This month, our cover girl will walk the aisle in a Monique Lhuillier wedding gown.  “Monique is a family friend, and we’ve been friends since we were children,” Carla Yeung explains the choice.  “We did the fitting last October in Los Angeles, and Monique’s first sketch hit the mark for me right away.”  The gown is made of yards and yards of duchesse silk embellished with Swarovski crystals. “My friends from Hong Kong and London are coming over, and I’m sure they will find Cebu quite changed from the last time they were here.”  The last grand affair her friends came over for was Carla’s debut in 1997, a lavish event where guests came in black tie and shimmering gowns, like a fairy tale ball.

The 31-year-old Carla Marie Salimbangon Yeung, comes from a big family on her mother’s side.  Her mother, Mariquita, whose roots are from Daan Bantayan, a sleepy town in the northern side of Cebu island, has six siblings, and altogether there are more than twenty cousins to play with on their frequent vacations to Cebu. “Carla, Jewelle and Martin would come here every year during the holidays and summers,” say Lauren Salimbangon, Carla’s second cousin. “We all live in the same family compound and the whole gang would just bond, no one would be left out.”

Some summers, it would also be the turn of the cousins to visit them in Hong Kong. Ocean Park, shopping and ice-skating would be on their to-do list and they would just enjoy each other’s company. Growing up, they shared many things, toys, clothes, even the same haircut –a bob for the girls and crew-cut for the boys. At first glance, Carla seems reserved, prim and proper, but deep down, her cousins say, she is also a cool rocker chick digging hard-metal tunes from Guns and Roses, and playing Warcraft for hours. She was also adventurous enough to wear whatever her sister Jewelle asked her to wear for their various costumed parties.

Carla, her brother Martin and sister Jewelle, were all born and raised in Hong Kong where the family settled and where her father Carlos had started a company that deals in diamonds, Simplex Diam Limited.  The three siblings share a special relationship with each other and have remained quite close through the years. Martin has taken on the role as the protective “older brother” even if technically Carla is older than him. While Jewelle or Judg, as Carla affectionately calls her younger sister, the more adventurous between the two sisters, is her best friend.

DADDY’S GIRL  As the first daughter, Carla takes center stage and her doting father Carlos is a strong presence in her life. “He’s a taipan in the boardroom but he’s a teddy bear really,” she smiles. “I admire my father’s focus and business sense, but also his warmth and generosity.” For our cover shoot, he took time to send Carla his choice of jewelry for her to wear.  This gesture from father to daughter clearly showed that no endeavor of hers is too small for him to show his full support.

Growing up, Carla was always conscious of the activities of Operation Smile, a charitable organization that helps children with facial deformities.  Her mom has spearheaded its local operations for the last ten years, coordinating medical missions for volunteer doctors from abroad and ensuring proper sanitation, medicines and meals for one and all. “My mom is also an inspiration – she is a strong woman, she never loses her poise despite adversities,” Carla says after one of the grueling activities they do out of town.

Carla went to the German Swiss International School in Hong Kong before being sent to London to attend St. Mary’s Boarding School in Oxfordshire where she finished her A levels, or high school, before proceeding to Kingston University in Surrey for her postgraduate studies and eventually earning a degree in English Law.  “I went to England at the age of fourteen, and stayed there until I was in my twenties.  Strangely enough, I miss the cold, there’s nothing quite like coming into a house with a fireplace while it’s freezing outside.” After college, she briefly worked for a law firm in Hong Kong.

BUSINESSWOMAN

After years of living abroad, Carla ran out of excuses, and when her dad requested her help in the family business, she was ready to settle home.  The Yeungs had accumulated quite a substantial amount of land in Cebu and Carla was the perfect candidate to pursue the family’s plan to enter the real estate market. She was given the task of developing Bayswater, a 8.5-hectare property in Mactan that would ultimately contain close to 800  dwellings targeted for Cebu’s growing middle market.  “The best part of being in Cebu is being able to learn from my parents,” admits Carla. “I feel very fortunate to have them guide me. I may have some business knowledge from school but over here, there is a more Asian business culture, we deal with a lot of Chinese and local businessmen and they have different ways of doing things.” She joins her mother, who is the chairman of MSY Holdings Corporation, in the company’s vision of building affordable residential properties and nurturing communities using environment-friendly designs in Mactan, an area known for its dynamic economic growth and natural tourist attractions.

There are other plans in the works for the company – a luxe resort is almost done in Daan Bantayan.  When fully operational, the the 18-room Kandiya Boutique Resort will employ a big number of the local populace and spark tourist activity in that part of Cebu, eventually extending to their properties in the neighboring island of Malapascua.  Also on the drawing board is a high-end residential tower in the Nivel Hills that would offer spectacular views of the city.

BLUSHING BRIDE

Happily, the young lady gets a handful of help from her soon- to-be-husband, Chris McKowen, who gained his real estate experience while working in London for a company that redeveloped high-end flats.  “When Carla’s father told me that he would never let her settle in London, I had no choice but to move with her to Cebu,” Chris relates.  They met while both were in boarding school, in one of the “mixer dances,” but started dating only when they met again after ten years. The McKowens come from a long line of Irish gentry; they moved to England at the turn of the century, in an area near Suffolk and Essex referred to as the Constable Country, as this was where the renowned painter John Constable used as the subject of his many landscapes.

On their big day, three things are certain. That Carla’s mom would have brilliantly outdone herself in producing a grand wedding any mother would be proud of; that the Father of the Bride would have tears of joy giving her  “little girl” away to such a nice man; and that Carla would know in her heart that everything is as it should be.

• creative direction KATSY BORROMEO
• couture CARY SANTIAGO
• hair and make-up ROMERO VERGARA
• photography DAN DOUGLAS ONG
• locale Kenneth Cobonpue showroom, Interior Crafts of The Islands, Inc.