Sunday, June 05, 2005

wedding and weddings

My cousin's wedding went well. Church in Santa Clara that has gigantic metal statues of Mary, like she's the Statue of Liberty. I'm not sure if it was because it was the priest's first wedding, or that no one went to rehearsal, or that the nun was just like that, but the nun who was doing the wedding coordination for the wedding was simply announcing each segment of the wedding. "stand" "sit" "bless the bible"

She scolded one of my cousin's kids, who is 6, about how he should know how to dress himself. I don't know about her, but I don't know how many 6 year olds really knows how to wear a tuxedo suit properly.

I found it interesting that the sermon by the priest who admitted he had just met the couple just before the ceremony, had a huge emphasis on having kids and how sex without children is meaningless. Followed by the prayer intentions including "we pray for the end of abortions." Yeah, I wasn't a part of "we pray to the Lord" on that one. I kind of figured the topic was a top down emphasis by the new pope, since his big thing is pro-life. Still, the sermon is hard to buy coming from a priest who probably doesn't have kids, because he's not married, thus doesn't have sex. And why are we listening to him?

My cousin had a long beautiful veil that was longer than her dress. It must be in style. I get to go through fabrics and tiaras in a few weeks, so I'm taking notes.

I really hope the church lets us have kulintang music in the church. Watching my cousin enter and exit the church, I realized I am NOT a "Here comes the bride" kind of gal.

The reception was nice at a local golf clubhouse. Got reaquainted with my dad's side of the family, saw some third cousins we hadn't seen in ages, but with whom we essentially grew up with. The MC mixed my dad and uncle up when announcing who would be giving a speech. My dad mentions that he came {this close} to having married into my cousin's husband's family. He was dating the groom's father's sister just before he got together with my mom. Oh, how our lives would have changed forever! The groom's dad is from the same hometown and he was happy that one of his sons married someone from his hometown, even though the kids grew up in Mindanao.

My favorite MC moment was when she announced a surprise entertainment, then proceeded to tell us everything about the surprise.

During the bouquet toss they got me to go up there, along with another cousin who is set to be married a month after us. I thought we're a done deal, no need to try for the bouquet. Of course, my bride cousin rigged it to toss it right to me. Ok, so it fell short a few feet and I stepped in to catch it before it hit the ground. Ever since I had gone to a wedding where the bride had to toss the bouquet FOUR times because all the women there ran away from it like the Plague and watch it fall to the ground, I promised that I wouldn't let a bouquet fall to the ground if I could help it. It's just sad to toss a bouquet that many times.

Of course, when it was the Fiance's turn with the garter toss, my cousin whispers to her new husband to essentially aim it his way. But, the distance was just too far and they still had to toss it 4 times till it practically smacked him in the face. I must admit it was fun catching the garter and the bouquet together. And I got some ideas for our own bouquet/garter toss and you know it's going to be different.

Arrived at Brava for the Maguindanao show and concert. I guess it must have slipped my mind that I had said yes to reprising my role as groom mother tonight. Good thing I showed up early. It's an easy role, look regal, walk around, sit, watch the show, have a good time.

I was dressed in a royal blue blouse, adorned with "gold coins" to symbolize the wealth of my family. The malong was a lovely, rainbow colored malong in very rich colors, for my head a tendong/head cover, with light blue scarf over it. Lucky for me, our entire "family" was tall from the Datu on down. For all the different ways to wear a malong, can I say that just about the most regal and "sexy" way to wear one is by holding it up with one hand. There's a certain daring attitude and confidence to the style. The cloth is pulled to one side and draped over your forearm, with maybe it being held taut by a bit tucked under your elbow.

I really loved wearing that outfit, you couldn't help but be regal in it. I told a friend in the audience that it's just damn near impossible to look bad in any of this stuff, we were just meant to wear bold colors. In the same way that it's a rare Filipino guy who looks bad in a barong Tagalog.

This was the second marriage for the "groom" which is ok, because they tolerate multiple wives in Maguindanaoan culture.

We were supposed to be acting on stage interacting, looking like we're enjoying ourselves, clapping for the performers. And though I do understand that we're supposed to be royal, why does royalty always equal sterness as if I was England's Queen Mother. Really, the only one with the stern look is supposed to be the bride. Her aunties will even pinch her to make sure she keeps that face. Needless to say it was difficult to look like you're having fun yet have an air of regalness because our brains don't correlate the two.

We should be done with weddings for now with only ours to look forward to. Which reminds me, we've got to get cracking. Got to order the invitations soon!

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