Love Locked Down

#WERealWeddings featuring ADRIAN ONEIL L. SANTOALLA and SOPHIA ISABEL J. ESTRELLA

As an Events Manager getting engaged on Jan 2019 and planning a wedding for August 2020, I knew I was in it for the ride. I was never the type to plan things abruptly nor spontaneously but boy was I in for a treat. We savored the engagement until around August 2019 and got to work and planned the wedding from then. Everything was going smoothly until March 2020 when the entire country went on lockdown including our wedding planning. First it was ECQ and I thought it would only be until April but May came along and it was time for us to order our documents and because we were still on lockdown, the documents came after a month. From June, we were playing around with GCQ and MECQ and the entire 2 months was made up of worrying whether COVID-19 cases were going down and hoping measures ease up. We were in talks with the Church and discussing number of persons allowed and the venue, which eventually allowed us to refund our down payment. All these elements made the entire wedding go unplanned until the last 2 weeks but made it so meaningful because it was in the pandemic where we saw each other’s weakness and how we supported each other through the breakdowns, the worrying, the stress.

‘Modern tropical Filipiñana’ was the answer we gave when people asked what theme the wedding will have. It was sort of out of the usual pastels, dark colors, etc. because Adrian and I shared a love for the beach and unsurprisingly because I work for a resort in El Nido. We also knew that family from all around the world were taking a trip back to the motherland for the wedding because Adrian was the first to wed for his family and me, the last to wed on both sides of the family—so we knew the celebration had to be significant and we wanted to preserve the Filipino culture by incorporating the Filipiniana look into the overall theme. Also because both of us have been hoteliers since the start of our careers, one can say we have seen our fair share of weddings and more so that I work as an Events Manager, seeing how 75% of the cakes are thrown out because they were made of Styrofoam or that 80% of the flowers hanging and on the middle of the tables were thrown out because they wilted, we decided to inject more sustainable elements into the wedding like having a naked cake customized to be Calamansi-flavored and bouquets that used preserved flowers instead of fresh ones so that it was upcycled and now used as our dining table centerpiece, parts of my bridal gown using my mom’s bridal gown, Adrian’s barong suit using local piña fabric to support the local makers affected by the Taal volcano explosion, and of course a reception that was held at home that made everything truly significant.

Being foodies, Adrian and I knew the food was going to be the highlight of the reception. Taking the usual menu, we requested to customize it so it injected the Filipino flavor with a modern take. It was out of the ordinary but we knew we wanted a menu that was going to be remembered and though only 20 were able to attend the actual reception, we were also able to arrange for some guests to receive the food we served during the reception. So when we streamed the reception via Facebook live, some guests joined in on the fun virtually while enjoying the same spread we had.

The most memorable part of the wedding was nothing we had planned for. We did hire a professional streaming company so that our ceremony, which had only 10 persons in the church, could be viewed by our relatives and friends from all across the globe. Not knowingly and surprisingly, our cousins were cooking up a storm and surprising us at Church with a Zoom of everyone who was viewing the ceremony so it became interactive. Big screens were set up at the foot of the altar, cameras on the altar and some on the top deck of the Church, and when it was finally time to sign the marriage contract, my sister, the MOH announces to us to look at the screen beside us and wave hello to everyone watching us virtually. We had family from across the globe wearing what they would have in the actual wedding but viewing us from their homes. From the really near to the really far, everyone was waving back at us and sharing in our love, which made the Church, not feel so empty after all.

After the wedding, pictures were posted on social media and extended family were saying how truly happy they were that we decided to push through with the wedding despite the pandemic. As events people would say, love is immune. The entire pandemic shook our plans but also laid out the foundation for our marriage. It was and will always just be Adrian and Sophia with God at the center of it all.

The pandemic wedding we had illustrated how Adrian and I are together. Through it all and all in all. Postponing the wedding was out of the picture when COVID-19 first came along and though we only had 8 family members with us at Church and 18 others at the reception, family will always be at our core and our constants. The entire celebration of August 22 reflected us in a way that we always had to have family with us and that family was always going to be our top priority. And though it was hard to scratch out the 100+ other family members in the guest list, we knew we had to make it happen for them to be present by having a virtual pandemic wedding.

Adrian and Sophia’s DREAM TEAM: Church: St. Alphonsus Mary de Ligouri | Caterer: K by Cunanan | Coordinator: Best Case Scenario | Cake: Naked Patisserie| Stationery: Kraft Kweens | Stylist: NAB Manila & K by Cunanan | Photography: Metrophoto b| Videographer: Forevermine | Gown designer: Jamie Go Atelierb| Suit designer: Barong de Calado by Andrew Badiola