The newlyweds Jigs Mayuga and JB Ty. Courtesy of Jigs Mayuga
Jigs Mayuga and JB Ty, who met in CrossFit, wore barongs when they said “I do” in the San Francisco City Hall.
On Thursday, June 15, Jigs Mayuga and JB Ty tied the knot in San Francisco, a city beloved by the couple for its loving acceptance of LGBTQIA+ communities. The City Hall made a stunning backdrop, with its grand Beaux-Arts-style interiors. Guests flew in from Manila and beyond to celebrate the occasion. Here, Mayuga talks about all the details that went into their big day.
How Jigs and JB fell in love
“JB, or Ben as he is called by close friends, and I have been together for about 3 and a half years now. JB is a lawyer while I am a makeup artist, but we met through our common love for the sport of CrossFit. We are both competitive athletes and CrossFit Level 1 trainers. We would bump into each other at community events and eventually started dating in late 2019. Our bond grew stronger when we started living together during the pandemic. Ben proposed in February of 2021, and we wanted to wait until travel restrictions started to ease before we started planning for our wedding because we wanted friends and family to be there to witness our union on our big day.”
A destination that is more than sentimental
“We wanted to get married in a jurisdiction where same-sex marriage was legal, also because San Francisco has a rich history of LGBTQIA+ culture and activism. I personally have a soft spot for the city because I studied makeup there in 2008, and I’ve visited quite often through the years. It also helped that the city hall is a beautiful landmark in San Francisco with its breathtaking facade and interiors.”
The grooms
“Ben was very firm in wanting to wear a Barong since day 1, and I agreed with him one hundred percent. We wanted to celebrate the fact that we were both Filipino gay men, and what better way to do that than by donning our National Costume.”
The dress code
“Since the majority of our guests were Pinoys who traveled from the Philippines and from all over the globe, we wanted them to be comfortable with wearing Filipiniana without it having to be too traditional. Ben and I loved the show ‘Broken Marriage Vow,’ and how Jodie Sta. Maria styled her outfits in the show. It was a fresh take on the use of Pinoy fabrics and dressing. It really resonated with us, so it was a part of our mood board for our wedding. Our favorites were our matron-of-honor Jen Jacinto’s blush terno from Mark Bumgarner and my cousin, the Miss Universe Philippines Communications Director, Voltaire Tayag’s Barong.”
The message behind the wedding
“Getting married for us was a very personal decision to celebrate our love in front of our chosen families, but we also know that it is also a very strong political statement for the LGBTQIA+ community, especially in the Philippines, where we still have yet to pass the SOGIE bill. The triumph in all of this is the fact that in using our platforms to simply be ourselves and commemorate our wedding, we have inspired and educated a new breed of LGBTQIA+ youths and their parents who follow us. Because indeed, love is love.”
