Mark and Giselle. They have known each other for more than a decade, been together for 6 years and finally tied the knot on February 2014. You ought to forgive me if I say that this is by far, the best wedding I have ever attended. Heck, the groom is my brother! As a matter of fact, he is my only brother and he is the youngest child in the family. But don't mistaken him as a spoiled brat for he is very responsible, caring and loving son/brother. Giselle, on the other hand, is actually a neighbor. I have liked her from the start. She is a beautiful, smart and classy lady; the qualities of lady that I know my brother really likes. 

Enduring the 16-hour flight from Los Angeles to Manila was totally worth it! Everyone had fun during the wedding and you can hear praises from the wedding guests on how well-planned this wedding was (Thanks to Tita Lyn and Tito Mon for doing almost all the legwork). While the wedding couple hired an army of photographers and videographers, we can never let this celebration passed without snapping photos.But you have to forgive us though if there are some off-angled/lighted photos. Having only one camera and one all-around lens, we just sneaked in and snapped whenever an opportunity comes because we don't want to get in the way of the official photographers. And yeah, we are part of the bridal party too! Nonetheless, we hope you enjoy these photos as much as we did.

Special Credit to Clayton Vidal for creating the gorgeous wedding gown. Monique Lhuillier (albeit a fellow Filipino) and Vera Wang gowns are steeply-priced and IMO, over-rated. But you will see at the photos below that Cecilio Abad Team's creations are just as competitive. Among all the vendors from this wedding, Clayton is my favorite. Not only that he helped me fix the strap of my dress (which came from another designer) but he is very humble, kind and need I say creative? If you wish to inquire about his rates, please feel free to visit his page. 

"A perferct marriage is just two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other."

   

One of the things we always remind our client is to just enjoy their wedding day. Forget the bad weather. Forget the delays and other unfortunate events. We are glad that Jeff and Ann followed our advice. On their wedding day, Jeff and Ann were just 'chill.' No amount of rain can dampen Jeff and Ann's spirit. Of all the days that it is going to rain, the hardest one happened on their wedding day. It was supposedly a gorgeous early morning garden wedding. Unfortunately, they had to transfer and improvise a last-minute indoor ceremony. The sky was so dark but it was outshined by the beaming smiles of the wonderful people who witnessed the union of these two beautiful souls. The sun only decided to say "hello" to us an hour before the reception ended so we took advantage of the remaining 30-minutes we have to take some portraits. Ann looked stunning on her wedding gown and Jeff was equally looking dapper on his barong tagalog. Their wedding was indeed an intimate but funfilled memories. They also impressed their wedding guests with their dance moves! (Oh Lord! They were just super super super awesome!). It never dawned on us when we met them and had their super quick engagement session in downtown San Francisco that they got the moves! It was a short and intimate wedding but truly one of the most memorable one on our list. :)

 

I have known Ann for almost half of my life. Although we majored different courses (I was a business major, she was a psych major) we were in the same college socio-cultural organization. We shared an amazing 4 years at University of the Philippines together. I am from Manila (the capital of the Philippines) and we would always go to their hometown (Bamban, Tarlac) to celebrate their annual town fiesta. It was always a "riot" as we would always indulge ourselves in karaoke.  We didn't mind their neighbors; we just sang to the top of our lungs, binge on delectable food and enjoyed booze like there is no tomorrow. LOL On another note, I have never met Jeff before. But despite of that, I know (I think) how he came to love Ann. Ann is one of the most amiable person I ever know. She is kind, caring, generous, beautiful and yes, oOohh so SEXY!!! When she loves, she gives her 101%. I only met Jeff during our 30-minute photo shoot (Yes, this was like an impromptu 30-minute engagement session for our intention was to stroll and roam around DT San Francisco). But at that point, I came to realize the reasons why he captured Ann's heart. Jeff is calm, humble yet confident and has a very good sense of humor (a plus for most of the ladies I know).  Whenever I look at them, I know that "this is a relationship build to last." We were actually fully booked on October 2014  but when she called me if we can cover her wedding, I said "yes" without batting an eyelash. I love Ann to death! We tagged along our little brat on our mini-vacay so Russ was the one who did most of the shots. Stay tuned for their wedding photos. But for now, here is their super short engagement session photos. :)