MAINe event: Part 3

As the day progressed into a celebration of love and commitment, the pictorials at Fort Williams Park concluded the ceremony. Back in the bridal car we headed back to our home for the second part of the event. The wedding reception was held at 278 Cape Road, town of Standish. The colossal maple tree in the backyard was the first one to greet us as we entered the driveway. It seemed to be rejoicing for our new beginning as husband and wife. The two blue canopies that mom bought from Wal-Mart stood side by side in the lawn and seemed to be waiting for the visitors to settle in. In no time, cars quickly filled the driveway and my new family and friends were gathered in our newly mowed yard. Mom, Heather, Stephanie and Aunt Sally busied themselves preparing the buffet table. We had two kinds of dish prepared that day, American and Filipino. The merging of the two cultures started in the park and ended at the buffet table. The chicken adobo, pork hamonado and the rice, plus the pansit and lumpiang shanghai [brought by my other pinoy friend in Maine, Medy and her hubby David, who instantly became our official wedding photographer] were a different treat for our American guests. But I ate more of the sandwiches and salad that day for I didn't want to ruin my diet, of course.

Mom did a great job in the preparation of the food and the table paraphernalia. She was indeed a great wedding coordinator cum wedding planner so to speak for the wedding preparation was literally undertaken by her but the wedding gown. I had to admit, I only focused on doing the beadwork on my dress. I didn’t have the time to think about the other aspects of the wedding extravaganza. I was totally surprised when my [now] hubby announced the wedding date just two week before that day. The two-week notice was not enough for me to finish the beadwork but it was all what my mother-in-law needed to put up a good show. God Bless Mothers-in-Law!

For a span of two weeks I did nothing but beadwork. It was all that mattered to me. I wanted to be the best-dressed best-looking bride in Maine at least I had to be because my very competition that day was no other than Eva Longoria, one of the stars of the Desperate Housewives and her famous basketball prayer fiancé Tony Parker who had their big day in Château de Vaux le Vicomte, one of the castles in France. Oh, hers was a real fairytale wedding. Well I was still a princess in my own right… right?

The wedding that any princess dreams about is always fancy… always extravagant… always over-the-top. I did dream about it too. But as I get older, my fantasy wedding seemed to depreciate. Maybe because I was already losing hope that time and had stopped dreaming… or I was afraid that it would scare the guys out of their wits to know about it and would not dare to take the first base at all… or I was simply growing old and had loosen up a bit. When I met my Knight, I never thought I would marry him until he decided to come to the Philippines to meet me personally. Things then took a 360-degree turn. I started dreaming again. But this time I was just hoping to find someone I could grow old with. Someone I could share my past… my present… and my future.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned about life is that reality will sink in one way or another. When you are in the brink of not knowing where you really are heading to, you tend to lose grasp of your sanity. You tend to be gone astray by the pressure brought to you by the society where single women beyond their ripe age remain… what else? Single! You'll go crazy to evade any question that has the word “marry" in it. And eventually you will hate the world entirely for the stigma that it has affected women who are still single. But God is good. What else can I say? I found my Knight, though not riding a white horse and in shining armor but aboard Northwest Airlines Boeing 747 and wearing orange and gray stripped collared shirt, shorts and docksides. I had my fairytale wedding not in the castle but in a light house park. And I no longer live in fantasy but reality. And I am thankful. I am very grateful for all the blessings that I received and will still receive. After I finally given up all hopes and had totally conditioned myself that perhaps, I am destined to single-blessedness or blessed-singleness [whatever is applicable], I found myself accepting a real honest-to-goodness 100% genuine marriage proposal.

The ceremony at the Portland Head Light lasted for only fifteen minutes flat but the excitement it created… the happy memory it etched on my heart… the momentum it carved in the history of my existence is something I will surely cherish for the rest of my life. Time flies fast since that humid August night. Mike and I did everything to be together after we finally realized that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together… after we decided to grow old together… after we knew that we can’t live without each other. So mountains were moved... oceans were crossed... 10,000 miles away and a continent apart... love conquers all. The question was popped. The vow was pledged. I walked down the isle... [Oops… the garden I mean] and I was pronounced “wife”. Now I am ready for that happy-ever-after ending. The End!

(NOTE: This was published first at naggingTHOUGHTS on September 13, 2007)