The Reasons: Why.. So Early? June 8? Not Enough Chairs? Mango Farm?

I dreamed of a wedding by the beach, with the sun rising from beyond the sea. I imagine the gentle breeze of wind on my face, the salty taste of air on my lips and the fine grains of sand at my feet. Joanne and I are amazed that wanting a sunrise wedding is one of the things we share in common.

We abandoned the beach idea when figured it was too complicated and quite costly. The next best thing was to have a wedding overlooking a body of water such as a lake or a pond. But finding a suitable venue that would satisfy this also proved difficult especially because it was already less than a year before the planned wedding day.

I remember Doc Ayedee’s advice, always have a plan B. But also a C, D and E. In this case, Joanne and I were both willing to settle for a garden wedding during sunrise. Time to activate plan C.

Yin went around Tagaytay and Rizal, looking for the perfect venue. We thought of those two places because it wasn’t too far from where we both lived and we didn’t want our guests to have a very difficult time getting there. How Yin found The Mango Farm, I don’t remember. But I recall our teleconference pretty well.

“I went to The Mango Farm. It’s very nice. I think it would be great to have your wedding there.”

“I only have one question, Yin,” I stated in a nonchalant manner. I didn’t want to sound imposing.

“Yes?”

“Would you have your wedding there if you were the one getting married?”, I asked.

“Yes, of course,” replied Yin without hesitation.

That took care of the venue. We asked Yin to book the place the following day.

The original date we chose was June 7, 2008; that would have been written as 06/07/08 if you followed the American way of writing dates, which is the standard in the Philippines. Six-seven-eight sounded good. But we had to settle for six-eight-eight because The Mango Farm was already booked on the 7th.

Below is part of the actual e-mail we sent to Yin when we were telling her what we wanted for the wedding.

Our Goal: Have a wedding that rocks and is within budget that will be attended by people dear to us.

Breaking it down:

That Rocks -- working on it! keywords: sunrise, smell of green grass, body of water, cool breeze

Possible locations:

1. Tagaytay
2. Rizal
3. Hotel by the bay

Within Budget -- not more than XXX.

Attended by people dear to us -- working on it! (not more than 200 people!)

We found it amusing that people, more so our suppliers, always asked, “Why so early?” or “Are you sure people will be there that early?”

Our typical responses were “We will begin even if there are only a few guests.” and “Our guests will be there if they really love us.” Of course, we were secretly wishing and praying that at least fifty percent of the guests would be there on time. When it was time to finalize the invitations, we wrote 6 a.m. but planned to start the ceremony by 6:30. That way, we didn’t upset the people who arrived early and still give a chance for the latecomers not to miss too much.

Before we knew it, it was time to finalize a few other things with the venue. Together with Yin, we decided to prepare only 100 seats for the ceremony, anticipating that only about half of the total number of guests would be able to make on time. We were scared to see so many empty seats while the wedding ceremony was going on.

It turns out we were wrong. We should have had more faith in our guests. We should have believed that they really did love us that much. So, we apologize for that. And we thank you for the sacrifices you made to be able to come early!