Wedding underwater: The couple did not let the flood ruin their special day
A couple from the Philippines decided to hold their wedding ceremony while the local church was completely flooded with water. The result was a small wedding with fewer than 15 participants and photos that moved readers around the world.
A touching moment in the Philippines: A couple got married on Tuesday in a Catholic church flooded with water up to their thighs, after heavy rains had struck large parts of the country for a month.
Holding a bouquet of white flowers and wearing a white off-the-shoulder wedding dress, Lian Liza Galang walked carefully into the murky brown floodwaters inside the St. John the Baptist Church in the town of Hagonoy, north of Manila, to marry Gilbert Chico.
"We were in full attire. It didn't bother us that our dress and suit got wet," the groom told the AFP news agency.
The parish priest declared the couple, both in their 30s, husband and wife in a shortened ceremony in the late morning, said wedding photographer Miko Rey Alfonso.
"The parish advised them to postpone the wedding due to the floodwaters that wouldn't stop rising. It was their decision to proceed," Alfonso told the AFP news agency, adding that the church had been partially underwater for almost a month. "Since they wanted to proceed with it, we, the parish servants, did our best to make this day special for them."
Heavier-than-usual seasonal monsoon rains hit the northern third of the predominantly Catholic archipelago in August, resulting in 34 people killed in landslides and flash floods, according to the latest official count.
"They love each other. Nothing could stop their union," said Alfonso. A video of the wedding posted on the parish's Facebook page showed the bride being hugged by her parents in front of empty pews decorated with plastic flower bouquets.
In one photo, a child was shown holding wedding rings walking down the aisle - with the floodwaters reaching his waist. The groom and bride arrived together on a rickshaw with a raised chassis, and kept their clothes clean before getting off in the church courtyard, Chico said.
To allow the bride to navigate safely in the floodwaters, she had to "alter her wedding dress to shorten the train," Alfonso said. Fewer than 15 people were present, he added. Chico, who works as a laborer on an oil rig in the Middle East, said the wedding was originally planned for December.
