From timelapse of the afternoon blue sky to people mingling, from photomotion of bride’s preparation to the actual wedding. Everything was manic and the actual editing was pressure-packed. Still the same day edit was shown to the delight of the guests. Almost 10,000 shots stitched together to do a fitting ending to a wonderful, much-awaited wedding.
Done in one of the most popular venues for weddings, Fernbrook Gardens. The layout have undergone so many revisions but finally it’s done. I am pretty proud of this. I personally love the clean layout despite the requirement of putting in so many images.
Church: San Sebastian
Reception: LuzViMin Ballroom, Hotel Sofitel
The 40-page ArtBook carries a modern theme. The design of each page is mainly geometric particular extensive use of squares. Again, the colors are muted to allow the images to pop-out.
Prenup Venue:
Vigan, Ilocos Sur
Cape Bojeador, Burgos, Ilocos Norte
Wind Farm, Bangui, Ilocos Norte
This is the final ArtBook that will be given to Arnel and Nina during their wedding. It is composed of 20 pages with parchment paper in between pages. This paper will serve as the space that will be signed by their guest. Since the prenup was done during the heat of summer in Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte, I have decided to used earth colors as the predominant color of the vectors. An aged look was achieved but still keeping the modern design of the entire graphic layout.
We further pressed north and the farthest town is non other than Aparri. Except for the Eat Bulaga song, I have no idea what is in Aparri – I just know it is freakin’ far. From Camalaniugan, less than 30 minutes we were in Aparri — we were actually at the edge of Luzon. We went straight to the pier and the winds were quite strong since at the right side is the Philippine Sea while at the left side is the mouth of Cagayan River — you can actually say this is where the river meets the sea ;).
Actually, I was so happy to see the kilometer market of Aparri – it says ZERO. We were 583 kilometers away from Rizal Park, cool.
What to visit:
The pier - where Cagayan River meets the Philippine Sea
The Kilometer marker
Public Market
Pag-asa Station
After Lal-lo then off to Camalaniugan which is just less than 15 minutes away via the national road. The belfry of the Camalaniugan Church houses the oldest Catholic Bell in the Far East. The church itself looks like a new building already with hardly any traces of its old structure. The marker itself indicated that it was destroyed by fire in 1719 then rebuilt and destroyed by typhoon in 1845. Only the belfry reflects the grandiose of its old brick structure. The side of the belfry has a narrow and steep staircase but that did not deter us in climbing the structure. It was just like going up a three story building and froM there you get a good vantage view of the town and of course a closer look at the bells. Upon closer examination the bells were forged in the year 1595. Then we banged it lightly for good luck ;).
What to visit:
Camalaniugan Church
go up the belfry and ring the oldest bell in the Far East
I love cars and car shows are just amazing. You will be surprised at the changes and modifications made by owners on their possessions. Others are definitely prize winning and definitely cost an arm and leg just to do. Perhaps the satisfaction outweighs the cost. Guests are just at awe at the amazing transformations, the paint job, the leather interiors, the chrome finishing. There is no dust that you can see and everything is sparkling clean. The collection of A-Toys, a major car modification shop in the Philippines is just jaw dropping. There are lots of cars to see. The famed Foose will definitely have serious competition in this part of the world.
Rather than taking photographs straight on of cars, I think I need to give them personality. Owners anyways give names to these babies. So here they are.
Destination prenup is really awesome. Nice view, lots of angles and different sceneries as backdrop to a beautiful love affair. In this album, we capture the moments of Arnel and Nina against the backdrop of both Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte. These two provinces are among the popular places in Northern Philppines. Both places have their share of Unesco Hertitage sites. Even with the hours of driving, the travel was well worth it.
At first this place is unassuming. Little did we know that it is full of history and plays a significant role during the Spanish era. The place is known as Nueva Segovia and before one of the archdioceses in the Philippines before it was moved to Vigan, Ilocos Sur (the others being Manila, Cebu and Naga). Actually, the first bishop of the Lal-lo diocese, Miguel Benavidez, O.P. was also the founder of University of Santo Tomas (UST).
It was even made more special since our host during this part of our tour was the mayor of Lal-lo, Ms. Olive Pascual. We likewise had the opportunity to have during their prepared lunch, her husband, the former mayor of Lal-lo, Mr Florante Pascual. They prepared a sumptuous just especially for us – grilled tilapia, liempo, grilled fish, etc.. Also, cabibi, a mussel endemic only in Lal-lo, was likewise ordered. In fact, Lal-lo has its own Cabibi Festival to honorthe unique shell found only in the Cagayan River. Yummy was the order of the day.
After lunch we visited Mayor Olive’s garden located in a hilly area in Lal-lo. From this vantage point you can see the whole town of Lal-lo. The garden boast of different varieties of flowers and trees. However, the highlight in this visit was the cockfight showdown witnessed by the kids. No animal was hurt since it was a
We then visited the Municipal Hall of Lal-lo and just across it is the historical church of Lal-lo the former seat of the diocese of Nueva Segovia. At first, we were wondering why the church was facing back from the main street. We were then told that before the national road was now the old provincial road were the church façade is located. Which makes sense since façade is likewise facing the Cagayan River which was the main source of transport before.
By the way, not to be missed is the wooden cross encased in glass (during that time of our visit there are scaffold in time for Salubong for Easter Sunday). The marker states that the cross was planted by the Dominicans more than 300 years ago as part of the evangelization of Cagayan.
What to visit:
Lal-lo Church
The wooden cross encased in glass
Magapit Bridge is touted to be Asia’s first suspension bridge
What to eat:
Cabibi (shell) steam / soup
Lal-lo pastillas (made of Carabao’s milk)
Church: Chapel of Transfiguration, Caleruega, Tagaytay
Reception: Tagaytay Vista Lodge
We have covered numerous weddings in Caleruega, however this is the very first time that we have covered a very spectacular sunset. This shot made my day.