7th Year Hitch - One Month Ago

Very very very long read. Proceed at your own risk hehehe. You can click on the images to view the full size :) Hope you guys enjoy my reminiscing one month after our wedding ^_^

---

Having slept at around 3 a.m. early in the morning of September 9, I was still groggy when I finally got out of bed at around 7:30 a.m. I asked Rene, Buddy and Jasmine to come in by 9 a.m., so by that time I should've eaten breakfast and taken a bath already. A strong cup of coffee and nice hot bath managed to wake me up and soothe my nerves.


After a hearty buffet breakfast at the Astoria restaurant with Jasmine Mendiola, my multi-talented hardworking make-up artist (she came from a 6 a.m. shoot that morning), she proceded to do my make-up. She knew exactly what to do based on our trial during the prenup pictorial -- a bronze finish with purple and pink highlights on the eyes. She really worked her make-up magic on me, since I looked very fresh and revitalized, even though I had only about 4 hours of sleep hehehe.

Around this time, a slight drizzle fell, and I was getting kind of worried it would rain on my wedding day. I was thinking of my dress and the pictorial we were supposed to have around the UP campus -- it might not happen if it was still raining in the afternoon.


Jasmine then proceded to do Darice's and my sister's make-up. Darice is my maid-of-honor, while my sister is my bridemaid. Darice got the same make-up style like mine (since she also had the same dress as mine -- she's my mini-me kasi hehe), while my sister had denim smoky eyes to highlight my denim motif, and pink cheeks to set me apart from my entourage. My sister liked her make-up so much -- she felt she was in Ambush Makeover and her new improved look was unveiled when she saw herself in the mirror :)

Jasmine worked nonstop after my sister because Dar's family arrived. She did the make-up of Dar's two sisters (the little one is my flower girl) and Dar's grandmother. There was a little mix-up regarding Dar's mom's make-up -- she put on make-up herself, then she wanted Jasmine to fix it up, but Jasmine said it would be better if they started over, so Dar's mom washed her face, but then Jasmine was doing somebody else's make-up by then, and Dar's mom got impatient so she did her make-up by herself again. Whew. Labo. Hehehe.


By that time, there was a flurry of activity in our room. Rene and his associate photographer Joseph were busily taking pictures, while Buddy was walking around with his camera doing it reality-TV style. I felt such a stariray sobra! I've gotten so comfortable with the camera already as in, hehehe. Cathy also arrived with Buddy to drop off my beautiful bridal bouquet, and the entourage flowers.


While a flurry of activity was going on in our room, the boys were taking it easy in the next room just watching their TV. Hahahha. The only dilemma they had was that they didn't know how to put on their ties, so Dar's stepdad shows them how.


Our beautiful, beautiful clothes. I'm still so in love with my skirt -- with the denim-like embroidery, the train, the way it hanged so elegantly from the hanger... Haaay... I will never have a dress like this again.

Dar's suit turned out so nice too, because the cloth had the same shade as my denim corset. His suit can pass off as a denim suit ha!

And our shoes -- our extravagant shoes that cost us an arm and a leg! The owner of sister companies Janilyn and Jarman just got very rich because of us hahahha! Well, I was really just planning to buy cheap shoes, but when I saw those purple sandals at Janilyn, I knew they were the ONE! No regrets though because I knew I was going to use them again and again and again :)

Dar never planned to buy cheap shoes though, so his once-in-a-lifetime wedding shoes is an expense that will never be worn again :P Hahahha.


Before I was to become a wife, I was first a mommy and a pseudo-wife. So here I am doing my motherly and pseudo-wifey duties. Haaay. Good thing Dar also did his preparations at the hotel -- I knew he was counting on me to give him the finishing touches :) I was really running around that day trying to accomodate everybody's needs, especially when my family arrived.

Good thing the rain already stopped, haaaay. One less thing to worry about.


And then it was time for Dar, his family and his boys to leave for the Church. Darice was so excited she decided to leave with his Papa, but then her fussiness attacked (due to a lack of naptime), and soon her smile was replaced with a pout.


With less than thirty minutes to spare, my corset was tied up, my make-up retouched and veil attached. My mother even had to sew the front of my dress because it was showing too much cleavage hehehe. Good thing I brought my sewing kit (because I had last minute craft projects to do for the wedding :P)! Two pieces of advice: Fit your gown one last time after you get it from the designer/sewer for last-minute adjustments, and bring a sewing kit with you during the preparations.


After a quick kiss from my adorable brothers, and contemplating if I should get a drink first, I ran towards the bridal car, and hoped I could make it to the church in thirty minutes.

