LAUREL-OLIVES
The Best Day of Their Lives
Jay Laurel and Kyla Olives met 12 years ago while playing baseball and softball. “Because of our shared passion for competition and a neverending thirst for improving ourselves, sports have always played a big part in our relationship,” shares Kyla. Today, they spend most weekends playing golf with the Laurel and Olives families. Jay proposed in Ilocos, after which the couple decided they didn’t want to have a long engagement, and thus started planning the wedding right away. “We both believe that the recipe for a successful wedding is for the love of the couple to really shine through because it carries the whole mood of the wedding,” says Kyla, “that along with the right mix of the people, good friends, great music, good food, and a lot of booze.”
Because several of their friends had already gone through the wedding planning process, both Jay and Kyla were lucky to receive advice on the do’s and don’ts of the biggest day of their lives. “Being in the creative industry, I was more excited to design the giveaways for the wedding, collaborate with the designers and to work with a lot of talented people,” says Kyla, “all of the talented artists and creative people we worked with were so inspiring and made the whole wedding planning journey more enjoyable.”
They decided on Baguio as the location, a place that had a special place in their hearts. “It brings back childhood feelings of warmth, togetherness, and being able to spend days with family that’s why it was a no brainer to choose Baguio as the destination of our wedding,” says Kyla. She set her heart on the chapel at the Alphaland Baguio Mountain Lodges. “It had the perfect balance between the old and new Baguio, highlighting the beauty of the mountain range in such a unique chapel,” she says.
For the reception, the focus was to look for a place that could fit all their guests, especially their big amount of family members. They decided to go for the Infinity Garden at Baguio Country Club because Jay and Kyla wanted their guests to experience the cool weather in December. “The vibe was classic, understated with unique personal touches. The attire was chic, with hints of modern Filipiniana details. Deep jewel tones and bright colors in bold prints were highly encouraged,” says Kyla, “I wanted to see our guests pop in the midst of all the blues and greens and for them to also have fun with their outfits.”
“Our wedding was exactly how we wanted it and is still the best day of our lives,” says Kyla, reflecting a few months later. “We made sure that we made decisions that would make us happy as a couple rather than following the usual wedding formula.” In planning the event, Kyla made sure to show restraint. “I always asked myself ‘Will this make the wedding more meaningful?’” she says. Some of the unique aspects of their wedding included Jay asking his grandmother to walk him down the aisle, and having his father be his best man. Kyla had her brother be her “bridesman” and have their brothers walk down the aisle, side by side. Their wedding cake had two cheeky barrel men and women with their pictures attached to it. They had a rustic lechon baka rather than roast beef or steak, and they chugged a champagne toast to see who would rule the household (“I won twice by the way but I’m sure Jay would say otherwise.”) They played couple games to celebrate (highly celebrated by their single guests), and sang happy birthday at the end of the night for Kyla’s mom and sister. “These small details made the wedding feel like it was ours and everyone else’s and if we could, we would pause the last few hours of our party and extend it to a few more hours so we could relive that moment forever,” says Kyla.