A Windy Wedding

 

Of all the weddings I attended, ours just happened to be the windiest. The event coordinators had to be creative about keeping all the flowers and decorations in place. The video team tried their best to capture our voices over the din of the howling wind. The photographers risked their safety — as they stood on the big rocks by the cliffside — to document all of our precious moments. The guests struggled to keep their eyes and ears open against the relentless gale. In short, it was #NotYourTypicalWedding; so atypical it was perfect. 

I stood in that gazebo, next to the most important man in my life, and marveled at how it all came together in the most exciting way possible. 

When I went home to Cebu during the spring break (late March and early April 2021), Mike and I agreed to do the wedding on July 27, 2021 — not minding that it was only 3 months away and that we’d be 8,000+ miles apart while we make all the arrangements. Thankfully, Mike and I both shared the same vision of how we wanted our wedding to look like and were able to put in place most of the major pieces —  wedding and reception venues, photographer/videographer, wedding coordinator, electronic invitations — on the last week of my vacation. We even bought the rings (at a great price!) a few days before I flew back to New York. 

When I returned to my apartment in Queens, I immediately booked my flight for June 19 since I need to be back in Cebu at least a month before the wedding to apply for the marriage license in person. On May 25, I received an email from EVA Air stating that they cancelled my June 19 flight because the Philippine government was limiting the number of arriving international passengers to 300 per day. They said they would rebook my flight to June 29 instead. That news would’ve made me anxious had it not been for Mike’s voice in my head saying ‘favor every step of the way’ and God assuring me that everything will be alright.

I agreed to EVA Air’s suggestion to rebook my JFK-TPE-CEB flight to June 29 despite it not being ideal because should the 10-day hotel quarantine (plus an additional 4-day home quarantine) be implemented in Cebu, Mike and I won’t be able to apply for the marriage license until July 14. Since the license has a 10-day processing time, that would be cutting it way too close; it wouldn’t have given us enough time to deal with surprises. 

I looked for other possible flights and the only available ones were EVA Air’s LAX-TPE-CEB on June 22 and Cathay Pacific’s JFK-HKG-CEB on June 17. I booked the June 22 flight without hesitation and kept June 29 as a buffer just in case June 22 gets cancelled. I did not even initially consider booking the Cathay Pacific flight because it was priced at almost 5,000 dollars and I thought it was an outrageous amount for an economy seat. However, when I presented all the options to Mike, he suggested that I book the Cathay Pacific one as well just to be sure. Besides, even if we did end up paying that much for a plane ticket, it would be justifiable because I was going home for a very special reason under really tricky circumstances. I’m glad I listened to him. 

On May 27, we received news that the President of the Philippines ordered all international flights to Cebu to be diverted to Manila from May 29 to June 8 in order to send a message to Cebu’s governor who issued an executive order that international travelers would only be required to quarantine for a day or two in a hotel to wait for the results of the RT-PCR test that was to be administered on the day of arrival. This differed greatly from the national policy that mandated a 10-day hotel quarantine.

On June 8, the flight diversions from Cebu to Manila was extended to June 12 because Governor Garcia and her constituents staunchly defended their position. I was again tempted to wring my hands in anxiety but Mike’s wise words — ‘favor every step of the way’ — kept me calm. God’s gotten us through worse things in 2020 and we both knew He’ll do it again. 

On June 12, the national government gave Gov. Garcia a chance to present her case and that gave us a window of time. Mike and I decided that I should just fly on June 17 to take advantage of that window because the situation was so volatile and unpredictable.

When I arrived in Cebu on June 18, Gov. Garcia’s EO was still in effect so I was tested for COVID that same day and was told that when I get a negative result in the next day or two, I would be released from quarantine and I could go home to my family.

The following day, I woke up early to check whether the Bureau of Quarantine emailed me the RT-PCR test result. Nothing. I checked every hour until 12 noon. Nothing. I decided to take a nap after talking to Mike and resigned myself to the thought that I probably wouldn’t get the result till evening or perhaps the next day. At around 3:00 pm, I was awakened by a text from my mom asking me how I was. After I replied to her text, I thought about checking my email for the results; but I talked myself out of it and tried to go back to sleep because I didn’t want to be disappointed. But a voice in my head kept me up and said that since I was already awake, might as well check my inbox. I was thrilled that I did because I got the result and it was negative. 

The next thing I did was call Mike and told him the good news. He just got out of the shower and said he was gonna go straight to the quarantine hotel to pick me up. Next, I called the hotel’s reception clerk to tell them I got the result and was checking out that same day. I immediately started to get my stuff together while video chatting with Mike. A few minutes later, I received a call from the receptionist asking me if the person who was gonna pick me up was close. I told them he was an hour away. They said I don’t have an hour. The order from the national government just came in and the 10-day quarantine was to be implemented in Cebu as well. They went on to say that if I didn’t want that order to affect me, I needed to check out ASAP because the police and national army were on their way to all the quarantine hotels in Cebu to implement the President’s orders. 

I called Mike and told him the news, dragged my bags from the 7th floor to the lobby, checked out and decided to wait for Mike outside the hotel. When I called him again to let him know I was ready, he advised me to wait somewhere far from the hotel because my presence outside the premises would raise questions. So I dragged my two extra large luggages on unpaved ground for 5 minutes to a restaurant that was two blocks away and waited for Mike there. Whew! It was like a scene from Mission Impossible!

Yes, it all came together in the most exciting and unexpected yet beautiful ways. It had God’s favor stamped all over it. Had I not taken the June 17 Cathay Pacific flight, I probably wouldn’t have made it to my own wedding because the June 22 and June 29 flights I booked as buffers were cancelled by EVA Air because Taipei banned all transit passengers from entering the country due to rising COVID cases; and Philippine Airlines and others didn’t have available flights. 

Had I not checked my email at the time I did, I wouldn’t have checked out of the hotel in time and my quarantine would’ve been extended to 10 days.

Had our wedding not happened on July 27 and postponed till August, my parents, niece, nephews, as well as most of our guests wouldn’t have been able to attend because Cebu was classified under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (level 3) from Aug. 1 to Sept. 7 and gatherings were limited to 10 people only and individuals older than 65 and younger than 18 were mandated to stay home. 

Had it not been a windy day, the sun would’ve been scorching hot — tropical summers could be intense! But the strong breeze cooled everyone and it made for great special effects. It was indeed a winsome windy wedding; and I love how my husband Mike put it: since the Holy Spirit is often likened to the wind in the Bible, it was as though God wanted to manifest His presence that day. He couldn’t have put it any better. 

When God wills it, nothing can stop it. His favor was what we counted on and He gave it to us every step of the way. It was definitely #NotYourTypicalWedding; so atypical it was perfect.