Team O’Flynn For the Win

Photo by Ryan Reyes of Chosen By Destiny

What makes weddings special are the details the couple infuses into their event to make it uniquely theirs.  That said, having been in the businesses of event coordination and fashion for over a decade, when it came to my turn to be the bride, it was all clear in my head what John, my groom, and I needed to do.  Before anything else, here I would like to share our love story.


Photo by Chosen By Destiny



How We Met
In November 2014, I met John at a cooking event in London.    We liked each other instantly; found out  we both had a passion for food, literature, music, travel and adventure.  We dated for a few more times in London.  Then I had to return home to Manila.  John couldn’t stand being without me and visited me in Manila for three times before he finally proposed marriage.

The Proposal
Eight months after we first met, John proposed to me at Manila Ocean Park.  Down on bended knee he asked me to be his wife while we were surrounded by aquamarine life. 
“The Day I met you has already been a life changing experience for me.
Words will never be able to explain what you mean to me.
I want you in my life
I want us side by side
I love you more than I can say
And so I want to get down on my knee
And beg you to marry me.”
(John’s wedding proposal)

Wedding Planning
John proposed to me in July and we planned for a January wedding the year after.  My Mom’s birthday is on the 1st of February.  We thought it was a wonderful idea to make our wedding date the 31st of January so my Mom would have a surprise birthday party on that event as well.  We called up various churches and checked if our date was available.   Some churches had to be booked a year in advance due to them being a favorite of couples for weddings(Sanctuario de San Jose in Greenhills, Christ the King Church in Greenmeadows).  Other churches were under construction at that time (Mt. Carmel Shrine in Quezon City).  While others simply didn’t offer schedule forweddings on Sundays; they focused on masses instead.   Luckily, Mary the Queen Parish Church in Greenhills, San Juan, had a 3:30 pm slot available for us on the 31st of January, 2016.  The church was convenient to our guests who were mostly from San Juan and Quezon City area.   
We chose our venue as Garden Ballroom, EDSA Shangri-la Hotel Manila.  We thought it was big enough to accommodate our 180 guests and the hotel location was near the church.  We did our taste test of the buffet food for our wedding.  We even had our prenup photo and video done by our friend Ryan Reyes at the swimming pool/ garden area of EDSA Shangri-la. 

We also had to complete our requirements from the Catholic Church and civil registry to get married.  John is Irish and thus we were asked to submit more documents.  We even had to go to Archdiocesan Chancery Office Arzobispado in Manila and to the Irish Embassy in Jupiter Street, Makati, to fulfill the requirements.  We arranged to attend a Pre-Cana seminar with just the two of us attending.  We couldn’t join the schedule of other couples because John wasn’t based here and he was in Manila for only a limited amount of time. 
What we had was a long distance relationship. I had to do most of the wedding planning, while John sent funds for our wedding suppliers through bank to bank transactions.  He gave deposit and settled all the payments for our venue via credit card.

In choosing our wedding suppliers, I had to make sure they could deliver the look and feel I had in mind for our event.  I attended various wedding fairs through the years and kept flyers of suppliers.  I researched them and referred the best ones to my wedding coordination clients.  Also, being in the wedding industry, I have had the pleasure to work with the best talents in the field.  We set a budget for our wedding and that, too, played a deciding factor on whichwedding suppliers we chose.

For the gowns, it was without question, F*ART Fashion ART that made them.  My sister Happy designed my wedding gowns (I had two; one for the church and the other for reception) and entourage gowns as well.      
We had a floral theme for our wedding to symbolize our love in full bloom.  John’s favorite color is purple and mine is yellow.  We placed those two colors (blended by pastel colors) in all things related to our wedding: from our invites, gowns, flowers, giveaways, stage display, table décor, etc.  In doing so, we had a more solid look to our wedding.


