who knows, i'll have amnesia some day. allow me to "briefly" journalize what transpired for the past two months and the wedding day itself (on a later post). it was far from a perfect wedding (it wasn't even near perfect) but as mike said, we'll forever treasure the happiest day of our lives. echos keso :)
dec 3
flight to manila
i had a quick lunch with tita marie that day. she was the only representative of the camacho clan from US but ironically, her flight back to US was on the 10th of dec! one day before the wedding day. hekhekhek. ok, so this is all i have of that meeting: a photo of the superb sentro lunch. that's sinigang na corned beef, bulaklak ng kalabasa, and galunggong. sarap. there's also a beef dish that wasn't so sarap.
gowns, gowns, gowns
that day, i also went for the final fitting of my gown. up to that day, i still can't believe i was getting married in a week. there were still so many things that had to be done then. so i didn't achieve my dream of just relaxing during the last week before the wedding. argh. we took all the other gowns home with us while my gown had to be dry cleaned and picked up on the 8th.
dec 3 to 5
discovery weekend
we were so stressed on the 3rd due to so many errands that we decided to give up our slot for the discovery weekend. we definitely couldn't make it on the 530pm call time so we called the organizers and asked if they would still accept us even if we're late. they were super understanding and said that even if we arrived at 8pm, that's fine! after all, the first session starts at 8.
we were and we are still so glad that we made it. we were warned that there are 3 possible outcomes for this "retreat". a) you will push through with the marriage, b) you will postpone the wedding for a later date, c) you will part as friends. b or c was not our option, but i was partly scared - "what if?"
the people there would probably remember us for having having the closest wedding date to the discovery weekend (just more than a week! there was no time to back out! hehe) i wouldn't call it discovering-if-we-are-meant-for-each-other thing. it was rather a discovery of the following things that i'll probably remember for as long as i could remember:
1) discovering mike's most endearing qualities
2) discovering genuine forgiveness - no looking back at the bad things, i promise!
3) discovering how to say how you feel
4) discovering our differences and how we will continuously strive to settle them
it will forever be a work in progress, though. don't say you haven't been warned! hekhekhek.
PS: my roommate, shiela, was the best!
PS2: if there's one thing i disliked, it's the fact that they have no water heaters in the bathrooms. we're talking about december here and i'm one who can't take cold baths. ako'y lamigin mana sa lola ko. you have to bring your own water heater. i have no water heater. bow.
here's that picture of us (and our bulging tummies, ok ok).
dec 6 to 8
stress na bonggang bongga
the following days were crazy. with the help of wawin, the ever reliable brother, i unbelievably achieved the following:
- wrapped the gifts for the sponsors and entourage - we had crab tree and evelyn travel kits for the SS, ikea chocolates for the kids, and rachebeli wines for the PS. rachebeli was a pain with a capital P-A-I-N! first, they delivered late. in my opinion, they deceived us that the package we took included chocolate bars that would nicely go with the wine. apparently, not. "ginipit" is the perfect term for it. they delivered last minute and they shocked us that there were no chocolates with the package so we had no choice but to pay for additional order. the gimmick was so cheap but we had no choice.
- created candleholders for the tables - can i just share how lovely the candleholders were? my brother painstakingly glued the ribbons and i bundled the flowers. thank God for wawin. we bought the stuff from SM and carolina's and the candles from ikea. later at the reception, we would learn that the candleholders were a wasted bunch as the candles were not lighted at all. how silly :)) i'm not sure if i want to blame our contact for the reception but i think i will. hey lady, my brother did all the hard work and you didn't give justice to this work of art! (hey lady talaga?!?)
- printed and stapled the missalette - again, thanks to wawin for helping us to print and staple the booklets. this boy has a system and it always works beautifully. prior to the final printing, we had to ironically go to hell and back just to have the missalette approved and finally printed.
- bought the biscuits as sort of appetizers - i originally wanted ikea biscuits and cookies but due to time (and baggage weight) constraints, i ended up buying these butter cookies and pretzels from cash and carry. they served their purpose well. :) and they were pretty yummy too, i think.
- last minute shopping for the other necessities - so many necessities that weren't really easy to find.
- visited the church for the final payment. could you believe that there was a misunderstanding with the church about the parish priest? all the while, they thought that we'll ask their local priest to officiate. this was our fault though. up to the last week, we still didn't have our priest! the church admin was very understanding :)
- fetched my gown - ah have i mentioned i love my gown? :) there were a few mishaps for the entourage gowns but i think my gown was perfect :) mishel executed well.
- welcomed that little girl - kuya, april, and keyla arrived on the 8th. one big, happy, bonggang family! yahoo!
dec 9
tagaytay and father gerbert
we originally wanted fr. albert (sto. nino dear ex parish priest) to officiate the ceremony. we learned though that he had to attend to family matters and so mike looked for another priest. fr. gerbert is mike's friend's friend. he wanted to meet us prior to the wedding so we visited him in tagaytay where he was holding a retreat for HS kids. fr. gerbert was so endearing. he took time to get to know us so he could give the ceremony a more personal touch. we love him :)
after the meeting, we visited the pink sisters. so serene :)
dec 10
hotel checkin and mikey's birthday
the day before the big day! diamond hotel checkin time was 2pm. our coordinator (oh do i have a lot of rants about them!) was supposed to meet us at 2 to get the wedding paraphernalia and also for our last meeting. i didn't want to be late for the meeting so i rushed to the hotel (with mom) and left everything behind in makati where my brother is staying. i thought that i'll just go back for my stuff (read: gown! and other important stuff) since the meeting won't probably take long. well, the coordinator was late. so late that i was starting to panic as all my necessities were still in makati at 9pm. and i was supposed to be taking my beauty rest! and i haven't had my mani/pedi yet.
we waited for the traffic to relax a bit and then we rushed to makati to get the stuff. i'm so thankful to this mani/pedi home service team that i found online. while we were getting my stuff, the other girls had their mani/pedi at the hotel. after all the traffic hassles, i finally got myself at the hotel in one piece at 1am. take note that i still haven't done my nails then :p hay stress and pagod galore.
it was my mikey's birthday too! how could he ever forget our anniversary? it comes a day after his birthday. i visited him in his room (he shared it with his men) and gave him my birthday present. before i went back to my room, tagay muna :p hehehe ay sus.
it took me a while to finally have that sleep i so badly needed and wanted.
sheesh. it was not the final week that i imagined. our preparations started more than a year before the wedding and yet there we were, stressed as hell on the last week :)) i'm not complaining. i couldn't even write a "lessons learned" list as i'll only get married once (i hope). where will i use the list anyway? as i look back, there were a lot of hassles, yes. murphy's law at its finest once again. but it was all worth it. :)
i joined weddings at work and there i had good reads of almost all brides saying, "i'm an OC bride." hahaha. why do i laugh? because i don't have a drop of OCness in my blood. see what happened on our last week? :)) but it was fun! one of the best weeks of my life :)
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