Married at last

It’s been 4 months and 20 days since JJ and I tied the knot. Whenever I think about it, I am always surprised that we’re married for less than five months pa lang. Para kasing ang dami nang nangyari. :-)

A lot of people have been asking me for wedding kuwento. Specially my relatives abroad who weren’t able to attend the wedding. So, after a few months, here goes. Hope I can still remember everything clearly.

Our Wedding (from the bride’s POV)

Day before the big day
JJ and I, together with Eunice and Chissa, went to the Manila Hotel where we will be dressing up for the big day. The hotel stay was a gift from our Ninang Vicky. She met us at the hotel and made sure that we had the best rooms available.

We had two rooms, one for JJ and one for me. We checked out our respective rooms, hung up the clothes and checked if we were able to bring everything that we need for the big day.

In the afternoon, our chaperones Eunice and Chissa went out with their sweethearts, leaving me, JJ and his PS2 :-) We wanted to go out too as we were getting bored at the hotel, but the two looked at us as if we’re a bunch of locos out of the mental hospital. “Don’t you guys listen? Hindi kayo puede lumabas the day before your wedding!”. Argh. Ayt. Ayt. After several hours of playing and checking our list, we ordered food from McDo. After the meal, JJ continued working on our confetti. He’s using star- and sun-shaped punchers to make our confetti. Even though they are quite difficult (not to mention, painful) to do, JJ punched and punched the afternoon away. Every few minutes he’d look up to me and say “Hay, all in the name of love…”. Hehe :-) Which never failed to make me smile. I, on the other hand, got busy preparing last payments to our suppliers and again, checking what’s left in our to-do list.

By late afternoon, we were practising our vows and making sure that we memorized it. As Malate Church puts it, it will look much better if we’ll be looking at each other while saying our vows rather than at the misalette. In the midst of our practice, the two “chaperones” came in bringing us food for dinner. After dinner and a few laughs with the two girls (who were continuing the confetti-punching), we decided to practice our first dance. We initially chose “The First Time I Loved Forever” from the Beauty and the Beast TV series. After the first few notes, we realized we made a big mistake in choosing this song. For one, it is soooo slow that it was difficult for us to dance to it. Right there and then, we decided to change our first dance song to something more upbeat. “Panalangin” by Moonstar88 seemed like the best choice at the moment. Within minutes, I was on the phone with our coordinator and our string ensemble to inform them of the change.

Around 10:30 PM, we decided to call it a night. I got a lot of well-wishing SMS from friends who were surprised that I was still awake at that time. If they only knew :-) After JJ and Eunice went in the other room to sleep, I conned my sister into doing my eyebrows. I intentionally waited for my husband-to-be to leave before having my sister pluck my eyebrows. Knowing my hubby, he’d just tell me to leave ‘em brows alone. I , of course, cannot sit well with it, given the fact that it will be the best day of my life and I’d have my pics taken with ungroomed brows? Nuh-uh. No way. So, she plucked and plucked for an hour until I was satisfied :-)

After all that, I was off to dreamland.

THE BIG DAY
Our alarm was set at 630AM. I woke up thinking, “Wow! Today is the day. Sana wag umulan”. The first thing I did was to look outside to see if the sun is out. Hay. It was not. As predicted by the weather bureau, it will be cloudy that day. And a cloudy day it was. I was just really hoping that it will not rain given our garden reception. My sister told me not to think about it as there is nothing that one can do about it and that it shouldn’t ruin my day.

We called JJ and Eunice for us to go down for breakfast na. The buffet was really a feast. So many choices. JJ told me to eat a really heavy breakfast as our wedding is at 230PM and we won’t be having a proper lunch with the preparations under way at lunch time. I really ate like a queen! :-)

After breakfast, we went up to our rooms na. When JJ said goodbye, I cannot help but think that the next time I’ll be seeing his face, it will be at the church na.

And the wedding day officially began with my flowers arriving at 730AM. Muntik na masira ang araw ko when I saw that my ento flowers were pink and not the yellow roses that me and our florist agreed upon. When I asked them about this, I almost had a heart attack when they replied “Maam, madali po kasi malanta yung yellow roses kaya itong pink na lang.” WHATTTT???? And why didn’t you tell me this when we ordered the flowers from you???? I fortunately got hold of my temper and just paid them. I vowed that I will not let anything ruin this day for me. So, I checked the flowers again and noticed that they were indeed nice. In fairness, my bouquet of red gala roses was really super pretty :-) so vibrant and fresh. So, sige. Let go of the flower issue na.

