11/05/2024
Nothing about this wedding was plain, standard and cliché. After first meeting the lovely bride on May 1, 2023 to do venue oculars, it took a full year of rigorous planning, zooms and preps to put things into place for their big day. Plus last-minutes, of course!
Okay, so it was actually a 3-day affair. One charming beach wedding, with 2 welcome dinners, a pre-ceremony cocktail, a post-ceremony golden hour cocktail, a fun sit-down dinner helmed by celebrity host Sam YG, a crazy club-themed ballroom afterparty highlighted by Jollibee the mascot’s surprise midnight appearance, and a chill skypool after afterparty the day after (count 3 afters). One wedding, 4 deejays, 6 mobile bars, 6 mixologists, 6 parties.
The wedding of Aljosa Skoko (half-Dutch, half-Croatian) and Abrar Abdulla (half Bahraini, half-Boholana) had all the elements of a prime bespoke destination wedding.
Four of Panglao’s swankiest resorts were booked for either accommodation or as event venue, or for both--Oceanica Resort, Bohol Beach Club, Henann Premier Coast and Amorita Resort. Round the clock, vans and tuktuks were on standby at guests’ disposal during their 4 nights and 5 days in Panglao. Ditto for their 3 nights in the multiple Crimson Resort beach villas they commandeered in Cebu. 3 fittings beginning last year were scheduled in Cebu for the bride’s crystal-encrusted Jun Escario wedding gown and a couture Filipiniana dress for the welcome dinner; and 2 hand-embroidered Rei Escario barongs for the groom. 2 en suite HMUA trials were scheduled in 2 consecutive days, just a week before the wedding. In all, 3 glam teams were commissioned to handle 30 guests. All labels of alcohol came in gold and silver bottles, shipped in 2 batches from the country’s largest wholesalers.
A massive pyro show, five-layer banana walnut and moist chocolate cake that the couple sliced with a sword, boodle dinners, ice cream carts, roasted calf, lamb, lechons, seafood stations, midnight burger, fries, pizza and chicken deliveries, custom cocktails inspired by the groom’s favorite Four Seasons Hotel mix, a blue Frank the Tank drink named after their fur baby, and an ube-coconut mocktail for the bride; the Loboc Childrens Choir, string quartet playing the theme from Legends of the Fall for the bridal march, 3 acoustic bands, a full band performing a requested Croatian love song (bride’s surprise for her groom) , an international ukulele artist, coffee stations, a fully stacked charcuterie station on a speedboat-delivery from Cebu, a painitan station with live cooking, souvenir fans with tags that read: “Hangtod sa Kahangturan” (translation: forever); a printed guest-circulation wedding day post, colorful blooms from around the world, live streaming of the whole event for friends and family who weren’t able to attend, and a large screen at the ceremony that showed the bride’s dad halfway round the planet witnessing the entire wedding. No important wedding detail was spared.
But what really set the series of activities apart from the celebrations we’ve come across was the couple’s request to have an Abrar & Aljosa Care scrapbook put together and displayed at the welcome dinner and during the wedding—showing the wishes and needs of children from a local orphanage in Albur town, and a link where guests could send donations to help the foundation who’s taking care of abandoned kids, including a couple of newborn infants left in a garbage dump and at the gate of the orphanage. That the couple asked this from their guests in lieu of wedding gifts was just amazing. The couple matched the guests’ donations with their own cash endowment for the charity. They pledge to send help regularly to the orphanage.
“We are still dreaming about the wedding,” the couple messaged us. “Words cannot express the memory you gave us that will last a lifetime, and maybe a next, who knows.. It was absolutely bigger, better and more grand that we expected it to be. Forever grateful and hopefully the start of a good friendship if you allow us, as not everyday we meet people in our lives that change our course for the better. You are one of them. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.” Followed by three red heart icons. ❤️❤️❤️
This would not have been possible without this excellent roster of event suppliers handpicked by the couple. Jun Escario, Sam YG, Tfaith Teves Gesite, Pidography Studios, PointUp Studios, Javi Lebron, Neil Verzosa, Stanz Catalan, YOWEV, Oceanica Resort - Formerly South Palms, Wowfireworks Hamilton Merchandising, Lola Lilia's Home-made Specialties, Jojie's Pa-initang Bol-anon Bohol, Iris Gonzales, Istoy-Jenny Dy, The B' Grazing Co, Lumad Panglaoanon Cultural Troupe, Pentagon DBC, Francis Balo, Giuseppe Gara, Star Suarez Bustrillos, Alma & Frank - The Moonlight Serenade - Wedding Singers Bohol, Irish x Jayvee, Reydon Encinares, Rei Antoni Escario, John Vincent Mercado, DRC audiovisual, X-Marc Ronquillo, DJ Jacky G, Tito's Big-Belly, Marvin Lim, South Farm Panglao-Bohol, Yan Tiempo, Infinity Bleu, Elvieh Sarmiento, LV Travel & Tours & Transport Services, Bohol Beach Club, ChErry Gen, Lyn Marie, Mary Kay Barajan, Airra Mae Sapong Solijon, Jeyson Villamor Cabantog, Nyaman Photography, Mellanie Wallace, Bohol BEE FARM Ice Cream, Kim Pasana Bracamonte, Maria Jess Bantugan
Proud to have put together some of the best facets Bohol and the region can offer to the world, for the very discriminating set to appreciate and enjoy. We are the Antuanga Prime Bespoke Destination Weddings and Blue Grass Project.
— with Joseph Ven Garay Dumadag, Abrar Abdulla
