Wedding Fever

Last week was a week of wedding fever for me and my family. We prepared for this and that, made arrangements for traditional stuff and even sought out to find my *LOST* cousin's advanced plane ticket! All those efforts payed off anyway, and now he's no longer single!

The Day Before
Of course, what would an occasion like this be without a party to celebrate my cousin's last day of being single? His employees were invited and a caterer was hired to prepare this feast. Of course, his Hong Kong-based family also arrived during the day so they can join dinner and obviously attend this ceremony the day after. Ironically, my cousin's brother actually had a girlfriend months (or was it years?) before him and yet they're not married! Anyway, after that we went up to play Cooking Mama 'till 9:30 because tomorrow was certainly a big day for all of us. Slumber felt great because I was nauseating a bit.

The Day
It finally came. The day everybody was waiting for. We woke up instantly at 4 so the ladies can get their hair done and get make-up by the people at Sarah Hairdressers and the men can shower, wear the traditional barong get-up and watch TV afterwards.

Make-up process took as "little" as 2 hours to get all 4 women (in the house) dolled up and ready to go... so you might imagine what 'fun' we had while waiting for them.

Anyway, we got ready to go and went out those green gates that were our house's trademark in that neighborhood. Of course, we were in a car. We drove our way through Intramuros and reached San Agustin Church in a few minutes. Heck, we were actually a bit surprised to find my father's classmate, who was invited, to be earlier than us!

We waited and we waited for that mass to end. I was pacing around the church and found some kind of wedding schedule. My cousin was scheduled to marry at 9:00. Yeah, I know that already. But the thing is, the surnames were spelled wrong! "Dang", I said. I pointed this out to my father who was accommodating the increasing number of guests and just shrugged and said, "'Wag mo na pansinin 'yan. Puanhuan lang talaga ang mga 'yan.".

OK, so the wedding started 5 minutes earlier than scheduled. We were to fall in line and this was the first time my sister and me became secondary sponsors who were supposed to sit in the second row of benches. She was walking with Darby, the Rain lookalike, her fellow sponsor for the veil and I was walking with Eunice, yes that Eunice for the cord.

Everything turned out great during the things they said after that.

"Today, we gather here in holy matrimony..."

Well, you know what happens...

"Will you, Parker, accept Christine as your lawfully wedded wife?"
"I do, father."
"And will you, Christine, accept Parker as your lawfully wedded husband?"
"I do, father."

Everyone was celebrating and my brother was crying. Hell, I was on the verge of crying too because he was like a brother to me and my siblings during all of those years he has stayed with my father and soon, with his family...

The Reception
We were to serve as ushers wherein we guide visitors to their respective tables. Well I was kinda confused because of the unnecessary seating arrangement he had to make for all those visitors... when all of them aren't really coming. We wasted quite a bit of money on renting an extra room in the area for it was not to be occupied anyway. OK, so here we were, guiding all these people to their tables and asking for the locations of the numbered tables because they were scattered. And because of some unfamiliar faces (the relatives from my father's side and the family of the bride's side), we were certainly unable to arrange it as planned. The plan was eventually scrapped and we let them select their own tables in the end.

The couple was seated and the food was served. And boy were we gonna bring home a lot of it. Anyway, the AV presentation started which was just finished yesterday by B.A. Studio... and it was so short, it lasted only a minute! And there should've been 96 photos instead of just what, 13?! Hell, I burned the dang CD the day before for Pete's sake! What the heck happened?!

My cousin then glanced at me- glared rather. But this little marred piece of work by B.A. was quickly forgotten when Max Tiu invited them to speak. My cousin did his thing- sing, in which he was notorious for in the house. He sang "I Could Not Ask For More" by Edwin McCain (without a minus one, for it was quite unexpected) for his bride in which he was swept to tears. Good thing our ears were saved from that high part though. "PHEW!", I exclaimed.

Pictorials were plentiful and weird. And we went home with the flowery centerpieces we "robbed"... for my grandma's altar. Heck, we payed more than 30K for the reserved room, why not maximize?

Back home... no the other one
Oh, the memories! This was the first home I was raised in before we emigrated to Manila. It was the Quezon City subdivision inhabited by many people, including Daniel who should've heard the fireworks that we sparked when the couple came after all those photos. Anyway, they went up and ate the traditional misua, gave teacups of tea with those sticky green things to symbolize a "sticky", inseperable relationship and unveiled the golden mirror in which its symbolism I came to forget.

They then released the doves which they forgot to release in the church. Seeing that they haven't eaten for more than 8 hours, they flew to the neighbor's house instead. It was quite a good laugh for us who were ready to depart to the trip back home...

Photos
My sister uploaded some photos in her Multiply. Best make one because it's only for her network. http://clarisse121.multiply.com/photos/album/19/Hui-Siao_Nuptials_?replies_read=4

NOTE: This post will be updated as the time goes by...