Wedding Bliss

Wedding Bliss

At dawn, I stirred from a deep sleep and stared at my honey beside me deep in slumber, I was suddenly hit with a realization. In a couple of days, we will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary. I could’nt believe it’s been almost a year since we got married coz up until now I have’nt shaken that wedding ceremony bliss out of my system (and I don’t think I ever will). I still feel that tingling sensation at the pit of my stomach each time I look at our wedding album and I still can’t help but be teary eyed each time I watch our video – and I must say I am very fond of flipping through our wedding album and watching our video.

Junfer asked me to marry him on the night of our 4th anniversary. I will never forget that night coz it was the beginning of my very own fairytale coming true. It was also somewhat endearing coz he proposed twice. The first time he proposed was on the night of our anniversary – giving me an engagement ring with my birth stone surrounded with small diamonds. I don’t know why but somehow I knew that he was going to propose that night and so he was quite disappointed that I was not that surprised. Then after a week and a half, Junfer, my sister and I just got to our place after an entire day of trying to find ideas for the wedding when all of a sudden, he went down on his knee and brought out another ring – it was a very beautiful diamond engagement ring. I was so surprised and overwhelmed that I could’nt answer, I just ran to my sister and showed her the ring. When I came back to junfer he was teasing me by asking – “wait your answer is yes right?!?” I just laughed and told him he did’nt even have to ask. I had to think that I must have been so good in my past lifetime to deserve someone like him.

I can vividly recollect a mixture of excitement, ecstasy, struggle and frustration of preparing a wedding from hundreds of miles from the venue. We have decided that we will have our wedding a year after Junfer proposed which will coincide with our 5th anniversary all the while thinking that a year is more than enough time to prepare and everything is ironed out even months before our big day.

I went back to the Philippines October of that same year to get a jump start on our wedding preparations. I was on a roll, before I left Manila, I already found the venue that I liked, booked the caterer that agreed to all my requirements, made arrangements with the couturier for the entourage’s attire, chose the church where the ceremony will be held and I even booked a singer for the evening. I really thought that by the end of the year I would have everything ready for a wedding to be held in September the following year. However, complications started around 3 months before the wedding. It started with the problems with the church, they want us to be back in Manila 4 weeks before the wedding to attend their 4-week couple’s seminar, which of course was not possible because I have to settle everything in the office before I left since after the wedding I’ll be going straight to the Netherlands and will not come back to Dubai. Well finally my family convinced the coordinator of the church that we will just attend a seminar offered in Dubai. Then there were issues with the entourage, who will be included, the gowns – the style, the barongs, which pair will wear what color. I realized that it was not easy to gather like 20 people to have them fitted for their gowns and barongs. My couturier was freaking out because it was less than 2 months and he has not fitted all the members of the entourage. Then there were members of my entourage who have chosen different styles of gowns (different from what I have chosen) while they were being fitted and so my couturier was already getting confused on what style he really was about to make for the entourage. I really flipped out at this point coz I already discussed the styles of gowns and which colors are to be made when I was in Manila. I was so frustrated that I found myself telling my couturier “this is my wedding, and they are my entourage so I am the only one entitled to decide which styles and colors I want – if they won’t agree with my choices I can replace them”. Later on I realized it was too harsh but the pressure was really getting on to me. I am less than two month’s away from my wedding and it seemed to me that everything was amiss and I can’t do anything coz I was miles away. The only consolation I had at that moment was that my bridal gown was looking fabulous.

Finally, I found myself in a plane going back to Manila 2 weeks before the wedding. The clock was ticking and I was faced with things like marriage licenses (which we’re supposedly late in acquiring), issues with additional flowers, sending out invitations, personally going to each principal sponsors, issues with decorating the church and church restrictions in general. One piece of advice to soon to be brides and grooms – make sure you check all the restrictions of a church before you make your final decision. We were two weeks away from the wedding day and I was really so frustrated with all the church restrictions of the parish that we have chosen for the ceremony coz they did not allow us to make elaborate flower arrangements, they restricted us with the choir, they do not allow personal wedding vows to be recited, there was just too much restrictions. We really wanted to find another church – it was really a dilemma coz we can’t change churches for reasons like the invitations were already sent out and we don’t have enough time to post our wedding to the new church (which takes approx 2-4 weeks) and so we had to make the most of what we can do (and bend a little of the rules).

Our big day has finally come, guess what we still needed to deal with a lot of tight spots. Flowers arrived late, hair and make up artists that were supposed to fix my entourage were slower than anticipated causing half of my entourage to arrive late at the church, my gown was a couple of inches bigger than it was on my last fitting day that’s why it was falling off (guess I lost a couple of pounds coz of the stress) - I guess that is the price I had to pay for following superstitious beliefs of not fitting your gown before the ceremony. I was pretty amazed and surprised even that we were able to surpass all those last minute slip ups.

Everything was a haze, all of a sudden I was walking down the aisle and all the imperfections were suddenly perfect. I did’nt even care that I had a hard time walking coz my gown was too heavy and too long for comfort. All I know is that there he was, the man of my dreams waiting for me at the altar and I was walking towards the beginning of our lifetime together. The string quintet played a beautiful song that made my walk down the aisle even more perfect.

Preparing for our wedding was a roller coaster ride, with all its ups and downs. But like a roller coaster ride it will leave you with an exhilarated feeling. In our case that exhilarated feeling has not yet left me. And after the wedding I can say that it’s really not the small details that counts, it’s the thought that the wedding made us husband and wife that matters. Although it still never fails to make me smile when people who were at our wedding tells me that we had a beautiful wedding coz for me and my honey it was the perfect wedding of all.