Our Blissful Wedding – His side of the story

(A Complete Documentary)

Until now, I can still hear the kissing bells ringing and all I want to do is to hug my wife and give her a tender sweet kiss but I think this kiss will wait for a couple more weeks until Anne arrive here in Singapore. It’s exactly a week ago since our wedding day and as I remember by this time, the situation in our room in the hotel was very tensed. We are scheduled to leave the hotel by 12:45pm and with this very limited time, there are still lot of things to attend to. The photographers and videographers need to take a shot on my wedding attire first before I put them on thus I can’t wear them right away.




Anne gave me a very nice bracelet as a gift before the photographers and videographers do the pictorials so it will be included in the pictures. She asked her friend (one of the secondary sponsors) to give it to me, but maybe because there are so many things occupying my mind that time, I misunderstood her and thought that it’s her wedding gift to us. So I immediately thanked her and put the gift inside my bag. If I only knew, I should have opened it right away because until now, I’m a bit disappointed that it was not included in the pictures.


I also need to settle the bills with our coordinators for our suppliers. And also, since I checked in my relatives at Hotel Intercontinental Manila, I need to settle the bill first to avoid over staying penalties. So from the Manila Peninsula hotel, we went to the Intercon Hotel to settle the bills first before going to the church. Not only that, on the way to the church, I’m burning a vcd copy of our tribute to the parents AVP to be played at the reception. Stressful isn’t it, but definitely exciting. =)


Before I proceed with my story, let’s travel back one more week from the day of our wedding. It was Dec 29, 4:10 am when I arrived in Manila. I hardly take a sleep in this almost 4 hours of travel, too much excitement I guess?! Anne together with my parents fetched me at the airport and to start the day right, we had a scrumptious breakfast where else?! at jollibee! Hehehe. I really missed the longanisa meal at jollibee. There are KFC and Mcdonald’s here in Singapore but they do not serve rice. Too bad for rice-loving persons like me.

Day 1
I was very energetic that day even though I only had a little sleep that night. I guess it’s the adrenaline to be with the persons you love that gave me the energy for the whole day. I had a very busy first day in Manila. After the breakfast, we headed straight to our home in Taytay to unload my things and also meet my other relatives. Then we went to the church in Pasig for our 9 am canonical interview with the priest. After that, I was scheduled for my confirmation ceremony at San Miguel church in Manila at 1 pm. We are suppose to be having our lunch at Megamall together with the my parents, my Uncle and Auntie (they will also stand as my Ninong and Ninang in my confirmation ceremony) but because of lack of time, we just take out our lunch and ate in the car before we enter the church. The ceremony ended around 4 pm. After that, we contacted the person who will make my barong and we set a fitting schedule at 6pm at megamall. We also do some shopping there for my pants and my parents shoes. After my fitting, we take our dinner at Mann Yann but Anne was not able to join our dinner since she still need to go to Las Pinas together with our Maid of honor and bridesmaid for their respective fitting. After their fitting, they they surprised Anne as they meet some college friends for another bridal shower for the nth time.. =) We arrived home around 11pm and man, I was sooo tired. As I laid my back on my bed, it was less than 5 seconds before I went to sleep.

Day 2
It was Dec 30, Sunday – church time. I attended our thanksgiving service in our church. I really had lot of things to be thankful to our Lord. I was so excited because I will also see my church mates and friends. I really missed my ministry in our church as the keyboardist, and as much as I would like to play the keyboards that time, my hectic schedule would allow me to. They prayed for me and for the success of our wedding and its very heart warming. I can really see the joy and sincerity in their hearts. Around 630pm when I left the church because I need to meet my fiancé at Makati around 730 pm for our last minute shopping for some stuffs for our honeymoon. That night, its videoke time! We sang song for each other as we wait for the next day to come….

Day 3
Dec 31 – Happy Birthday Sweetheart Love!
Its my fiancé’s birthday today and I wanted it to be very special because it will be her last birthday as Ms. Anne Marie Cate. I always wanted to be by her side every minute of this day because I want her to be very happy on her special day. We went to festival mall for our lunch date and also to buy our “red” shirts. At night , we delighted ourselves with some fireworks which Anne bought from dragon firewords and it was very nice. She also bought a hundred kwitis for me.. Very sweet! Around 1:30 am, after all the fireworks display, we went to my aunt’s house at Las Pinas were another birthday celebration party awaits her. It was a surprise for her and even I myself was not aware about it. My relatives waited for us and didn’t go home until we arrive even though its already 2am. If we only knew, we could have arrived a bit earlier.

