The couple’s love story evolved from digital dates to a heartfelt connection—resulting in an eternal union filled with love.
This is an excerpt from Lifestyle Asia’s September 2023 Issue.
Jose Luzuriaga Alvarez III & Tara Jessica Covarrubias Lane’s love story bloomed at the most unexpected time. ECQ and lockdown the world over was mostly doom and gloom for most people. It was the perfect time though, for Jose and Tara’s romance to begin and bloom into an amazing and creative courtship. Although they were in the same social circle and had known of each other since high school days and attempted to go out on dates through the years, it was not until the lockdown that the opportunity to get to know one another presented itself.
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Virtual Dates
Every week during the first ECQ period, our friend group had a weekly Zoom trivia night. I asked her roommate at the time if she and Tara wanted to join trivia night and that’s how we started talking again. After one of the trivia nights, I asked Tara if she wanted to hop on a private Zoom call. We ended up talking to each other for nearly six hours,” recalls Jose. Those trivia nights and long private Zoom calls triggered the desire to go on dates once more. How to do it on lockdown though? “For our first date, I came up with the idea to hold a virtual wine and jamon tasting session. I got this idea after seeing the “Jamon book” at Txanton, which is a book that has slices of different kinds of Jamon on each page with descriptions of the region, flavor, etc.
After doing some research, the supplier in Spain called Enrique Tomas that sold the same book, so I sent a copy of that book and a bottle of wine to her flat in London. That zoom date lasted 10-11 hours and we realized after talking for that long that we obviously really liked each other,” reminisces Jose. After 8 months of virtual dates, Tara came back to Manila in December 2020. Two years later, Jose proposed to Tara and they were married civilly in front of their immediate families in Palawan by Jose’s aunt, Honorable Amy Alvarez in September 2022 and had another ceremony and reception with family and friends in a beautiful garden setup in May 2023.
Lakehall in Nena’s Sanctuary
“We both really like garden weddings but didn’t know of any good garden venues nearby so when we found out that Lakehall was being built in time for the wedding, we thought it was perfect since we would be the first ones to have an event at a beautiful new venue. It was pretty crazy saying yes to a venue that hadn’t been built (and was only finished the day before our wedding) yet, but it all turned out perfectly,” recalls Tara.
Lakehall is an events place located in Nena’s Sanctuary—a beautiful rolling garden with a combination of trees and the wildlife that seek sanctuary in their branches. It also has a picturesque view of a lake and its surrounding golf course.
Read more by purchasing a copy of the Lifestyle Asia September 2023 magazine via SariSari.shopping or select newsstands in National Bookstore and Fully Booked. Subscribe to the E-Magazine via Readly, Magzter, and Press Reader.
Photos by Jaja Samaniego.
