Hey all, I have a beautiful destination wedding to share with you today in swoon worthy colors of turquoise and tangerine.   April & Santi’s breathtaking ocean side wedding captured by One Happy Story, took place at the Pearl Farm Beach Resort in Davao city, Philippines.

Take a look-see at lovely pic’s of their wedding and make sure to read April’s comments at the end of the post, especially the story on how Santi proposed-  it’s just darling.

From the Bride, April:

How did you meet? (Our story in a nutshell)

Santino and I met when I was vacationing in the US and helping out my sister during her last trimester of pregnancy. My sister wanted an OB-GYN that our family knew and somebody she’ll be comfortable with. Since Santino’s family and my family have been good friends for 3 generations now, Santino’s dad became my sister’s OB and my sister and I stayed with his parents while waiting for the baby.

He came in one day during a family gathering in San Diego. He was fixing his bag and had his back turned when I first saw him. He turned around and approached me as his mom introduced him to me. He says that on that night we met, he told his dad that he found me interesting. I started seeing him at his parents’ more often after that…almost every weekend. I had gotten close with his family including him as we started to talk more. Before I left for the Philippines, he expressed how he felt about me through a handwritten letter and a playlist.

How did He Propose?

Santino loves to draw so he planned on proposing by drawing and making an alphabet book about significant things/words in our relationship. He learned how to make a book the old school way…printing out the pages, cutting them, stitching the pages together, and then gluing it all together as one book block. Since there were only 13 page (26 letters, double-sided printing), he had to make the book extra thick to house the ring. He glued the remaining blank pages together to make an inch-thick block of paper that would turn into his ring box. He asked his sister/maid of honor to make a little pocket the ring could sit in. After about a week, the book was printed, bound, and a hole cut into it…it would sit for another month before making an international flight with him to the Philippines for our anniversary.

We celebrated our anniversary at Pearl Farm Beach Resort, one of our favorite resorts that we always go to whenever he visits me in the Philippines. We relaxed on the main island for a little bit until we decided to take a quick speedboat ride to Malipano Island, a private island across the main resort. On our way to the beach area, we saw the little chapel and he suggested we take a little rest at the chapel. I’ve never been to Malipano, so I was a little busy looking around the area. As we sat there he tells me that he has an anniversary gift for me. He handed me the wrapped book, and I was surprised to see the book he made me. He told me to read it aloud. As I started, I turned…to letter C. He said he got nervous at that point because the ring at the back of the book might fall out.

“You know..I will turn the page and you read it aloud instead…”, He said.

I laughed and started to read anyway…letter A, then letter B…and as I was going through each letter, I noticed his hands were shaking more and more as we got to W… “Will you…”

X  (kiss? [he said:what else would you have used for letter X? Xylophone?])

Y…   “please say Yes?”

He completely skipped Z and turned the page to reveal the ring and he got down on 2 knees ( He was already kneeling on one knee, since we were practically sitting on the ground).

Confused, I said, “what…is this? Is this for real? Oh my God…oh my God”. Or something to that effect.

“As real as it gets. Will you marry me?”

I couldn’t say anything at that moment. I started to tear up.

“Is that a yes?”, He asked.

“Uh…let me think about it,” I jokingly said.

Two seconds after that, I said my sweet “Yes…”

We were married at that very spot where he proposed.
What was your Wedding Planning, Inspiration and Style

We wanted our wedding to be special and to be very “us” so even if we hired wedding coordinators, we were very hands-on with everything from the planning, decisions on the details, choosing our wedding suppliers and even designing/making items such as wedding invitations, logo, place cards, guest book, etc. We revolved around a beach destination wedding theme and we made our invitations look like vacation booklets that had inserts of tours and even boarding passes for the boat ride to the island! We chose the colors turquoise and tangerine because they make a bright and happy combination which was perfect for our beach wedding.

We are also blessed with family and relatives that were willing to help out and share their time and skills for the wedding: my now sister-in-law and maid of honor designed my wedding gown, my other sister-in-law designed our invitations, my cousin made the ceremony accessories (bible, cord, coin and ring bearer’s shells), my sister helped out with the reception program, and many more. It was indeed a great family effort and that made our wedding extra special.

What was your Favorite memory of the day?

My favorite memory was watching the fireworks while being surrounded by our closest friends and relatives. It was the perfect fairytale ending to our reception and definitely the perfect start to the after-party!

Photographer: One Happy Story

Event Venue: Pearl Farm Beach Resort