Day 4-6 (Jan 1-3)
For the next three days, we are very busy as we resume to attending to our wedding preparations. We need to visit the suppliers one by one to finalize the contract and settle some payments but since they are not strategically located with each other, we could only visit one or two suppliers in a day. First we went to dangwa for our flowers supplier because we need to make some modifications with our package. Then we went to Hotel Intercontinental in Makati to make some bookings for our relatives since we planned to let them stay there on the night of our wedding day to avoid any hassles since most of my small cousins are part of the entourage. The next day Jan 2, we went to Paranaque for the part 1 of our choreographed dance practice. I’m really not into dancing but because its our wedding day, I would gladly want to give it a try and give my best shot. Hehe. Around 630pm that night, we had our rehearsal dinner together with most of the members of the entourage as well as the emcees and coordinators at Max’s Glorieta. The next day, we went to Makati Sports Club (reception venue) to confirm the expected guest count, finalize the menu and settle the payments. That night, I started not to feel well. My temperature rose to 38 degrees. Maybe because of over fatigue because we haven’t really gotten enough rest and sleep since I arrived. I took some paracetamol and I was worried that I might not be feeling well on our wedding day but I know God would not allow it.

Day 7
Jan 4 – Friday
Our car is coding this day, so the plan was for me to bring the car early in the morning (7 am) to Manila Peninsula and I will stay at Reinassance Hotel were my balikbayan relatives were staying until I can already checked in at the hotel. I am the only one to do this because my parents have to attend some engagements that day and they will just follow to the hotel around 7pm. I also planned to buy new wedding pants because I was not satisfied when I fit my pants the night before. I saw one store in Glorieta where they can finish a pants in just 24 hours. But when I woke up that morning, Im relly not feeling well. My temperature even rose to 38.5 celcius degrees. I cannot manage to go rise up from bed so my mom just let me take a rest instead of letting me leave very early. But this one is a blessing in disguise for me. In the morning, we went to a doctor. After that, we went to one tailoring shop in Taytay and I requested if they can finish it by that day as I will be using it the next day. At first they are hesitant since there are a lot of customers but at the end , they gave me a positive reply. Cased closed! From there, I went to visit some old friends from highschool to personally invite them since we cannot reach them through their cellphones. Im very happy because despite the very late notice, by best friend in elementary and highschool still managed to render a song number during our reception.

In the afternoon, after taking some medicines, I started to feel better. We rented a van to take us to the hotel since our car is coding. My father will just wait until 7pm so he can bring our car and follow to the hotel. But still no time wasted because by 630pm, he will get my pants from the tailoring shop. We went first to Hotel Intercontinenetal Manila to have my relatives checked in. For our dinner, since we have we have 7 kids with us, Jollibee is the perfect place to be! Hehe. While waiting for the dinner, I went to National bookstore to have our misalets photocopied. I also went to Kodak photo center to have our 2 photos developed for our signature frame. Its already 11 pm when we go to our hotel in Manila Pen, and before going to sleep, I made the AVP for our parents first. But since I’m already very exhausted plus I’m not 100% feeling well that day, I cannot afford to finish it and burn it to CD that night.

Day 8 – the BIG day!
Its Jan 5, 2008 and its our wedding day. Surprisingly, I woke up feeling better than ever. As if I didn’t had a fever the day before. And my temperature drops to 36.4 degrees from 38 degrees last night. I knew it. God is so good and He will never ever let me down, especially on this very special day. I can clearly see his plans why I got fever the day before. Its because He didn’t wanted me to leave early in the morning to beat the coding but instead, He wanted me to have a complete rest. Jesus You are so good!

As I have said, the situation in the hotel before going to church was very stressful for me since there are still lot of things to do and there’s a little amount of time left. But as always, God is there to help, and as expected, everything goes well.

During the wedding ceremony, the feeling is so very overwhelming and indescribable. I felt like im floating in the air. And as I saw my bride walking in the aisle towards me, i got teary eyed that i want to go near her and give her a hug. This is the moment we've both been waiting for, and in a matter of hours, we will be united and start building our own family. As she slipped the ring in my finger, I felt that I became a different person - someone who no longer thinks of his self alone and his own priorities but is now concerned and focused all his priorities to his new family.

