The Search for the Church

Abet and I had our hearts set on getting married in Caleruega in Batulao, Batangas. It was the church of our dreams. In fact, we made a down payment last year because the weekend slots for 2011 were getting filled up, and we wanted to make sure to reserve our wedding date—a date we decided on back in 2007. However, late last year, we decided to be practical and have our wedding in Manila instead to save on out-of-town fees that most suppliers charge for Tagaytay weddings. To be honest, it broke my heart, and sayang ang deposit. But what the hey, we wanted to be practical.

So, early this year, we started looking for churches in Manila. We had two requirements: (1) the church needs to be air-conditioned, because Abet will just melt in the Manila heat if it isn’t, and (2) it needs to be small, because we only have around 100 guests and I don’t like vacant pews and a pangag look—I want the church to be filled up.

Looking for the perfect church wasn’t as easy as we thought because of one major reason: our preferred date is a Sunday, and most churches do not allow Sunday weddings. We had to cross out our top 2 choices: Archbishop’s Palace and Magallanes Church. *sigh*

Now, I refuse to move our wedding date. It is our fifth anniversary as a couple. October 16 is a very special, very memorable date. The last three October 16’s were beautiful celebrations of love, and we’ll celebrate it yet again this year. We celebrate the 16th of each month, we've done it the last 40 months, and 16 has always been our number. (Happy 40th month, love!) It doesn’t make sense to me to change our anniversary date.

So on to our search for a small, air-conditioned church in Manila that allows Sunday weddings. We narrowed it down to a handful (not that we had much choice, really): St. John Bosco in Pasong Tamo, St. Pancratius in Paco Park, Pope Pius in UN, and St. Ignatius in Camp Aguinaldo. We started with our ocular last weekend, and here's the church we decided on:

The Transfiguration Chapel

pic from Riandrew

Yup, we decided to push through with our Caleruega wedding! I'm so happy!

This is really where we want to get married. I even think that Abet wants this even more than I do, he was the one who suggested Caleruega in the first place. If we get married in another church, we'll be settling, knowing that we have our hearts set on something else. I'll just keep on justifying to myself over and over and over that we made the best choice. In short, lolokohin ko lang ang sarili ko.

Marrying Abet will be one of my biggest dreams come true, and it will still be the happiest day of my life at that point if we get hitched in Las Piñas City Hall. But if it is possible to make another one of our mutual dreams come true, why not?

Of course, getting married in Caleruega comes at a premium, and I'm willing to sacrifice for it. I'm willing to give up all my other wants, but not the church (and the groom, of course!). I probably won't be getting my dream suppliers for the cake, the invitations, and the hair and make-up artist among other things, but that's okay. Yes, I already have a list of who I want. I could probably even give up K by Cunanan, the caterer I'm in love with, and probably have our reception at Sonya's Garden instead. We'll see about the reception. I will focus on getting my top 3 wants: the church, the photographers, and the rings, in that order.

I'm very pleased with this recent turn of events. Boy, am I glad that I didn't have the heart to cancel our reservation before, I kept putting it off. I'll be a Tagaytay bride after all, a Caleruega bride.