When Terry told Tracy that he would marry her if he got offered the job in Brunei, it was kind of tongue-in-cheek! In November 2003, after nearly 2 years of waiting, Terry was finally told that he had got the job. After the initial shock of being reminded what he’d “promised”, true to his word, he officially proposed to Tracy on the beachfront of Malapascua Exotic Island Dive Resort, in the Philippines.

 We had wanted a “small” affair. No frills, “I do”, done, kind of thing. However, the local staff and owners Dik and Cora had other ideas!!

 The first thing we had to do was to go to see the British Consul, Moya Jackson, in Cebu, who extorted 14,000 PHP from us for a couple of sheets of paper stamped by the embassy in Manila, stating that there was no legal impediment, i.e, we weren’t already married. It took 21 days to receive these papers. This was the single most expensive bit of the entire wedding (at the time, around ₤160).  The next stage was to apply for a marriage licence. Moya Jackson warned us that dealing with “the locals”, was going to be the hardest bit. Pa ! Accompanied by Cora for translation, Terry and I made the short trip to the Municipal offices of Daan Bantayan and met up with the registrar. He was a very nice man, who after checking his book, said that yes, it was possible for us to get married (as a foreign couple – usually it was white man, Filipino woman), and he filled out the appropriate paperwork and told us he had to post the application for 10 days in order for anyone not wanting us to marry to say so!! We even paid the local price which was around 300PHP.  That done, the final and most amusing part was to set the date and arrange for the judge of the Daan Bantayan courts to come to Malapascua and marry us. The date was out of mine and Terry’s hands!!  Cora said that we must marry on an auspicious day and set off for her diary. She returned and said that the 10^th or 18^th of December were good days, but the 10^th was the best as it was also a full moon.  We rang Glen Lepiton who was the judge’s assistant and put the dates to him. He told us that the judge was at a Christmas party on the 18^th and on the 10^th he was in court, but he was available on the 17^th. Ok, how much for the 17^th? 10,000 PHP was the reply. Oooh, too much, how about 5000 PHP? Muted murmurs as Glen consulted the judge. OK, 8000 PHP…  Oooh, still to much, what about 6000, PHP. Quiet. OK, judge take 6000 PHP with lechon (pig on a spit).  Tracy consulted Terry and he nodded so we accepted and arranged to collect the judge from his offices and bring him to the island for 12pm.

As soon as Tracy hung up, Cora appeared and we told her the date. Oh no!! It must be on the 18^th or the 10^th. So, Cora rang Glen. She paused and relayed to us that the judge might be able to squeeze us in on the 10^th but it would cost more!!  Finally after much bartering we all agreed on 8000 PHP (lunch, but no lechon!!) on the 10^th December 2003. It was done.

 With the date now official, there were preparations to make! Terry had already bought Tracy a wedding ring and Tracy had bought a dress when we were in Cebu to see the Consul. The only other things we had to do were to decide who our witnesses would be and how many spit roasted pigs we wanted. All the other arrangements were made by Dik, Cora, Lando (the resort manager), and the other staff.

 Terry chose Paul (Apolinar), one of the Divemasters to be his best man, and Tracy put the names of all the girls into a hat and drew out Lorenza (Cora’s sister) to be her Maid of Honor.

 Lando arranged for his wife Jollie to make a 3 tier cake, Paul and Toto found 2 pigs – one for lechon, one for chop-chop. Ilyn arranged dances; Boboy arranged food along with Vic-Vic, Juphil and Merlin. Cora arranged just about everything else, most of which, Terry and Tracy had no idea about until the actual morning of the big day itself.

 Of course, by this time, we had sent emails to family and friends informing them of our impending nuptials to which we received many emails back stating total shock and best wishes!

 The evening of the 9^th December came and Cora arranged for Tracy to sleep in the Deluxe room!! We weren’t allowed to see each other until the moment of marriage from now on. 

 Tracy rose around 7 am on the morning of the wedding. Terry had gone out for his last dive as a single man with the Thresher sharks. Tracy went down to the restaurant and was awe struck with the goings on. A whole archway of bamboo stuffed with orchids and ferns had been constructed as an entrance to a red carpeted aisle line with more orchids and ferns. Balloons had been put up all over and the centre table encompassed the Christmas tree. All the tables were decorated with roses and there was a big “Congratulations Terry and Tracy” banner overhead. Local Malapascuans sat on the beach and watched the commotion. Tracy sipped here coffee in complete shock and amazement as all the staff were doing something for the wedding.  Someone warned Tracy that the dive boat was returning and so she scurried off to her room and began to get prepared.

 Unbeknown to Tracy, Terry, Paul, Lorenza, Dik and Cora were going through rehearsals so that everything went according to plan. Cora sent up two young “men” who were to help Tracy with her hair and make-up. Around 11.30 the boat arrived with the judge and his entourage. It was really happening.  At just before 12.00pm Dik and Cora came to Tracy’s room  - they were mother and father for the day and giving her away.  As Tracy was led down the stairs and onto the beach, she saw Terry already at the end of the aisle with the judge, Paul and Lorenza and Tim who had come all the way from England by surprise for the wedding. Our friend John who we met in Thailand the previous year also turned up out of the blue.  Anyway, to Lando’s singing and guitar playing, Tracy walked down the aisle, kissed Cora and Dik who took their seats, then she took hers next to Terry.  The vows we were given were not the conventional ones, instead of “I do” we said “We will” together which we thought was much nicer. Tracy had a small fit of giggles but other than that it all went perfectly. We signed the papers and that was it. Man and Wife. 

 There followed several riotous hours of traditional Filipino dances, not so traditional dances, and plenty of eating. We hauled in all the children from the island to eat what they wanted as well.  It was unbelievably brilliant. A better day than we could ever have wished for.  Though the locals had asked if we wanted to be baptised and converted to Catholics, they didn’t mind our refusals and had every bit as good a time as we did. The guests who were staying at the resort seemed to have a good time – especially Dutchman Harry who took almost 1000 digital photos from 5am until he went to bed!!  Altogether there were over 2000 digital photos and a couple of rolls of 35mm, which Cora (who else) had arranged.

 It was an unforgettable day which we would recommend to anyone who wants something a little bit different.