We are very fulfilled and very pleased that everything goes well in the church and in the reception. We have prepared for this for one year and it really paid off. All the sacrifices and all the hardships in the preparations were clearly reflected in the flow of our wedding. We are also very satisfied with the performance of our wedding suppliers – threelogy (for our video), smartshots (for our photo) and velvet mood (for our strings quartet) to name a few. Threelogy did a great job with our onsite wedding presentation. They really met if not exceeded our expectations with them regarding their craft. We are also very happy to hear positive feedbacks from our guests. In the first place, we really wanted our guest to really enjoy this wedding celebration.

At the end of the day, these 3 words gave so much meaning to our lives - "YES I DO!"

Our Blissful Wedding - Her side of the story - 1

It’s been exactly one week from today when we got married. It’s been raining for the whole day today. I’m happy that we are blessed with a wonderful weather on our wedding day. Until now, I still have hangover of our big day! I can’t believe that after a year of preparations, it’s now over. I’m very happy that our wedding was nothing compared to the nightmares that I had for the past year. All the suppliers were all present and I remember every moment of it.

January 5, 2008, Wedding Day.

The Preparation

At 7am, my veil sponsor, Lia, arrived and woke me up. She traveled from Tarlac so it’s just polite to wake up and assist her. Then Chichay, my BM, arrived next. A little before 8am, my make-up artist, Reimann, arrived. I’m a bit confused on what must I do since my coordinators haven’t arrived yet. It’s a good thing my parents were there to think straight for me. Chichay went out to buy breakfast for us. I’m glad my mother took an early shower so Reimann was able to start her make-up. Before he started, he asked us to gather and say a short prayer. I so love Reimann, for without him our day won’t have a very meaningful start. As he does my mother’s make-up, I ate my breakfast then took a shower. A few minutes after, the other makeup artist, Angel, I hired for my entourage arrived. At 9am, Denden of Shindig arrived. I briefly pointed to her everything that is needed for the reception for I know that Nina assigned her as the key person to the reception. The living room of the suite has started to get crowded so I instructed my sister to bring Angel at JayR’s room so he could get started. Shortly after Reimann started on my makeup, the girls of Ms. Minette arrived to dress me up. They waited patiently by the sofa as my hair is being done. Soon Threelogy and Smartshot arrived at the same time. I’m not sure if it’s really an SOP that the photographers and videographers arrive but I guess it’s a way that no moments will be missed by the other and vise versa. I immediately recognized Bong of Threelogy for I already became a fan of their on-sites even before we actually started preparing for our wedding a year ahead. Sir Lito of Smartshot was indeed there as we have requested. Zandro who took our prenup shoot was sadly assigned to another wedding. However, he assured us that Archie is as good as Zandro. The moment they stepped in the suite, I know our wedding has started. They did not waste any minute though I can only see them through the corner of my eye. I would be a bit surprised to see cameras in front of me. I just let everything go. The night before, I prepared labeled envelopes for our payments to our suppliers. However, I only have enough cash to pay our florist for I know he’ll be the first supplier to arrive. The rest of the money was with JayR. While being made up, I called JayR but I got no answer from him. Apparently, he left his phone at the hotel. So I have to call his father to check where he was. Then I turned it over to our coordinator for I was then tied to photo shoots. At that point, I remembered that the flowers hadn’t arrived yet. I checked with Denden, and she told me that she was already in touch with them and was on their way. I loved how Reimann did my hair and makeup. I consulted him before I bought my head piece and the picture he showed to me on how my hair would look like was really what he did to my hair.




Then Sir Lito asked me if I’m ready to work now which I returned with a smile and nod. Sir Lito acted like a director of movies. He instructed me what to do and encouraged me to smile more without seeming mandated. He wanted everything to flow naturally. At a little past 11, I’m finally wearing my gown! It’s good that Ms. Minette’s girls were there for my gown was a bit loose. They had to adjust the gown for it might fall off me. A few more shots before the flowers finally arrived. Since we are scheduled to leave the hotel at 12:30, I only had a few shots with my bouquet. My bouquet was not what I had in mind but I’m happy and satisfied that they looked great as well.



I started to get emotional during the pictorials with my parents. This is the last shot until my tears finally dropped.



My friends and I had fun posing and playing with my veil.





More shots were taken at the mezzanine and the lobby of Manila Pen.




Here is the photo taken right in front of the door where the tank forced to enter during the Manila Pen invasion.

Sir Lito here showing us his craft.


