Manila Bulletin

FRANCISCO PAOLO PADUA ORTEGA V AND MARIA MIKAELA KARITA SINGSON MENDOZA

Living For Moments Like These

We had it all planned early on our relationship — it would be an intimate destination wedding with just our close family members, we’ll rent a spanish house with a beautiful garden where we’ll all stay and celebrate the after party, we’ll pick out a quaint chapel nearby to share our i-do’s and we’ll all tour around Spain enjoying the food and the scenery. We could already picture ourselves as if it were happening, all dressed up, wrapped in our thick jackets celebrating the night away, not having to worry about anything, just celebrating our love for each other and the people closest to us until life started happening. I lost my Mom who has been battling with cancer for years, a few days after Paolo and I found out we were expecting, a few months later we both had to run for re-election in our respective provinces and then we found out we were expecting once again and then the pandemic happened! So much has happened in a span of a few years and the pandemic allowed us to pause and remember the plans we once had. We finally decided to push through with the wedding we’ve both been anticipating and make it more intimate and cut it down to only our immediate family members which left us with 8 adults (YES, including Paolo and I) and 5 kids. Coming from big families we agreed that since we’re limiting the guests to just our immediate family we’ll keep everything a secret and just surprise everyone right after.

There were not much to plan since Paolo and I knew everything we wanted from the beginning, a simple, no frill, no stress wedding. We chose Baguio since it was the most strategic place we could think of since Paolo lived in La Union and I lived in Ilocos Sur, true to our initial plan we rented out a house with a beautiful garden, we skipped the invitation, we bought everyone’s clothes online including our rings which we had to return a couple of times because we got the sizes wrong, we had to process all our documents secretly which was a lot of fun doing and sneaking, My sister in law took advantage of every family occasion to taste the cakes we would pick out on the big day and we ended up having 7 cakes total, I also made a decision to just choose a pre-made dress to lessen the times of having to travel to Manila since the condition back then was very unpredictable. My sister Gabs and my son Miquel, helped me pick out my wedding dress and it turned out to be the most beautiful

dress I have ever worn in my entire life. In short the planning went smoothly, everything fell into its rightful place — simple, no frills, no stress. We all arrived in Baguio the day before, we settled ourselves in the house we rented and just chillin’ both relaxed and pretty much cold! We said our goodnights and to go by tradition or at least follow one, we slept in two different rooms so we could surprise each other in the church. The day started early for me, I was ready at 4:00 AM. I accidentally changed the wake up time with make up time and woke up an hour early. I was already giggling inside of the little mistake but it did not end there. After I got my hair and make up done I went inside to change and another surprise! Paolo was there on his way down to eat breakfast! We were both staring at each other laughing by this time! I knew that this would be how the entire day would play out — full of fun and laughter. Just how our relationship has truly been, that despite all the challenges we’ve faced together we always end up just holding each other tighter and laughing louder. Paolo walked down the aisle carrying our two boys, Miquel and Sevy. Paolo’s sister Luzan together with her husband JB became our Principal Sponsor, My sister Gabs was the Maid of Honor/flower Girl since all our children were all boys. Throughout the ceremony everyone played multiple roles including our parents from readers to chord, veil and candle, to offeror’s up until being the host during the reception which we will forever cherish. Although we had an original plan in mind our wedding turned out to be just as how we’ve always wanted it to be because as we shared in our thank you speech “the moment we turned our backs in the altar to face the audience and finally be welcomed as Mr. and Mrs. Ortega the Church felt so full because our entire world was in it” and we couldn’t have pictured a different way of celebrating our love for each other than this.

REAL WEDDINGS

en-ph

2022-05-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://manilabulletin.pressreader.com/article/283437785116143

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