Michael Ong & Katrina Perez
A Blend of Rock and Roll and Delphiniums
Just like any other couple, Michael and I may share a lot of similarities but we certainly have a lot of glaring differences. These differences range from minute to mundane to monumental. One of our biggest differences is manifest in a long-standing battle between the affordable and the extravagant. I have always preferred the simple and thrifty, and he has always favored the opulent and spendthrift. Surely nothing brings out this monumental difference better than wedding planning.
It took compromise and great resolve to make our wedding neither only speak of my frugality nor only display his taste for the extravagant. We wanted it to be the perfect representation of our individual selves and our identity as a couple. Michael made sure we were decked out in the finest wedding clothes possible, insisting on only the best no matter the cost. I convinced Michael to defer from using lavish yet sometimes excessive flowers and chandeliers, and opt for more restrained yet elegant ceiling of lights with minimal flower arrangements.
Despite all the differences and all the compromise, it was clear to us that we were not going to compromise on a long forgotten and often ignored detail in weddings: the music. Michael and I have always had a passion and great love for music.
“Are you absolutely sure you want to walk down the aisle to the Foo Fighters?” I asked Michael a week before our wedding. “Are you absolutely sure you want Karma Chameleon for the father-daughter dance?” was his only response. Five days before the wedding, we would ask our Musical Director to arrange Toto’s Africa for our grand entrance.
Aside from the eclectic choice of music for moments usually meant for more tear-jerking songs, we decided to forgo an orchestra and opted for an 18-piece Big Band for the reception. And so, we traded winds and strings for rhythm and brass, and replaced worn out love songs for standards and swings. There was reluctance as to how the music would sit with our guests, who ranged from the ages of 2 to 90, but it was the one thing we had agreed upon instantaneously and we vowed to make it a highlight on the day we are to present ourselves as one.
Our wedding day came and whatever apprehensions we had in our choices and decisions were left in the back burner. Outside the ballroom double doors, as I waited to march on to my happily ever after, I heard the unmistakable sound of the 1999 Rock and Roll anthem “Learn to Fly”, albeit played by a string quintet. It was one of the strangest songs for a wedding march, but it somehow was the most fitting for us. Who knew that Rock and Roll went well with Delphiniums and Gypsophila perfectly arranged in green foliage.