Then at 1pm, we are off to the church! I rode the Studebaker from Don Roberts Bridal Car.

It seemed small but it was cozy inside. Since it’s a vintage car, I gauge that we were only traveling at around 40-60kph. Smartshot and Threelogy were always behind us.

Pre-wedding Day As Told By The Bride

Let me start my wedding-day-kwento the day before our wedding, Friday, January 4, 2008. I spent the morning packing an overnight bag and for our honeymoon. I gift wrapped the remaining souvenirs for the ninangs. Then I printed our plane ticket to Davao for our honeymoon. Before heading to the hotel, we dropped our priest’s marriage license to our church. We weren’t able to check in at the Manila Pen until 6PM. His room was upgraded to Makati Tower and is just a few doors away from my suite. That helped a lot in cases we need something from him and vise versa. While on queue at the lobby, JayR finally arrived at the hotel as well. Since we’ve decided not to see each other that day until our wedding, he made sure that I’m in our suite before he actually comes in. I just have my sister give him their room key cards.

The room seemed more spacious than when we made an ocular inspection of the room before. I then texted Ms. Minette our room number. They delivered my gown at around 6:30pm. It’s very convenient that they deliver the gowns the night before the wedding day. Any bride would love to have the burden of handling their gowns off their shoulder. I’m not very happy with my shoes, so I decided to look around Glorietta for possible replacement. I found a perfect laced shoe but the pair was missing so I resolved to a fully sequenced shoes. I can still hear Ms. Minette reminding me not to buy a beaded shoe for it’s lethal to my laced gown. I don’t have much time, so I decided to get it. It’s funny that I forgot my cards and money at the hotel so I have to call JayR and ask him to pay for my shoe. I had my mother and sister wait for JayR at the store while I look for some dresses at another store that I will wear the morning of my wedding. Then we headed back to the hotel to meet my father who made a second trip to get our paraphernalia for the wedding. Back at the hotel, I emailed the guest lists to our coordinator Nina. Then I had my nails done at the room. My parents were both begging that I go to sleep early. But I can’t. Not until I’m sure that everything’s been taken care of. For I know that come morning I won’t be able to attend to them. Racquel of Themeworks delivered our unity candle at 12:30am. She wanted to see me to check if I’m ok with the candles. Unfortunately I’m already in bed and I don’t want my parents to drag me back to bed if I asked her to come up to our room. So I just told her that I’m fine with them and that I’m just glad she was able to deliver it. That’s the only time I started to let go.

JayR and Anne, Now Married!

Today at this very moment, I'm having coffee with my beloved wife at Pearl farm Davao as we celebrate here our honeymoon. =). This is our second day of being husband and wife, and it feels so great. Our thoughts are still filled with the memories of our wedding day. We watch the onsite video prepared by Threelogy as often as we can. All I can say is that we had a great and successful wedding day and I will love my wife for eternity. Up to now, as I look at my wife, parang bf-gf pa rin ang relationship namin, buti na lang we have this beautiful wedding ring on our hands to reminded us that we are already better halves of each other. We really had a tough time during our wedding preparations, and until the last minute on our big day, we still had some minor things we attended to. But it's all worth it. This is it for now. Just wait for more kwento when we come back in a few days. To those who attended our wedding, thank you very much for celebrating our big day with us! Hope all of you had fun as much as we did! God bless!

Confirmation and More Bridal Showers

This post is long overdue. Christmas has arrived which made my last minute wedding preparations limited. Relatives and friends from overseas have started to arrive a week before Christmas which meant family gatherings are in every corner. My friend (veil sponsor) from Korea, Lia, arrived last Saturday, Dec 22. I met her in Makati right after she arrived for she is due for her fitting of her gown. After the fitting, we met our other SF friends in Alabang for our yearly Christmas gathering.
Though we are not complete since most of our friends are assigned abroad, we had a blast! We first exchanged and opened our gifts. My baby asked for a piggy bank which gave me a headache looking for one. Our gift’s worth must be P1,000 and the piggy banks I know are worth less than a hundred only. Year 2008 is the year the rat, so most of the displays are mostly of rats. I never thought that I could find a cute piggy bank almost a life size of a piglet in Tickles. I almost bought a Chinese piggy bank even if it’s not nice and is chipped. Apparently, my baby wanted a piggy bank merely because he misses pork! He is assigned in Saudi by the way. At least I was able to give him what he wanted. Now our problem is how we will send it to him! *sigh.

