San Francisco Frontiers - Philippine couple married in hip-deep floodwaters

Clutching a bouquet of white blooms and clad in an off-shoulder white gown, Leian Lieza Galang gingerly waded into the murky brown floodwaters inside the Saint John the Baptist church in Hagonoy town, north of Manila, to wed Gilbert Chico.

The parish priest declared the couple, both in their 30s, husband and wife at an abbreviated late-morning ceremony, said wedding photographer Mikko Rey Alfonso, who witnessed his first flooded wedding experience at the parish.

"The parish had advised them to postpone the wedding due to the rising floodwaters from upstream. It was their decision to proceed," Alfonso told AFP, adding the church had been partially underwater for nearly a month.

"Since they wanted to see it through, we the servants of the parish did the best we could to make this a special day for them."

Heavier-than-usual seasonal monsoon rains pounded the northern third of the mainly Catholic archipelago in August, with resulting landslides and flash floods killing 34 people, according to the latest official tally.

"They love each other. Nothing could stop their union," Alfonso said.

The couple did not respond to questions from AFP.

A video clip of the wedding posted on the parish's Facebook page showed the bride being hugged by her parents in front of empty pews adorned with plastic flower bouquets.

One photo showed a boy holding the wedding rings walking down the aisle -- with floodwater up to his waist.

The bride arrived in the church aboard a rickshaw with an elevated chassis, keeping her wedding gown pristine before she got off at the church courtyard, Alfonso said.

To allow her to safely navigate the floodwaters, "the bride... had to have her wedding gown altered to shorten the train", he added.

He said fewer than 15 people were in attendance.

I.Sanders--SFF