- November 12, 2011, Saturday.
- My friend Pei Mei finally tied the knot today with her husband Peter. I had been waiting for weeks for today's event, but a lot of things certainly made the day more interesting, and productive, in terms of my social life.
I. The Pre-Wedding
- I woke up at 8am today, got dressed around quarter to 9, and prepared to go to my friend Simon's house, which was conveniently located near the Binondo Church. I wore my golden Tibetan shirt, my golden pipa necklace, and hung a Chinese jade ornament through my belt, and added color to my golden-and-black ensemble.
- I rode a pedicab to Simon's house, and saw Neil, Jenesa, and Lester hanging out with Simon in his room. While they were chilling, I was panicking over Pei Mei's last-minute request of burning the background music in a CD. Simon didn't have a blank CD, so I ran to the quite-near-but-not-so-much CD-R King in Salazar, bought CDs with orange designs on them (teehee,) and ran back to Simon's place. Thankfully, I had a shirt underneath my long-sleeved garb, so I removed my golden Tibetan shirt, and just wore the black shirt I had underneath to CD-R King. By the way, the background music Pei Mei asked me to burn was the one that will accompany me and my violin during the couple's entrance during the reception.
- Simon quickly burned the file to the CD, and I had time to practice my piece twice. It still amuses me that I decided to add Chinese ornaments to my violin and my bow, to add "Chinese accents" to my rather Western instrument.
- We were all set to go to the church at around 10:20, 10 minutes before the ceremony started. I left my violin in Simon's house, and off we went to the church, excited to see our other batchmates.
II. The Ceremony
- Just before we entered the church, Pei Mei opened her car's window, and asked us to go inside the church and sit. We were amazed by Pei's look, even if we only see her neck up from the car window, because of her very ornate and Indian-like/West-Asian-like headpiece.
- Once inside, we were all welcomed by a wave of oranges, yellows, and reds. Even better, we were welcomed by familiar faces that, as for me, haven't seen in a long while.
- The ceremony started at around 10:45, and felt rather emotional after seeing Pei Mei walk down the red carpet. She was a celebrity to us today, and she was also the bride that we sort of "sent off" to her husband whom we barely know.
- Our friend Krisan wasn't around today, since she's out of the country, but her sister Monica came to attend the ceremony, and drop off Krisan's share for our big and awesome gift, as well as the greeting cards that we're supposed to write on for the gift.
- I acted like a semi-photographer today, battling spaces with the official photographers of the event. I felt the need to take good photos, since this not only was the first time that I've attended a batchmate's wedding, but Pei Mei herself is a very dear friend to me. She'd been my classmate all throughout high school, my council-mate, and my MASCKS-mate too. She played the role of Rani Sumitra, one of the queens of Ayodhya, in our Ramayana play in Feb 10, 2007 (Pei Mei's birthday too.)
- We spent much of the time talking at the back of the church, and clapping for Pei Mei as she walked the red carpet once more, on the way to her bridal car. Our friend Jeff dropped by too, and our friend Vanna couldn't make it to the reception.
III. The Reception
- We went back to Simon's place to rest a bit, and pick up the stuff we left there. We later walked to Quintin Paredes' Pacific Centre, and looked for "The Royale Shark's Fin Seafood Restaurant."
- While my other friends were catching up and having fun, I was in one corner, standing by, and waiting for the hosts to open to reception. I was tasked to coordinate with the hosts, and the sound-guy for the CD I burned in Simon's house, and test the mic that I'd be using for my violin. Quite nervous, as I haven't handled my violin in a while, I quietly practiced in my little corner, as Pei Mei's brother, Harry, occasionally stood by my side (literally) and watch me tinker with my violin. I also entrusted my camera to Michelle, while I was practicing, and when I'd be playing my violin already.
- The afternoon event started around 1:30, with people starving as the family and hosts waited for all tables to be filled up. The bride and groom marched from the entrance to their seats, as I played my violin with much effort; I was too distracted and deafened by the two hosts that stood right beside me, as well as the series of poppers that crackled near me. Good thing I was able to successfully play the piece - not my best performance, but it was good enough (I think, I hope.) I was asked to play again before I was allowed to sit. The song I played is entitled "Le Yuan," by Zhang Xiao Han ("Paradise"/Angela Zhang;) Pei Mei chose this song, and we were able to find a nice instrumental version that served as my background.
- As the food started to arrive, my fun started with teasing and talking with my batchmates. I frequently hopped from one table to another, since we all occupied two tables. While playing around with the thought of going out after the reception, the others decided to have a minireunion - they were all classmates in high school - plus me, of course.
- The reception ended after the usual series of platters of food, wedding games, the couple's song, other intermission numbers, the cake-cutting, and the hosts constantly making the couple French kiss (I'm glad Pei wasn't suffocated after F-kissing for that long.)
- At 4 in the afternoon, the thought of going to a mall to watch a movie seemed impractical, so people decided to go to the nearby Starbucks to chill.
IV. The Post-Reception Reunion
- Simon and company, with me, decided to go to Angelo's house, another friend/their classmate, and as if he'd want to join us with our mini-reunion in Starbucks. The others went ahead, and hoped that we'd come with Angelo. Angelo wasn't able to attend the wedding because his grandmom passed away recently. Still, Angelo agreed to hang out with us in Starbucks, and told us to go ahead while he prepared himself.
- We marched to Starbucks, surprised to find out that a part of Starbucks' air conditioning system was busted. As all Starbucks branches, looking for spaces to sit can be a problem, especially during the busy times of the day; the ten (??) or so of us had to squeeze ourselves with two small tables, which added to the place's heat. These being said, I took off my golden Tibetan shirt, folded it, and did away with my black t-shirt underneath. I bought a cold Christmas drink (the toffee one,) and tried out Starbucks' Christmas smore; I think the smore tasted alright.
- We spent the rest of the evening talking more, and complaining about the busted air conditioning system. Some of them also had magazines; I'm not sure where the magazines came from.
- We all decided to leave after people realized that it was going to be dark in a few moments. Simon and company, on the other hand, decided to have another post-wedding hang-out in Simon's place. I tagged along.
V. The Post-Post Reception Hangout
- We ended up in Simon's house, as planned, and chilled, literally. Thank to Simon's room's air conditioning system, we were cooled off in minutes, while checking out some movies, games, and our mail/FBs/Twitter accounts. The others were planning to stay until late in the evening, and so they had food delivered. I wasn't planning to stay long, so I didn't order food.
- The others also planned to download movies/series to spend the night, while we all played around, chatted, and at some point, with me showing some of my FB photos to Neil; I don't know why I did that. HAHA. But LOL?? While waiting for some films to be downloaded, our eyes were glued to 9gag.
- I left Simon's place at around 7:45, since no one was at home, and I also wanted to rest from a long, and panicky-started day. I'm also glad that Simon's parents still recognized me (I think.)
- I later arrived home, approximately 12 hours after my day begun, and I'm obviously as tired as hell. My hands were full the whole day, did a lot of walking under an unusually hot autumn day, and my two layers of clothing (plus the squeezing and air conditioning fail of Starbucks) added more heat to the weather. I am still drained from everything that happened today, but the spontaneity of my friends today made the day more colorful than the summer hues of Pei Mei's wedding's theme. :D:D:D:D
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