In celebration of our upcoming 3rd wedding anniversary on Wednesday, I hope you enjoy reminiscing with me as I look back on what happened on that fine, happy day I became a wife for life.
As a child, while most girls have theirs when they were kids, I never had a dream wedding. Bakit nga ba? I really don't have a clue. On the day of our wedding, I woke up like a clean sheet of paper with no grand expectations of what will really transpire on our special day. I told myself I will just enjoy whatever the day brings me.
Instead of writing a blow by blow account of what happened during our wedding day, I've decided to write about the moments that made me say "Wow!" and made me realize that I was so blessed to have become a bride for a day and a wife for the rest of my life.
WOW #1: I WAS THE CALMEST BRIDE I COULD EVER BE.
As a child, while most girls have theirs when they were kids, I never had a dream wedding. Bakit nga ba? I really don't have a clue. On the day of our wedding, I woke up like a clean sheet of paper with no grand expectations of what will really transpire on our special day. I told myself I will just enjoy whatever the day brings me.
Instead of writing a blow by blow account of what happened during our wedding day, I've decided to write about the moments that made me say "Wow!" and made me realize that I was so blessed to have become a bride for a day and a wife for the rest of my life.
WOW #1: I WAS THE CALMEST BRIDE I COULD EVER BE.
I woke up at 6:30am feeling relaxed and refreshed with a total of 7 hours of sleep. I had a good night's sleep which only showed that my nerves were calm and I was not anxious the night before.
During breakfast, I ate tons of food (try having buffet breakfast at Circles Shangri-la and i swear you would never want to leave until you can't eat anymore) and enjoyed it with my family and Chris' family. We were all in a happy mood and i think it helped that Chris and I were so relaxed that our families felt it too.
Amazingly, I was like that the whole day. I never got affected by anything around me. I knew that everything will be alright and if there was anything bad that could happen, my thought was "So what?" and I think what made me calm was that I was just peacefully happy...at tawa lang ako ng tawa the whole day.
When I saw the wedding photos submitted by our photographers, there were photos of me just making chismisan with our wedding team and watching them work.
WOW #2: PICTORIAL WITH MEL CORTEZ AND KIX TAVORA
I did not only have fun being photographed by two of the best photographers in the wedding industry BUT i got to enjoy taking photos WITH them. Hah! Oh ha? Saan ka nakakita ng bride na photographer pa =)
This was impromptu. At that time, I was only learning how to use a DSLR then but Chris sent the DSLR to my room (after breakfast, my couturier didn't want us to see each other anymore) and so I was fortunate to take photographs too.
WOW #3: I WAS MADE TO BE A BRIDE
Wearing my gown made me realized one thing: that i was made to be a bride, that this day was meant to happen, that this was destined, that this was written in the stars at kung ano pang chuvanes dyan...basta when I saw myself in the mirror with my gown on--yun na!
WOW #4: MY BRIDAL WALK
The bridal walk was indeed one of the highlights of every wedding. And knowing that i will only walk once, I had to make it good =)
Funny/astig moment: while waiting for my turn to walk, Cecil's (my couturier) two assistants were behind me with my train and asked "Ma'am, tulungan ka namin sa train mo hanggang sa makaayat ka sa entrance" and being the astig bride that I was (lakas talaga ng loob ko hehehe), i told them, "Wag na, ilatag nyo na lang ng maayos. Kaya ko to". As in wow! it was a four meter train and I was at that time 41 kilos only...the train was a bit heavy but i wanted to walk in all the grace that I could muster.
Dramatic moment: All the elements were there: me in my white gown, the song "Come What May" when I entered the church, relatives and friends all smiling (some admitted that they were teary-eyed)...and when I reached the middle of the aisle, everyone clapped their hands. As in wow!!! Impact diba?
Touching moment: (1) Seeing my parents teary-eyed; my mom trying her best to not cry and my dad, I saw his contained emotion. (2) Seeing my mother-in-law crying (although I'm really wondering why she's crying---tears of joy pala so she told me haha). (3) Seeing Chris about to cry (Hah! I saw that!) but he tried not to.
I admit, I almost cried too...out of sheer happiness. I was so touched to see so many people in the church. I'm so into that moment that i felt everyone's love and joy for Chris and I. Believe it or not, it was not a blur. When I walked down the aisle, I saw everyone's faces. I cherished every step that I made when I made that walk. I treasured the moment when i saw Chris' face when he saw me, and like he said, it was the moment he had waited for.