On the way to the church, Buddy came alone with me sa bridal car and we did a mini-interview. He asked me what I was feeling at that time, if I was nervous, excited or what. I told him I was nervous, but not because I was getting married, but because the traffic was so heavy that afternoon! At 2:30 in the afternoon ha, Meralco Ave was slow-moving, then at Libis, and expectedly at Katipunan Ave. I just didn't think that Meralco Ave and Libis would be filled by cars at that time in the afternoon, eh we only had 30 minutes to spare...

Oh and since I got about only 3-4 hours of sleep the night before, when we were stuck in traffic, I was really really really getting sleepy. I didn't dare close my eyes because I might fall asleep (and Buddy would video it que horror hahahah).


And I did get to the church in time, albeit there were some glitches. We had forgotten to confess before the wedding, and Dar mentioned this teensy-weensy detail to the priest's assistant. I was kind of pissed off because we could've gotten away with it naman (sorry to those hard-core Catholics) if not for Dar's sudden honesty system. Fine fine, better to haul my ass out from the car and walk to the confessional in front of EVERYBODY than to have our marriage null and void in heaven. Of course, Jasmine was there with her make-up magic to take away my stress.


During this time, Darice's fussiness has turned into full-blown tantrum, so she was all frowns before the march. I tried consoling her, and asked if my parents can just walk with her. My Dad tried to comfort her, while Mom tried not to get impatient with Darice's tantrums. My coordinator-friend Kat tried to soothe my nerves with last minute words of love and encouragement :)


More mistakes to follow. I forgot to put my veil up before I marched!!! Good thing Kat was able to signal to my parents to put up my veil when I got to them, hehehe. It looked so normal, and so right for my parents to do that, I don't think anybody realized that it was a goof-off.

Then when we got to Dar, HE WAS AT LOST as to what he should do!!! He completely blanked out!!! I was so ready to whack him on the head with my flowers, as in! I said "Shake hands with Dad, and kiss my mom" through my teeth, while I gave my everything's-going-to-be-alright smile.

As we sat down on our chairs, I was so ready to give him a piece of my mind, when he said apologetically, "Sorry ha, di pa kasi ako kinakasal eh". Fine fine fine. Haaay... men. I mean... boys :P If only he had more enthusiasm in joining me preparing for the wedding, then he'd know what to do....


Other glitches were that the reader of the First Reading, Dar's sister, continued on to the Responsial Psalm, even though I asked my friend Drei to do that for us. I wanted to stand up and stop her from reading, as in!

And then, during the lighting of the candles, Dar's candle went on fire hahahah!!! I think the denim cloth I used to wrap around the candle caught fire. Good thing he was alert enough to put it out, or else we'll be in jail right now for burning down the church hehehe.


At last, the rings were exchanged, vows were made and the groom got to kiss the bride!

Really a whirlwind of emotional feelings and physical sensations. It was so damn hot inside the church (I thought there were going to be mist-ers???), I wanted to stand up and point the fan right at us during the ceremony.

Also, my love-hate complex with Dar was heightened during the ceremony because he was irritating me so much with his inane and stupid questions during the whole thing, but then I was also filled with such great love for him, I didn't know if I wanted to give him a whack on the head or to give him a jaw-dropping church-tongue kiss, hehehe.


Hahahha, I loved this pic so much -- look at my raised eyebrow as I carefully watch Dar sign the marriage contract :P And he watches me sign the damn thing too :P


Woohoo! At last, with the pictorials finished, we march down to the front of the church and the confetti and petals were thrown :) One more glitch then was the other party popper was not "popped" by Dar's friend hahaha! But by time, I had a "que-sara-sara" attitude, and so that barely registered a raised eyebrow from me :P

And off we go to U.P. for our pictorial!


It was just like being a celebrity! We didn't have to get out of the car to get stares from people -- the Studebaker did that for us! Really, it isn't everyday UP students get to see a 1932 vintage car going around their campus hehehe.

We first went to our tambayan, the walk going to the Main Library, near the Palma Hall. We saw Manang Carman, our suking tindahan, and she exclaimed, "Ay Shelley, ang taba-taba mo na!" Salamat Manang Carmen ha. Then up next was Quezon Hall, where the Oblation is situated. Then we were supposed to take some pictures at the Carillion, but there lots of students milling around there, we didn't want to shoo them away just for our pictorial. Last stop was the Melchor Hall, the Engineering building. By this time, I was already so used walking around my gown getting so many stares from the students. Tracy, my secondary sponsor and unofficial train-holder was getting pissed off na running after me hahahah. We wanted some shots sana sa grass, but it rained nga in the morning, and the mud would ruin my dress.

