One thing I love about Bride and Breakfast is that I meet so many people. From brides, to hopeless romantics, to vendors and lovers of the romanticism sweet I do’s bring. Blossoming friendships and discovering lifelong relationships make everything worth my time.

So I found myself quite teary-eyed (at 3am in the morning at that!) when brilliant blogger/bride-to-be/new friend Patty Laurel sent this heartwarming letter my way:

Dear Bride and Breakfast,

I’ve been a secret happy reader of your blog for several months now. I’d browse endlessly through your posts and get lost in a daydream seeing all these happy couples! I even told Patrick once before that I desperately wanted to click LIKE on one of your posts but I was worried this would cause bit of a controversy if my friends see a wedding blog link on my wall. As soon as we got engaged, Patrick joked “Yihee! Now you can click LIKE on all those wedding posts!” Today, I’m not only clicking LIKE, I’m actually sharing something really personal to you and your readers.

Tadahhh!!! Here’s our first engagement shoot by Mangored! ☺

Barely a week after our engagement, we were approached by one of the members of the Mangored team at a friend’s wedding. We had a short chat about weddings and photography and before we knew it we were planning a prenup shoot with them already! Having been fans of their work for some time now, Patrick and I just knew we had to book them right away.

Browsing through travel blogs and websites has been a daily habit of mine for years. And in one of my virtual adventures, I stumbled across beautiful photos of a Holi Powder fight in a small town in India. The colors left me stunned and it instantly became our peg for our engagement shoot. We wanted it to be colorful, playful, and happy-happy-joy-joy!

I’ve done modeling for a couple of years now but I was surprisingly nervous for this shoot! First of all, how do you act all mushy and sweet in front of the camera? Yikes! It took me a while to warm up because I was extremely shy. Patrick delighted in my shyness and cuddled, bear-hugged, smooched, and whispered cheesy lines to me to make me more relaxed. So the whole time they were shooting us, I was just laughing out loud to his baduy tactics which of course made him even more gung-ho to be affectionate and poke fun at me!

Mangored is a breath of fresh air. Their style is never contrived or stiff. Even just talking to them in between takes put us both at ease. They let us play around and be ourselves throughout the shoot. It didn’t feel like a photo shoot at all. It was more like Patrick and I went on a date and they just tagged along… with their cameras. It also helped to have good friends Bianca Santiago-Reinoso and Jasmine Mendiola to make us look good in our natural state. We felt comfortable and enjoyed the whole experience!

Here’s to more fun, fun, fun engagement shoots ☺

Your fan and friend,
Patty

Here it is, Patrick and Patty’s ahhh-mmmaaazzing and totally unique engagement shoot. I definitely think these two lovebirds embody the best of being engaged. Patrick takes the challenge to romance, while Patty embraces being romanced. I love ’em already!

Photography: Mangored / Stylist: Bianca Santiago-Reinoso / Make-up: Jasmine Mendiola