all those who broke my heart were like northern stars

i was standing at the end of the white-washed walkway, away from the guests' line of sight and just taking it all in.... i was just looking at my pretty bridesmaids holding their blue parasols and barefooted wearing the barefoot sandals i made them, my handsome groomsmen on their suit and black flipflops, my cute ring bearer and flower girl, the nice clear sky.... i can't help but think that 17 months after the wedding proposal the day is finally here! i am getting married!




as soon as my wedding party started walking on that white-washed walkway, pair by pair towards the ceremony i heard the violinist and guitarist started playing Canon in D... i love Canon in D and at that moment  i can feel i am about to cry..... but i had to contain myself because i know if i didn't it would be like opening the flood gates..... so i inhaled and exhaled instead.... when my maid of honor started walking i know it would be my turn soon and i started feeling nervous....i may have said that a lot of times to my friend sheryl who was the only person left at the end of the walk way aside from me....

and then i started walking.... i can still see my maid of honor's back and i just tried to concentrate on looking at her back so i won't feel nervous and then she's out of my sight and the music changed.... i got a little bit disoriented after i hear the first few notes of the song.... the night before, the violinist emailed me and told me they can't play my song,"you" by carpenters (i love carpenters!) for my bridal march and they gave me a list of other carpenters song that they can play instead.... i was a little disappointed because i have told them that way way in advance, but i don't like to stress about it specially the day before my wedding so i emailed back and told her "we've only just began" is fine.... but on my wedding day, while i was walking barefooted on that white-washed walkway, i was hearing a different song.... i was trying to concentrate on not tripping myself, of keeping my bangs in place (the wind was attacking me!) and now i'm trying to figure out what the heck i am listening to.....and then suddenly i realized what it is....






"you are the one who makes me happy...when everything else turns to gray"

all nervous but happy!

they're playing my song!  at that very moment i almost lost it,  i can feel my tears are starting to swell up in my eyes, but i kept whispering to myself  "don't cry, don't cry, damn it, don't cry!"..... and tried to focus my attention to other things like the petals on the sand, the "shoes optional" sign, the white tulle curtain from the second arbor flying with the wind..... then i saw people looking at me! now, that's some distraction.... i went from very emotional to nervous again...... then i saw my bob... standing in front, all handsome and smiling at me and all my nervousness disappeared..... it was just the two of us at that moment.... i can't hear the musicians anymore.... i'm not seeing the guests staring at me anymore.... i'm just seeing him....

then the ceremony started.... i tried not to be emotional when the officiant started making bob to repeat the words of love after him while bob is putting the ring on my finger.... when it was my turn i made some boo-boos and was putting the ring on the wrong hand and started laughing...... that was another tension breaker, another good distraction.... then its time for the custom vows.... i asked bob that he go first...

"There was a time when I wasn't sure I would ever be happy again.

But then I met you and from our first date, you completely captivated me with your charm and humor.

I thank God for you and your poor eyesight.

I promise to cherish the time we have together,

to love you and all your shoes,

split the difference on the thermostat,

and laugh together all the way to eternity."

it was short and sweet and both the guests and i laughed at the mention of "poor eyesight" and the "all your shoes"...

then it's my turn...i thought i won't cry anymore because i've practiced reading my vows by myself a lot of times already but when i started reading the second paragraph i can feel my face turn red and i can feel my tears starting to swell up again! so i had to pause for a bit and inhale-exhale.... then had to pause again for the third paragraph.....and then some more.....

i just can't allow myself to cry specially when i'm talking or else all people can hear me say would just be gurgling sounds, lol...... and i want them to hear my vows....

I'm always amazed at how our paths crossed.
I've never been so thankful for all those broken promises and lonely nights
because every road that I've been down in my life lead me to you
and all those who broke my heart were like northern stars
who pointed my way into your loving arms...

Today I am marrying the friend of my life.
Bob, With you I laugh, I smile, I dream.
with you I'm whole, I'm full and I'm alive.

Thank you for being the perfect partner.
For trusting me with your heart
and for believing in our future.
Thank you for finding me.

