Cebu (Philippines): Having trouble with your wedding seating plan? Try accommodating 10 presidents and prime ministers, thousands of troops and scores of sniffer dogs.
Filipino Clarice Veloso thought her big day was in tatters when the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) re-scheduled its annual summit to January 13 in the Shangri-La Hotel, also the venue for her wedding reception.
But after digesting the unhappy news, the bride-to-be, who had the plush resort on Mactan Island, in the central Philippine city of Cebu, booked a year in advance, has decided to take it all in her stride.
"Everyone has been very helpful and we decided to make the best of it," said the 30-year old marketing manager, who is based in San Francisco.
"It's going to be different and exciting."
It certainly is.
The original summit in December was abruptly postponed amid a typhoon and warnings of terrorist bomb plots and, anxious to ensure everything goes smoothly, host the Philippines has deployed over 13,000 troops to lock down Cebu.
The 160 wedding guests had to provide passport numbers with their RSVPs and will be bused from the church to the hotel along a deserted road save for roadblocks and police officers wearing wraparound shades.
Veloso said all 10 leaders were welcome to join the reception but she didn't fear getting swept off her feet, not even by the presence of a King, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.
"I've already found my prince."
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