How did 25 years pass by so quickly? Together with our four children, a new daughter-in-law and two cats, House Valdes turns a quarter of a century on June 24!

After months of preparation, including dance practice and family vacations, our silver wedding anniversary will be celebrated beginning with our Renewal of Vows at Santuario de San Antonio Church. We are excited to party with our dearest family and some friends who were part of our wedding in 1994.

Our silver wedding anniversary theme was supposed to be inspired again by “Game of Thrones,” but since we did that for our 20th, we decided to make Africa our central theme. With hints from “The Lion King,” “Out of Africa,” “Black Panther” and “Coming to America,” we patterned all details and elements to bring our fave destination into the party venue.

Incredible wedding and events stylist Gideon Hermosa will be in charge of transforming the ballroom to create this concept, while Moss Manila will do the outdoor safari theme for guests to enjoy the outdoor activities.

To fully express the African Royalty vibe, our team of Adworks Graphics came up with the idea of integrating photos from our past milestones. Norman and Mye Cruz designed a book invitation with a glam safari color scheme with touches of gold.

Costume changes

My biggest dilemma now is how to time the costume changes so I won’t miss any of the festivities. I was tempted to have a costume unveiling at the church, but I opted to just keep the Eucharistic celebration solemn as requested by Dennis.

I told Lester Delgado, musical director-conductor of Vocalismo Chorale, to include some gospel music during communion. Musical genius Rony Fortich composed a special Disney compilation for our recessional march.

I will surely be in tears while walking down the aisle with Dennis, wearing outfits by our fave fashion designer Rajo Laurel.

Our Red Charity Gala family florist Robert Blancaflor will transform the church into a wild safari jungle to get the guests into our African mode already. Since this is a family celebration, we chose 25 couples who are very dear to us as our principal sponsors—one for every year.

This lineup will be headed by Ninong Robby Delgado and Ninang Maribel Ongpin. This pair was part of our original wedding 25 years ago as well as our 20th wedding anniversary. In fact, Ninang Maribel will be wearing the same gown she wore then since it has an African-inspired color scheme as well.

Celebrating 25 years of love is truly an amazing achievement in these times of confusion and lack of compassion. So, I would like to also extend our congratulations to Freddie and Kaye Tiñga, Butch and Cris Albert, and Franklin and Jo Lim who are also celebrating their 25th this year.

Celebrating couples

For their 25th wedding anniversary on June 24, Franklin and Jo are celebrating with the family and timed the inauguration of their car dealership Toyota Valenzuela at the end of the week. They also celebrated the third anniversary of Global Views, their home interior furnishings shop at Shangri-La at The Fort. Check out the gorgeous home accents to enhance living interiors.

Butch and Cris also celebrated an intimate dinner with their family and a small group of friends. Our Ninang Cris gave all our dancers the latest Fila shoes. The Fila Disruptor 2 was launched at Manila House. The super hip Fila dance party was so fun and so cool!

For the best in costumes at the #DandTLove25 party, Swatch will be giving away 10 of its newest styles from the Big Bold Swatch Collection.

New Swatch collection

Swatch Philippines recently launched the Big Bold line and kicked off its 30th anniversary with a Big and Bold event hosted by Perea Street, performances by Butta B, Bret Jackson and international DJ Yeti Out, and led by Swatch Philippines president Virgie Ramos and Swatch International COO Gonzalo De Cevallos.

Swatch introduces its brand-new Big Bold collection featuring six different watch models. With a kick from urban streetwear, each Big Bold is a statement piece boasting a striking 47mm watchcase. The Swiss watchmaker’s new product line is for people unafraid to put themselves up front and who are proud to be different.

From BBBlack to BBBeauty, all Big Bold models have a massive watch head covered with a slightly curved glass.

Contrasting 3D prints on the dial as well as the strap in the main color highlight the big personalities of the watches, while the subtly toned backgrounds flatter the bold contemporary design.

Superluminova arrow-shaped hands point your next move to the right direction. Go big, go bold!

After 25 years together, this celebration is not about accumulation, but about focusing on things that truly matter to us. And in this regard, we’d like everyone to think about our Philippine reefs as much as we do. We met while scuba diving, we want to give back to something that brought us together.

“25 Reefs for 25 Years” is an idea we want to focus on over the next few years. Our idea is to find 25 ocean reefs we can help protect, one for each year we are celebrating.