When Pippa Middleton first stepped out in her Sarah Burton dress, some people thought it was odd to see a maid of honour dressed in white. I did not think that, however, because I had recently been in a wedding where the female entourage (except the maid of honour, though) was all in white. And it looked great! That wedding was Joey and Gelle’s last March 20.
AA, Chi and I hired hair and make up artists (HMUA) to do our hair and makeup at AA’s place. We did not want a repeat of Chi’s wedding wherein I did not have time to eat during the preparations and ended up with a major migraine. Their mom made sure to order in food. They were so sweet, asking me what I wanted because I was the one who hadn’t been in the Philippines in a while. I chose KFC. Though there’s also KFC in Singapore, it tastes different. And they don’t have gravy, the horror! I was amazed at our HMUA’s portable kit. It had lights and everything! We liked how they did our makeup and our hair, most especially! She had asked us beforehand what hairstyle we wanted so we were able to search on the net. We decided that our grecian-style dresses would look best with updos. We all chose braided updos set with plastic flowers which we had all bought too.
The ceremony was held at the Chapel of St Therese. When we arrived, we said hello to the beautiful bride who was waiting outside in her bridal car. It turns out the videographers had caught that moment and used it in the same day edit (SDE) video.
We went in, said hello to friends we knew, then took our places before marching down the aisle one by one.
Finally it was the most awaited moment – here comes the bride! She sashayed in to the tune of “Ikaw” and it brought to tears to my eyes but I blinked them back because I did not want to ruin my makeup (LOL).
The ceremony was solemnly traditional, after which the couple walked out the church doors to a sprinkling of rose petals.
Then they asked the entourage to stay behind for some pictorials with the couple outside the chapel.
The reception was held at Blue Leaf Events Pavillion. The food was seriously some of the best I have ever tasted at a wedding. They had also set up a photobooth for the guests.
I couldn’t eat too much, though, because aside from my dress corset being too tight (thank God I lost 10+ lbs, imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t), I was also busy writing my toast which I had been assigned to do just a few hours earlier. I wasn’t able to say it, though, because the program had to be cut short due to an unfortunate circumstance. Here was what I came up with:
Joey and Gelle, I’ve known you for about as long as you’ve been a couple. I was therefore a witness to how your relationship has evolved. If your love had a facebook fan page, I would be the first to like it. And if somebody asked me to make a testimonial for it (oops, pang Friendster nga pala yun), this is what I would say: (Gelle, prepare yourself for another one of my famous analogies)
Your love is like this wine that we will be drinking as a toast to you. Not that it is slightly bitter and sweet or powerful and intoxicating – though I know that it is all that too – but that the older it grows, the better it becomes.
They say that love is at its most powerful during the “honeymoon phase” or the first two years when you’re still getting to know each other. They say that it fades after that and it goes downhill from there. But this was not what happened to you. The Joey and Gelle of 2011 are more in love than the Joey and Gelle of 2005.
Your love has been a beautiful thing to watch, actually, para syang telenovela. I wasn’t there when it all started with college classmates who stole glances at each other or when you, Gelle, went home one valentines day to find a bouquet of flowers from a secret admirer – 5639 (clue: look at your cellphone keypad). But I was there when Joey opened his christmas presents and the last one turned out to be a ring and he asked Gelle, “will you marry me Inday?” I was there when you said “I do” to each other in the Registry of Marriage in Singapore.
So here’s my wish for you – that your love continues on the same path that it has taken so far. And let’s all raise our glasses to drink the wine that perfectly symbolizes this couple’s love. Cheers!
Here is the same day edit video of the event. I surprisingly have a lot of appearances.
Joey and Gelle from Bob Nicolas on Vimeo.
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