Our Wedding Day

I woke up at around 6am. The last to sleep and the first to wake up. Everyone else is still asleep, my mom, sister and her boyfriend, my baby, my best friend, and my coordinator. I prayed before getting up. I realized I haven't cleaned up before I slept last night. I'm still wearing jeans and no ligo for 3 days na. Hahahaha! Was I too busy to even forget to take a bath? ;))

I got up and checked facebook. There were best wishes posts already. My best friend woke up and then my sister. We're all busy with our phones checking updates. At around 8am, tito Edward(my gown designer) came in. It's the second and last time that I ever saw my gown. It was beautiful. Then it started to rain glitches. My gown was serpentina cut and I have a small body frame. The body form that I borrowed was medium! My gown couldn't fit on the hip part! Ms. Melai started calling her contacts asking if we could borrow a small body form but to no avail, there was none that we could borrow. 

I breathe and just let it go.. After few minutes, mom and I went up to have breakfast. Still not yet done eating when my best friend texted telling me that the HMUA has just arrived. OMG. I felt uneasy and excited. I immediately went down and took a bath.  

When I'm being made up, I heard the hotel phone rang. Ms. Melai answered. It was the front desk informing that the Blacktie project has just arrived. When they rang the doorbell and entered our room, I started to feel butterflies in my tummy and felt like having short breaths. Yun na! Totoo na! I'm getting married na. Benjie Tiongco's team came in next. They all started to ask for the gowns, rings, etc. Too many people going in and out of our room. 

The flowers came in next. There was ate Ding but I didn't get to talk to her. Ms. Melai just gave her the balance. After she left, I decided to check the flowers. May mga hindi nasunod. :( I paid extra 300 to add roses in my bouquet but there was none. Not a single rose. And the secondary sponsors are supposed to have wrist corsages but they made hand-tied bouquet instead. Anyway, hand-tied is nicer. I just thought lang that since they have a part during the ceremony, it's better that their flowers are wrist-tied para makita. Anyway, whatever the flower supplier's flaw was, they were all indeed beautiful bouquets.

Now it's lunch time. We ordered Tapsilog from SEx(Sinangag Express). It's nice to hear some say it's their favorite. One video guy even made aya by saying "Oy sex tayo!" Hahaha! 

Then it's time to put on my gown. Me and my bride's maids changed all together inside the CR. They all said one thing after I wore my wedding gown, that it was beautiful and I too. It completed my day. I went out and we started the shoot. Before we went to church, I asked for a portrait shot with my maid of honor and bride's maids.

After the shoot, we rushed downstairs. I panicked when they informed me that it's already 3:25pm! The bridal march will start 10 mins before your time! That means I'm soo late and sooo dead! We're about to leave when I remembered the USB. It's where the standby photo and the photo AVP that I made was saved. But there was no time left. My mom left it daw sa computer shop where she had the table menu printed. I wanted to cry. The AVP is supposed to be shown while guests are waiting for us at the reception. :( 

I could hardly breathe on our way because of the time. I thought I'm late. Halos paliparin na ni kuya yung car. There was no traffic just stops at the stoplight. When we got there, I saw another bridal car waiting in front of the church. Haay. Buti na lang may kinakasal pa. I completely thought that I was late. 

Manong driver drove off to the entrance when the other car left. I started seeing families and friends. I felt happy upon seeing them present waiting for me. Ang sarap sa pakiramdam remembering that moment. My HMUA Victoria Contreras went inside the car for my retouch. Now it's time to go down for my march.

There I was standing in front of a huge close door waiting for it to open. Waiting.. Waiting.. And then it started to move. When it finally opened, I got overwhelmed--by the beauty of the church, by the people present looking at me as I walk down the aisle. And then I started walking. The church coordinators kept telling me to walk slowly. I thought I was already at my slowest. Then as I came close to my parents, I noticed my mom crying. The whole time I thought it would be my dad who would cry. Wrong. I grabbed my dad's arms and my mom grabbed mine and walked towards the man I will marry. I kissed my parents and Kim and I moved towards the altar. Father started the mass.

It wasn't long but I felt it, the vows more than ever. Personalized vows are not allowed but I guess the traditional is better. I felt every single word I said. It's where you promise in front of God. It has to be kept. And then just like that, Mrs. Dimaano na ako. :)

After the wedding we had photoshoot at the church and at the Ayala bridge. The bridge shoot was my favorite. I requested for that one. We felt like celebrities with lights and people looking at us thinking there was a taping going on. I love the shots there. Perfect.

It took almost an hour for the shoot to finish. On our way to Palacio de Maynila, another problem came. The coordinator at the reception called Ms. Melai informing that one of the projectors won't work. Wala daw cable! I thought it was Metrotech who's responsible for that but no, Palacio pala and not the cables because Metrotech promised to bring a complete set. When we got to the holding room of Palacio, Ms. Melai told us Palacio didn't want to put out the projector and screen that they was FREE OF USE. So Kim got mad. Ms. Melai tried to calmed him down. Our AE at Palacio Ms. Joy came up to us at the holding room with a warm smile and said everything is OK na daw. 

I changed into my reception gown. The people who who stayed in the holding area were Ms. Victoria(HMUA) and her 2 assistants, and my gown designer. Some waiters of Queensland brought us some food but we didn't get to eat because of stress. I peeked at the venue and saw Palacio's lights are still open. I could not appreciate the mood lights tuloy. I don't know if it has to be instructed pa to put out their lights or what so I  just told one of the waiters to go and ask anyone to turn off the lights. Ahhh.. There.. Much better. Ryan Fortaleza, our host, approached us and greeted us. It was our first time to meet him.  

