Sunday, June 01, 2014

Wedding at Paco Park Church

My cousin Troy tied the knot a couple of weeks ago in St. Pancratius Chapel in Paco Park. My entire family was there to celebrate this momentous occasion with him.


I had been to Paco Park a couple of times before but it was only on this third visit that I got a chance to take photos and really appreciate the beauty and historical significance of the park.


The dome-shaped chapel features beautiful Romanesque architecture.


The interior of the chapel itself is very simple with its white ceiling and walls. Its size makes it ideal for intimate weddings, although in our case the chapel was packed.


Paco Park is where Jose Rizal was interred after he was executed in Bagumbayan. There is even a marker in the park along with a bust of Rizal to commemorate this event in our history but I unfortunately didn't see these. What I did see was the Gomburza memorial. It was only on this visit that I found out that the remains of the three martyred priests, Mariano Gomes, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora (collectively known as Gomburza) are buried here.

The Gomburza memorial

It was a really unique wedding too. My cousin and his wife decided to do away - at least partially - with a lot of the formality of a typical wedding. They did this by wearing sneakers. The asked the rest of the entourage, including my brother who was one of the secondary sponsors, to do the same. The motif was red and black so the primary sponsors, including my mom who was a ninang, were asked to wear black or red, or a combination of both.


The reception was held a short distance away. Troy's new mother-in-law runs a catering company and they provided the food and everything was really good! Probably the most interesting part of the program was the money dance. I had only been to one other wedding that featured this Filipino wedding tradition. Troy and his wife Joanna danced while guests pinned money to their clothes as a wedding gift.


It was a truly wonderful day spent with family. The fact that I got to learn a bit more about Philippine history made it even better. Congratulations and best wishes, Troy and Joanna! :)

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