Month: September 2011

Day 7: Bridesmaids

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7/30: Girlfriends. I’ve always known that the wedding entourage is not just a bunch of beautiful people you choose because you want your wedding photos to have, well, a bunch of beautiful people in it. Sure, David and I were blessed to be surrounded by pretty faces on our wedding photos, but I learned that choosing the right people to be part of one’s entourage is truly a crucial thing. These are, after all, people who would be your support group on the wedding day and beyond.


Meet Ivy, Abby, and Olivia (left to right). I’d write a handful about them but I don’t want to risk making this post sound like a bad Friendster testimonial, so I’m keeping it short and sweet: these three are the truest friends anyone could have, and I’m so blessed to have them walk before me on the aisle. (:

Day 6: When it’s clear this time you’ve found the one, you’ll never let him go

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6/30: From a low angle. Here’s my photograph for today, from a low angle, our first dance.

When you know that you know who you love, you can’t deny it.
Or go back, or give up, or pretend that you don’t buy it.
When it’s clear this time you’ve found the one, you’ll never let him go
Cos you know and you know that you know.  ~Shawn Colvin

We danced to Shawn Colvin’s When You Know (OST of the movie Serendipity), a song we chose for its lyrics, and its beautiful music, and the fact that it brings back scenes and memories of New York.

It was really special, our first dance. I was wearing a flowy chiffon skirt, bubbles surround us, as well as an audience of family and friends that seemed to have faded away in the background as soon as the first chords of the song played and David started swaying me steady in his arms.

It was the first of many more slow dances to come, it turned out. These days, however, I need not wear a fancy white gown. No need for bubbles and mood lights and music either. These days, we would dance in our pajamas, or whatever we have on, whenever we feel like it, wherever we are. We would dance on the kitchen floor, or on the rooftop, or in the supermarket, or sometimes even in the bus stop while waiting for our ride.

The whole world is our dance floor. And everything around us fades away every time we start swaying, just like it did the first time we danced.

Day 4: Thoughts on love, life and death

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4/30. Green. Green was not our wedding motif, but our garden venue happened to have ferns and trees and vines as permanent fixtures all over the place, which means, about three-quarters of our wedding photos can be posted under this category! (:

Anyway, this photograph I chose was taken just before I walked down the aisle. David was already in front, serenading me one last time before I became his wife, and there I was at the back, seconds away from my bridal march, still unable to believe that the moment had finally come.

Green reminds me of life, and I like how the color represented just that on our wedding.

On a sad (but totally related) note, there’s this blogger whose husband recently died of a heart attack after 16 years of marriage. I didn’t know Jennie Perillo until yesterday when I landed on her site after some aimless blog-hopping. It was August 7 when her husband died, just a week before our wedding. Reading through her posts, I had this sinking feeling in my stomach at the thought that, as I was starting my life with David, someone else was mourning over the death of her husband. I cried and cried, reading Jennie’s posts. What used to be a blog teeming with delicious recipes and vibrant photos of food now floods with Jennie’s grief—recollections of that fateful day her husband passed away, thoughts about life, death, and moving forward, and love letters to her husband that one could only wish he could read, wherever he is.

I kept reading, I even went through her archives to find posts about her husband Mikey. I don’t think she wrote about him when he was alive as much as she did now that he’s gone.

I don’t know Jennie, but her loss hit close to home as I realized how much my life now is tightly intertwined with someone else’s life.. and how losing this person would be just like losing myself. I don’t even want to imagine how Jennie feels. Continue reading “Day 4: Thoughts on love, life and death” →

Day 3: Blue dream of sky

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3/30: Clouds. This photograph is in sepia, but the sky that day was a pretty shade of purplish blue, as if the heavens clothed itself to match our wedding motif. It drizzled before the ceremony started, and it seemed like the clouds would pour in rain, but God held the water vapor together just as He’s been keeping all things together from the very start (Colossians 1:17).

Our wedding day was beautiful, have I said that already? Oh, yeah, I did. (:

I thank you God for this most amazing day,
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky
and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.  ~E.e. Cummings

Day 2: You saw me wear white

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2/30: Outfit. You only get to wear that long white dress once.

“You saw me wear white by pale candlelight, I said forever to what lies ahead.” 
~I Am, Nichole Nordeman

My wedding gown was custom-made by my friend Ivy‘s Lola, who, for the record, was also the one who made the dresses I wore to my JS Prom, Graduation Ball, and Debut. There were just too many bridal gowns and couturiers out there, too many choices off-the-rack too. And trust me when I say that I looked far and wide for the perfect dress (and dress maker). At the end of the day, I just knew that Lola Doming was the only one I can entrust my wedding gown to, and I was right. Empire cut, halter-strap, laces and beads, and a flowy, A-line chiffon skirt — the dress was everything I imagined it to be.

It’s amazing how God takes care of even the smallest of details in His grand scheme of things, you know? (:

Photo on the left was taken by my dear friend, Sheila Catilo; and the one on the right was taken by my brother, Nate Sanchez.