When a wedding photographer weds
Working as a freelance photojournalist does not always make enough money to pay my bills and put food on the table. A sideline is always needed, and for me, it came in the form of photographing weddings. Using a small film camera, I document in black and white other couples' colorful weddings in big churches and their fabulous after-parties.
But when my partner, Angelica, and I decided to get married, we knew we could never afford such grandness, not with our empty bank accounts and almost empty pockets. We had already been living together for almost three years and have two children, and the idea of a big, expensive wedding seemed frivolous.
So we decided that a simple civil wedding would suffice. Like other couples, we spent several days going around the National Statistics Office, lining up at different offices inside Quezon City Hall, almost getting victimized by fixers, and listening to an extremely gender-biased pre-marriage seminar. Finally, we got our marriage license in the last week of March.
Our wedding was finally raffled and assigned to the Metropolitan Trial Court branch 41, under Judge Madonna Echiverri. It was set on May 17, a Thursday, and to be commenced after all criminal and civil cases scheduled for that day were heard. Donning my old white Dhoti, with Angelica wearing a white dress she borrowed from her sister, we came to the Hall of Justice, along with four friends, the only ones who were invited, only to find that all hearings for that day had been cancelled because all judges had been called by the Supreme Court in connection with the ongoing impeachment trial.
Luckily, we caught our judge before she left. Angelica and I got married surrounded by three friends and my partner's sister, all taking turns to be our photographer, make-up artist, driver, bridesmaid, ring bearer, witness, and what-have-yous. We could never afford a professional wedding photographer, so I decided to document our wedding myself with the help of our friends. The ceremony was over in 15 minutes. The reception was held in a small Iranian restaurant on West Avenue in Quezon City, where we occupied a table we hadn't even reserved. That lunch cost us a little over P1,000, but the conversation and laughter were priceless.
The whole affair was done in less than three hours. We went home, took the rest of the day off with our children, and we thought, nothing has really changed. Except that now, we wear on our fingers 500-peso per pair wedding rings we bought from a silver accessory store. – HS, GMA News
But when my partner, Angelica, and I decided to get married, we knew we could never afford such grandness, not with our empty bank accounts and almost empty pockets. We had already been living together for almost three years and have two children, and the idea of a big, expensive wedding seemed frivolous.
So we decided that a simple civil wedding would suffice. Like other couples, we spent several days going around the National Statistics Office, lining up at different offices inside Quezon City Hall, almost getting victimized by fixers, and listening to an extremely gender-biased pre-marriage seminar. Finally, we got our marriage license in the last week of March.
Our wedding was finally raffled and assigned to the Metropolitan Trial Court branch 41, under Judge Madonna Echiverri. It was set on May 17, a Thursday, and to be commenced after all criminal and civil cases scheduled for that day were heard. Donning my old white Dhoti, with Angelica wearing a white dress she borrowed from her sister, we came to the Hall of Justice, along with four friends, the only ones who were invited, only to find that all hearings for that day had been cancelled because all judges had been called by the Supreme Court in connection with the ongoing impeachment trial.
Luckily, we caught our judge before she left. Angelica and I got married surrounded by three friends and my partner's sister, all taking turns to be our photographer, make-up artist, driver, bridesmaid, ring bearer, witness, and what-have-yous. We could never afford a professional wedding photographer, so I decided to document our wedding myself with the help of our friends. The ceremony was over in 15 minutes. The reception was held in a small Iranian restaurant on West Avenue in Quezon City, where we occupied a table we hadn't even reserved. That lunch cost us a little over P1,000, but the conversation and laughter were priceless.
The whole affair was done in less than three hours. We went home, took the rest of the day off with our children, and we thought, nothing has really changed. Except that now, we wear on our fingers 500-peso per pair wedding rings we bought from a silver accessory store. – HS, GMA News
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