I asked for a tripod which JayR and I will use in our honeymoon. I received a table tripod and a perfume. I love the table tripod! Thanks Ms. Gigi! Now, I just don’t have a camera in my bag but a tripod as well! :D

Then they surprised me with a simple shower. This is something unique too. There were no games or anything. But they have a theme for their shower gifts to me. They wanted it to be unique and funny so they came up with a Kitchen-and-Bathroom theme. Their gifts must be something that can be both used in the kitchen and bathroom. Icay gave me a liquid hand wash. I received a chocolate whip cream from Lia! Ate Marie gave me a foot spa set which she said I must use before I use the gift of Lia! Hahaha! Ms Gigi did not fail me. She has the most unique gift of all. She gave me a fly swatter!! Once there was a fly in my room, I was able to kill it in just one whip! Now, I wonder why it is a bridal shower gift. Hahahha!

Christmas has passed and my shower was still not over. JayR arrived last December 29. It was one hectic day for both of us. I hardly slept the night before probably due to excitement. I woke up at 3am for I have to pick him up at 4:30am. We miscalculated the time thinking he’ll arrive at 4:30. He arrived 4:05! I arrived at 5am at the airport giving him enough time at the immigration. I feel bad for he has to wait for me when I should be waiting for him. We waited for his parents to arrive at the airport then have breakfast at nearby Jollibee. Very typical pinoy. Just have to eat in Jollibee upon arrival! Hehe.. We went home to Taytay first to drop his things. Then we’re off at 9am for our canonical interview. It’s good that there was a wedding on going when we arrived at our church. At least, he was able to have a glimpse of the church with a wedding. After the interview, we headed for Megamall to meet his family. We are supposed to eat lunch before we head to JayR’s confirmation. But due to lack of time, we just bought packed lunch and just ate it in San Miguel Church. I was holding my breath the whole ride to the church. Since none of us had been there, we just relied to the city map of Manila for directions. Good thing we made it on time. After his confirmation, we again headed to Megamall for I have to meet Lanie, my Maid of Honor, who until then was due for the final fitting of her gown. I’m supposed to have dinner with his family but skipped it since we are with pressed time.

Lanie and I drove to Las Pinas for her fitting. We also met Chichay, my BM, in Alabang for she needs her gown altered. On our way, Lanie asked me to stop by Festival Mall for a while for she has to meet someone who she doesn’t want to reveal until I meet that somebody. All the while I thought that she wants me to meet the guy she was dating. I tried to refuse to accompany her for I’m not dressed to gimik. I was awake at 3am that day and was driving all through out the day until night. I don’t have the energy to socialize. But I gave in for she’s a dear friend and I support her in everything. We even had a small talk about the guys she dated before and told her how much I wanted her to be happy and to finally meet the guy of her dreams as I have found mine. When we arrived in Las Pinas, it’s a blessing Kuya Lito, JayR’s cousin arrived. He and Lanie were able to practice the song she’ll sing at the reception. Kuya Lito by the way is the house pianist of Vivere Hotel in Alabang. He would accompany all our singers at our reception. We were some kind of trapped for we can’t leave easily. Uncle Delfin, JayR’s uncle, was mesmerized by Lanie’s voice that he started to request several songs for her to sing. We’ve said goodbyes several times already before we were actually inside the car. I apologized to Lanie for it took us a while to leave thinking that her date was already waiting. Then we headed to Giligan’s in Alabang Town Center where her date was supposed to be waiting. During the ride, Chichay kept bugging me if I brought my camera with me and kept asking me where it was. That made me curious why she would need a camera and she seemed not shy like me. That’s the only time it finally hit me that maybe it’s not Lanie’s date who’s waiting for us. But I tried to keep that off my mind for I don’t want to expect a surprise. When we arrived in Giligan’s, Chichay walked ahead of me which I found funny. I just thought that’s how “bakla” she is. Hahaha! Then there I saw in one table, my room mates in college! They ordered a lot of food. I thought we were having lunch with the feast on our table.

Then the gift-giving started. I was surprised with the gifts I received from them! It’s definitely a must to bring in honeymoons. After we’re done with dinner, the waiter served a cake from Kink cakes! I was surprised but I don’t want it opened for we are in a public place! Our table was not secluded so everybody from other tables can see what it was. It would be fine if most of the people there are women. Obviously, most of them are men! We could’ve made fun of the cake more if we are in a secluded room! Hahaha! Thanks girls for one fun night!