Paul Gershon King-Erika Therese Moran When Erika married Gersh

My niece Erika Therese Moran, daughter of my brother Jose Ricardo Moran and Melissa Ylanan-Moran, recently married “the perfect match” of her life. The young man, Paul Gershon V. King, son of Reynaldo T. King and Ma. Teresa Villaflor-King, has been able to blend well into the Moran family.

I guess it must be because of Erika and Gersh’s cutie one-year-old son Andre, who captures the heart of everyone he meets.

Last July 24, Erika and Gersh finally decided that they were made for each other.

“Erika’s the kind of girl I can talk to about anything,” said Gersh. “We complement each other. She has all the traits I look for in a wife.”

“Gersh is very sweet, malambing and caring,” said Erika. “One day he surprised me by visiting me at work. I’m a simple girl and I was immediately won over.”

A relationship that started out as a friendship is what makes the marriage of Gersh and Erika a strong one. Erika always tells me that she and Gersh were good friends before they started their relationship. The two have been a couple for four years now.

Gersh and Erika first met at A Veneto Pizzeria in 2004. “At first we did not really talk to each other. But after we were formally introduced we started getting to know each other,” added Erika. 

Gersh popped the question on June 23, 2007 in the Boracay Ballroom at the Hotel Sofitel. Erika told me that the proposal was just like one from the movies.(He got down on one knee, and gave her the ring — in front of friends and strangers). “And because I loved him very much, of course I said yes,” she quipped.

Erika and Gersh tell me that they could no longer imagine a life without each other, so marriage was inevitable. “It came to the point wherein we wanted to spend every day with each other,” added Gersh. “Having our first baby, Andre Raphael, also brought us closer and made us decide to start living as family.”

It took Erika and Gersh a little over a year to plan and prepare for their wedding. The first few months after the proposal, the couple searched for the perfect venue for the altar date. When they made the trip to Sofia Garden in Patio Victoria, Intramuros, they knew it was there were they would exchange their forevers. 

“Because we had a year to plan, it was really not that stressful, even though we had no wedding coordinator to help us out,” said Erika. “Also, to cut down on costs, we did most of the things that we could make or take care of ourselves.”

“I think one thing that made our wedding very special was that it was very personal,” added Gersh. “We only invited our closest friends and relatives. We wanted our wedding to be a true celebration of our love for each other and God’s love for us.”

July is right smack in the middle of the rainy season hereabouts, but on July 27 the skies cleared up just enough for Gersh and Erika to have the perfect dusk wedding. Erika recalls praying really hard that the rains would let up on their special day. And, yes, God heard their prayers and granted them His blessings.

Everything for the wedding was planned by Gersh and Erika, with a little help from their parents and close friends. There were some trials along the way, but being very hands-on in planning the wedding brought the couple even closer together. Erika and Gersh told me that when things got a little too hot to handle, they learned to laugh them off. I had thought that weddings were a thing of the past. But wrong I was. Kids: we really can learn a lot from them. 

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