Inamorata

As I rode the bridal car to our church, I admit I felt both excited and nervous. Thank goodness my sister Jean (also my MOH) and my cousin Jeanie (also my SS veil) rode in the car with me and helped calm my nerves with their teases and banter. I felt a little silly feeling this way, seeing as Rogel & I have been civilly wed for months now, but I do admit... a church wedding feels so much different.

Rogel had arrived at St. Peter the Apostle Parish early. I truly love our small, beautiful church, especially the altar.

For its rate of P18,500, which already includes the priest, church coordinator, flower arrangements, aircon, and soloist and organist, it's comparatively less expensive than most other airconditioned churches in Manila.

Our baby Mari got ready at the church. You can see Rogel's mom fixing his barong here while Rogel holds him. Rogel was whistling because Mari likes to hear music.

Rogel hugging Uncle Jimmy, one of his uncles who flew in from Cebu.

My dad mingling before the ceremony started.

And finally, the processional began.

Best man Dale, Rogel's cousin. He actually volunteered for the part... to me! Haha, funny story. Rogel said Dale knew with whom he needed to talk to. The two of them grew up together in Cebu... also got in trouble together most of the time. They treat each other pretty much like brothers.

And here's Rogel with his parents and our little groom Mari. Rogel really wanted to bring Mari during his walk. When we first asked the priest who did our canonical interview, he actually refused 'coz he said we might give people the wrong impression. We had a different priest during our wedding though, and he agreed to let Rogel carry Mari during his walk.

View from the side. You can see how packed the place is... the capacity of St. Peter is 250, and 250 guests (more or less) actually came.

Now the principal sponsors (I'll just post some of them). First was Uncle Doc and Aunt Alet, both proxies for my Uncle Rey in the US and Rogel's Aunt Bebeth in Australia who weren't able to attend.

Daddy Undo and Aunt Langging (Rogel's uncle and aunt). Sadly, Daddy Undo passed away last June 4, which came as a shock to everyone. His last pictures were taken at our wedding.

Uncle Jake, my baptismal godfather and my dad's college best friend, and Aunt Elvie, also my dad's friend and classmate during his college years. My dad invited most of his UST Accounting classmates to our wedding... they had a reunion of sorts.

Moving on to the secondary sponsors...

Rogie, Rogel's brother, and Ice, my closest friend. This is such a funny picture... haha, they look like they're angry at each other! But they said they weren't... hehe, they actually added each other in facebook afterwards.

My brother Nino and cousin Jeanie from the US. I'm so happy that Jeanie was able to fly here for our wedding. I always stay at their house whenever I'm in the US.

Ogie, Rogel's brother, who's also my barkada in my second course, and Ross, my highschool friend. Ogie is actually the main reason why Rogel and I met and ended up together (but that's a long story, hehe). Ross flew in from Singapore just a few days before our wedding.

My cousin Eric (Jeanie's brother) and my sister Karen, who also came from Singapore with her husband and baby. Eric last came to the Philippines 10 years ago. I'm really happy that he decided to go back again for our wedding.

My brother Coy and Rogel's cousin Cara. They look cute together, hehe.

Our ring bearer, Andee, Rogel's nephew. Flew in from Cebu as well.

Our arrhae bearer, Phoenixe, my cousin's son.

Our bible bearer, Andre, my cousin's son.

Liz, Rogel's niece (his brother's daughter), also from the US. She's such a sweet girl. Her family treated me out last year while I was in the US.

Angela, my cousin's daughter, Andre's sister.

Finally, my sister Jean, my maid of honor. Love her big smile... so pretty!

My parents and everyone waiting for the doors to open. As of this point, I've been waiting for quite a while inside the bridal car, and was finally signaled to stand behind the huge wooden doors.

I felt all of a sudden... very calm and serene. Standing there alone, waiting for the doors to open... I felt so happy in a quiet way, and I couldn't contain my smile.

The doors opened, and I could hear the music...

And I made my slow walk along the aisle...

...as Rogel looked on.

I felt surprised and touched to see Rogel crying as I walked toward him. I barely heard the music as I walked... I barely even saw all the other faces in the church... all I could focus on was him and the seemingly loud beat of my heart.

Even as I smiled at him, I couldn't help feeling a little teary-eyed as well.

And finally it was just the two us walking together to the altar.

This is such a funny picture. After we greeted the priest, the first thing he said was, "I'm giving you 15 minutes to back out of this wedding." We both looked at each other...

...smiled, then turned back to our priest and said we're not backing out. He nodded at us with a twinkle in his eye, went to his place, and began the ceremony.

It was a beautiful ceremony, and the priest's homily was really nice. I'm afraid I forgot the name of the priest assigned to us... but he was really good. His homily was interesting, funny and thought-provoking.

And finally it was the start of the marriage rites. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

This is a funny picture. My brother didn't know how to put on the veil, and actually put it over Rogel's head.

Here I am expressing how funny I thought that was.

Moving on...

"You may now kiss your wife."

It was a beautiful ceremony, and you can see how happy the two of us were.

Some paper signing.

We really had no problems with St. Peter the Apostle Parish. We love how everything was the day of our wedding, from the priest to the flowers to the music.

Perhaps the only problem was that the aircon wasn't able to adequately cool the place with our 250 guests. Though no one really complained.

For this, my rating for our church is 9/10.