I always think of the time when I get all wrinkly and gray and my memory is not as sharp as it is right now. My brain will not be as efficient as it once was and I will barely remember the details of the days that made me happy. Hence, that is my motivation why I am choosing to immortalize the details of our special day here on the Hive blockchain. I want to be able to look at the photos and read the memories of what went on during that day.
I am so grateful that everyone here has been so supportive of our union. Thank you for all the well-wishes and we continue to ask for all of your support and guidance.
In the Philippines, a modern wedding day follows the sequence: dress-up then ceremony and finally, reception. The first part of this series detailed the suppliers and a bit of the dress-up. In this part, I will lay out the details of the ceremony and the traditions that we partook in this day that is very special for us.
The wedding mass started at exactly at 3:00 pm, as per the rules of the parish church that we chose to be wed in. Prior to our wedding was a mass for the dead. Fred's mom already anticipated that there might be a ceremony for the dead before our wedding. She did not like that the decors to be used for our wedding be used for the mass of the dead. Thankfully, our coordinator was quick to make adjustments. We were already by the church premises by 2:20 pm. We got there early that the car for the dead was still waiting for its passenger. The drivers of our entourage vans were quick enough to circle back to the church surroundings and wait for a few minutes just in time for the previous ceremony to finish.
The song that the groom and our entourage walked to was Canon in D by Pachelbel. Prior to this song being chosen, I spent a good 3 hours sitting down at a cafe near our reception place to decide what songs I will request the church choir to play in the ceremony. To my dismay, the choir charged a few more pesos for the song requests and I was already in the position to not spend some more because we already reached the cap of our budget. Thankfully, the choir leader retained most of my song requests with no additional charges. I first heard of this song in "My Sassy Girl" and I loved that movie so much. It was surreal how I got to hear that song being played while my groom and our entourage walked down the aisle.
Our flower girls were Fred's niece and our principal sponsors' children. Their gowns were made by her and they all looked so cute wearing them. Initially, the gown for them was in the shade of sea green. Unfortunately, it was not in the shade of the wedding motif, so we decided to change their dresses the last minute. There had been a miscommunication between me and our coordinator and hopefully, we had resolved them right then and there.
Another miscommunication that happened was the use of the bridal car. She thought that we were going to use her car. But we discussed it in the beginning that we were going to go for the car of our family friend. There was a mini confrontation between us two but I kindly explained to her that we had the discussion from the very beginning that we were to use our family friend's. Therienze kindly let us borrow their BMW. It was a tough choice between this classic car or a top down sports car one. I initially wanted the sports car one because it was unique and cool. But knowing that it was only a two seater made me pick this classic one to be safe. It was my first time to ride in a BMW and boy, did it feel so comfy.
On the ride from the dress-up venue to the church, I was cracking jokes. It was probably my nerves' coping mechanism. I didn't want to ruin my makeup by crying, so why not make everyone in the car laugh right? With me were the videographer, Therienze, my sister and the driver. My jokes made the driver lol. Hahaha.
It was then my turn to walk down the aisle. The song was "God Made Me You." It wasn't my choice, but it was beautiful nonetheless. I saw my mom crying and it made me think that it maybe because of the conflict they were having with my dad. My parents were not in good terms when they went to our wedding. My dad left our house a few days prior to the wedding day. They both had deep wounds inflicted on each other throughout their marriage and my mom even told Fred that she hopes our marriage won't go in the same way that theirs did. They did not even do eye contact nor did they touch each other's hand on that day. But I am still glad that they both could make it there together. That's the most important thing for me. My mom made sure that they were both present on our special day.
After my parents put on the veil on me, my groom went to meet my parents and blessed both of their hands in the Filipino tradition of "Mano Po" then my groom and I went ahead by arms and I also blessed and hugged his parents.
My girls got so emotional and most of them shed a tear. I pray that my girls will also find someone who will take care of their hearts and I also hope to witness their special days as well. It will be my turn to cry then, too.
I was looking for a photo focusing on our guys, but I found none. Maybe none of them cried 😂 so I placed this photo of our entourage here instead. We are grateful for them. Some of them had to miss school, fake sick leaves and take unpaid leaves just so they can be with us on our special day. These people are nearest and dearest to our hearts.
Our wedding mass was officiated by Rev. Fr. Diamante. I will never forget his last name since he made sure to quiz us at the end of the ceremony. His last name also translates to diamond in English, so it's pretty hard to forget. We met Father on the day of our wedding and the learnings he gave us were more on corrections. But we didn't mind. Fred and I were receptive to corrections. He told us to look at each other eye to eye when we were to address each other. Our principal sponsors were handpicked based on the quality of relationship they had with their partners because we wanted to be able to tap those who were one call away whenever we needed wisdom in our marriage. We are so grateful that they heeded our call.
In addition to our principal sponsors were the secondary sponsors, those who were tasked to put the veil, the cord and the candle for us. These three symbolizes different aspects of the married life that mean significantly for the church. One thing that stood out for me is perhaps the arrhae. It symbolizes that the fruits of the toil of the husband be given to the wife as a vow for keeping her welfare. It was also a funny story how I ended up deciding what coins to use as our arrhae. I got the idea to choose shiny 20 peso coins from my dearest work branch head. But I was already short on time so I searched online for arrhaes for sale. I saw a store that I can conveniently go to that sold it for 450 pesos. I went there to buy it. To my dismay, it was just a decorative metal cage with 13 pieces of 25 centavo coins. I was so disappointed and tired of looking for other alternatives 😂 I broke down in front of my family and they kindly did the hunting for 20 pesos coins for me. I never really knew why they had to be 13 pieces. A family friend just told me that it could be because of "Oro, Plata, Mata," which translated to gold, silver and death. The number 13 coincided with gold, so that could be it. I exchanged the old coins that my family gathered with new ones at a nearby bank. I just used "it will be my wedding day" tomorrow as an excuse for them to give in to my request. Thankfully, they did 😂
I remember that the day before our wedding was so hectic since we had yet to go to a confession on that day. It is a Catholic practice to confess both of your sins before going into the sacrament of Matrimony. Thankfully, we were able to undergo it just in time for the preparations.
A dear friend who got married ahead have taught me that marriage is a love triangle. It is between you, your husband with the Lord in the middle of your union.
Thank you for reading all the way through, we hope you could still stay tuned to the next part of our wedding series. See you then!
She is on a mission to become better than who she was yesterday. A candidate for Masters in Business Administration, a Financial Advisor, and now, a wife, she hopes to give value to this space as a motivated individual. She found the perfect marriage between what she wants to do in life and her mission in financial advising. She balances her work and life in the comforts of her home, co-working spaces, and cafes. She loves to meet like-minded people and live her life to the fullest. Watch this space for tales of self-improvement and self-acceptance, per Mark Manson, "the philosophical tightrope."
Being in the crypto blogging space since 2018, she believes that the community is the greatest asset of any crypto-based project. So far, the Hive Community is her favorite.
If you like her content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment and reblog if you can! She appreciates all forms of love!
Congratulations, Gail!🤍💍✨
Thank you @itsmiessyonpeakd 🤍🤍🤍
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You really went all the way to make it the perfect wedding, well done and congrats!
Thank you @livinguktaiwan, it was far from perfect but it was the best for us 😍
Thank you @funshee ❤️
Felicidades a todos estuvo grandioso ese momento 🎇
¡gracias! ese momento es especial