Heart Evangelista and Sen. Chiz Escudero Wedding on Feb 15

Image courtesy of www.philstar.com

Source: www.philstar.com

The anticipated wedding of Kapuso actress Heart Evangelista and Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero is slated on February 15 next year, a source privy to the wedding preparations confirmed to The STAR.

The recently engaged couple reportedly had a meeting earlier today with a wedding planner to discuss details connecting the intimate celebration, which will happen in Balesin Island Club in Quezon province, with a reception in Manila, where the couple's friends will be invited.

According to earlier reports, Evangelista and Escudero are keen on tying the knot on February 14 next year, which would stipulate a triple celebration -- Heart's birthday, Valentine's Day, and their wedding anniversary.

This led to speculations that the actor-politician couple "bumped off" someone else's wedding to have things go their way.

Makeup artist Ria Gamboa alleged that her friend's "tediously planned Balesin wedding" was cancelled because "a celebrity-politician couple wanted theirs on the same day."

While Gamboa did not identify names in her Facebook post, many netizens were quick to point out that she was referring to the wedding of television host Cesca Litton and her fiance Kyle Kalaw who got engaged last April.

Litton in a statement claimed that, indeed, it was her wedding that was "bumped off".

Litton said they had been coordinating with the management of Balesin and had done ocular visits, food tasting, table lay-outs, and had discussed logistics and rooming for the supposed February 14 wedding.

"We were always told (the date) was available," she added. "It came as a surprise when I received a phone call from my coordinator just last Saturday, saying that Chiz and Heart have been approved for Feb 14 after they have spoken to the owner Mr. Ongpin to reserve the date."

"It is unfortunate that hard work, time, and effort mean nothing when all it takes are the right connections for other people," Litton posted on her social media accounts.

Evangelista had firmly denied accusations that they had any involvement with the cancellation of Litton's wedding.

"I'm a bride-to-be, she's a bride-to-be. Who would do that to any bride-to-be? There's no truth to it and I hope ma-iron out nila," she told the press.

Our source as well denied that the choice of date for the Evangelista-Escudero nuptials is connected with the controversy.

"They wanted to get married on 15-15 (15th day of February 2015), patterned from Escudero's birthday which happens to be 10-10 (October 10)," our source said. -- Cherry Salazar, Salve Asis