I Do

Let's talk weddings. Why? Because I was just reading some blogs dedicated to weddings. Their weddings. The authors of these blogs documented/are documenting their road to the altar and are spilling out to all who care to read their experiences along the way.

While reading these blogs, some are compelling reads because they are well written, I got scared. Yes scared. I cannot handle all the stress related to preparing for a wedding, let alone for one with 150 guests. Could you imagine me running scared at this possibility?

For one to embark on such an overwhelming task, one must be passionate about it. I may not be current, but I know what a big business weddings are these days. And what a huge dent it is to the budget.

I was reading one blog where the budget for the wedding for 150 was around 300,000 pesos (roughly 7,000 US), which is a lot of money. But I'm guessing that the amount is probably the neighborhood with which weddings go around these days, eh?

Call me tightwad but that amount of money is a lot for me. But that is me.
What I gather from these blogs is that they are all having a lot of fun in preparing for the wedding. The many food tastings they have to go to, visiting different churches, calling in on designers, and so many many more things to take care of. And none of them seem to have a wedding planner.

If I was to get married in a church wedding, I'd probably opt for a wedding planner. Otherwise, I'd be a bridezilla. Too many little things. I sure hope that each one of them plans for the possibility of something going awry because as we know sometimes, nothing goes on as planned.
I'll keep on reading their blogs and see what I can learn. So far I learn how to take prenup photos. Or how to compose one.

I'm happily married and I didn't marry in church. I'm one of 5 siblings, only one of us had a church wedding. That one is divorced now. The four of us who didn't have a church wedding are all still married. One doesn't cause the other, I'm just saying as an observant.

I remember when it was my wedding. It was sorta forced. Er, rushed. I got engaged New Year's Eve. One year later, nothing in regards to wedding was being talked about. Until my then fiance asked when's the wedding sweetie. It was then that I realized, it was my responsibility to arrange for the wedding. He'll just show up. It was the time of my most chaotic professional life. I wasn't seeing any break for the entire year, because we were upgrading our software and I was in the middle of the upgrade. I had to learn all the new stuff so that when the system is in place, I'd be the go-to person for any troubleshooting. So you see there seems to be no break for me that year. How can I even pencil in a wedding?

As a matter of fact, the early months of 2007 were too hectic that I was logging in crazy number of work hours. I had to attend to classes for new software, then after 8 hours of that, had to go back to my desk and try to do as much as I can for the next day. I was even working on Saturdays. It was the most inopportune time for a wedding.

But as the saying goes in the vernacular, "Pag ukol, bubukol." And so it was. Thankfully, we both weren't into the church wedding. We are both laidback and no frills.

I made arrangements to exchange I Dos in a civil ceremony at the county's seat in nearby Martinez. There were many of us that day, but we went couple by couple and was wed by a woman. My mother and my 2nd brother were there as witnesses.

After the wedding, my brother took us to Sala Thai, a little hole in the wall Thai fusion restaurant not too far from where we live. I cannot remember what I ate, it was after all around 2 pm. I do remember my mother only ordering the sweet rice with mango, which is a dessert. My mother's penchant for kakainin prevailed.

By 6 pm, my mother and the two of us met another couple, which we call my husband's Vietnamese parents. We took them to Applebee's for some eats.
Two days later we were boarding a plane bound for Vancouver, where we will catch our cruise ship for Alaska.

Looking back, I do not regret the fact that I chose not to have a wedding. Nevertheless, I enjoy seeing other people's church wedding photos and smiling at how magical they tell the story behind those wedding photos.