In return, I promise to cherish you, encourage you, to laugh with you
I promise that I'll always have your back like you have mine.
I promise to yell at you only once a day when you're being a pain in the butt
I promise to comfort you when the Phillies loses and drink beer with you when they win.

I promise to stand beside you, in times of prospers and decline,
in sickness or health, in peace and in havoc, as long as we both shall live.
I will always love you.


yes, we tried to write our custom vows with a tiny dash of humor....
oh, there's one line in my vows that i got from a song, can you guess what song and which line?

anyway, so after that was sand ceremony..... we did that in place of candles.... and then just like that it's over and we found ourselves kissing in front of our guests and hearing the musicians play the "wedding march"...

our sand ceremony

then some formal portraits....then my MOH had to sneak me back in to Peter Shields' second floor so i could retouch my make-up and she can bustle my train.... bob and i practiced for a bit our wedding dance (we practiced only for 2 nights at 15 minutes each, lol)... then i heard our Love Story interview video being played (thanks again to my friends Ryan and Jefferly of RyanJeffProductions for our video) and heard a few "awww"s and some laughters while they watch it and then it's time to introduce us....


i was trying not to fall on the stairs because my gown is still kinda long but i survived.... the first dance immediately followed.... i requested for the musicians to learn "can't take my eyes off you" which they gladly did and i was so very very happy how it turned out... imagine a violin and guitar playing that song live? it's just divine....

cake cutting, we love our cake! both how it looks like and how it tastes like

then it's cake cutting...

because of the weird room set up we need to finish all the usual stuff before the guests starts eating so they don't need to stand up again until after the reception.....when they finally opened the reception area and people got seated the best man gave his toast and so does the maid of honor.... i love it that our bestman mentioned about the "sandwich surgeon"....... that's bob, he is a sandwich surgeon and meat surgeon and veggies surgeon, lol...... then it's eating time! Bridget of Peter Shields was so nice to give us a plate of the antipasto to make sure we'll be able to taste everything that we paid for....i wasn't able to eat that much though, i finished the cake though, lol....

then it's dessert's time.... our guests love our cake...its vanilla on the first layer with two fillings (lemon filling and berries something).... the second layer is chocolate... it also has two layers of filings, ganache and choco mousse..... Bridget of Peter Shields was so kind to save the top of our cake and she froze it and gave it to us after the wedding.... she said we need to eat it on our first anniversary.... but knowing me, and the fact that Michel Gras's cake is so heavenly delicious, i don't think i can hold off not eating the cake and wait for a year, so good luck to me, lol....

we ended the wedding reception with an SDE (same-day-edit) showing the highlights of the wedding on a 3-minute video..... then i took 30 (out of 40)  of our guests on a free Victorian Moonlight Trolley tour.... we rented the whole trolley for that and my guests thought that tour was like the icing on a cake and enjoyed the tour of the victorian houses in cape may and listening to the tour guide tell us about victorian courtship immensely!

we were in cape may since thursday night (May 10) and was planning to leave on May 13, sunday, just like everyone else but we decided to stay for another night....

overall, it's indeed a day to remember for me and maybe for some of our guests too because most of them have never been to Cape May an have never attended a beach wedding and ours is their first.... its also nice to hear them compliment us about the food, reception venue, the beach set up and our musicians....

my DIY brooch bouquet and custom-painted bridal shoes by figgieshoes.com

i'm really thankful to all my SFC (Singles for Christ) friends for helping us and we're also thankful to our wedding party members and a lot of other friends who were there to help us..... thank you, thank you so much! you know who you are.... we won't be able to pull it off without all of you guys! ofcourse, we thank our guests for driving all the way down for 3 and even 6-7 hours because one of our wedding party drove all the way from boston! thank you, thank you so much!


for reviews about our suppliers  i kinda started some but still need to proof read it but it's already at: http://www.mywedding.com/bobmarlin/custom.html

next would be the church wedding in the philippines! but had to rest first and recuperate from all the civil wedding preps....






p.s.
the yellow tent and ampersand photo are teaser photos from our photographer....the group walking and the gown photo is a screen capture from our SDE...the others are from my friends karen and ryan...

and here's a video of the ceremony and reception venue: so you could visualize my story better, lol