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A & P13 February 2027

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Married13 February

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The day

Where to be,
and when

Ceremony
2:30 PM
Reception
5:00 PM
Between them
10 min

Two venues, one street apart. Everything below is the real order of the day, including the fifteen minutes of photographs that will take thirty.

The nave of San Agustin from the back, empty pews either side of a stone aisle, chandeliers lit and afternoon light falling across the floor.

The ceremony

The nave, before
anyone is in it

Cool stone, two chandeliers and a side door that is the quiet way in. Seated by 2:15 PM, please — the doors close for the processional.

San Agustin Parish · the nave

The day

The day,
hour by hour

Married
2:34 PM
Last song
10:30 PM
Last guest
1:20 AM

Two venues, one street apart, and every hour of it below in the order it happened, with the photograph of it. The fifteen minutes of photographs took thirty, as promised.

Andrea and Paolo at the altar, photographed from behind the congregation.

The ceremony

The nave,
every pew taken

Two chandeliers, four hundred years of stone, and the side door wedged open for the ones who came at twenty past.

San Agustin Parish · the nave

The day in numbers

At dinner
112
Seconds before Paolo answered
4
Tries to pin the veil
3
Stood with us
27
Lechons, one of them unasked for
2
Of your song requests, played
4
Posts kept from your phones
—
Minutes on foot between the two
10

  1. 1:45 PM

    The doors opened

    The front pews were full by two. Tita Baby had been in hers since half past one, with a fan and a view.

    Three aunts squeezed into a phone selfie in a church pew, fans in hand.
    Posted from the front pew by Tita Baby

  2. 2:19 PM

    The processional

    The doors closed at a quarter past. Andrea’s father checked his watch four times, and they started four minutes late.

    The processional seen from the back of the nave, the bride on her father’s arm far down the aisle between full pews.
    From the back of the nave

  3. 2:34 PM

    The vows

    Both of them had notes. Neither used them. The pause before Paolo answered was four seconds, and the parish carried every one of them to the back.

    Andrea and Paolo at the altar, photographed from behind the congregation.
    From behind the congregation

  4. 3:50 PM

    Out onto the steps

    Petals, then the whole party on one flight of steps, for once standing where they were told to stand.

    The whole wedding party ranged across the wide stone steps of San Agustin in late-afternoon sun, the couple together at the centre.
    The west steps

  5. 4:20 PM

    Ten minutes alone

    They took the east cloister on the way out and nobody followed them. We have not asked what was said.

    Andrea and Paolo far down the east cloister, alone, seen from behind in the late light.
    The east cloister

  6. 5:00 PM

    Cocktails in the courtyard

    Calamansi, the heat, and a hundred people finding out who else they knew.

    A glass of calamansi juice held up in the adobe courtyard at golden hour.
    Posted from the courtyard by Gabby S.

  7. 6:00 PM

    Dinner

    A hundred and twelve at the long tables upstairs. The lechon was located at 6:14. The vegetarian kare-kare ran out first; Lola’s recipe is below the hours.

    The dinner room at Casa Marfil full, long tables of guests under hanging lanterns and candles, seen from the head of the room.
    Upstairs at Casa Marfil

  8. 7:30 PM

    The toasts

    Bea spoke for nine minutes and Enrique for two. Both of them made Andrea’s mother cry.

    A guest in a burgundy terno standing to raise a glass mid-toast at the long table, the guests around her laughing.
    The maid of honour, minute six

  9. 8:00 PM

    The first dance, then everyone

    Then the money dance, then Da Coconut Nut, at Table 11’s request.

    A motion-blurred last dance under courtyard lights.
    The courtyard

  10. 10:30 PM

    The last song

    Then the long goodbye in the courtyard. The last guest left at twenty past one, along General Luna, shoes in hand.

    Guests holding candles on both sides of the courtyard gate at night as the couple walks out between them over scattered petals, seen from behind.
    The courtyard gate

  11. The next morning

    The morning after

    The veil over a chair, the envelopes counted, and two glasses nobody finished.

    The morning after: the lace veil draped over a carved chair by a tall window, two glasses of champagne and a red rose on the table beside it.
    Calle Real, the next morning
A clay pot of vegetarian kare-kare from above: a thick orange peanut sauce with fried tofu, eggplant, string beans, pechay and banana heart, a small dish of bagoong and a bowl of rice beside it on a woven mat.

The one Tita Baby asked for

Lola’s kare-kare, the vegetarian one

Serves eight · about two hours · from Andrea’s grandmother, written down for the first time

You need

  • 1 cup glutinous rice, toasted dry in a pan and ground
  • 1 cup unsweetened peanut butter, or 1½ cups roasted peanuts, ground
  • 2 tablespoons annatto seeds, soaked in ½ cup warm water
  • 6 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 head of garlic, minced, and 2 onions, sliced
  • 400 g firm tofu, cubed and fried
  • 1 banana heart, sliced and kept in salted water
  • 2 bundles of string beans, in finger lengths
  • 3 long eggplants, sliced on the bias
  • 2 bundles of pechay
  • Salt, rice, and bagoong to serve (a vegan one, made from salted black beans)

Then

  1. Strain the annatto water and keep the colour; throw away the seeds.
  2. Soften the garlic and onions in a little oil. Add the stock and the annatto water and bring it to a simmer.
  3. Stir in the peanut butter until smooth, then the ground rice a spoonful at a time, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Salt it.
  4. Blanch each vegetable on its own so it keeps its colour, and lay them on the sauce with the tofu.
  5. Serve it with rice and the bagoong on the side. Lola says the bagoong is not optional, even when it is a vegan one.