Now it's time to begin the program. The entourage is now lined up at the entrance and being called up one by one. And just before we're about to enter, a representative of Queensland informed us that that there was no red carpet. Sa pagkakaalala ko, nalate ata ng dating. We said it's fine and then biglang dumating na daw! Of course di na pwedeng ihabol dahil we're about to be called next. 

We are now standing in front of the entrance. Ryan called us. He's so energetic. We started walking to the tune of Marry You by Bruno Mars. He instructed everyone to stand and wave all their table napkins. Even the ninongs and ninangs were waving their table napkins. It was a fun entrance. Next is the cake cutting and the wine toasting then come our first dance, picture taking at the stage and dinner.

They served us everything at the couple's table. Funny because we only looked at the food and never touched it. We went to some tables na lang to make chika. Then Ryan announced that the Prenup AVP c/o Benjie Tiongco is now ready to be played. Everyone watched. Then next is the Father-Daughter dance, the Well Wishers, some games and a special number from Asec. Dr. Tayag. Just like what you see in the news. Haha. He danced for us. And then the most awaited part. Our wedding Slideshow and SDE presentation. I think it will always be the highlight of the receptions nowadays. It's exciting to see yourself and see how people will react towards it. The wedding slideshow presentation was so nice. The Ayala Bridge shoot was awesome. I think it just answered why the guests waited for us at the reception for almost an hour. Hehehe. And our SDE by Blacktie Project was super fun! We didn't want a slow transition so we opted for fast and fun music. We chose "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. everybody clapped after those presentations. My dad gave me a message after then come our thank you speech. Sorry I forgot to thank my HMUA Victoria Contreras and gown designer Edward Silbol. 

After the closing remarks, friends and families started to come to us and take pictures. And then group shots at the photobooth. Few people stayed na lang after the party. Sinulit ang mobile bar. Then some friends went with us and stayed at Kim's suite for an after party.

In the end there were realizations made that we didn't think of before the wedding. Like it's a must that you meet your host first days before your event for coordination of the flow. He's a contact of our coordinator. We thought ok na yung program flow but it didn't turn out to be super smooth. And endorse EVERYTHING to the coordinator. Yung mga cactus souvenirs, hindi naipamigay ng tama. I mean, nabigyan naman lahat ng ninongs and ninangs but we had to look for the souvenirs pa kung nasaan because some ninongs left already after the dinner. Kailangan pang maghanap ng coordinator to ask. Ang lawak ng Palacio and it's too awkward naman if they'll see us running towards the entrance to ask the coordinators left at the registration. And the cupcakes. Not all were put out at the cake table. Nasa 25 pcs pa ata ang naiwan sa paper bag na after the event na lang nailabas. Supposed to be it's for the sponsor and the whole entourage talaga, kaya lang guests na lang ang nag take out dahil nakauwi na ang entourage. I think our coordinators had flaws too. They didn't take note of the cupcakes that were left in the paper bag. 

But all in all, it was a successful event though. There were some glitches but I think you really can't get 100% of what was planned and expect for it to go smoothly. I always prayed for the wedding day to be sunny with blue skies, no traffic, no bad vibes but I forgot to pray for the whole day to go exactly as I planned it every night. But what's nicer is when people tell you that it was really a beautiful wedding. There you'll know people appreciated what you prepared for them. Even some friends ask how much was our budget. Naghuhulaan daw kasi sila. Watch out for our suppliers' ratings. Hehehe. 

Last Night As Ms. Abad

So we rushed back to San Pedro to get all the stuff that we need. We're supposed to check-in at the hotel at 2pm but we're still on our way to Laguna at 1:30pm. When we got there, I immediately packed everything and then went back to Manila. Had an early dinner at Seaside Macapagal. When we're on our way to the hotel, Kim called telling me he has no room na daw at Pan Pacific!! I was furious but I didn't want to panic. Imagine, we booked and paid the hotel months ago and Kim even confirmed the hotel room a day before. When we got to Pan Pacific, the manager was the one who explained that they got fully booked and it was unexpected and Kim needed to be transferred to another hotel. He said no. Hassle nga naman diba? But the manager explained that for that night lang naman and hatid-sundo din sila ng hotel. They'll be picked up at 6am the next day. Kim thought hard about the deal. His point kasi was uncomfortable talaga sa groom yung dapat natutulog ka pa pero pinipick up ka na ng hotel back to Pan Pacific. But he gave in. They were transferred to Midas. Pag balik nila ng Pan Pacific, naka suite room na sila na mas malaki pa sakin when he only booked a regular room. Haha! Free upgrade na daw. They made sure they would make it up so bawi na daw inis niya.

After checking in at our hotel, we rushed to Robinson's Ermita to have our nails done. My mom was waiting for us there. Just before we're finished, Ms. Melai(my coordinator) called tellling me she's there na din at Rob waiting for me. Back at the hotel room, I started cramming na. I needed to do a lot of things!! Time check-9:30pm. I needed to revise the bloody guestlist, the sponsor table shall be revised too(may hindi makakaattend na ninongs), the standby picture for the projector and screen, the menu tables that needed to be printed, the cactus giveaways have to be packed, etc. I finished everything at around 2am. Now I can sleep.