Here are our wedding suppliers:
Wedding gowns and entourage gowns- Happy Andrada of F*ART Fashion ART
Hair and Make-up- Twinkle Amora of F*ART Fashion ART and Bambbi Fuentes
Prenup and wedding invitations- Booked Prints
Prenup photo and video - Ryan Reyes
Wedding Photo and Video- Nice Print
Animated AVP- Imacron
Florist- Aldrin of Mary the Queen Parish
Event coordination- Happy2Gather and Getting Married
Event Stylist- Abhie Tan  of Natural Art Flowers and Decors
Lights and Sounds- Sensitivity
John and Viva’s wedding book souvenir “Our Book of Love” printed by Central Books
Wedding bag and pen souvenir-Wishbone 9
 Host- JC Alelis
Band- Bernie Pasamba
Performers:  Avonlea Paula Paraiso (harpist), Lakbay Lahi  (for Philippine Dance) Regine Tolentino’s Dance Company (for Irish Dance), Ruther Urquia (ventriloquist)
Photo booths:  Team OSS “On Site Studio” and Instabooth by Nice Print
Cake-   Cake Mapping Philippines


photo by Niceprint



photo by Niceprint



Our Wedding Day
After all the weddings I did for my clients, finally it was my turn to get married.  It was that moment when I walked down the aisle; saw the loving faces of family, friends and my beaming groom, I knew all the preparations were worth it.




In the church, John and the wedding entourage walked to the instrumental song “Braveheart” originally from the Corrs (an Irish band) played by Bernie Pasamba’s orchestra.   My bridal march was “From this Moment On”, a duet by Shania Twain and Bryan White, performed by Marian and Marvin of Bernie Pasamba’s singers.  For the wedding recessional song, it was the instrumental song “God Gave Rock and Roll To You”, a favorite song of the groom from Kiss (hard rock band).

At our wedding reception, while our guests were registering their names, they were serenaded by harpist Avonlea Paula Paraiso.  Our wedding entourage danced their way in EDSA Shangri-la’s Garden Ballroom to the song “Cheerleader” by OMI.  John and I grooved to the song “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon.  Our first dance song was “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green.

Our wedding had the most memorable highlights: My Mom rapped her speech to the tune of “We Will Rock You”; Happy (my Maid of Honor and Sister) sang the song “So Happy Together” by the Turtles while my Mom played the Ukelele; there was a surprise AVP and birthday song for my Mom because her birthday is on the next day; our wedding cake had 3D Cake Mapping that played our AVP.    It was an Irish Filipino wedding and we wanted to incorporate our cultures together.  We did that through music and dance.  For the Filipino culture, Lakbay Lahi, an ethnic band, performed sound art pieces with dancers garbed in colorful tribal wear.  The Irish culture had dancers from Regine Tolentino’s Dance Company performing to Irish music.  John’s sisters Celine and Deirdre were skilled dancers and joined in the dance number.

We aimed to make our wedding the most fun and exciting as we could make it.  We gave a lot of prizes.  Guests were asked to write on wish cards where they wrote messages for us.  These wish cards were raffled off and 50 of our lucky guests won gifts from Buckingham Palace.  We had “Meron O Wala” Game that made our guests win or lose if they had or didn’t have the items the host JC Alelis was asking for.  We also had a hashtag instagram contest.  Our hashtag for our event was #JohnVivaTogether .  A judge selected the most creative shot taken with our hashtag.  The winner of that contest won a new camera from Samsung.

All our wedding guests received a personalized gift from us: “Our Book of Love” that contained our love story, letters to each other, poems and messages from people dearest to us.  They received it with a small bag and pen. 
To me, everything flowed smoothly and went perfectly during our wedding.  It paid off that we planned well, worked on a reasonable budget, got the best team.  In doing so, my groom and I enjoyed ourselves immensely with our 
most favorite people, our family and friends. 

In this great big world  
That could get so cold 
It’s not really easy breezy
Finding the right one beside me 

Where could he be

Where will we meet?
When I went to London it was by serendipity 
We met at a cooking event,
I knew with clarity 
You’re my destiny, 
The one I’ve waited for 
Your personality and smile I adore

Thus began our long distance love story    

Emails, Skype, Whatsapp, Viber chats mandatory 
We communicate constantly and by all means 
With you in the UK and me in the Philippines

After sometime distance became unbearable
To me you wanted to be inseparable

Manila became your frequent destination

Our visit to Ocean Park what a revelation

Down on bended knee you asked me to be your wife
And I said yes to be your partner in life
Today I walk down the aisle with you your hand in mine 
Thanking God for you, John, my love who’s genuine                                                   Two hearts, two minds, two bodies that become one                                         Our marital bliss together has now begun 

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