Pia: A 'blessing,' not a wedding

The ceremony was so hush-hush that even her Eat, Bulaga! co-hosts, led by her former boyfriend Vic Sotto, didn’t know about it.

In fact, Pia Guanio even showed up, as usual, at Eat, Bulaga! last Saturday, Oct. 1, enjoying herself as usual, hardly giving away even the slightest hint that late that same afternoon, she and Steve Mago, her businessman-boyfriend, would seal their year-long relationship with vows.

“It wasn’t really a wedding per se,” Pia told Funfare Update in an exclusive interview late last night when FU learned about it. “It was more of having our relationship blessed. You see, Steve and I are Christian; we are both members of Victory Christian Fellowship. We are trying to live an honorable Christian life — you know, not just attending regular services but to live it. We wanted our relationship to be blessed by God.”

Held while heavenly shades of night were falling, at around 5:30 p.m., the “blessing” was witnessed by only 30 people, mostly those from the “bride” and the “groom’s” families, and including Pia’s manager June Torrejon. Pia wore a simple, short beige dress and Steve was in a suit. While Pastor Paolo Punzalan, son of the late Helen Vela, officiated the ceremony, the haunting sound of violin filled the garden of Steve’s parents’ house in Alabang City where it was being held.

Photos of Pia Guanio and Steve Mago were taken during their vacation in Europe early this year

“I was crying, everybody was crying,” said Pia. “It was so solemn and so intimate that everybody felt the presence of God.”

Steve did exactly what Miss Universe-Philippines Shamcey Supsup would want her boyfriend to do — that is, change his religion from Roman Catholic to Born-Again Christian for the woman he loves.

The “blessing” wasn’t really done in haste.

“Steve and I attended a marriage encounter, it was like a seminar, for four weeks in a row, once a week,” said Pia who has been a Victory Fellowship member for two years. Steve joined only last year. “Did I pressure him into joining? No, I did not. He did it voluntarily. We have been reading The Bible together since then.”

Pia met Steve last year, several months after she and Vic Sotto broke up. She and Vic went steady for more than seven years and they were rumored to be already talking about getting married. When they separated, everybody went, “What!?!”, suspecting (wrongly, it turned out) that it was the “seven-year itch” that did it. According to Funfare Update sources, Vic himself has found a new love (a flight stewardess).

Since the Oct. 1 ceremony wasn’t a “wedding per se” but “only a blessing,” there wasn’t any “honeymoon.” Pia took a day off from Eat, Bulaga! and went to Tagaytay with Steve for a “dinner for two” at Antonio’s.

Already, the newly-“blessed” couple is planning a church wedding (a big one this time) next year, preferably in Europe where they spent a vacation early this year purposely “to check out” a good place for that wedding.

In the meantime, are the “newly-blessed” couple living together?

“No, we are not,” said Pia who owns a condo unit. “It’s too small for us, masyadong masikip.” No, hmmmm, sleepovers? None, said Pia who lives only with her pet dog, a Jack Russell Terrier.

Wouldn’t the JRT get jealous of Steve if and when?

“I don’t think so,” said Pia. “Magaling mang-amo ng aso si Steve.”

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