Monday, July 3, 2006

Blogger Entry #6


Tuesday, June 28, 2005

My brother's wedding (aka If Looks Could Kill...), Part 2


I apologize that this has taken me too long to complete. Life decided to get busy on me when I wasn't looking.

Now let's see... where was I...

Oh
yes, the actual wedding ceremony. Following Fr. Manoling's beautiful
homily, it was time for the bride and groom to exchange wedding vows.
Given the march and how both Gerard and DJ were in tears, I had a
feeling the vows would be just as, if not more emotional. When Fr. Mano
asked them to express their love for each other in their own words, the
floodgates opened anew... first for the groom, who in very colloquial
Tagalog, how much he loved DJ, and how he wished they had plenty of
children (enough to form a musical ensemble). DJ, in fluent English,
cried as she told Gerard that he was the best thing to ever happen to
her. Needless to say, all of the congregation was in tears. Plenty of
tissue paper was passed around. The exchange was gorgeous. I then had
to come up with the page boys to present the rings, the arrhae and the
bible, after which came the proclamation we were waiting for: THEY'RE
MARRIED! I let out a loud whoop and holler, and a few Tiger-esque fist
pumps. My baby brother was now a married man, and we were overjoyed.

Then
came the Prayers of the Faithful, which I asked my older brother Caloy
to read. At a few of the petitions, my mom would react... there was one
in particular that made her head turn: a petition for all husbands and
wives to be faithful to one another. Her head immediately turned to my
direction, her face contorted with the half-frown half-smile as she
mouthed the words "faithful" referring to my not-so-faithful father. I
gave her a look that told her to behave. She pretty much did for the
rest of the night. But I gotta hand it to her: she took pains to avoid
my dad, and for the most part, was successful.

The mass
continued as normal, with the inclusion of a beautiful "peace"
ceremony, where all the parents, ninongs, ninangs and siblings, came up
to wish peace and love upon the newlyweds. I made sure to go first to
set the circle going, as well as determined that my mother would follow
me, and that my father would be a few people behind her. No reason to
create a fuss on this day of days.

At one of the meetings with
the wedding coordinator, DJ and I determine the order and arrangement
of all the photographs to be taken, and thank goodness we did. There
were people at the wedding that weren't speaking to each other (and I
don't mean my parents, either), so it was going to be one delicate
operation to make sure the photography session went without a hitch. We
placed my parents of opposite sides of a tableau so that they didn't
stand next to each other. Other relatives that weren't speaking to
other relatives had to have lots of space (and other human bodies)
between them. I breathed a huge sigh of relief once the session was
over... we could then head to the Le Pavillon tent for the reception.

Nothing
much else to say, really... we had a pabitin instead of a bouquet
toss... we hid the garter with a bunch of hair scrunchies to make the
garter toss more interesting... there was a band set-up in case anyone
was itching to jam (nope, only one song was played, "My Romance," which
Lyn Sherman beautifully sang)... there were couples games... how well
do you know the newlyweds games... all in all, it was a great time.
Unfortunately the festivities had to end relatively early; it was
Sunday night after all, and people had work in the morning.

Ahhhhhh...
I was a happy big sister the night my little brother got married... he
found his soulmate, best friend, the one he laughs with... the one he
loves. It's so rare to find everything you wish for in one person,
which is why it can take so darn long before you find "the one", but
when you do, that is a day to celebrate... and for sure, the angels are
celebrating with you. That's the day you are blessed.








2 comments:

menggay san ramon said...

*tears* akala ko pocket book..sana ang kasal ko rin maging glorious..

Chinky Fuentes said...

i know this is a late reply, considering this was posted last year pa but I just read this and I was so amused because it was so much like my wedding.

We also had a hard time separating my father and mother to avoid both of them bickering. Since my husband's parents already died, we paired my mother with his eldest sister and my father escorted me.

One tactless photographer insisted mamang and papang should stand side by side during the picture taking and to avoid too much attention on themselves (because the photographer loudly insisted), they stood side by side but they started bickering!

My mother did not stay at the resort overnight as planned because some of my father's tactless and insensitive relatives kept teasing her.

We also did not have a bouquet toss but I gave my bouquet to my friend Nikki instead who promptly got married right after me.