Miguelito and Mercedita Tampus share a kiss after the wedding. (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)
Dressed in a long white gown with her three-day old baby in her arms, Lorie Mieh Cudiera said, “I do” to Lester, her partner of 11 years in simple ceremonies at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral yesterday morning.
Lester and Lorie Mieh were among the 76 couples from the city’s barangays who exchanged vows in a mass wedding there.
Lorie Mieh had just given birth to her sixth child prior to yesterday’s ceremony.
“I am so happy right now that at last our dream to be wed came true. Even before we already planned to get married, but many problems came to our way,” Lorie Mieh said in Cebuano.
Her husband, Lester, who works as a massage therapist, said he cannot afford to finance a wedding for them.
When he learned about the free mass wedding, he worked for their papers since Lorie Mieh was still pregnant at the time.
“I am very thankful that we have the chance to be married in the church,” Lester said.
The mass wedding was initiated by the City Women’s Commission headed by City Social Welfare and Services chief Lea Japson.
Japson said the mass wedding was scheduled last month as part of the celebration of family day.
They were targeting 100 couples but were unable to do so due to time constraints.
Only a few managed to complete their requirements, Japson said. The city government budgeted P800,000 for the mass wedding.
Nine priests officiated the wedding while the reception was held at the IEC Pavilion.
Another couple, Miguelito and Mercedita Tampus, were the oldest among those who got married having lived together for 32 years.
Even though they had a civil wedding in 1984, Mercedita said it has been her dream to be married in church.