Denise Laurel junks 2016 wedding plan

I still need more time and a lot of help.” That was how actress-TV host Denise Laurel explained her decision to postpone her planned wedding this year to basketball player Sol Mercado.

“I got overwhelmed with putting our families’ schedule together. I had no idea it would be this difficult,” Denise told reporters during the press conference for her latest magazine show, “Modern Girls” (airs every Saturday at 9 p.m. on the cable channel Lifestyle). “If you invite one person, you’re going to want to invite everyone. It’s tough to get everybody here, especially family members from the United States.”

There’s also the problem of how to fit the event into Sol’s hectic schedule. “He gets his schedule from the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) only a couple of months before. In the Philippines, it takes over a year to book a church.”

Denise and Sol got engaged in 2013. She has a son named Alejandro from a previous relationship.

The 28-year-old actress said they also had to consider the financial aspect of mounting a wedding. “To get married these days is no joke,” she pointed out. “I wanted a simple wedding. I didn’t know that a simple one would cost something like P2.5 million! I’m sure it’s nothing to Sol. I just want to be wise. I’m thinking not just of the wedding, but also of our would-be life together. My son is getting bigger. We also want more kids one day.”

DENISE Laurel

Denise denied there was trouble in their relationship. “We do want to get married. If we could, we would do it in a heartbeat. I understand that while I just wanted a simple celebration, Sol wants to have a wonderful wedding.”

For instance, Denise said she hoped to have two weddings on the same day. “Sol is a Christian and I’m Catholic,” she explained. “We don’t allow our differences in religion to separate us.”

Aside from cohosting “Modern Girls” with Gretchen Ho and Sam Oh, Denise is producing her own album.

“I got sick for a while and stopped for a month, so I’m getting back on it only now,” she said. “I was supposed to release a music video and my first single last month, but it got pushed back a bit.”