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Sunday, September 19, 2004
11:49 PM

i do

i just came from my cousin's wedding in bulacan. it was a simple wedding since they are protestants but still felt the glamour since it was a "provincial" wedding (naturally, the whole baranggay is invited even when unnoticed) and our family from the province is 11 families big(not to mention the numbers of cousins i have and great grandchildren my lolo has, and counting.)

it was a hot and tiring day. at first, i was hesitant to go to the wedding since i planned to watch the dlsu vs admu game 4 pm and the amazing race(re-run) aired at 7 pm. of course, i missed both. i also was not able to have my haircut by saturday and my hair is a complete not in the wedding event form. but i dont know what got into me and just prepared myself by 10 am and hopped in the car quarter to 12 noon and off to bulacan.

by the way, i found my sister's hair iron and i used it to get my hair some form at least to fit the event.

this wedding is the first time my sister became a secondary sponsor responsible for the veil and my dad is one of the godparents. my mom, well my mom would not let herself seen in a wedding or at any event without new clothes and those jewelries that i have not seen before. me? i was the photographer. but i was wearing a new polo my mom made me, new jeans, a watch my mom lend me(because it compliments her clothes), a matching bracelet and my favorite cologne. hellurh! of course i should make a statement in the wedding right?

at my cousin's(bride's) house, i talked to my cousins a bit, said hi's to my uncles and aunts, helped my mom pick some plants to be brought back to manila, and burned half of a pack of marlboro lights. it was a total chaos. there were laughters, shoutings, loud chattings, and me complaining about the weather and the water.

3 pm at church, for me there was nothing meaningful or even special that the priest/pastor said in his lengthy message. it was a protestant church although it's just a bit different from roman catholic marriage ceremony. i've learned that marriage in the protestant community is not a sacrament but (only) a celebration.

as usual, i checked out the guys and found 4 guys to fall in my "cute" category, many to my "pwede na" category, and 1 to "let's have sex, now na!" category. the groom was ugly. my cousin is pretty, charming and physically above average and she fell for this ugly guy. ok... fine... he's nice and hardworking. but still.

5 pm. we're in the groom's house since it was the venue for the reception. the garden was decorated really well. there were a lot of people lined for the food. lots of people already eating and i've never even seen them in the small church the wedding was held, 70% of them.

my mom and i does not have a place to sit, the place was somehow filled. my sister and dad did not have any problems since they were part of the ceremony and they have seats reserved for them. we sat in the presidential table. yes, in the presidential table. the table was not really obvious because the newly weds chose to have a loveseat, the only elevated seats. the table also was not fully occupied because 2 of the godparents were unable to come. and what do you get from seating in the presidential table? special treatment.

after eating, i joined my cousins because i saw them talking to the guys and with the cute guys that happened to be the grooms barkada. again, new friends and a new crush that gave me his cellphone number(it was a first). exchanged cellphone numbers, share stories, lots of smoking and a bit drinking happened for 3 hours.

9 pm. it was time to leave. bid farewell to my uncles and aunts, cousins, to my new found friends and to the newly weds. while in the car, we talked about the what happened with the day, the bloopers in the wedding, the ugly dress one of the godparents wore, my sister's first not-a-flower-girl experience and a lot more.

it was a happy day. i was not able to watch the dlsu game against admu but happy because i've learned that dlsu won. i failed to watch the re-run of the finale of the amazing race. but everything is ok because i'm happy when i see my relatives, happy when i meet new friends, happy when i experience meaningful life-changing situations and happy beacuse i saw a new meaning of the words "i do" in my life.

afraid to discover myself