Photographs of our twin daughters, once a week, every week this 2014.
These are photographs from three Saturdays ago, the day after their birthday. (It turned out to be a weekend-long celebration, yes.) We took our twin flower girls to Tagaytay for their Ninang Joni and *ehem* Ninong Deej’s wedding, and had an absolutely lovely time.
We made a pit stop at Starbucks (the one in Tagaytay that’s overlooking Taal.. it’s beautiful!) before heading to the wedding venue, and my brother managed to capture these rare picture-perfect, frame-worthy family portraits that are making my heart burst every time I stare at them.
Needless to say, It was a beautiful day to celebrate love, and family, and God’s goodness.
I planned to take lots of photographs of that day. We prepped the camera, cleaned up our SD card, brought two lenses. But our little bosses had other plans. They pulled us around, threw a bit of tantrum before they had to walk down the aisle, refused to wear their headdresses—you know, the usual toddler stuff. Which made it impossible to do anything else, much more to take pictures.
So we let go of the camera and just basked in the moment. (Which is exactly what you should do, Mommies, when you happen to be in the same situation. LET GO OF THE PLAN and JUST ENJOY THE MOMENT.)
Still, I’m so proud of the girls for managing to walk down the aisle before (oops) falling asleep the rest of the ceremony. Here are some photographs from my iPhone, and from Joni’s FB feed:
Thankfully, because it was a destination wedding, the venue had hotel rooms / casitas that were made available for the guests. We took the (sleeping) twins back to our casita, and D let me attend the wedding while he stayed with the girls. He knew I needed a moment to see Joni “go”.
I love this girl! Although we haven’t seen much of each other lately, it has been such a blessing to witness a bit of her life, and how the Lord has brought her and Deej together. Finally. After all these years.
I picked a spot under the trees and watched the wedding ceremony from afar. Listening to the Pastor’s message and seeing the joy on Deej and Joni’s faces, I can’t help but think, oh wow, their life is never going to be the same again!
It’s going to be crazy beautiful, and it’s also going to be challenging. There will be mess, and fights, and major adjustments. There will be drastic transitions from one phase to another—one moment you’re just a bride and a wife, the next moment you’re a caregiver to a needy newborn baby who’s going to change your life forever, and the next thing you know, you have to learn to be a parent to toddlers who drive you nuts. (Well, I haven’t reached the other phases yet so I’ll stop here.)
And then there will be moments that will make you shed tears of joy. Sometimes you get to capture these moments in photographs, and you’ll treasure these remembrances forever. But most times there won’t be photographs; just fleeting moments of bliss you’ll keep in your heart always; moments when you know you wouldn’t want your life any other way.
More about Project 52 here. View all posts in this blog series here.
At natuwa ako, may “joni” tag sa blog mo ha. hahahah! :)
Rizgurl! First of all, thank you for agreeing to be part of my wedding. The girls are so adorable, kahit antokish, hehe! I feel bad lang I wasn’t able to play with any of the kids that day. But thank you, thank you! :) Thank you also for the last two paragraphs! It’s really great when women who went before me give me sound advice, I take them into heart talaga. And there’s this one thing you told me months ago that I always keep in mind. Lagi kong iniisip, “Sabi ni Riz…..” I’ll tell you what it is exactly the next time we see each other. Haha!! :)
I miss you! Hope we could have coffee soon! :)
Omy you don’t have to tell me I think I knowwwww. It’s not “GO FOR THE GOLD!” is it? Hahaha. I miss you too Joni! And of course you deserve a tag in this blog. :’)