A Roll Call of Thank You's

DH and I are spending our tenth wedding anniversary this September 27 and 28. Yes, two dates. It has its advantages. Like when the dates fall on a weekend. We have a fine excuse to have a romantic weekend getaway. But otherwise, it's just plain confusing.

Ten years ago, DH and I decided to have a DIY wedding. Being in our late twenties, we did not ask for financial support from our parents. Instead, we leeched on the kindness of our friends. We invited them to the wedding, but not without volunteering them in the wedding preparations.

I was catatonic before, during and immediately after the wedding, so better late than never, I would like to thank the following, who made the wedding ceremony a success:

My Maids of Honor and Bridesmaids, for paying for their own gowns. Of course, I chose the color and the fabric, in my first ever trip to Divisoria. I wanted it bronze but had to settle for a paler color due to sheer exhaustion from battling the crowds in Divi. Lucky Suzie, a friend I met during a seminar on Soulmates, Karma and Reincarnation served as our tour guide. She may not be my soulmate but we are both sure we share a karmic relationship. We call her lucky because she always wins in raffles. In fact, she managed to furnish her house, including the garage with her winnings from all those contests. When she met and married Gerry, she sure hit the jackpot! :-)

My former officemates from Congress, who contributed the wedding cake. I just gave them a copy of the cake I wanted, and they looked for a baker. Red Ribbon couldn't do it with fresh flowers, so they used grapes instead. The cake looked great and instead of feeding each other slices of cake at the reception, DH and I fed each other, grapes. You gotta admit, that is hmmm...less messy.

Honeytess for the Precious Moments "Wishing You Roads of Happiness" featuring a bride and groom in a car. (I was a huge Precious Moments collector before the children started coming.) Red Ribbon used it as the wedding topper. I'm sure she didn't realize it would be that expensive until she finally had to pay for it.

My Craft Fairy sister who sewed the little bride and groom dolls for giveaways. The groom doll also had long hair. And to my former officemate Gary, who handcarried the items from New York to Manila.

Sweet Melissa, my former officemate at the PICC, who's also a part-time florist. She was supposed to cover the reception area with cut flowers. Unfortunately, the flowers failed to bloom (this is not a portent, believe me) so she just lent us her vases. The flowers are courtesy of my cousin Hope who sent them from Baguio through Dangwa Transit.

DH's high school friend Jessie, who at that time owned a printing press (now he's a nurse) for making the invitations. Much inspired by the book Griffin and Sabine, DH designed a series of postcards chronicling our courtship and wedding. (Nick Bantock's books fed many of our conversations when we were just getting to know each other.) I wrote the words because DH is hopeless with names and dates.

National Artist Napoleon Abueva for opening his house to us. We got married in his garden filled with religious statues and monumental columns. Until the day of the wedding, he was working on the pathways. Most memorable of all, when the priest asked the wedding sponsors to bless us, he sang us a love song he composed himself. Not only did he open his house, he opened his heart.

PUP's Grace Canteen for the catering, and Freedom Bar waiters for the, well, waiting. Actually, my in-laws used to run a canteen and a catering service so they took care of that part. The food was aplenty and delicious, or so I was told, and I thank them for that. (Honestly, except for the grapes, I can't recall I ate anything at all.) DH was a partner in Freedom Bar where we first met. E-mail me if you want the whole drunken story. :-)

Our friends from PETA who documented the entire affair on video. Their singer friend (sorry I don't recall her name) who sang the my favorite song "With You" from the musical Pippin and who called the wedding "the weirdest I have ever attended", but NOT in a bad way, I am sure. I marched to the altar while she sang that song. DH marched to a taped version of his own poem, which incidentally, I know he wrote for another woman, but who cares, he was marching to marry me. And the rest of the entourage marched to Pachelbel's Canon in D Major, something I had planned since I could dream up a wedding.

DH's college friends for hosting and emceeing the program. DH's photographer friends who are now so much in demand by the glossies, that I am sure we won't even be able to afford reprints. I hope they find our negatives soon. Butch The Technologist for giving me the only photos I have of the wedding.

My sisters, nephews and nieces, for putting the flowers the give-aways together at the last minute. They also gathered the sheaf of palay, which we used in place of the traditional arhae of golden coins, from our farm in the province. (We did many non-traditional things in our wedding.)

My family for being so gracious during the traditional pamanhikan dinner. So gracious in fact that when my future mother-in-law asked what kind of dishes I could cook, they stifled their laughter until they were red in the face. My mother could just look to the heavens for supplication.

My former housemate's recommended make-up artists, without whom I wouldn't have been late to my own wedding. And Manila society's couturier before they discovered Joe Salazar, et. al. for my gown. Unfortunately, I cannot remember her name but she did marvelous work.

And of course, DH for spending days and nights physically preparing the venue for the family, friends and guests who gathered together at the big night.

My apologies to all whom I may have inadvertently forgotten. Ten years may not be a long time by Hollywood standards, but it is to us. (A poor excuse for memory gap.)

*Photos of wedding memorabilia taken this month when DH surprised me with the box containing them. I thought we had lost them when we moved houses.

NEXT: Why the two dates