let's celebrate!

after the guests made their way to the cycad garden and got to their table, marlet introduced the entourage and when we heard the words mr. & mrs. ricardo de lucia, ricky and i came down the stairs hand in hand. as we were navigating the stairway and the red carpet, i became a source of amusement again when my veil got caught in the decorations along the aisle causing me to involuntarily jerk my head backwards. it happened twice mind you. but again, being bungisngis certainly pays off in some situations and this was one of them. although a bit embarrasing, i was able to get through it and we finally made our way to the gazebo.

whew! i felt the hunger as we sat down. but of course, we had to get some stuff out of the way. so, marlet began the program and asked the guests to pose beside ricky & me for a picture before they made their way to the buffet table. i guess it was around 7:45 p.m. by then and everybody was hungry but marlet had to make everything as systematic as possible to be fair to everyone. she also made sure she didn't call the tables in succession, she started with 1, 2 then jumped to the middle then the end so it wouldn't be unfair for the guests seated at table 18, 19 or 20.

after everyone posed with us and we posed with our parents and principal sponsors, we finally sat down to eat. it is true that you won't get to eat as much as you would like to. all the dishes were served and laid out in front of us but i only managed to sample three or four dishes. while we were eating, i was back to my frazzled self and i asked marlet about what's next, who's going to talk until she again, admonished me and told me to stop worrying and eat! so i did... after about a half hour or so, marlet started with the well-wishers, dang, raymond and giselle.

then there was the cake cutting, toast led by the best man, releasing of the doves then the garter thingy . the releasing of the doves was also memorable for us. both doves were wrapped with a cloth; they gave ricky the first one and i held the second one. as i was holding mine, it managed to wiggle it's way out of the cloth and flew out of my hands! they tried to capture the dove but it just flew higher and higher 'til it perched on a branch way up high. so, ricky and i just held his dove and we released it together.

it was a very short program and that was what we wanted. no first dance for either ricky and me nor with our parents. no bouquet and garter toss because majority of our guests were married. so marlet simply gathered some brave couples and by process of elimination, the longest married couple was left. ricky removed my garter then, we gave the couple flowers and they in turn gave us advice & tips on how to stay together just as they had. then, my mom gave a short message and jaymee spoke on behalf of ricky's parents. no dancing afterwards since almost everybody wanted to go home. but i was dancing a bit by myself; it would've been nice to have dancing ...

surprisingly enough, i didn't cry during my bridal march, when i saw ricky at the end of the aisle, when i saw my parents, when i heard the wishes of our friends. it was when everybody took turns in saying good-bye that i started to cry. my MOH (& sister) ate ynna really made me cry when i hugged her because she whispered in my ear "mamimiss kita sis..." and then she kissed me and hugged me tight.

also when rose and marlet hugged me, i cried too. i hugged them both tightly because i wanted them to know how much i appreciated everything they did for me, for us from the start of the wedding preps. rose gave me a wedding workbook as soon as ricky and i announced the wedding plans. the workbook was such a big help to me. marlet's expertise in wedding coordination was also something i leaned heavily on but her being one of my bestest friends was truly the blessing here.

and so, we were finished by 10:30 p.m. (i think, or was it earlier than that?) my in-laws brought home the left-overs and we also asked them to bring the gifts and other stuff we had. after taking care of loose ends (read: balances and tips for the suppliers), ricky & i climbed into the bridal car and made our way to edsa shang.

i was pooped but i had to take a bath to get rid of the makeup on my face and all the hairspray and mascara in my hair (yup you read it right mascara in my hair. i've got a lot of "white hair" so julie used mascara to hide them). while i was in the tub i looked back at what happened and i was truly grateful that it was finished. and to my surprise i don't miss the preps at all...

when i got out of the bathroom, ricky was fast alseep so no action on our wedding night that was fine with me since we had the next day, the day after that and the whole future for some action. i was content with having him beside me...