Mimie & Galo’s weird and wonderful Wonderland wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Mimie, Artist/Teacher/Student

Her offbeat partner: Galo, Web Designer

Date and location of wedding: L'Aquinum Garden, Charlemagne Street, Kingsville Executive Village 1870 Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines — March 23, 2014

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We wanted to do a really simple, laid-back wedding, but it eventually turned out bigger than we anticipated. Thankfully, some of the expenses were graciously shouldered by some family members. We asked a few friends and relatives for help, too, which eventually made our plans evolve along the way as they got excited about certain things. We had some Alice in Wonderland touches throughout.

Our guests wore their own outfits to the celebration, too. The best man and the man of honor had matching ties, but that's about it. At first it was supposed to be sort of vintage-y and simple until Galo and I decided to go with more modern outfits. My dress had gold spikes!

Tell us about the ceremony:
I'm a (not really practicing much) Roman Catholic, and he's Baptist. For me, it was kind of funny and weird having agreed to a Baptist ceremony, but also really meaningful because they accepted me for who I am. Because I wasn't used to this kind of ceremony, I was surprised by a few things. Suddenly, there were moments like “honoring your parents” and saying our own vows, which I didn't know would be included in the ceremony until that moment. I was trembling from laughter and embarrassment. Both of us are introverts, so it was a little nerve-wracking.

Afterwards, our friends lined up on the sides of the aisle and threw petals at us as we walked. It was so sweet since they just did it out of nowhere, using the petals scattered around their seats.

Our biggest challenge:
Our biggest challenge was hiding some things we planned for the event. Since family members and some friends were really excited about the wedding, it took all our effort to not talk about my dress or his jacket, the bible and rings that we planned for the bearer to bring, and many other little details.

Also, there were things that people offered us for elements of the wedding that we had already planned. We didn't know how to break it to them that we already had plans for those specific things, and had to just go through with what we initially planned.

Lastly, at the reception, a game we planned for the single guys went awry. We planned to have them play Old Maid using gigantic cards, which went missing! So we just repeated the quiz game meant for girls, which was having them line up to the name of the person they guess matches the description on the questionnaire (like “who is injured more often”). It turns out that we left the cards at the hotel, so everyone just went and had an after-party at our hotel playing giant poker!

My favorite moment:
I thought I would feel self-concious when our parents gave a dedication about us in front of all the guests, but we loved it. My mom said “Vitamin C” was needed in married life: “commitment, compassion, and Christ,” and his mom reaffirmed the sermon about how we should love each other as it is said in the bible, despite troubles coming to face us. My dad gave a speech about how we suited each other since Galo is a computer engineer graduate, and I'm in the arts, hence we were left brain and right brain.

My funniest moment:
For me, the funniest moment was when Galo clinked his own glass to kiss me! After that, people didn't clink their glass anymore since they seemed like they only wanted us to feel embarrassed. We might both be introverts, but we aren't embarrassed of each other!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Dress: designed by my college batchmate, Porfi Medina
• Makeup: Beauty and the Bee
• Designs and food: Sweet Onion Catering
• Photography: Niño Ventura

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!