When restaurateur Cheska Fernandez-Palmares was a child, she envisioned a garden wedding and dancing with her husband under the stars. It would have come true for the 27-year-old bride were it not for the interference of nature.
January 12 seemed like an ordinary Sunday in Nuvali. Cheska was finally getting married to her fiancé of seven years, Joaquin Palmares, an executive of a food conglomerate. The couple met in Ateneo de Manila when they were both majors in Communication Arts. She was the only girlfriend he had.
The couple, the entourage, family members, and close friends had booked at Seda Hotel in Nuvali which was close to the wedding venue, Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Dressed by designer Francis Libiran, Cheska and Joaquin looked like Barbie and Ken.
After exchanging vows, the atmosphere turned ominous. Suddenly guests were startled by rumbling sounds from the sky and rainfall. Nevertheless, the couple and the guests maintained their composure, paying attention to the prayers.
After the ceremony, the crowd became anxious. Aside from rain, ash had fallen on their cars and on the church grounds. While the newlyweds were being photographed, Cheska’s mother was informed that the Taal Volcano was erupting. Phivolcs had raised the alert to level 4 and people, who lived close to the lake and volcano, were told to evacuate.
Despite the anxiety, the couple had accomplished making their vows at the time of the eruption.
“We did it! Look at our rings,” said Cheska after the ceremony.
The reception, which was set at Angel Field’s in Tagaytay, was cancelled. The ebullient Cheska kept her spirits high, assuring the guests that things were going to be fine.
The force of nature didn’t stop the couple from celebrating their special day.
“As long as there is water and food, we’re fine,” she declared.
To make up for the reception, Cheska’s mother invited guests for dinner at Misto, Seda’s signature restaurant. However, the bride’s parents decided to rush back to Manila for safety and skipped the dinner.
The couple requested their food suppliers to donate the dishes to evacuees. (One evacuation center was surprised to receive 200 packs of lechon as Cheska found out later.)
Cheska’s sister, Jena Fernandez, and friends surprised the couple with an impromptu program. They borrowed a speaker system from the hotel for the traditional toasts and speeches.
In a tearful speech, Jena expressed her disappointment that her sister’s dream reception didn’t come true. “What comforted me was her reaction. Ate Cheska was calm,” she said.
A cake was ordered from the restaurant to maintain the custom of the husband and wife sharing the sweet moment. Despite the tiny space, Cheska and Joaquin managed to show their wedding dance which they had practiced.
After the party, close friends went to the couple’s room and watched the red lightning and the fumes from the volcano. When they drank margaritas and mojitos from their bar supplier, they discovered bits of ashes at the bottom of their glasses.
“We realized that some ash had fallen on the rim of the big container,” recalled Cheska.
The couple managed to sleep through the night despite two dozen tremors that shook the hotel.
The next day, Nuvali looked like an ash-laden ghost town.
Cheska may have missed dancing with her father on her wedding day at her garden reception. In Angel Fields, she had set up a tent filled with tivoli lights on the ceiling to evoke the atmosphere of dancing under the stars. But the volatile Taal and the ashfall had botched her dream.
But as Jena had declared in her speech, “This is God’s way of saying that you may not have the perfect reception but you have the perfect partner—and each other.”