The Rebellious Brides: dangwa

Photography by J Lucas Reyes unless labeled otherwise

June 4, 2011 - 10ish in the morning - Cafe 1771

My good friend Nins and I were looking at the fun scene that surrounded us. It was a couple of hours before my church wedding and there we were drinking wine, doing brunch, dressed to the nines a'la Gossip Girl, and having a shoot with Ian Cruz and J Lucas Reyes. I called myself a 'rebellious bride' and Nins said: "Why don't you and Mica make a blog out of that?". "Maybe," I replied. At that time Mica and I didn't think much of it. But then a couple of weeks after June 4, something happened and I told Mica we should go ahead and do it.

Photos by Arnold Camacho

The church wedding that my mother wanted us to do, used to be a sensitive topic. My husband and I actually felt hurt knowing that my parents couldn't accept our Boracay wedding as a real wedding just because it wasn't in a church. We thought this was pretty absurd. The church wedding was actually my mom's wedding. I got frustrated at first but then I realized that I was not a child that can just be 'dealt with'. So instead of moping, I quickly turned this around and positivized it--I created a theme, and I was to have a brunch with my friends 5 hours before the wedding.

So in celebration of our brunch/church wedding's 2-year anniversary, I would like to formally blog about it here in RB, and share some of the rebellious ideas we did on that day.

The Brunch

"We get by with a little help from our friends"--they were our sources of happiness and positive vibes so we wanted to capture this moment in a video that we collaborated with Ian Cruz Films. After Ian shared this video, a lot of his couples asked him if it would be possible to do the same on their wedding day. While this is a great idea, keep in mind that we really prepped for the brunch. It means you'll also have to adjust your schedules to squeeze it in.

The Portraits

When we first met w/ J Lucas Reyes and explained to him about the brunch, he shared with us a story of his Australian couple who wanted their loved ones to be individually photographed during their wedding because it was tradition. We loved this idea so we thought of doing the same for our friends. Souvenir gifts are fleeting---if you can actually share the limelight w/ your loved ones and have them photographed as well, this is a wonderful gift that would be treasured forever.