A lot of wedding photos go viral on Facebook because they’re over the top and look ridiculously expensive to have. But one Filipino couple’s wedding photos went viral because they look beautiful in their simplicity.
Michael See Apeles shared on Facebook late last week the photos that he took during the wedding of Gilbert and Fely Joy Ynclino. The photos have since gone viral and had 78,000 reactions, 21,000 shares, and close to 9,000 comments as of this article’s posting.
The Ynclinos, who live in Tumana, Marikina, had been living together for 12 years prior to their wedding. They have two kids, a boy and a girl.
In a phone interview with Coconuts Manila, Fely said that they hired Apeles because her brother-in-law worked as his assistant. She didn’t spend a dime for the photos because her brother-in-law paid Apeles for his services.
She said in Filipino: “We didn’t have the budget for it. So he paid him. We just wanted a simple wedding. It was my brother-in-law who wanted Apeles to take the photos.”
Fely said that she and her husband wanted to keep things simple due to financial issues. Their clothes were borrowed from friends while the clothes of their flower girls were paid for by the children’s parents.
“We also just asked someone at home to cook the food because it’s so expensive to hire a caterer,” she said.
She said they didn’t even have a honeymoon.
“It was just a normal day. Unlike other couples who have a honeymoon after the wedding, we didn’t have that. We just went home and paid what we owed people. It was simple but we felt good about it,” she added.
Fely and her husband were surprised when the photos went viral. She wasn’t even aware that Apeles posted them on his Facebook account.
“We were so shocked. We didn’t expect it. We don’t know a lot of people but a lot of netizens are so happy. We are not used to this, [being the center of attention].”
She also said that people’s reactions made her feel better about spending money for their wedding. She said: “I’m happy even though we ran out of money and we had to pay some debts. [Seeing people’s comments] eased my stress.”
Netizens were genuinely happy for the couple and loved them for keeping things real. Anne Varcs wrote that the photos and wedding were “awesome.”
One woman tagged her friend and told her: “Let’s do [a wedding] we could afford. No pretensions.”
Another netizen wrote: “[Getting married] is not about doing it at a spectacular venue or about spending so much money on it. What’s important is you got married to someone you love. Congrats.”
Amen. Congrats, Gilbert and Fely!
