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| Photos by myPhotato |
"A rebellious bride to me, should not let tradition or expectation from others get in the way of what she truly wants."
Rebellious Bride Kim Morales-Healey on her definition of a Rebellious Bride
Here in Rebellious Brides, we don't mind featuring weddings that have been published elsewhere--especially if it is a rebellious wedding from the Philippines that has been featured in a foreign blog. To us, it's not so much on whether the content is old or new, but rather, it's about unfolding a new side of the wedding story.
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| Photos by myPhotato |
This is the case with Rebellious Bride Kim, whose rebellious beautiful Cuban wedding got featured in Destination Inspirations (Click here for related article). And a bride who--get this---wore a Mantilla veil (YEY! Click here for related article).
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| Photos by Toto Villaruel |
What makes her wedding rebellious and beautiful at the same time? Well, for starters, their Cuban theme was just so vibrant, colorful, and sexy. I also love that the entourage did not have uniformed bouquets, and that the bride herself was willing to try Vatel's new cotton pod bouquet (which I super love!). And get this--they defied the olden tradition of not seeing each other before the wedding--in fact, they wonderfully captured the moment of being in each others arms before the wedding through their photos and video.
Here's how Rebellious Bride Kim recalls their wedding:
Rebellious Brides: Since your wedding was a Manila-destination wedding, how did you go about selecting your wedding team?
Kim: Manila definitely has an abundance of creative wedding talents. I spent countless hours scouring the web for the best suppliers, reading their reviews and looking at their works over and over and over again.
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| Kim says Toto found ways to make their "crazy day" look beautiful |
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| Kims says myPhotato captured the fun & love of the wedding day |
Having a Cuban wedding in Manila was very important to us so I wanted our suppliers that would best fit us and understand what we were trying to achieve. Actually, I was torn over Toto Villaruel and Myphotato. We got them both because I couldn't let go of the other and it was money well spent. Toto made our crazy day look so utterly beautiful. Whereas, Myphotato did an amazing job capturing how fun and full of love our wedding day was. Not to mention, they created such an amazing SDE that bowled our guests over.
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| Photo by Toto Villaruel |
Vatel Manila, on the other hand, was a no brainer. I only wanted Dylan to create the beautiful bouquets I had in mind. So much so, that I even went as far as getting the Mango Farm for our reception only to secure Vatel Manila as our florists.
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| Photos by myPhotato |
Passion Cooks was a serendipitous discovery. In fact, we already had a caterer booked but when I stumbled upon Maja's works, I knew she would do the better job of executing my ideas and was I right. Every detail was well taken care of. Maja created Cuba in Manila for us. She made Humidors (cuban cigar boxes) complete with authentic Cuban cigar labels, our menus in Spanish, an amazingly beautiful backdrop of vintage Cuban inspired art work painstakingly hand painted on styrofoam and so much more! Throughout the past 8 months that she has been a part of our wedding planning, I have emailed her a ton of ideas that I wanted for the reception and I could not believe that everything I had asked was well executed.
RB: Since your wedding was a destination wedding as well as a creative wedding, what were the challenges that you had to face while planning your wedding and how did you overcome it?
Kim: Planning your wedding from overseas was absolutely daunting. We had originally planned a wedding in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic then ten months into our planning we had to move our wedding across the Pacific to Manila, which to many was wedding suicide. We were already married at a civil ceremony in Vancouver but being born and raised Catholic, I also wanted to get married in a Church. Steven is not Catholic. That presented the biggest challenge for us as the Church had many requirements for a non Catholic to get married in the Church. My husband, bless his heart, for being so patient and gung ho in making sure he got the proper documents and meeting the requirements including enduring a 10 hour Pre-Cana session that was almost all in Tagalog.
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| Photos by myPhotato |
RB: Why did you opt for a Mantilla Veil?
Kim: I've always wanted to wear a Mantilla veil ever since I could remember. The truth is and this may sound absolutely silly, I think covered veils are creepy. Perhaps I can blame this for the many ghost stories our yaya used to tell us when we were little haha. But aside from that, the mantilla is beautiful, very old world (so Cuban) and not to mention, totally saves you from melting because of the heat.
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| Bouquet photos by Toto Villaruel |
RB: The bouquets were to-die for! Why did you decide to have bouquets that were not uniformed?
Kim: I didn't want a "uniformed" look for our wedding. Hence why I chose to have my girls each have a different type of bouquet. Their dresses were a different shade of blue in different dress styles and it was only appropriate that their boquets reflected that as well.
RB: What can you advice to other brides/couples who may be having second thoughts about having a creative wedding?
Kim: Many couples often forget that their wedding is a celebration of their committed love for each other. Your wedding is a reflection of who you are as a couple, so don't be afraid to take risks and go against the grain. So what if you don't want to have 20 pairs of ninongs and ninangs and that you think Chuck Taylors as your wedding shoes are so passe nowadays. Be who you are. Don't do something because you saw someone else do it. Most of all, make your wedding details be meaningful to you as a couple. Not because it's pink and cute and every other bride on the planet has done it already.
Steven and I, were adamant to be surrounded only by the people that loves us on our wedding as it was truly a celebration of our love for each other. We broke some people's hearts when we moved our wedding from the Caribbean to Manila but it was vital that my family who taught me all of life's important lessons and helped me become the woman that I am today be present in the most important day of my life. I am truly blessed that I'm married to a man who always puts my needs before his and only wants to make me happy. I'm incredibly lucky to be able to call him my husband and I, his wife.
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Kim: I could not thank our dream team enough for everything they have done for us. Darlene Tan Salazar and her team at Perfect 10 Weddings were our best friends throughout this process. For without them, our wedding would be an unorganized mess much like Castro's government. Also, can I just note that even though it has been more than a month since our wedding, Darlene is still helping with post wedding details. She has gone above and beyond for us and I'm so grateful that she played a big part in making our dream wedding come true.
Joe San Antonio is hands down among Manila's most talented wedding dress designers. My dress was so much more beautiful in reality than I ever imagined.
Georgina Desuasido and her team did an amazing job with our hair and make up. Is it narcissistic to say that I always look at myself in our wedding photos because my face was flawless thanks to her amazing makeup artistry?
The Virlanie Foundation Children's choir made me cry as I walked down the aisle because their super beautiful rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" moved me to tears. I can not believe how talented these kids are and they were so grateful that they got to be a part of our wedding. I wish we had a wedding every time we come back to Manila just so I can hear them sing.
And of course, I can not praise Mai Castro y Banda Latina enough for making our wedding truly Cuban with their amazing music. It wouldn't have been a Cuban wedding without their wonderful music that even got my Lola swinging her hips and singing her heart out.
And here's their wedding video. Watch out for the part where the couple sees each other before the wedding :)
Congratulations Kim & Steven! Thank you for sharing your rebellious wedding with us :)
XOXO,
Kai
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