Rebellious Couple - Mark & Punky's Munky Bizniz Wedding! (Part Two)

Photos by Mango Red

Hey guys! Have you been waiting for the Part Two of Mark & Punky's Munky Bizniz wedding? In the first part of the feature, we set the tone by sharing with you all the creative development and the thought process that our crazy couple went through during their wedding preps. In this second part of the feature, we will zero in on the challenges they have had to face during their wedding preps, the wonderful support that they have gotten from their families (truly an inspiration!), and more advice from the bride on how to pursue your wedding dreams--rebellious and twisted as it may seem.Read on! 

Rebellious Brides: What were the challenges that you had to face since your wedding is non-traditional and how did you overcome these challenges?

Punky: Fortunately, most of our friends and family loved the Munky Bizniz concept. It made them raise their eyebrows then laugh and smile. The wedding also had its traditional elements such as getting an events hall in Metro Manila (instead of out-of-town, which we considered) to make it easier for our guests to travel to the event.

We had a Catholic ceremony with classic wedding vows in lieu of personal ones. Mark observed that nowadays, it has become the norm to do personalized vows that read like a history of the couple. Although we believe that couples must do whatever they’re comfortable with, we personally felt that custom vows have the tendency to sound like a speech. Doing it traditionally actually becomes rebellious but more importantly, it was our way of maintaining the solemnity of the ceremony.

However, as far as planning was concerned, one of the earlier challenges was finding a creative venue such as a museum but they were either too expensive to rent or didn’t allow weddings. We couldn’t believe it when the National Museum actually told us that the rates were high because they wanted to discourage weddings!

Lastly, the bigger difficulties were no different from the same challenges as traditional weddings, particularly, to accommodate all the comments of family without it taking over our vision. Moreover, there were the usual physical and emotional challenges of cramming last minute tasks, disagreeing with one’s fiancée on various details/logistics and getting cold feet. Thankfully, we had our support system of friends and family to help us through. The wedding lasts for 8 to 12 hours, but your loved ones will always be there, before and after the big day.

RB: What makes you a Rebellious Bride?

Punky: I believe that it was my resolve to come with a wedding that was as conceptually creative as possible. Thankfully, I have a partner who thinks out-of-the-box as well.

RB: What advice can you give to other brides who may be having second thoughts about having a rebellious wedding?

Punky: Go ahead and have the rebellious wedding of your dreams but at the same time, make it as fun and comfortable for your friends and family. We really made sure that our guests were as entertained as possible especially because a big part of Mark’s family came home from the US, including his mom and stepfather who are based in New York. This made us feel so honored and blessed. A majority of them have not returned to the Philippines in about 2 decades, while it was the first time for Mark’s younger nieces and nephews. We wanted them to have an amazing experience with an out-of-the-box Pinoy wedding.

My best advice is to give a lot of thought to your overall concept, which was something I learned from working on campaigns for advertising clients. If you can, don’t look at wedding magazines first! Do so later on, once you have your concept in place. Wedding magazines are best for researching suppliers and getting inspiration in terms of the look of your event. Personally, I recommend the annual Real Simple Weddings magazine, which features a slew of super creative weddings and very little advertisements!

To explain it easier to other brides, think about you and your fiancee as a brand. What makes you unique? This could be your shared hobbies, favorite films/books, even your crazy quirks. What are your values as a couple? Only you can answer these. For example, have you been together for more than a decade and happen to be wine enthusiasts at the same time? Perhaps you can build a concept around wine and relationships getting better through the years.

Secondly, in terms of executing your wedding, inject your personality into the details. What are your favorite colors, flowers, etc. This is where the magazines come in. Build a mood board on the website, pinterest.com! Finally, I understand that work and life can get in the way, but try to DIY where possible. We didn’t source an invitation company and did the layout and text with the help of creative friends. I also highly recommend taking one or two trips to Divisoria/Tutuban to shop for props, bridal accessories, prizes, etc. I got a lot of our playroom toys and production design details at these places. Besides, they now have very clean comfort rooms (especially Tutuban Mall!) which make the trip much more comfortable!

Other Tips!

• Eat an oily breakfast of eggs and bacon for energy and a dose of happiness. Because nothing makes one happier than hot eggs and crisp bacon! 

• Bring fabric tape for emergencies.

• Don’t embarrass guests with games that put them on the spot. Some people may not be comfortable with having their single-dom exposed hence we must respect that.

• Give useful souvenirs. In line with the brand launch theme, we gave office notepads with our logo to guests and artisan coffee mugs to VIPS.

• Finally, whatever your taste is, be it classic or crazy, choose suppliers who fit your personal style, budget and needs, rather than choosing suppliers because they’re IN. 

• When nervous, just ham it up and laugh!

• Laugh with your suppliers—and feed them well!

• Don’t cover your tattoos. =)

RB: Any shout-outs to your suppliers and other people who made your creative ideas come to life?

Punky: The most important people to acknowledge would be OUR PARENTS (both our moms and dads as well as Mark’s stepfather) who not only funded the wedding, but provided emotional support and newlywed advice before and after the event. Because of them, our guests were more than well-fed, the entourage looked dashing, everybody enjoyed amazing entertainment and later went home with wonderful prizes and souvenirs.

We were able to work with great suppliers including: C3 Events Place - Event venue and catering, Clint Carl, Dangwa for the church and reception flowers and Michi Calica Flowers for the entourage, Photography by Mangored, whose photos perfectly captured all the fun elements at the wedding, from preps to the amazing band performances. Plus, the MangoBoys laugh as hard as we do. 

Claire de Guzman and Sonny Mar Roxas, who did the make-up and hair alongside kwentuhan and tawanan, Paul Syjuco of Aum Jewels, who created the rings, which connect to form an infinity symbol, Aileen and Ed Paman - Aileen and her husband were instrumental in providing a lot of wedding elements. They own DeFacto Industry, which supplied the bespoke suits of the groom and mother of the bride. They manage the wedding band, Flippin’ Soul Stompers (FSS). They also referred us to the lights and sounds supplier. 

Entertainment by Flippin’ Soul Stompers (FSS), Romeo Lee and Blidit – One of the best parts of the wedding—EVERYBODY, young and old from my 1 year old nephew to Mark’s titas had a smashing good time! FSS frontman, Bing Austria, is a good friend of Mark’s hence there was a lot of jamming between them. Artist Romeo Lee is also a good friend and bandmate. Lee jammed with FSS as well with Mark’s latest band, Blidit, with best man, Jing Gaddi on bass and brother, Ryan Villena on drums. Some of our guests sang along too! 

Videography by Cinematic Concepts, led by Iggy Bilbao, who constantly reminded me to relax, eat and relax some more. Rustan’s VIP coordinator, Michelle, who took care of all fittings and alterations for the entourage dresses; and alerted us to price reductions so that we could save further. Kathy Guillermo, our wedding coordinator, and the Imagik team. She was my very supportive yaya that day! =)

Before I end this feature, can I just say that I am jealous by the sheer thought of Bing Austria being a part of the entertainment for the wedding? Haha! 

There is no denying that this wedding is really one for the books. But the valuable insights that the bride shared in this feature adds more texture and depth into the wedding. Wedding planning can be overwhelming and the thought of getting through the basics of one can already turn off a couple into further enhancing it. Always remember that it is your choice whether to keep your wedding simple, creative, elaborate, or grand. The important thing is to create your wedding on the basis of what makes YOU as a couple happy. 

XOXO,

Kai

*follow us on twitter! @RebelliousBride

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