‘Savor every second of your wedding day and cherish each moment’
It was an online dating platform that declared Jose Timoteo del Rosario II and Cristina Victoria Morales, who held their intimate wedding on January 15, 2021, to be 98% compatible. Timmy was instantly drawn to Tina because all their interests and values matched. “Also, her picture was so cute. So I sent a message first. It was probably more than just one message…” he says. Tina didn’t entertain the first few messages because back in 2018, she was based in Quezon City and he was based in Parañaque. Luckily, boredom gave Timmy a chance when Tina finally replied to his message “for the heck of it. Buti nalang I replied. Thank you boredom for leading me to the love of my life!” Tina says.
Timmy and Tina were engaged on December 15, 2019 and began to plan their Tagaytay wedding with a 200 pax guest list. Tina says they were planning a big party with lots of dancing–one of the first suppliers they booked was a live band. But since the pandemic, the couple revisited their plans and decided on inviting just 30 guests, even doing away with physically inviting some of their closest friends and family for safety. They’ve had to let go of their initial deposits to their first set of suppliers, “but we’re glad we changed plans because what we ended up with was much better than our initial plans. The wedding was intimate, heartfelt, and so much more beautiful than what I could’ve thought possible,” says Tina.
Below, Timmy and Tina talk about how they handled the challenge of planning their wedding amid the reality of the pandemic and why allowing your family to help you out might be the best decision you make for your wedding.
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What were the challenges encountered during the wedding preparation?
Timmy: The pandemic really made things challenging because of the ever-changing quarantine regulations. We had a really hard time deciding on the most basic aspects of the wedding because of the uncertainty. Another thing that we had to consider was safety. Majority of my anxiety was over COVID more than the actual wedding planning itself.
How did you handle the challenges?
Tina: There were a lot of tears, not gonna lie. It was frustrating not knowing how to proceed, but we made sure to focus on keeping the wedding as safe as possible. I personally found comfort in doing wedding-related things that made me happy: curating our playlists, embroidering our ring pillow, and painting our cake toppers.
What’s your advice for couples planning their pandemic wedding?
Tina: Let your loved ones pitch in, because they’ll definitely jump at the chance to do so. Our venue was a private farm owned by Timmy’s relatives, who fast-tracked the construction of their events space especially for our wedding. My in-laws sourced the giveaways themselves. My family also DIYed quite a few of the wedding elements: my sister designed the invitations, my mom made the bouquets and boutonnieres, and my dad oversaw the construction of the arch. My sister and brother-in-law ended up emceeing the reception. My brother, brother-in-law, and dad even gave us surprise song numbers during the reception! The whole wedding was a labor of love, and we’re so grateful.
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Timmy: Get a competent on-the-day coordinator. Even with our small-ish guestlist, having a coordinator organize every single portion of the wedding (including handling suppliers, making sure that we adhered to safety protocols, and just handling us and our families) was a huge help.
Start a Facebook group! We posted something every day on the week of our wedding for our friends and families to get to know us, since we weren’t able to make introductions when we were engaged because of the pandemic. It made us feel more connected to our loved ones who were only watching the wedding online, and a lot of our friends and families appreciated that.
Also, put up an online gift registry. Yes, asking for cash these days is common and relatively easy now, but having an online registry made it so easy for our friends and family who prefer to give us actual presents. We found a website that let us easily do this for free, and it even had an online guestbook where virtual guests could sign and record a short video.
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Get a good livestream supplier. It was especially great to hear from our virtual guests that they were really impressed with the livestream and that they loved watching the ceremony.
My final piece of advice is something our pastor said to us during our couples counseling sessions. “The moment the wedding march music plays, stop planning your wedding.” Enjoy the wedding, savor every second of it, cherish every moment you and your spouse will have during that amazing and lovely day. Nothing else matters except that you two get married. Period.