A cobbled Intramuros street on the walk between church and reception.

Between the two

Ten minutes, one street

Flat cobbles the whole way, and shuttles at 4:45 and 5:15 PM for anyone who would rather not.

General Luna Street

Andrea and Paolo walking away down a cobbled Intramuros street toward the reception.

Between the two

Ten minutes, one street

Most of you walked it at a quarter to five, and the shuttles ran half empty. Nobody lost a heel.

General Luna Street

Where they are

One street, ten minutes

Choose a mark for the address and what is there. The line between the two venues is the straight-line distance; the walk itself follows one street.

Every mark sits at its surveyed coordinates and every distance here is computed from them. Casa Marfil is invented for this design study — the church and the landmarks are real. No streets or walls are drawn, because we would be guessing at their shape: the walk between the two is one street, General Luna, which older maps call Calle Real del Palacio.

What to wear

Formal Filipiniana

Which means four colours, two shapes, and shoes you can walk on stone in.

  1. Ivory
  2. Sand
  3. Clay
  4. Deep red
  5. Not white
Andrea and Paolo standing together in a stone arcade, she in a long ivory gown seen from behind, he in an embroidered piña barong.
The two shapesA long gown and a barong. Either reads correctly all afternoon and all evening.
Four folded fabric lengths laid on pale stone: embroidered ivory piña, sand raw silk, clay linen and deep burgundy silk, with a sprig of dried foliage beside them.
The four colours, in clothIvory piña, sand raw silk, clay linen, burgundy silk. Any of these, in any weight.

For him

  • Barong tagalog, or a dark suit if you would rather.
  • Barong wins on comfort at five in the afternoon — February, and the courtyard is open to the sky.

For her

  • A long dress or a terno, in any of the four above.
  • A shawl for after eight. The courtyard cools quickly once the sun is properly down.
Low block-heeled ivory shoes and the hem of a long dress, standing on uneven old cobblestones in late afternoon light.

One warning

On heels

The church floor is four-hundred-year-old stone and the ten-minute walk to dinner is cobbled the whole way. Heels have lost here before. A low block heel is the sensible answer — and there are shuttles at 4:45 and 5:15 PM for anyone who would rather not walk at all.

What everyone wore

Formal Filipiniana,
as promised

Ivory, sand, clay and deep red, and not one white dress. Photographed by you, on your phones, and posted to the wall.

Three aunts squeezed into a phone selfie in a church pew, fans in hand.
Guests throwing white petals on the church steps as the couple walks out.
Two cousins in Filipiniana sleeves taking a mirror selfie in an old powder room.
Peso bills pinned to the back of Paolo’s barong during the money dance.
A crowd of cousins in a front-camera flash selfie at the reception.
A glass of calamansi juice held up in the adobe courtyard at golden hour, guests in barong and Filipiniana behind it.

Heels on the cobbles: two casualties, both recovered. Choose any photograph to open it full size, or see everything you posted.

Coming from further

Getting here, and staying over

Into Manila

NAIA is forty minutes from the walls on a good afternoon and ninety on a bad one. If you are flying in on the day itself, fly in the morning.

Terminals 1 and 3 both work. Book a car rather than queue for one.

Inside the walls

Intramuros has seven gates and a one-way system that defeats most map apps. Ask for Puerta Real and General Luna Street rather than for the church.

Street parking is gone by two. The pay lot two blocks east is reliable, and rides home are easiest from the Calle Real corner, not the courtyard gate.

Where to stay

A small guest room seen through an open doorway: a low bed under a plain cream cover with a folded towel on it, a dark wooden floor, and a shuttered window standing open onto a balustrade.
  • Casa Blanca IntramurosFour minutes on foot · around ₱4,500
  • The Postigo Guest HouseNine minutes on foot · around ₱2,800
  • Bayside, ErmitaFifteen minutes by car · the chain hotels

Invented for this design study, like Casa Marfil. On a real Wedsite these are the couple's own three picks, with their booking codes.

A Spanish-colonial stone gateway into the walled city photographed from outside in early morning light, the road passing through the arch into shadow and out into sun.
The way in. Ask for the gate, not the church.

The two places

The parish façade photographed from across the street.
The church, from General Luna.
A cobbled Intramuros street on the walk between church and reception.
The walk between them.
A stone courtyard set with tables and hanging lights for cocktails.
Casa Marfil courtyard.

On gifts

Come, eat, stay late

There is no registry, and there is nothing to click here. The two of them have a flat that is already full of plates.

If you would like to give something anyway — and Filipino families generally would — an envelope on the day is the kindest form, and the ninongs and ninangs have offered to keep them safe. Anything at all is more than enough; several of you are travelling from further than we would have asked.

If you would rather not, please do not. Sit at your table, take the second dessert, and stay for the last song.

On gifts

You came, you ate,
you stayed late

That was the gift we asked for, and almost all of you gave it until one in the morning.

The ninongs and ninangs kept every envelope safe, as they said they would. We have written to each of you by hand, which is taking longer than the wedding did. If yours has not arrived, it is on its way.

The courtyard at night: candles and glasses down a long table, festoon lights overhead and the lit parish façade beyond the wall.

Still wondering

Ten more answers,
on their own page

Children, parking, what time it ends, whether there is a registry, and where a dietary note goes so you only have to say it once.

Read the questions

Casa Marfil, the courtyard

The courtyard at night: candles and glasses down a long table, festoon lights overhead and the lit parish façade beyond the wall.

Still wondering

Questions after,
on their own page

Where the photographs are, how to get yours in full size, the thank-you cards, and the anniversary.

Read the questions

Casa Marfil, the courtyard