Bride me

I was on voice chat with Escie ni Rudy several days ago when our talk drifted to my own wedding cake. She asked how it looked like and I ended up sharing my online wedding album. After our meeting, I looked through my album again and remembered how much I enjoyed wedding preps. Of course, the next step was to read through some of my earlier posts in my wedding preps blog. It brought me back to the time I was so high with the wedding preps. Made me vividly remember how it was to be a bride — the giddiness, the over-the-top excitement, the stress!!! Promise, it’s not an exaggeration to say that I was a super hands-on bride. Midway through the preps, I actually resigned from all my jobs (I think I had 6 part-time jobs then) to concentrate on wedding planning.

I was not a crafty person but I reveled in DIYing so many details for the wedding. I did our invitations, the place cards, the candle favors, the easels and the frames for the photo gallery, the missals, etc. I also went out of my way to acquire items for the wedding. I went to Boracay to have a cord made of “beach” stones and to get Boracay sand which Karla Magbanua, our cakemaker, requested for the wedding cake. I learned the ins-and-outs of Divisoria and Ils-de-Tuls (aka, ilalim ng tulay sa Quiapo) when I was sourcing materials for my gel candle favors. And most important for me I think, I learned to get out of my comfort zone to do things I normally wouldn’t do.

My life has now changed. I’m no longer a bride nor can I consider myself a newlywed (for 3 years after the wedding, high na high na high pa rin ako sa wedding ko… and everytime someone would ask, I would actually say that I was still a newlywed until someone would point out na hindi na. Hahaha!). But backreading my blog made me realize how bride-ly I am up to now. And how much importance I still give my wedding and the weddings I do.

The other day, I met with a bride for the usual obligation-free consultation. She was with her husband-to-be, and her sister-in-law who got married just a year ago. I was surprised that her SIL’s first question was if I was already married. Coming from her own wedding, she said she believes that it is important for a coordinator to know how it feels to be a bride. I told her I also feel the same way. At least for me, it helps to know how much brides think of, dream of, and breathe (LOL!) weddings. And even after doing over 150 weddings, I still feel giddy every time I see a bride and a groom kiss and I silently pray that their wedding be the start of their happy-ever-after.