WOW #5: THE HOMILY
Two things why I loved our homily: (1) The priest thanked us for believing in the sacrament of matrimony and (2) He left us with this advise: to always share and forgive.
WOW #6: RITE OF MARRIAGE and ANNOUNCEMENT THAT WE ARE MARRIED
Being blessed with the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony --that is heaven! It is indeed true that all you need is each other and a priest and everything else is a bonus really.
No matter how open-minded I may be with how relationships go, when it comes to my relationship with someone whom I want to spend the rest of my life with, the only thing I want is that we do things in the right order and in the right time and I'm very glad that Chris wanted the same thing as well. Chris and I never took shortcuts when it came to our relationship. We knew that waiting for the right time and following a certain order, everything is worth all the sacrifices we made.
WOW #7: SIGNING OF CONTRACT
WOW #7: SIGNING OF CONTRACT
A proof that our marriage is legal and binding.
WOW #8: THE KISS
My most kilig wow!
WOW #9: PICTORIAL AS HUSBAND AND WIFE
An activity that we enjoyed so much. It gave us time to breathe in a way. Although it's a bit tiring to smile and pose but still the time in between the church and reception party was the time that Chris and I were able to internalize that the church ceremony is over and that we are truly married.
WOW #10: GRAND ENTRANCE TO THE ROCKWELL TENT
Our wedding team transformed the Rockwell Tent into a spectacular venue. We loved it as soon as got in. And again, we were greeted with happy guests =)
WOW #11: AVPs FOR PARENTS AND FRIENDS
Decisive moments prepared two avps: (1) a tribute to our parents and (2) tribute to friends and photos taken during our pre-nuptial pictorial.
Our guests were entertained and some of them were touched coz they were in the AVP. I enjoyed it a lot...I was laughing while watching it coz Chris had some funny photos in it and it's nice to see old photos that reminded us of happy memories.
WOW #12: OUR FIRST DANCE
This was my sweetest wow! We danced to the song "Knocks Me Off My Feet", Chris' song for me and has become one of our songs.
WOW #13: THANK YOUs OF OUR PARENTS
It took a lot of courage for our parents to speak infront a lot of people and we were grateful that they were able to do it for us.
WOW #14: NINONG FERDIE'S AND NINANG JULIE'S SPEECHES
We were very grateful that two of the closest people to us said yes to our request for a speech. Our ninong's and ninang's words of wisdom will always be in mind in times of challenges in our lives.
WOW #15: MATRON and MAID OF HONOR'S and BEST MEN'S SPEECHES
These are the people that knew everything that Chris and I have gone thru in our relationship. We were touched by their speech and we'll forever be grateful that they are always there for us.
WOW #17: ONSITE VIDEO AS GRAND FINALE
This was a big wow! To see what transpired during the hotel preps to the church ceremony is a gift to us and to our guests. chris and i were smiling up to our ears while watching our onsite video. A perfect way to end the program.
WOW #18: SURPRISE SONG FOR CHRIS
Since I moved to Sydney I never took care of my voice and I never practiced. But for the love of Chris, I knew in my heart that I'd have to sing him a song one last time before i really retire from singing. The song was "Valentine" (an original of Jim Brickman) and it was a song I chose because it simply describes what he is to me.
During the performance, i knew that my voice didn't sound as great as before but other than that, it was really hard to sing when overwhelmed with emotions, I can't even looked at Chris coz I was fighting the tears.
WOW #19: OUR THANK YOU SPEECH
It was during this time that i finally broke down and cried. Chris and i held on tight to each others' hands for strength.
I had prepared a speech (a long one at that) but i wasn't able to read it all. *sigh*. Nawala ang pagka-trainer ko dahil sa sobrang emosyon.
WOW #20: BACK TO OUR HOTEL FOR OUR REAL FIRST DINNER AS A COUPLE
WOW #20: BACK TO OUR HOTEL FOR OUR REAL FIRST DINNER AS A COUPLE
We weren't able to eat during the reception. I think I only had soup and drank lots of water. It was only in our hotel room that we were able to eat like pigs hehe.
While we ate, we talked about the day's events and we're very very happy to know that everything went well.
