Ona and Leo

leo and ona tied the knot on saturday, may 31. their actual wedding rites held in the church earlier in the morning at 10am was only witnessed by immediate family members and sponsors. so the "rampa" with the entourage was held at the reception venue at villa immaculada, intramuros. the wedding march started at around 6pm.

call time at the hotel was at 3pm. dahil bagong buhay na ako (avoiding my last booboo at owsi's wedding where i got to the church 5 minutes too late, the bride was already at the altar) i got on time. ona was having her make-up done, while everyone else was getting dressed.







i fired away my rebel while the photographers did their things. no flash since there was a halogen light with filter set up. actually, i wasn't able to use the flash the whole time of the wedding. it was too bulky, and i can't carry too many things around since i'm in a gown. baka masira ang get-up ko.

here, ona was made to pose on different angles, different acts, different facial expressions. the head photographer (she had 3), manong boy, acted out as her director. i saw here the importance of having a good rapport between the model (subject) and the photographer. the two should be in-sync and should be comfortable with each other to achieve that "natural" effect.



like ona, leo had to have his face done also. a dab of foundation and lip gloss and a tinge of blush to achieve a dashing look! ona's hair took the longest time to prepare.



here's ona's designer, mama willie and his apprentice, jm helping her get dressed. ona didn't include a veil in her gown since she was already married earlier in the morning.



here's the lovely bride. the photographers had set up another lighting here. again, i joined them in shooting ona.



here are some of the behind the scenes shots of the photographers. on the left is one of manong boy's staff, taking macro shots. on the right is manong boy, talking to ona to have another pose



here's a wacky shot of the whole entourage. it was only in this wedding that i've seen two best men. yes, two. tapos ako na maid of honor isa lang. hehe.

she only had 4 bridesmaids and 4 grooms men to match. no veil sponsor, cord sponsor, candle lighters, ring bearer, coin bearer, etc. after the walk-down-the-aisle, someone from leo's church lead the prayer. then the two recited their vows. no pastor (or priest?) officiated the ceremony, since they were already married prior to this.

after their vows, picture takings took place. there was a list prepared on every table (sobrang OC/organized si ona) so that everyone will know when their part will be.



my name was first to be called from the list to take part on a "game". i already had a hint that this will be the boquet tossing, but with a twist.

after every singles have been called, we were handed with a whistle. the game is entitled - how well do you know the couple. seeing my contenders, i felt a sense of superiority since i've known the couple way way back, even before they became a couple. maybe except for her cousin trish and malou, i knew i could easily get away with this game. or so i thought.

i was wrong! dead wrong! the mechanics of the game is that for every question asked regarding the couple, you have to be the first one to blow the whistle to get eliminated. for every question asked, i blew my hardest. ewan ko ba kung bakit hindi ako nauuna, kinakapos ba ako ng hininga, or bingi lang yung facilitator. then the question that got me was this - where was their first date as a couple. i answered the name of the mall. pokshet. mali daw. sa starcity daw sila unang nag-date, at kasama pa daw kami dun. mygad! memory gap? nakakahiya. i am their oldest friend in the group, and i wasn't able to get my way out. ona/leo, if ever you're gonna read this, pag-usapan natin ang "first date" na yan.

so there, i was the lucky one. this is actually my first time to "catch" a boquet in a wedding. i always stay at the end of the line whenever the bride tosses the boquet, para sure shot na hindi mapupunta sa akin. but i guess i ran out of luck this time.



here's our shot with the newly weds and the other loser, hehehe. i don't know his name, probably one of leo's barkada in his work.



leo and ona invited the whole class. i guess we're about 40, more or less. but it was only the 10 of us, little jamie and nanay included, who made it. three of us are part of the entourage (me, dodan and danny), so technically, 5 lang ang nag-effort pumunta (netty, mads, owsie, alice and jep).


here's us, cam whoring! walang pinalagpas na pagkakataon. buti na lang kasama ko si nanay, i have lotsa lotsa pics. we were the last guests to leave, at dahil dyan, we got freebies from leo! he gave us boxes of pastries. actually, we were also waiting for binalots, hehehe. but then, the pastries are already good enough. we parted ways at past 10pm already.