Two months ago, my parents held a thanksgiving party to God for their wonderful 25 years together. Celebration could not have been the perfect word to call it but it was more of an event glorifying God's goodness in their relationship and in our family as well. It became a night filled with good old memories, building of old and new relationships, sharing of fun, smiles, and laughter, and a renewed excitement and hope for the future. There could never be any day better to honor God than Mom and Dad's Silver Wedding Day.

A lot of things happen in weddings. Who could even remember them all?! So instead of writing everything that happened that night, let me fill this blog entry with a photo narration of pictures that best captured those significant happenings on cam.

Everything downstairs are all set...

as well as the Bride and Groom upstairs.

Down the stairs the Siguas go..

And in line with the entourage, they march slow.

Two smiles.. Three.. Everyone's happy.

For the second time, a ring fits.

Pastor Manny Carlos prayed over them..

and the children prayed and prophesied (hee hee) as well.

The Lord spoke to me through this and I, as your daughter, claim this for you...

"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the Lord. "My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants, from the time on and forever," says the Lord. 

Giving of love gifts so sweet and cute

As Pastor Christian uttered, "You may now kiss the bride,"

joyfully and tenderly, the husband kissed her wife.

Starting January, we started planning for my parents' Silver Wedding Anniversary. Mommy appointed some tasks to me such as the invitation, the dance, photoshoots, gown fitting, photographers, and many other little things. Being an amateur on planning weddings, I decided to trust God about every little thing that I would do for the preparation. And as it turned out, all went well despite the disappointments that have risen up along the way. I would not trade the experience for anything at that time.

Wedding Invitation

My mother wanted the invitation to be simple, elegant, and of course, purple. The main idea was to make 3D paper cranes and put them on a background of an old musical sheet. But it did not quite match with the designs of the inner page of the invitation because they were a little Western and Medieval. So Mom decided to use the paper cranes somewhere else. At first, I was so disappointed with her decision because I have reached 120 paper cranes already (60 made by Josephine and Arvin; 60 made by me). But then I realized that she was right. I just made the border design and cover photo and also chose fonts that would best fit the invitation. Then Mom brought everything to someone who could put them together easily, someone with plenty of free time.


The paper cranes were then used for another purpose. They served as designs on the table. The night before the wedding, Mom told me that I still needed to make 60 more. I made it all to 190 paper cranes all in all by myself until the next morning. Great God.

From making these paper cranes and invitation, I learned that one should always have an open mind. Pushing my ideas into action and not letting other ideas get into my way would only lead to disaster. I learned to be considerate of other people's opinions as well.





Mash-Up Dance

Dancing has always been my passion so I had no trouble with this fun task. We had four meetings once a week, either Saturday or Sunday afternoon. We did a remix of Marry You and the Glee mashup version of Halo and Walking On Sunshine. The dance became a Glee-like moment! We improvised some of the steps they made in Glee and also added some new ones. We enjoyed making it and dancing to it so much. It ignited our love back into dancing. And funny as it seemed, some street dance moves even came out while we were making it. Uh-oh! We had to be more of prim and proper in this dance. Hahaha!

Twitter Status: Heaven is a little like earth, without the bad days. (LittlePinkBook) Today, I had a taste of heaven for I spent it with great women. #TYGod

While making the dance, I realized who my true girl friends were. I really have nothing against my other friends but I'm glad I saw the ones who would be there for me always. Those people who said "I will always be here for you" and meant it. Well, my girl friends were exactly like that and they were even more excited for my parents than us. It seemed like the friends who also became our parents' friends were the ones who lasted.

Photographers

The task of finding photographers and videographers for the event were totally difficult. I sent messages to my photographer friends and some of they said yes but then cancelled later on. Yeah, define disappointments. But somewhere along the way, I still found the rightful photographers to man the event. They were blessings to us. :-)

I have learned that it is always a must to get prepared for the disappointments. No matter how hard I tried for everything to go well, there would always be something that would go wrong. The only thing that I needed to do was to get ready for it and set a backup plan to save it. In planning this weekend, God was my backup. I became still and remained in faith. He did give me what we were looking for at the right time.

I Won't Give Up

Our family's first recorded song version of "I Won't Give Up" (Jason Mraz) was done in the wonderful Magsaysay residence, the home of a good family friend of ours. Assigned with our own tasks: Mom and Dad sang the vocals, Paul played the guitar, Luke played the beatbox, and I played the keyboards, we finished the song in 7 hours straight (with less than an hour lunch break of course). Even though Jason Mraz's lyrics and melody were a little hard for my parents, we did not give up! Yeah!

Moi at keys

Les Paul

The lead vocalist (Yeahes Dad!)

Little Drummer Boy

Dad and Mom practicing with lyrics

"Iniibig Kita"

Gown Fitting



My Mom blew me away when she wore her gown. She looked so lovely. Simply beautiful Mom. Her dress looked really elegant on her and very suitable to her charm and character. I knew Dad would fall in love with her more on that day.

Because I am the maid-of-honor, I also had my own cocktail dress made. I paid for it with God's Grace and intervention. Haha! It just looked really simple and lovely. I am happy I could easily wear it again for future parties.

Mi Familia Photoshoots
Mom chose to wear the wedding gown she wore 25 years ago. Isn't that lovely?!?! I think it looked so vintage-perfect! <3

Aside from the parents, the kids had to be part of the photoshoot. So my brothers and I dressed ourselves as well. I wore Tita Minnie's bridesmaid gown used in my parents' first wedding while my brothers wore Barong Tagalog. Paul and I even had to make a trip to the mall to buy a new Barong because Daddy's was too big for him. I told him he could buy an expensive one because he would be able to wear it again in his graduation (proud and hopeful sister here). The men really looked handsome and of course, papatalo ba ang women? Haha! Even though I was the only one who did my minimal make-up and messed-up hair, I felt so good during the shoot. I guess seeing my family complete and happy just made it all perfect.

This photoshoot was one of the most haggard and yet the best shoots I have ever been to. The best thing about it was that it was DIY. All thanks to Josie and Arvin for making this happen. Josie became a superwoman during this shoot because Arvin had to rest. Her creativity and determination to finish what we had started motivated all of us and helped us to trust her. She did not let us down for she did an incredible job.

This Love

Carry me away!

Kiss the Girl!

Mi Familia es amor!

Mother and Daughter Moment

Mighty Groomsmen

So Much Drama

Two Is Better Than One

Because of this experience, I felt like I am a better person. There were so many things to learn from others and many things to share as well. Mom told me that she now knows how to plan a wedding. Maybe she would be my wedding planner too. Ha ha.

I had been right for saying it out last May 2010, "I know you (Mommy) first planned it (50th Birthday) to be grand but we pray that you will have that opportunity, if not this year then the next." And there she goes.. she had it with Daddy.

I'm so happy that they honored God by renewing their vows. I knew the wedding would be a blessing to our family and for others as well.

Next Blog: The Silver Wedding Anniversary