Then off we go to Balay Kalinaw! Since we extended an hour using the Studebaker, the owner charged us for the extra hour. Being a bride does not make me forget haggling, so I was able to shave off 500 bucks from the rate hehehe. The owner was generous enough naman to agree :)


Arriving at Balay Kalinaw was so cool, because our car was so bagay with the house! Hehehe. Jasmine proceeded to give me one last retouch before we make a grand entrance! [That's my cousin Toni looking over the balcony -- one of my favorite pictures.]


Cocktails were served for an hour -- my caterer set up a small buffet at the stair landing with a juice fountain and appetizers (crispy spinach, nuts, etc). Guests were able to mingle around Balay Kalinaw, as everywhere had a stairs -- one can go up/down the balcony stairs or the main entrance stairs. Here's Kat giving me a few words of instructions (hehehe) and reassurance that everything was going along fine :)


And then we entered the room -- I was completely overwhelmed! All the most important people were there :) I was looking around and I was thinking, yes! our guest list has more than a 90% success rate! Pero syempre I would've loved it more if 100% success rate hehehe.


I was taking in the people, the band, the purple table cloth I so specifically requested from our caterer, the flowers, the cake, the souvenirs that were handed out earlier... and I felt .... relieved and validated that months of preparations and kaartehan and ka-OC-han did not go to waste :)

Bucket of flowers by Cathy Gancenia, denim cake by Sugarbox and denim corkboard souvenirs by moi (picture tag photography by Rene Gaviola, who else?).


One of the biggest splurges of our wedding was the Hourglass band with Mike Manahan. It was supposed to be Hourglass lang muna, and Kat was so ready to book them na nga because she got to know somebody who's the manager of Hourglass [tama ba Kat?] But then we learned a month or two before the wedding that the percussionist will leave for Hong Kong to work for Hong Kong Disneyland (damn you Mickey Mouse!). I was so disappointed because the percussionist was the one thing that set apart Hourglass!!! But then, packages were arranged, prices were set, and we got a deal getting two sets of performers (that is Hourglass band minus the percussionist + Mike Manahan the percussionist) for the price of one.

Good thing they got good reviews from our guests. Dapat lang! We paid a great deal of money for them, hahahah.


One of the highlights of the program was the 10-minute AVP made by Buddy Gancenia. Kakaiba, ang galing talaga! Hindi nawala yung essence ng day-long shoot when Buddy compressed it to 10 minutes lang. Our guests were cheering and laughing along -- they enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed making it. There was a scene where we made a cheesy teenybopper romance scene (y'know, walking around the forest, twirling each other around, like that) -- and I was so embarrassed hahahahhahaha!!! I can't believe I agreed to that hehehe. Darice really enjoyed watching it because she was in almost half of the video (she introduced each segment) and she kept repeating her lines after watching hehehe.

My friends kept asking me who made the AVP, and I proudly said, "Si Buddy Gancenia, Pinoy Big Brother editor yan". Naks.


We're not really emotional as a family -- we always have insults and jokes and put-downs thrown at each other. So expectedly Dad made a funny speech for us, complete with "Darius, it's a no return, no exchange deal ha" finale. And then we danced while the band played "The Way You Look Tonight". Although we didn't get emotional, I got a warm fuzzy feeling while my Dad and I danced. Then Dar butted in (hehehe), I gave a grateful kiss to my Dad, and then it was Dar's turn to dance with me.


From one joker to another, again, no emotions involved here. I wanted to hear some sweet words of love sana, pero asa pa ako. Men in my life are really not vocal with their feelings :P


Of course we had the traditional bouquet and garter toss, although a modified version wherein the bouquet and garter were passed around, much like Trip to Jerusalem, the wedding version. And then we had the cake-cutting and the wine-drinking :) [Ang cute talaga ng cake ko!] Again, Dar was acting like it was the FIRST-TIME ever he heard of these things -- but I let it slide, di pa nga naman sya kinakasal eh :P


Then a few more speeches. Dar's mom gave a thank-you speech for our guests, while Dar and I said a few words of appreciation for each other, to our parents, and also to our guests.


Soon it was time to go home. My mom basically hoarded the centerpieces, instructing my siblings to take one or two buckets each, while my Dad brought home the cake. My mom really really loved the flowers, she thought we paid a big bundle of money for them.


And now for the final interview with Buddy, reliving the moments of the day, laughing about the glitches, getting over my constant state of irritability with Dar (hehehe). Really, Buddy is so friendly, and so down-to-earth, we really can't help being true and honest with him for our interview. And may I just say Rene captured all our emotions :)


Then, it was time for one last kiss.

We just got hitched ;)

obssessed over wedding preps @ 9:21 PM

---

...back to the seventh year hitch...