Guest Bride Blogger: Cha

Remember our post “I *heart* Multiply and Facebook”? Well, I *heart* Multiply even more because it gives our brides the chance to blog about their experiences during their wedding. Case in point is our bride Cha. She wrote about her experience during the Engagement Shoot in Multiply and I asked permission to re-post it here. So here’s our first ever guest blogger Cha. Belated Happy Birthday Cha!

“Yesterday I revised my view of models and modeling in general, and have found a newfound respect for them and their career.  Modeling is, in a word, hard.  But definitely fun if one were in the company of the right people.”

“We were at the inner garden of San Agustin Church in Manila on Saturday afternoon for our engagement pictorial session.  To be honest, we didn’t come prepared – or at least, as prepared as we should have been.  We didn’t have any ideas beforehand for poses we’d like.  We didn’t bring any props.  I had my trial makeup session, Peter had a haircut, and that was it.  Novice models to the core.”

“At 4PM we arrived at San Agustin.  It was a choice between early morning or late afternoon, and I, naturally, chose the latter because 1) I don’t wake up early and 2) the poor makeup artist would have to be awake and working by 4AM if we had a 7AM session and 3) I would have to be awake by 3AM to be ready myself, and that’s about the time I get ready for bed.  It rained at around 2PM, just as I finished being made up – a moment of panic for me, but Bong (the makeup artist) predicted, quite correctly, that it would stop in a few minutes.  So it did, and humidity settled in.”

“Lucky for us, Tina Zamora and her team of photographers (husband Dennis, Bong Manayon and Enzo Munoz) were just waiting for us and were ready with suggestions for our poses.  First thing we realized – Peter and I didn’t know how to hug each other on-camera.  Do we hug side by side, facing each other, or what?  Where do I face?  How do you tilt your body?  Where do the hands go?  We never knew there was so much complexity in hugging!  This is wholly because we didn’t have a lot of pics together.  The ones that happened to catch the two of us together were either candid or caught us in non-pose-y poses, if that makes any sense: sitting beside each other, making funny faces, having funny faces even if unintended, and so on.  Creative direction was needed, badly.”

“It was also friggin’ humid.  Not even five minutes into the session we were both sweating and I wondered why I didn’t think of having the session in an ice plant. But it was hard not to be upbeat and game with Tina and co.  Although it was a last-minute decision – we only met Tina last weekend – we both knew that switching from that other photography studio we chose to Tina Zamora was the right one.  And the glowing recommendations from our friends and acquaintances only solidified our choice.”

“Four pigeons, two turtles, and one surly guard later, it was 6PM – the garden was about to close.  We moved to take a few more pics outside.  We even had a shot with one of the guards wearing his Katipunero outfit!”