Meet Darlene. She is a W@Wie who has recently gotten married to Gboy.

Their altar date was set last April 17, 2010 in Tagaytay. Wedding ceremony was slated at 1PM but during that time, vehicular traffic was on a standstill because of the Tour of Luzon bikeathon, and in the midst of the gridlock was this classic Mustang bridal car.

The bride got a call from her wedding planner informing her that she would have to forgo her bridal march if she arrived 30 minutes after the scheduled ceremony. Left with no other choice, the bride scooped her skirt, train, and veil of her Veluz wedding gown and started dashing towards the direction of the church. Following Darlene’s lead was her bridesmaid and her make-up artist, Eddie Bruan. Upon seeing them on the street, the photo and video guys also got out of their vehicle.

Oly Ruiz of Metro Photo captured in multiple shots as the bride emerged in the two-way gridlock.

“After about 15 minutes of running, we came at the intersection where everything was clogged-up and asked — forced actually — a tricycle to take all of us (all seven of us) to the church which was another mile away,” Oly narrated.

As for the groom, he had tried to hitch a ride with passing motorists but no one stopped. Good thing the couple’s ninang saw Gboy on her way to the church and gave him a ride.

If those weren’t enough trouble for a day, the bride also shared that her wedding gown got burned due to a spotlight under their table at the reception. Darlene further added, “I thought there we were done with all the mishaps, but ‘lo and behold: our big day has almost turned into our last day!!! We almost fell off the cliff due to break dysfunction of our car!!! My goodness! What a day!!! At least we have an exciting story to tell our grandchildren.”

Checkout Gboy & Darlene’s onsite by MG Video. An ample coverage of our dashing bride in the middle of the road and their tricycle ride can be seen towards the end.

Head on to Oly’s blog entry for his eyewitness account and more of the images from the event.

Cheers to Gboy & Darlene for their positive outlook despite the odds.

Meet Mark & Anna.

The two are college sweethearts who have been together for about 10 years already.

Sometime last year, on a weekend he had work, she scheduled a diving trip in Anilao, Batangas with friends. For their last dive, Anna was instructed by her diving buddy to follow 30 feet underwater. When they got there, here’s what she saw…

 … a tarp with her name and the words “WILL YOU MARRY ME??”

Then she saw this guy in his dive mask kneeling on the seabed with a bouquet of flowers. It could only be Mark!  After she signaled ‘YES’ to him, he handed her the ring attached to a string and to his BCD (buoyancy control device).  He also gave her tarpaulin that had ‘YES’ on it. Afterall, nobody really expect to hear that sweet word underwater.

As soon as they surfaced, this first thing she uttered to him wasn’t a verbal yes, but “Are you okay?”

Turns out, Mark is no swimmer.  Despite that, he willingly took diving lessons (behind her back) specifically for this proposal.  The lengths some men go through just to pop THE question never cease to amaze.

“People asked me how I felt that day and I always have the same answer. I was in cloud nine and the experience was surreal,” Anna said.  The engaged couple is set to have a ten-ten-te-ten (10.10.10) wedding.

Cheers to soon-to-weds!

We’re not kidding!

Last night, we saw this picture posted by event stylist Teddy Manuel.  It got us curious.

(photo and flowers by Teddy Manuel)

As soon as we saw it, we immediately thought the groom’s probably a volunteer firefighter. We were sooo wrong.

It was actually the bride who’s in the fire brigade (she’s a volunteer firemedic)! COOL.

The bride is actually Kimberly Tan — the wedding host!  And she just got married to Gerald Evangelista yesterday. Here’s a shot of the kissing newlyweds atop the firetruck.  Some stunt!

(photo by John Mateos Ong)

Cheers to Kimerald!  (sorry, couldn’t resist typing that). 

It been quiet here the past couple of weeks and, unless you’re a contact in our personal FB accounts, you might be wondering the lack of updates this side of the blogosphere.

Well we have added a new member to our family!

Welcome Laya Rana!  She was born the afternoon of March 29.  Her name was inspired by the last word from the song “Bayan Ko.”

Our family picture above was taken during our li’l bundle of joy’s newborn pictorial.  She was just 12 days old at that time.  Kudos to Sofia Genato & Stan Ong of The Stork Studio for their talent and patience.  Some of the ‘poses’ required our baby to be in deep slumber and there isn’t any on/off button when it comes to that. But the wait paid off, and the shots came out great!

As for now, like any doting parents, we eagerly share with you the other shots from this session.

Eric Cachero is a visual artist whose body of work consists of paintings, sketches, graphics and other commercial design works.

My initial encounter of Eric’s work wasn’t through an art gallery.  On the contrary, it was via the wall photos/profile pics of a couple of mutual friends in Facebook.  And those led me to his album full of line art like the ones below.

(click the image to see more)

To me, the images looked like the headshots seen along the bylines of newspaper columnists. So impressed that I sent Eric a private message to ask if he’d be willing to do the same for soon-to-weds who may be interested to have their portraits done by him.  I figured some couples may want to have their line drawings printed on their wedding invite or in their souvenir mug or something.

For a simple sketch such as those above, it cost P1,500/person (plus P500/additional person). Aside from a soft copy/digital output, he’ll also hand a 12 x 15 hard copy in Giclee prints.  All he needs is a clear and high resolution photograph of the subject. He can produce the artwork in a matter of days after client’s approval.

By the way, in the course of our correspondence, Eric told he’ll draw me. That got me excited! We haven’t met, and simply based the sketch in one of my photo is FB.  I must say, he did a pretty amazing job with accurate facial hair and all.  Now, my FB profile proudly displays one of his artworks. 

Checkout Eric Cachero’s FB profile to see some of the linear artworks he has done. You can send him a private message from there or you can contact is mobile number: 0918.916.2895.