Exactly a month ago, we took our first flights since the pandemic began to witness and shoot a wedding in Cebu. If getting on a plane for work after almost a year is not significant enough, the fact that it was Vern Enciso and Ben Lim’s wedding made sure of that.

I haven’t met these two prior to the trip (aside from the one time I saw Vern at an event – fanboying); the Covid restrictions pounced any chance we had. Given that I’m a follower and admire Vern (and Verniece) a lot, I didn’t have that typically confident hi-hello-ok-let’s-shoot feeling. There is pressure to photograph people who likely know about great photos as much as I do. But Vern and Ben are cool, even nicer, and more good-looking in person than their online personas. We had to fight through changing our shoot plans for their prenup the day we arrived because of heavy rains yet ended with photos that are better than we expected. You can check those out here. 

I was excited on the day of the wedding. Besides getting a good warm-up the day before, I also noticed how calm and grateful Vern was with everything that’s happening, even with the non-stop downpour. If she’s okay, then we should also all be okay, right? Well, not necessarily. I still had to produce great photos at a limited capacity. But if there was one ideal situation for a bad-weather wedding, this was it – a beautiful and calm bride, cooperative and competent co-suppliers, a stunning location, and pretty things and people all around me. 

I’d let the photos tell you how everything went (and also the BTS video), but it is also worth noting that at the time we were resigned to shoot everything indoors after the ceremony, the skies cleared for good. It was glorious. 

I would like to say thank you again to Vern and Ben for the full trust and all the love. I may have asked Vern a few times if she had any preferences or reminders for us and always she had replied for us to just do our thing. In what could be the most anticipated wedding on Instagram, we had one of the best times, and we have the photos to show for it. Enjoy.

Suppliers:

Photo: Oly Ruiz

Hair: Vien Nueva

Makeup: Memay Francisco

Gown: Mark Bumgarner

Planning: Stanz Weddings

Video: Jason Magbanua

Flowers and Styling: Gideon Hermosa

Venue: Shangri-la Mactan Resort & Spa