Memories of love ever after

We continue our musings on love as we celebrate the love month with a culmination in a wedding ceremony. For this, we go to Charisse Tinio, proprietor of Nice Print, among the most trusted providers of digital photo and video services.

The first time we met Charisse was when she joined the press briefing for Weddings & Debuts Bridal Fair 2012 which she has sponsored. We found her industrious, energetic and determined to be tops in her field. After gaining experience with Konica Photo Express, she decided it was time to set up her own outfit called Nice Print.

She then thought of going into wedding coverage and good friend-actress Claudine Barretto introduced her to friends from the business, the most famous being Regine Velasquez and Ogie Alcasid. However, even before that, Charisse already had brushes with celebrities, her very first being the wedding of singer Paolo Santos in 2008. In 2010, there were Jeni Hernandez, Jenny Miller, Love Añover and Regine-Ogie wedding, which eventually led to their Baby Nate pictorial and christening. In 2011, there were John Estrada and Priscilla Meirelles in February, from pre-nuptial, wedding, to maternity and baby shower; Say Alonzo and Ryan Tordesillas in June; and Rich Alvarez and Kyla in November. The moniker of Charisse as Wedding Photographer to the Stars was firmly in place.   

Being a wedding photographer opened up a whole lot of markets, says Charisse. There are her client’s friends, their children, then the children’s children, so on and so forth. Nice Print was at the kiddie birthdays of Paolo Contis, Manny Pacquiao, Claudine, Mickey Ferriols, Mikey Arroyo and at the baby shower of Kristine Hermosa.

The happily pregnant Priscilla Mereilles

Her most controversial assignment, however, was the same-sex union between singer Selina Sevilla and Lalen Calayan, niece of cosmetic doctor Manny Calayan and head of marketing of Calayan Surgical Center. Although Charisse had covered a boy-to-boy union between a Filipino and a foreigner in the past, this girl-to-girl union is more colorful. We seek out the couple for their own views on their relationship. Selina was first known as a seductive singer, FHM and San Miguel Beer model, who had attracted many a male admirer, in fact, has two children from past relationships and married a man in Japan. Lalen, on the other hand, the male in the partnership, has had various girlfriends. At the time they met, they were both committed to other people. “However, we clicked and found out how much we liked each other,” Selina tells us. “We became best friends, sharing each other’s secrets and bringing out the best in each other.”

This went on for a year, until both noticed the relationship changing, becoming deeper, no longer as best friends but as lovers. It took three years of living together to get to the point that they wanted the relationship to last. Describing her partner, Selina says Lalen is a hopeless romantic who can read her mind, and wants her happy at all times. 

“I realized that love is not just having sex,” continues Selina. “Love teaches you how to live your life, each day for and with your partner. And (it) shows you that love begets love.”

Selina recalls that one day during her concert at the Metro Bar, Lalen invited all their common friends and in their presence proposed marriage to her. It didn’t take long for the ceremony to happen at the Intercon Hotel, for a minister to bless their union in the most traditional of rites with relatives on both sides present plus ninangs, ring bearer and the works on Dec. 20, 2011. She admits they have discussed the possibility of in vitro fertilization through a donor. They also plan to get married legally in the US. But at the moment they are still enjoying their status as one to last forever.  

Nice Print also captures the love story of Selina and Lalen

In this month of love where couples start planning their weddings, Nice Print can be found in her booth as sponsor to Weddings & Debuts 2012 Bridal Fair, at the SM Megatrade Halls 1, 2 and 3. Event opens today and ends Sunday, Feb. 19. On display will be the photographs on this page and others Charisse has taken as validation of love ever after.

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