My Maid of Honor Speech (plus Trash the Dress Photos)

I was asked to be a maid of honor for the second time, this time by Flisha. This time around I didn’t panic so much about the speech, because based on my first experience, I knew I could probably write one last minute if need be, and I had witnessed another friend write hers in between the wedding and reception while eating french fries.

I ended up typing mine on a note on my phone on the morning of the wedding (Dec 26), while I was being prepped with hair and make up in the bridal suite. I even asked the photographer if he wanted to take a photo of the note on my phone, which he did. 😄 I also asked the couple’s principal sponsor Chu to check if the speech was okay. He added a funny line and said the rest was great.

I had a sore throat and my phone was on the last dregs of its battery by the time my turn to speak came around, but I managed to give my speech to an audience who responded with the appropriate reactions of awwws and laughter. Here is my speech:

Ladies and gentlemen of this most august house, this was how Flisha and Gim and I often started our speeches back in college. We were members of the debating society, which is how Flisha and Gim and I met. That was 14 years ago. Can you believe how long they’ve been together?

But before they met, I had already known Flisha roughly around 14 years as well. I say the word “know” loosely here, what I really mean is that we went to the same school since kindergarten and probably knew each other’s faces, at least.

It wasn’t until high school that we became classmates, and college till we became close friends. We had different courses, but we joined the same orgs – Society of Scholars, SALT, Think newsmagazine, Beacon yearbook, and as I mentioned previously, debate.

Months before she met Gim, we were at an overnight for our newsmagazine when we brainstormed an article called: “How to snag a boyfriend.” Step 1: Wear pink. Step 2: Lose weight. Step 3: Act dumb.

Luckily, Flisha didn’t need to do any of those things to snag Gim because he fell for her just the way she was. And isn’t that the best kind of love?

As one of my all time favorite quotes goes: “the greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved – loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”

Flisha and Gim’s love has been a beautiful thing to witness. It was instant attraction, the kind you read about in Sweet Valley pocketbooks which we loved to read in our teens.

When Gim asked if Flisha if she could be his girlfriend, she said, “can you ask me again next week?” Because that’s how it’s supposed to be, diba, kay dalagang Filipina man daw, so you had to make the guy wait.

Gim then said okay, and shared a story about a guy and a princess – it’s kind of a longish story so I’m not gonna repeat it now, if you really want to know, just ask Gim – but after he was done telling the story, Flisha said, “You know what, I can’t wait anymore. Yes, I’ll be your girlfriend.”

Before I moved away from ZC, I was always their third wheel. One of our most memorable triple dates happened right before I left, back in 2004. We decided to watch the movie “Love Story” on – was it VHS or DVD? – oh, CD – at Flisha’s house.

In the middle of the movie, Gim decided that he wanted to eat ice cream, so we paused the movie, drove out, and for some reason, couldn’t find any ice cream anywhere. Gim referred to that incident as the one where we went through hell and high water for ice cream.

Just a few days ago, the tables turned. Flisha and I went on a bride and maid of honor spa day, and Gim tagged along as our third wheel. Flisha and I took a couples room while he had his own room.

He still needs to explain why his massage took 15 minutes longer than ours. One of these days, I’m gonna ask for some CCTV footage.

As you can see, this couple has always been special to me, so when Flisha asked me to be her maid of honour in a very unconventional manner – if you want to know that story, you’ll have to ask Flisha – of course I said yes, right on the spot, without having to ask Flisha to wait a week.

Shortly after that, one of the most memorable moments of our friendship happened when Flisha decided that she wanted to try parasailing. This was in Boracay.

The moment we lifted up into the sky, Flisha started panicking out loud. “OMG there’s only a very small hook holding us to the parachute. What if that breaks? Are we sure that can hold us? You know, the reason why I decided to do this without Gim is so that if anything ever happened, at least one of us would be left to continue our family.”

“But you don’t even have a family yet!” I protested.

I’m glad that we survived that scary ordeal so that we can be here and Gim doesn’t have to continue their family alone.

Flisha and Gim, I would like to offer a toast to you. Congratulations on having a happy wedding. May you have a happier marriage. Cheers!

I think my greatest contribution as maid of honor to this wedding, however, happened the morning after the wedding, when I convinced the bride and groom to put their wedding kit on again so we could do a “trash the wedding dress” photo shoot.