Best 12 weddings of 2012; ours made it to the list !!!

Wow! Just when we thought the hype from our March wedding was over, now here comes Weddings at Work (WAW) 12 best wedding of 2012 , Aries & Rinka, that’s us. Our wedding made the list, say what, hihihi. WAW is the biggest wedding community of suppliers, clients and everything related to Philippine weddings. Thanks to our photographer Lisa, for providing a beautiful narrative of our wedding. We love it!!!

Although, we had our wedding in Japan, most of our vendors came from the Philippines. Our wedding did came out nearly as we planned,but still nothing near as grand or extravagant from other weddings that took part in the Philippines for 2012. This was really something we never expected.

It is not uncommon for Filipinos living abroad to get wedding vendors from back home and bring them to their country of residence. But rarely or none do I hear of Filipinos in Japan doing this, thus our Filipino-Japanese themed wedding in Osaka may seemed like a novelty. No matter how our wedding was chosen, we were happy to be included, and rank among famous personalities in the Philippines and couples with lovely back stories.

On certain occasions during preparations we did get on the verge of turning into bridezilla and groomzilla. It was only me and my wife doing nearly all the wedding preps, and took on extra jobs to recoup our savings. I think that counts for something, hihihi. Joking aside some people may think weddings are lavish waste of time and money. Money can be earned but the experience of sharing our beautiful love to family and friends and making such a beautiful memory we will forever cherish… Priceless!!!

Here’s a link to our wedding photos from the wonderful team of Jeff and Lisa Photography.

And our rainy prenuptial photos , which was made into a perfect slideshow on our wedding day.

Hoping that our planned 25th year wedding will again make the list, hihihihi!

a Japanese wedding

What can be very rich in culture but least romantic of all? Answer: a Japanese wedding! We attended my brother-in-law’s wedding yesterday. Western style wedding is popular in Japan, but traditional is still a preferred style.

The groom mostly walking ahead of the wife as she follows him around like a faithful servant. No “you may kiss the bride” after the ceremony, no first dance, rarely if none do they even held each others arm. As the bride needs to hold her kimono and the groom hold on to his fan. Its normal to see cultural presentations. This time it was Japanese drumming by a bunch of kids. Oh and the speeches, dont get me started, the head of the company who barely knows the couple has to be invited to speak, and usually ending up talking about their firm.

I love Japanese culture, but Im more interested with the couple during a wedding. Call me a hopeless romantic, but weddings should be a venue for grand display of drama, hihihhi.

Since this is sort of a food blog, these are some of the food we ate…

children's course

appetizers

that's my name in katakana , the alphabet they used for all foreign words and names

sashimi with the sake bottle

Couldn’t help but think how we made our Japanese wedding organizers and hotel staff lose their senses, when we had ours last March. Bringing in a lot of wedding professionals from the Philippines, and changing a lot of the set program they wanted us to follow, to maximize drama, hihihihi!

the wedding day

Six (6) years ago we got married in a 3- minute ceremony in the New York City Hall. Not in the least romantic, if anything it was funny, looking back at it. Having to wait in the cramp corridor along with other couples and their guests, and the judge officiating the ceremony didn’t even bother looking at us.

We deserved an opportunity to celebrate “us”. There is a need to celebrate the beautiful relationship  we have cultivated through the years. We needed a memory for our children and for us to look back on something that we have, God’s will for the  next 50 or 75 years.

Our wedding has both touches of Japanese and Filipino wedding. Rinka wore this elegant creation by one of the Philippines, if not the best gown designer Veluz Reyes. And myself had the opportunity to wear a skirt, I mean a kimono , and my mother told me I looked great in it !!!

Rinka, my lovely bride.

Our daughter was also our flower girl.

My  son, the ring bearer.

Our first dance

I get to dance with my beautiful mother too.

Such an amazing day !!! I love my wife, I love my life !!!

our pre-nuptial photo shoot

This is our last chance for a pr nuptial photo session, since the next day will be our wedding day. The weather was nasty. It was raining the whole day, but our photographers Jeff and Lisa, from the Philippines were simply amazing. They managed to use the gloomy weather for a more intimate and pensive look for our photo shoot. Sure we got tired of holding the umbrella and wear our dark jackets for most of the shoot. But we really loved how our photos turned out.

Now we are ready for the big day !!!