wedding obstacles: against all odds
I was reading an article earlier this morning about this Ukrainian couple who got married in Manitoba around June of this year, shortly after arriving as refugees of the Canadian government. They were originally planning on getting married in Poland, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine happened, and their plans changed. The small community of Gimli, where they were located, helped them push through with their wedding. Their host family was the key to making it all happen.
Isn’t it such a cute and heart- warming news? People coming together to help this young couple have the wedding they were dreaming of. Although it’s not exactly what they originally planned for, it was still a good feeling for them to finally get a proper wedding. I bet it was something they never thought was still in the cards for them. At least something good happened after they flee their country scared, and uncertain.
It made me wonder about what other couples have gone through before their wedding finally pushed through. I’m sure there are so many other stories out there about couples going against all odds and various obstacles just to have a nice wedding, or even just get married. In the Philippines, there are so many stories like that, mainly due to the ever-changing weather there.
Here are some obstacles:
Weather related:
Typhoons and flooding
Here in Canada, the busiest wedding season is always the summertime, June and July. In the Philippines, those months usually come with lots of rain. It’s really hard to tell when there will be a typhoon back home because it just comes all of a sudden, so even if you plan a year earlier, you can’t really tell what’s going to happen on the exact day of your wedding. There had been so many stories of couples who planned a garden wedding, only to be washed by tons of rain. Still, their weddings pushed through. Most of them have backup plans like having it indoor, but there had been instances where there were flooding everywhere, even the church was flooded. I don’t know how they were able to push through with that, but most of them did. I guess Filipinos have gotten so used to flooding and rain that it’s normal, even for wedding.
Image from : https://imgur.com/RgxzZ
Volcanic eruption
You read it right! A volcano was erupting during the ceremony. I even knew some people who knew this couple who got married. The wedding was in January of 2020, before all the pandemic lockdowns started. It was Taal volcano. Taal volcano the second busiest volcano in the Philippines, according to Wikipedia. But it had been fairly quiet in the years prior to 2019. So while the couple probably knew that Taal volcano was acting up in 2019, they had no idea that it will finally explode on the day of their wedding. Still, I read that everyone kept calm and the wedding pushed through, and luckily, nobody was harmed.
Earthquake
There had been a wedding that was really memorable to me. Not that I knew the people who were in it, but because it was all over the news. It was in the back in 1990, I was in 4th grade. There was a magnitude 7.7 earthquake in the Philippines. This disaster affected Baguio City the most. It was a city in the north part of the country with very high elevation, and so the earthquake really shook the whole area. There was a wedding reception happening when the earthquake happened. The wedding is done, they were already partying when the ground started shaking. The hotel where it was being done, along with almost all of the hotels and structures in Baguio collapsed. People got trapped, people died. It was so memorable to me because that was the biggest earthquake that happened when I was at that young age, so it really stuck to me. I guess there was not enough warning for everyone to be able to go to a safe place, if there was even a safe place in the whole city at that time. It was a sad event.
Anyway, another wedding, this time I was a guest, way back when I was in high school, there was an earthquake in an area far from where we were at that time, but we felt it. It was really strong, the ground shook for a bit. The ceremony was stopped until they were sure that it wasn’t going to happen again. I think it was stopped for about 30 minutes, and then the wedding pushed through once it was confirmed that it’s over, and that everyone will be safe.
Personal issues:
Parents/family member/ex
You know how in soap operas or movies, during a wedding ceremony, a pregnant girl appears and stops the wedding? She’s telling everyone that she was impregnated by the groom, and then the bride cries and runs away? I haven’t seen something like that in real life, but can you imagine if you’re a guest and it happens? I’ll probably get my camera and record. Just kidding!! While a scenario like that rarely happens in real life, family issues or dramas are very common during weddings. Sometimes the issue will become so big that the wedding wouldn't push through. I know a lot of couples who were on the verge of breaking up before the wedding, some of them even on the morning of. It’s probably due to stress from the wedding planning. Sometimes, it’s the family member who doesn’t approve of the marriage who’ll cause the trouble. The good thing is that, all of the couples I know who almost broke up, are still together way after their weddings. They got past those obstacles, and were able to not only have a great wedding, but have a good marriage as well.
Cold Feet
Yes, it’s considered an obstacle because it’s very common and normal. But sometimes the cold feet stays, and the whole wedding is cancelled. I know a lot of brides who’ve gotten cold feet before the wedding. But all of them still went through with it because they knew that it was just a normal thing to feel. It doesn’t define the whole relationship. It was just fleeting moment. Although, I’m sure there are a lot of couples out there, who listened to what their gut and heart is saying and was not able to go through the wedding.
Wedding should be a joyous occasion. A festive event. But the wedding is not a measure of the love between you and your partner. No matter what disaster or obstacle you face during the wedding, it doesn’t affect your feelings for each other. So if your wedding doesn’t push through at a time, then maybe in another time. The important thing is you still have each other at the end of the day.
