The road to becoming a doctor is no easy feat, and we can only imagine how much more challenging it would be if you add planning a traditional Filipino wedding to the mix. Miguel and Natasha’s story was ten years in the making and the journey to their next chapter was one we can all learn from. From a honeymoon cut short to waiting a little longer to live together (as a frontliner, she was to test negative for the virus first before coming home to him), their story is a testament to the importance of priorities and surrounding yourself with people who support you. Take the bridal entourage as an example, which included resident doctors who were on duty the day before up to the morning of the wedding. We can definitely feel how much love they have for the couple as they rushed to the preparations venue without any sleep.
We figured you would want to know how they pulled this off so well, so we asked the bride to share her experience with us. Scroll down to view the photos by Ian Santillan and read the bride’s responses to some of our questions!
[Note: This wedding happened before COVID-19 Pandemic]
How was it balancing your residency and planning a wedding?
“Definitely very hard. I would have work almost everyday and 36 hour duty shifts every 3 days. Thankfully, I had an amazing partner who understood my schedule and who was very proactive with the planning of the wedding. We had to orient our coordinator and all our suppliers regarding my schedule. Most meetings would be at night or near the hospital, so it would be accessible for me.”
What tips would you like to give others who are going through med school/internship/residency/fellowship?
“There is never a right time to get married when you’re a doctor. If you find someone you love and want to settle down with, do it. Our work is important and it’s definitely a calling, but your family and your happiness is just as important. It is definitely more challenging for people in our field, maybe even more so in a Med-Non-med relationship or “non-Showbiz” as us doctors call it, but there will always be a way if you align your priorities.”
How did your fiancé support you with the planning?
“We have been together for 10 years, and half of that time I was in med school, so I could say he was already well-adjusted to my schedule. From the beginning we knew what kind of wedding we wanted and what was important to us, everything else was background noise. He didn’t really support me with the planning because we planned it together every step of the way.”
What were you most excited about in wedding planning? What about the difficulties?
“I was excited to get to know my husband more during the process and excited to get a glimpse of our lives together. Other than the available time constraint, there were not much difficulties in the planning. Our goal was to make sure that everyone had an amazing time—nothing too grand, nothing too fancy, just simple, classy but genuine and sincere. Once we knew what our priorities for the wedding were, the small nitty gritty details didn’t bother us much. Of course, you can’t avoid some disagreements in a few choices, but we knew the things we needed to argue about and the things we didn’t. If we felt it mattered more to the other, it wasn’t a big deal.”
You were one of the lucky ones who had their wedding right before the pandemic. As a resident doctor and ex-bride, what advice can you give brides planning their upcoming weddings?
“Wedding planning gets stressful especially when you have a million things to do and so many patients to take care of, but as much as you can try to live in the moment—you only get to do this once. Take it all in and enjoy the moments you get to spend with your future husband because through this process, you’ll get to know every side of him. Know what your priorities are and how you picture your life to be in the future. At the end of the day, all these details are just details, so whether you have 100 guests or 10 guests, whether its through zoom or in a Church, it will be the best day of your life because you will be marrying your better half.”
You can also check out the beautifully made SDE by Ian Celis! Be warned, tears may drop when you hear the exchange of heartwarming vows from Mr. and Mrs. Mapa!
