Life’s A Beach In Boracay

When Cy met Kai, he said it was “love at first sight”. For Kai however, she needed a little more convincing. Even a chance visit to a fortune teller foretold what was to be between the couple. Kai: “I’d never met the fortune teller before but she managed to guess Cy’s initials, described how he looked (even his hair!) and told me that out of all the guys I’d met – he was the kindest and that it would lead to marriage. Of course, I didn’t take the fortune teller seriously… back then!”. Flash forward to the not-too-distant future, and after proposing to Kai with a pair of engagement earrings (to be different from the norm), the couple chose to marry in Boracay, one of Asia’s most popular destinations for a beach wedding.

And by the way, if you’re one of our regular readers with a sharp eye to boot, you may recognize the couple from our previous post with celebrity wedding videographer Jason Magbanua. After seeing her wedding video on WGA, Kai kindly sent us these gorgeous pics from her destination wedding – that involved 35 guests, 6 venues and a whole lot of shoes. My thoughts? I’m seriously thinking of Boracay for my next holiday!

Enjoy xx

Why were you set on Boracay?

One of the first things Cy and I discovered about each other when we were still in the “getting-to-know-you” stage, was that we both dreamed of having a beach wedding. And it HAD to be in Boracay because for the 8 years that I’ve been going to the island, it has become my personal vision to get married there. Cy and I both love the local food, places, spas, hotels, and of course, the beach of Boracay. We did not want to have a ‘polished’ wedding with the usual cookie-cutter Boracay Wedding that typically consists of sandcastles, fireworks, golf carts and a hotel reception. We wanted to make it as natural, laidback and fun as possible.

Your wedding sounds like an Amazing Race in itself with six venues!

Haha, yes it was! We had 35 of our closest friends and family attend and whisked them off to our favourite parts of the island. The day started at Breakfast in Real Coffee (our favorite breakfast place in the island), wherein we introduced our wedding vendors to our entourage and to set the pace of the day – shared our love story with everyone.

After which it was off to the award-winning Mandala Spa for some R&R, then to get ready for the wedding ceremony, which was held by The White House resort beach. For the dinner reception, we chose True Food (Boracay’s Indian Restaurant), where there were a lot of heartfelt speeches from our wedding vendors, family, and friends. And to top it off, we held ‘Best Dressed’ awards for our guests!

The 'Welcome Kit' for guests

We love the thought you put into the decor and the little details. Tell us more.

Our theme was literally “The Bora Hop” – we let the island itself guide us. To get everyone in the mood, I made a ‘Welcome Kit’ that had everything from tips on where to go and what to do, personalised bottled water, custom-made travel tissue packs, hand paper fans, and even a notepad to doodle on.

Personalisation was really important to me so we had lots of quirky and creative decor such as: Kate Spade spinwheels (which we collected from various Kate Spade outlets), beach buckets and I made the little ‘sniff’ icon for the tissue packs.

I also had a one-of-a-kind brooch bouquet that was made by a good friend, Maribelle Gubuan. The pieces were all vintage and had a lot of enamel flowers, which she handpicked herself. The “Kai” pendant was my own personal touch for the bouquet. I chose to have a brooch bouquet because it is something that I can have forever – an heirloom. Plus, I have 2 more weddings to come so having this will definitely come in handy!

My husband’s Nike shoes, that paired well with our baby blue parasols and his brooch boutonierre! I had 3 pairs to change into… a girl’s gotta do, what a girl’s gotta do ;)

Boracay has a great nightlife; did you have an afterparty?
Of course! After dinner, we had drinks at the Bamboo Lounge (one of Boracay’s beach front bars), where we hosted a firedance show for our guests over popcorn, hukas and mangojitos. All in all, the entire itinerary started at 8:00AM and ended the next day around 1:00AM. Now that’s what you call a beach wedding *wink*.

Was it easy to plan your destination wedding? Any tips for the girls?
To be completely honest, it wasn’t easy because guests can be difficult to please. And not all of them will be able or willing to go, because of the expenses. But follow your heart. If it’s really what you want as a couple, you should fight for your own dream wedding. Planning the wedding however, was easy because of my wedding coordinator, Amanda Tirol. She is known as the “Queen of Boracay” so we were in the best of hands. So if I have a tip for destination weddings, get the best wedding coordinator wherever you are and this will be YOUR KEY to success!

Lastly, when it was all over – weren’t you and Cy exhausted?!
We were exhausted but happy. Our wedding was just the way we envisioned it to be from start to finish, top to bottom. We planned the wedding for 12 MONTHS, so to see it finally unfold was surreal for us. To help ease our stress, we made sure to have spa treatments before, during, and after the wedding! And we stayed on in Boracay for a week after the wedding, to sit back, relax, and catch up on our sleep!

Kai & Cy’s Little White Book

Bridal Dress: Hindy Weber-Tantoco

Bridal Shoes: Kate Spade and Michael Kors

Groom’s Tuxedo: Linea Italia

Florist: April & Karen Yu

Hair & Make-up: Mica Tuano

Photographer: Mango Red

Wedding Planner: Amanda Tirol, Boracay Weddings

Prints: WeddingPaperDivas.com

Wedding Props: Beau-Coup.com

Wedding Album: Blurb.com

* And of course, Wedding Videography was from Jason Magbanua!