SO, May has supplanted December and June as the weddingest month of the year in the Philippines, according to the National Statistics Office. Why? It appears that weddings were being celebrated in time with the fiestas that May is known for. Or perhaps, weddings are better in summer, without satin shoes and hems or trains or ostentatious veils dragging mud during the rainy month of June.

But the traditions of a June wedding are hard to shake off. In fact, early this month, a Philippine wedding summit was due to be held at the NBC Tent of The Fort with more than 160 “legitimate suppliers” participating and raffling off honeymoon trips to Vietnam. The expo is also supported by the Department of Tourism, which, four years before, promoted places like Boracay, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Manila and Palawan as ideal honeymoon sites as part of its World Of Weddings-WOW Philippines campaign.

And why not? In 2003, Wedding Expo Philippines, considered the country’s biggest and most comprehensive wedding fair, was said to have generated P11 million in two days. The amount represents down payments for weddings that would take place at least six to eight months after the event.

Marking its tenth year last March, the Wedding Expo showcased more than 300 suppliers housed in a 5,000 sq.m. venue.

Here then is a compendium of the many ties that bind.

Paniniwala and Pamahiin: Pinoy customs and superstitions

WALA namang mawawala kung susundan, the old folks tell us. And so, in the spirit of not tempting fate – and adding to the lore of something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue – a few Pinoy wedding and marriage traditions that live to this day.

1. Huwag isusukat ang wedding gown dahil hindi matutuloy ang kasal.

2. Bawal bumiyahe ng malayo ang mga ikakasal kapag malapit na ang takdang araw ng kasal dahil mas malapit daw sila sa sakuna.

3. Bawal ang sukob, o ang pagpapakasal ng isa pang kapatid nang hindi pa nakakalipas ang isang taon. Mamalasin daw ang sumukob.
4. Huwag magreregalo ng kutsilyo o iba pang matalas na bagay para hindi malasin ang mag-asawa.

5. Huwag ligpitin ang kinanan habang may kumakain pa dahil hindi na makakapag-asawa ang naiwang kumakain pa.

6. Kapag ni-regla ang babae sa araw ng kanyang kasal, marami ang kanyang magiging anak.

7. Suwerte daw kapag umulan sa araw ng kasal mo.

8. Ang kandilang namatay sa parte ng lalaki o babae ay hudyat daw na ito ang unang mamamatay sa kanilang mag-asawa.

9. Kapag “aksidenteng” inapakan ng bride ang paa ng groom habang papalapit sila sa altar, masusunod daw ang lahat ng gusto ng babae.

10. Bawal magsuot ng perlas sa wedding day kasi ito raw ang sinasabing “luha” ng talaba.

11. Kailangang mas maaga ang dating ng lalaki sa simbahan, habang ang babae naman ay hindi inaasahang bumaba sa bridal car hanggang sa oras na magmamartsa na siya.

12. Ang pagpapalaya ng mag-asawa ng puting kalapati ay sinasabing magbibigay ng peace and harmony sa mag-asawa.

Barefoot in Bora

When Amanda Guidotti married Leopold “Bong” Tirol on the powdery-white sands of Boracay in November 23, 2002, she never imagined the planning she put into making her dream wedding come true would one day serve other couples in good stead.

Together with cousin-in-law Nicole Hollander-Guidotti, Amanda, 29, set up her own wedding planning company that specializes in Boracay weddings. Since it began in 2004, Boracay Weddings Inc. has handled more than 70 weddings.

“It actually started when a friend of my cousin’s asked whom they knew… could help them arrange their Boracay wedding,” she says in an email interview. It helps that Amanda totally uprooted herself from Manila, where she once taught and ran her own pre-school, to live on the island where her husband’s family ran a beach resort.

“And since I got married here and a lot of people from the island are friends or relatives of my husband it was easy for us,” she says. “We were suggested and we ended up doing their wedding. Before that was even over, we had another booking, and another and another. We started out with just two people and now I have a crew of up to six people per wedding.”

This year alone, Amanda has bookings for 39 Bora weddings – a pretty impressive number considering there are two more wedding planners on the island, not to mention the dozens upon dozens of weddings and events coordinators in Manila.

So what sets her apart? “I am a hands-on type of person and want to give all theattention to our couples,” she says. “We try to never say no, as long as we can do
what they like even if it is over and beyond – we try to do it for them.”

In addition, she makes sure bookings never overlap because she makes sure she’s on hand and gives her full attention on every wedding she plans.

Amanda also handles every type of wedding, from the lavish (350 guests) to the intimate (10 guests). Most of the weddings she describes as romantic. “It’s the ambiance itself – you’re in Boracay,” she explains. “But basically our weddings are carefree as you would see in a lot of weddings here, they end up barefoot or will be on the water in the beach. When it rains during the reception they just dance under the rain.”

Indeed, the laidback vibe of the place lends itself well to inevitable glitches, including what she calls a few “memorable” ones. “I’ve had two weddings that was hit by a typhoon, one (in which) guests were stranded in Caticlan and we had to move the wedding to the next day.” She also recalls one where it rained the whole day but guests continued to party even when a full-blown storm hit the island at 4 am. She also recalls a wedding she planned with a rock theme. It was, she says, “something different and it turned out very, very nice.”

After all, Amada aims to please. “We do what (our clients) want us to do; it is their wedding...They let us know what they like and we just tell them if it is doable or not and or give them suggestions and options.” Her package begins at P25,000 for wedding-day only services, up to P60,000 for the works which include booking flights and accommodations for the wedding entourage and guests, a romantic sand sculpture, and providing multicabs and a Golf Cart as wedding car.

All these, she says, to make the wedding itself “as breathtaking as possible.” And that appears to be what some of Amanda’s celebrity clientele has gotten, from Singapore model and VJ Oli Pettigrew’s wedding to Linda Black, to actress G Toengi whose guest list included Gary Valenciano, Donita Rose, models Joey Mead and Marc Nelson and sportscaster Dyan Castillejo.

– Ces Rodriguez

To contact Amanda Tirol at Boracay Weddings Inc., call (+63) 917.533.6293, (+63) 917.626.2632 and (+6336) 288.5982. Or email amandatirol@yahoo.com, amandatirol@hotmail.com, or boracayweddings@yahoo.com. Visit their website at www.boracayweddings.com.ph.

Mix and Match

In the end it’s all about you and your loved one. While it doesn’t hurt to follow wedding customs sacred to you, your spouse and your families, feel free to mix, match and take the best or most meaningful from among the many practices in various parts of the Philippines.

1. Like the Ilocanos, Pangasinenses and Tagalogs of Luzon, guests can be asked to pin peso or dollar bills on the bride’s gown and the groom’s suit when they dance at the reception. Traditionally, pinning notes becomes a contest between the families of the bride and groom to see who pins the most and the largest bills.

2. The Western tradition of the bride and groom feeding each other with a slice of wedding cake also has roots in the Aetas of Zambales who eat from the same plate and take turns feeding each other.

3. Similarly, during their wedding ceremony, Igorot couples from the Mountain Province drink from the same cup, eat rice together, and make rice offerings.

4. For a variation on the “shared plate,” look to the Bataks of Palawan who not only feed each other handfuls of rice shaped into balls or drink coconut water from the same cup, they also puff on one cigar before the actual wedding begins.