Filipiniana-Themed
Wedding
How to Have An All-Filipino Wedding
in the 21st Century
A
Filipiniana wedding can be as grandiose
or as simple as the budget can hold.
Do
you know?
Multi-awarded
production designer Dez
Bautista helmed the motif and décor
of the Filipinas 19th-century wedding of celebrities
Bong Revilla and Lani Mercado in the Centennial
Year of the Philippine Revolution.
Barbie’s
had it, why can’t you? These days when themed
weddings have become the milieu for most nuptials, a
Filipiniana wedding is not only close to the heart,
it’s also friendly to the pocket.
Design
by QP Designs.
Invitations
Handmade paper based on home-grown fibers like abaca
and salago blended with banana bark or rice
chaff are widely available these days in the market.
Consult
your social printer for your choices. Using the Filipino
language would emphasize on your guests the Filipiniana
theme of your wedding.
Trousseau
Be your very own Maria Clara! With panuelo
to boot. Perhaps a dalagang bukid or a mestiza
terno would fit you well. How about a Bridal
Kimona?
The
groom too, will have a wide array of garment choices,
from the traditional barong, to the Emilio
Aguinaldo attire, as did Bong Revilla at his 1998 wedding
to Lani Mercado.
In
traditional Filipino context, a kimona is a
semi-transparent flowing blouse of jusi or
pinya fabric with colorful undergarments, often
worn along with a one piece cylindrical skirt that is
tied around the waistline and reaches the heels.
Exploit the Capiz shell! Cake stands and table napkins,
leis, wind chimes and all! Check out the coco pokalets,
coco heische, some puka shells and buri seeds too.
Registry
Having a Filipiniana wedding does not mean you’d
have to live with a 16th century gift registry. Look
forward to your future and register away items you not
only need, but want in your new life together.
Favors
Favors
can go from candles to soaps, edible and potable, engraved
and monogrammed. All of which, of course can come in
Filipiniana fashion.
The
trick is to use indigenous materials! Our picks: flavored
lambanog in a bamboo or abaca wine holder, miniature
wicker basket of goodies (relative to your own definition
of “goodies”), potpourri wrapped in sinamay
fabric.
Filipino
Music has evolved so much throughout the ages that there
is more than a century’s worth of choices ranging
from the Kulintang to Kundiman, Levy
Celerio to Rey Valera, not to mention the serenade of
wooden flutes and organs.
*
Always consult your wedding planner, and most of all,
your partner.
