The last day of the first month of the new year! Wow! That was fast! I have created this page the first week of January but just found the time to finish it now. Better late than never! We received a lot of feedbacks about the photo we posted on our social media accounts on our anniversary last January 1, we thought we’d share with you some details and the rest of the photos of our Civil Wedding in Canada 6 years ago.

Marco and I were pretty much ‘living-in’ together before we got married (and we knew in our hearts that it wasn’t right in the eyes of God) One day, while watching TV i think, we somehow got talking about marriage and family and out of the blue, Marco asked ‘Tara pakasal na tayo?’ And I also casually answered ‘Tara’. And that was that, we started to plan the wedding, but because we still had contracts that prefers us to be single, we decided to keep it a secret and a Secret Wedding seemed romantic.

And so it was set, during the Holidays when we were sure we both didn’t have work, we set the wedding date on the 1st day of January 2011, we decided to wed in Vancouver as my mom and brothers were there and it would be easier to keep it a secret if it were out of the country.

Destination Weddings are stressful! But I thank God for my bestfriends that are in Wedding planning business and they were the ones who helped plan it all.

My Destination Wedding checklist:

• Marriage License- Google the area or place you plan to wed and check the requirements for obtaining a marriage license. I think all we needed were our passports, driving license and a certificate of no marriage and some fee and we got one right away.
  
• Marriage Commissioner/ Official- You need to find someone who is license to officiate your wedding. We also googled this.
  
• No. Of Guests- Establish how many guests you are inviting, so you can decide on the venue and other things. WE only had 30 guests including our families and some very close friends.
  
• Venue of the Ceremony and Reception- We decided to book a hotel where we can have both the ceremony and the reception. The Opus Hotel was very gracious to us and they made sure no Filipinos were on duty that day as we advised them it was a secret
  
• Bridal Dress/ Gown- I talked to a good designer friend of mine (Veejay Floresca) who also became the Godparent of my son, He made a beautiful wedding gown for me fit for our small secret wedding.
  
• Groom’s Suit- Marco asked our friend tito (Randy Ortiz) to make his suit. He was quite suspicious what it was for.
  
• Photographer- we booked a local photographer from Vancouver. (Matt Murray)
  
• Hair & Make up- I thank God my sister knows how to do hair! We didn’t need to hire anyone anymore. I did my own make up.
  
• Decorations/ Set up- My bestfriends who owns the 11th Management (formerly Supernatural Management) helped me buy set up pieces for the wedding. We had balikbayan boxes full of decprations on the flight to Canada. And before the wedding ceremony Marco, me and my siblings were still setting up for the venue.
  
• Invitations- we really didn’t need one but had one made anyway.
  
• Others: Wedding & Reception playlists, entourage if you’re having any, witnesses, dresses and suits for your family and friends attending the wedding.

It was a very stressful wedding! Obviously because it was a destination wedding plus the fact that we had to keep it a secret did not help at all. But in the end I praise God for His grace, for allowing Marco and I to come together and make things right in His eyes. Our life’s goal is to bring Him glory and we pray that our marriage will reflect His love.

When our parents asked us then why we wanted to get married so suddenly- our answer was, ‘When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start right away.’

                  Edit 

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start right away.”

Eleventh Management, our wedding planner, organizer and stylist also shared this on their page: 

If you’re getting married, please contact Rowell Octavio 09178587935 of 11th Management for consultation. Consultation is free! You can also check out their FB Page 11th Management