Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your heart
or burn down your house, you can never tell. - Joan Crawford
Although Vanessa and Jae's wedding was my last wedding for 2019, it certainly turned out to be one of my favorites. Besides the usual family holiday shoots, I didn’t have any weddings booked for December so I was just expecting to ride out the rest of 2019 without any big deadlines to meet. To my surprise, I was contacted by the bride's cousin-in-law 5 days before the actual wedding. Usually I’m kinda iffy when it comes to covering weddings without meeting my couples beforehand. Especially when it’s a short notice. The uneasiness comes from the fact that I might not click with the couple and they don’t buy in to my ideas and vision. Or they just might not like me at all and the photos will be affected. But once she told me that the couple flew all the way from Australia and that their original photographer cancelled on them, I felt bad and instinctively, I was driven to help out this couple. Whoever this couple was, they deserved to have their story told.
So I went into covering this wedding without knowing who I will be working with. Besides chatting with the bride & groom on IG, all I had was Vanessa’s word that she will let me take the lead. Which is sometimes all I need. What ‘s funny was that the first person I ended up running into outside of their hotel was Vanessa. Although I had no idea who she was, I had this inkling that this person traipsing towards me was the bride just by the way her face was glowing. Then hearing her greet me and introduce herself in her Australian accent was endearing. And as my wife can attest to, I always had this silly fascination with that particular accent. Even I don’t know why. But to top it all off she was really nice and not at all what I’d imagine a bride would be after what just transpired with her photographer. And then to see Jae wearing a Barong during the ceremony, which is an embroidered formal shirt that is considered the national dress of the Philippines, was a total plus for me. Since this will be my first time photographing a groom wearing a Barong. I was excited to see it in photos. So after spending a day photographing this couple, I began to see and understand why a cool, calm and collected person such as Jae fell in love with a lively and attractive woman like Vanessa. As the saying goes: opposites attract. Add to that the beautiful church that this couple are getting married in, then that it’s no surprise why fate has brought them all together. Beautiful couple. Beautiful church. Beautiful ceremony.
So here we are at the beginning of a new year. I now learned that there will be times where opportunities will present themselves to you for a reason. To either change an idea that you previously have or adjust your perspective on certain things. So in a way, for me, this was an exercise in just that. If I had let this illogical reasoning of mine to decide for me, then I wouldn’t had the chance to work with Vanessa & Jae. And I also would have lost the chance at shooting at a gorgeous church such as the Wayfarer Chapel. Life is always one big collaboration with people anyways. And life will always throw you a curve ball and you have no choice but to collaborate with life. In the end, the rewards will always be worth more than the risks. Enjoy the photos.
*Big thanks to Klein Buen of Kadastudio for 2nd shooting
VENDORS:
Ceremony: Wayfarer Chapel
Reception: Tita Edith’s
Florist: Flowers by Laurel
Hair/Makeup: Herself
Cake: Glaze and Glamz Cupcakery
