She’s “messy,” he’s “super neat.”

Rather than a cause for discord, their opposite tendencies have possibly strengthened the marriage of Paolo and Dina Tantoco even more.

“I am my mom’s child, who is super neat, always cleaning up. My mom trained me to clean up, spic and span every day, you could eat off of the floors if you wanted to,” said Paolo, who wed Dina for the second time, at the Montecito Chapel in Sta. Elena Golf & Country Club in Canlubang on Sept. 17—their 10th wedding anniversary.

“Dina changed that for me,” he adds. “I would not have it any other way. I will put her clothes in the hamper, flush the toilet after her, and put all her things away. At this point, I would not be okay without her mess.”

For her part, Dina says her husband is still somewhat like a little boy, who likes all kinds of sports and is quite playful.

“But I love that about him,” she says. “We love to play with our kids.” They have three: Alana, 10; Bella, 6; and Zach, 4.

As parents, they work as a team. She says he’s the disciplinarian, and he says, “Dina never says no to our children, who really don’t ask for much but our company and quality time… Our children make us melt.”

“We’ve learned a lot from each other in the 12 years that we’ve been together,” says Dina. “Best part, I guess, is that, we can still stand each other.”

Las Vegas rites

If it were only up to the couple, their Las Vegas wedding 10 years ago—with only Dina’s sister, Bianca Arroyo,
in attendance—would be more than enough to seal their lifelong commitment to each other.

Their parents—Rico and Nena Tantoco, and (the late) Rep. Iggy Arroyo and Marilene Jacinto—supported their decision to wed in civil rites.

But when Zach was born, Paolo’s folks started bringing up the subject of a church wedding. With their busy work and family life, however —they both work at the Tantocos’ Rustan’s, she as marketing and communications head, he in charge of the administrative department while also studying for his MBA—planning the church wedding would take a backseat for a few more years.

Now, Paolo says finally  receiving the Sacrament of Matrimony was “the icing on the cake, the roof to a home, and the completion of our love for God and ourselves.”

Same friends

Paolo and Dina met when she moved back from the United States when she was 13, and he was 14. They had the same group of friends at International School Manila, but dated other people in their teens.

Paolo went to Boston for university, while Dina went to school in Los Angeles. They met again when she flew to Boston to visit a cousin. That’s when the two developed a crush on each other.

The following year, she took an internship in Boston, where once again, she met Paolo. After graduation, she got a job in Boston and New York, but chose to move to where he was.

“Paowee says that I followed him. And in a way it’s true,” Dina says with a laugh.

They decided to come home to the Philippines when Alana was 1½ years old.

Lucky duck

Dina is “like a fairy that never sees the bad and only the good in anything,” Paolo says of his wife. “She wears a beautiful smile that would brighten up a stadium. Every quality of Dina will keep me married to her till I die. I’m a lucky duck, as dad would say. Dina as a mother is what my mother was to me and my siblings—passionate and strong in character, but kind at heart.”

For the wedding, the couple and their guests made a music video to the tune of the ’90s Brit pop hit “Dancing in the Moonlight,” a song chosen by the groom who, his wife says, is very musical like the rest of his family. If it had been up to the bride, she said she would’ve picked a rap song—and she’s not kidding!

The wedding was an intimate affair, with only the closest relatives and friends—the Tantocos and Vargases on his side, and the Arroyos and Jacintos on the bride’s side. The couple didn’t want a very formal mood, and they got what they wanted: there was plenty of singing and dancing.

“Our personalities complement each other in that we both love being happy and we like to have a lot of fun. We love life,” says Paolo.

He adds, “We have the best role models in my mom and dad,” who have been married 51 years, “and my brother
Donnie and his wife Crickette,” who have been together for 27 years. “They have taught us a lot about marriage.”