Rebellious Bride/Wife - Hazel

Photography by Andy Samaniego
Art Direction by Claude Rodrigo
FA by Trisha Uy

A rebellious bride-to-be dares to be different, she dares to go against traditional beliefs, explore other suppliers or even come up with weird/unique concepts. She's original and comes up with her own ideas which are tailor-fitted to her personality. She thinks for herself and makes sure that her groom thinks as well. She stands by her choices and makes sure that every inch of wedding detail has her touch. Every bit of the wedding should shout the bride and groom's names. The rebellious bride is never a phony.

Hazel T. Biana on her definition of a Rebellious Bride

When they said they wanted a rockin’ wedding, Hazel & Mark were not kidding. It was the year 2009 and they wanted a revolution. Yes, you can be rockstars in your own wedding. No one can stop you. No one did when it was Hazel and Mark’s time to tie the knot.


And one of the greatest acts of rebellion we applaud Hazel for is not carrying her husband’s surname. It was her choice. She doesn’t insist everyone do it. But she has abided with her beliefs and that takes courage.


Read on to find out more about sex, love and rock and roll (we’re kidding about the sex part, of course)!


Rebellious Brides: There were a lot of very creative details of your wedding – an awesome save-the-date logo and invite, and your cake topper is shocking!


Hazel: It was non-negotiable, we were going to have a 90's rock-inspired wedding theme. Since one of our secondary sponsors, Claude Rodrigo, was an awesome graphics artist and the winner of the NU 107 Rock Awards 2005 Best Album Packaging (For Orange And Lemons’ Strike Whilst The Iron Is Hot ), we decided we had to have an invite posed as a musical album (CD). So while Mark, Claude and I, fresh from resigning from our Production/ Ad agency jobs were brainstorming, drowning ourselves in vodka and sulking on the loss of our incomes (literally, "livin' on a prayer"), the invite and details of the wedding were born.

The cake topper was Mark’s idea. Since we couldn’t afford the expensive cake makers/designers (our cake was homemade by my cousins), he just decided to look for a not-so-conservative cake topper instead.


RB: Tell us more about your rock and roll wedding.


Hazel: One thing I hated though –was being “pa-cute” or “pa-sweet”. I hated cute stuff. So I told Mark, I didn’t want to see anything “pa-cute” in our wedding. The flowers had pink tones only because my Mom insisted on “brightening” the colors of my sister’s (MOH) and her bouquet. I didn’t want any games during the wedding. (I hated party games when I was a kid.) I didn’t want the Church choir singing cheesy love songs so I took out the free Church choir and hired Noel Cabangon. I didn’t want the Gospel/readings talking about how I was taken from Mark’s rib and how I am totally supposed to be submissive to and in love with him. (In fact, I rewrote the missalette to make it appear less sexist.)

At the same time, we wanted a gothic church (since one of our first dates was in Quiapo, San Sebastian was perfect) and we didn’t want to have our wedding in a garden (so we had it in Teatrillo, an underground reception hall surrounded by Spanish dungeons in Intramuros.) For our pre-nup, again, I didn’t want a garden set-up, we wanted to have no pa-cute shots. Mark’s friend, Andy Samaniego, the photographer, had to say “pagbigyan niyo ako sa shot na ito ha” (because he wanted us to hug and appear in love.) For the “first kiss”, Mark said –“wag kang magpapacute ha… magpakatotoo ka” – so we rocked the wedding kiss. (feeling ko lang ha! :P) We wanted to have fireworks, but we didn’t afford it, so we just came up with digital fireworks on the white screen during the first dance.

RB: Since there were a lot of "non-traditional" aspects of your wedding, what were the challenges that you had to face while planning and how did you overcome it? For instance, you mentioned something about getting into trouble w/ your mom? Do you mind sharing the story behind this?


My mom always reminded me that I was only going to get married once, so I shouldn’t scrimp on the wedding. I was your typical “kuripot” person, so it was a usual argument between my mom and my then-fiance. We decided to tap our friends’ and relatives’ talents and ideas to make the wedding interesting (despite it’s being low-budget). We wanted everything to echo us, Mark always reminded me as well that it was OUR wedding. So when my mom saw our invite, she said –“bakit ganito? Bakit ang dark? Tsaka bakit parang hindi formal?” She also questioned why we were having Colt 45 and Red Horse instead of champagne for the toast. She was also nervous about the venue –because she’s never seen it. She was mostly concerned about the “formality” of the wedding. I heard a lot of side comments but I didn’t provoke any arguments. I indicated in the invite that guests can wear rock n’ roll outfits- my mom goes “bakit may ganito pa sa invite? Paano kung may siraulong mag-wild na dumating diyan?” I knew she just wanted everything to be perfect in her own standards. So I just reminded her that everything will be okay. Towards the wedding, she became very supportive and had one request nalang –she just said –“I hope the church ceremony is solemn.” (And it was- so she was very happy!)


There were times when I would cry because I felt that Mark and I were alone during the wedding planning journey –but we realized that people had different ways of showing their support. Some friends and family were more proactive and vocal, but it didn’t mean that the family didn’t care –they probably didn’t know how to help lang.

RB: Any shout-outs to the awesome people/suppliers who made your creative wedding possible?


Hazel: These people did everything for the love of us-

Thanks to Andy Samaniego (for the awesome photos), Art Director Claude Rodrigo (for the invites and logo), Trisha Uy (for the Final Artwork and styling), Marlon and Kathy Alcantara (for the cake), Lanie Acedillo (for the HMU), MEManila (Mark Esguerra, for editing our AVP and wedding video), Keystone (for the band music), Automobile Association of the Philippines (for allowing us to shoot on their grounds), Perry (for the animation of the digital fireworks), BURP! (for the sponsor’s giveaways)

 Kudos to our other awesome suppliers-


Jorge Palmos (for the collared wedding gown and Mark’s rocker suit), Beginnings Events Management (for being good sports in wedding planning) and Noel Cabangon. Of course other family members, friends and suppliers who donated their time, money and effort to make our wedding rock!

RB: What makes you a "rebellious bride"?


I think the timing was just perfect for a revolution. Just as our entrance song sang- "It's my life, it's now or never..." I had to do everything to make sure that it was MY wedding as well.


By the way, I refuse to use Mark's surname (out of feminist ideals and principles), I'm probably more of a rebellious wife. :-)




RB: What can you advice future brides?

Hazel: ROCK ON!

--mica

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