired by a Russian fairytale, a full-circle nod to the replica Anastasia music box he had given her when they first started dating.

Their wedding weekend unfolded like a love letter to heritage, family, and finally closing the distance. Guests arrived at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar in Bataan for a Friday rehearsal dinner by the beach, where Salve wore a reconstructed version of her mother’s Aureo Alonzo wedding dress. It was giving sentimental, meaningful, and effortlessly iconic.

On Saturday, the couple exchanged vows during a nuptial Mass at Sanctuario de San Jose.

Every detail carried memory. Alex’s barong was embroidered with Dutch symbols, including windmills, tulips, and the Schoonhoven lion. Salve honored her late father, who had been deeply involved in the planning, with chrysanthemums, photos, and notes in her bouquet.
Their arrhae, cord, ring bearer cushion, and veil carried pieces from her parents’ 1983 wedding.

After the ceremony, cocktails by the water ended with fireworks before guests moved to Hotel de Oriente for a reception wrapped in old-world elegance. The menu celebrated Salve’s Cebuano and Bulakeño roots alongside Alex’s Dutch heritage, while the cocktails nodded to their Berlin and LA chapters.

Their first dance, “So Close” from Enchanted, was the ultimate Easter egg, it was the same song they slow danced to in high school.

For the couple, the day felt “surreal.” After two years of long-distance, the wedding was not only the start of married life, but the end of LDR. And honestly? Best plot twist ever.