Around 8AM, my HMUA Mama Rudy sent me an SMS reminding me to massage ice all over my face and that they were on their way na. I also got an SMS from our P/V team saying that they were also on their way na.

9AM. I am already having my hair and make-up done. P/V team are dressing up the body form. My coordinators came in at 10 AM. Looking back, everything seemed like a blur from this point.
I remember pictorials here and there, one of my coordinators giving me food, another coordinator reprimanding me for checking my SMS messages even after I was told to let my sister handle my cellphone and just inform me if some issues really need my attention. I remember looking at the bridal gown on the body form and telling myself “Hindi nasunod ang gusto ko ah.” And just shrugging the gown issue off.

My favorite part of the preparations is the pictorials with my parents and sister. My brothers were still on their way to the hotel so they missed this part. It was very special for me because I am just so thankful that my parents are there to share that wonderful day with me. My mom’s been diagnosed with moderate cerebellar atrophy and she hasn’t been able to walk by herself for 2 years now. And seeing her there, all smiles, just made me so thankful to God. My mom and sister rode with me in the bridal car to the church. On the way there, my mind was just flying, wala akong naiisip. I was even surprised when the car turned and voila!, we are in the Malate Church parking lot already.
The first person I saw at the parking lot was my husband-to-be talking animatedly to our best friend, Pao. I cannot help but think “Pogi pogi naman ng mapapangasawa ko.” A thought, which I found out later on, is common to almost all brides. I just sat there and saw friends and relatives on their way to the church.

A few minutes before the bridal car was set to move in front of Malate Church’s doors, I felt that I have to go the bathroom. Haha. I never really thought that I’d be going to the restroom on my wedding gown. Imagine the looks I got when I went inside Malate Church’s office and headed straight to the restrooms with my mananahi and a coordinator. I have two people assisting me. Haha :-) I also remember handing my bouquet to my dad saying that I have to go to the restroom and him saying “Ngayon?”. And I was like “Opo, now na.”. He was just shaking his head and smiling. Probably thinking, “Itong anak ko talaga, restroom ng restroom kapag excited. Hanggang sa kasal ba naman niya…”.

After that, I was brought in front of Malate Church’s doors. I cannot really explain how I felt while waiting for the coordinator to tell me it’s my turn to walk down the aisle. I was excited, but I was not nervous, I am thankful that after months of planning it is finally going to happen, I am happy… and then I was told to step out of the car.

As I was waiting for the doors to open, I was suddenly nervous. What if I trip? Etc. etc. And then the door opened and I saw everyone looking at me…. I know I should have felt more nervous given all that attention. Surprisingly, those smiling faces banished my fears. As I walked down the aisle, smiling from one special person to the next, I felt like I was walking in clouds. I even had to remind myself to listen to the song I specifically requested our string ensemble to study for my march (Feels like home by Chantal Kreviazuk). And then my hand was inside my dad’s and I can finally see JJ. I was so dazed that I forgot to kiss my parents before my dad gave my hand to JJ. I just realized this after the wedding na.

The wedding ceremony proceeded with me making one big boo boo. It was my turn to place JJ’s ring and I remember having a hard time with it. It seemed as if the ring doesn’t fit! And then I realized I was holding the wrong hand! Haha :D The smile on our videographer’s face says it all. It is a good thing no one but him noticed. After our first kiss as husband and wife, the pictorials began again. The pictorial with our entire entourage was really funny. There was a flower girl who had her back to the photographer, there was our coin bearer silently crying ( I was told that they had brunch so the poor kid was probably hungry), my bible bearer nephew who refused to stand still and our ring bearer who was MIA.

The pictorial after the church ceremony was really fun. We had our pictures taken by the Bay. It was embarrassing at times but I just thought, “Minsan lang mangyayari ito.” So, I might as well enjoy doing it :-)

I cannot really say much about our reception as time flew for me during that time. It felt like I was seeing things happen the first time when we first saw the wedding video. I don’t remember how the food tasted, I just remembered the laughs I shared with JJ while listening to the nice speeches and words of wisdom our parents shared. I also remember thinking at one point during our first dance “ Wow, we are married.”

And then the next thing I know, we’re inside the car driving back to Manila Hotel and JJ was saying “Hay, tapos na ang pagiging bida natin.” And we thought, ang bilis bilis! Months and months of preparations and ang bilis bilis matapos! Haha :-) Kasal na tayo! It was indeed a giddy feeling. Unbelievable. Married at last.