XiSteNcE

What: Autria-Rillorta Wedding
Where: Baguio City
When: April 18, 2009
Who: Maid of Honor

04.17.2009
Friday, early morning, we head out in Bulacan to attend a wedding rehearsal in Baguio. After 3 hours of travel, we make a stop in Tarlac and took our breakfast in McDo. At around 1 in the afternoon, we arrived in Kenon Road, rain started to pour (yep it’s raining in Baguio!). We thought we’re not gonna make it on time for our rehearsal because of heavy traffic and heavy rain but when we arrived in Teacher’s Camp (relatives house) they told us that the rehearsal is scheduled 4 PM. We ate our lunch, rest for a few minutes, chika-chika with my cousin, play with my pamangkin and set off to St. Joseph where the rehearsal will be held. After rehearsal, we went straight to Prince Plaza Hotel to check-in, rest, ate our dinner and doze off early to prepare for the following day event.

04.18.2009
Saturday, around 5:30 AM, my Tita woke us and told us that the make-up artists are already in the next room preparing. I hurried to take a bath and went to the next room to fix my make-up and hair style. After a few minutes, I’m set. Too bad I’m too early for my preparation (our call time – 11AM). I also waited for my 2 friend in our veranda to accompany them to their room. Around 10:30 AM, I had to assist the bride on her wedding gown, veil, and other stuff that maid of honor should do. After taking some pictures, we head off to St. Joseph Church. When Joy (bride) rode the bridal car, the parents should be assisting her to the car but their nowhere to be found. Instead, the driver and the photographer told me to just accompany Joy until we reached our destination. At exactly 12 noon, the entourage started even there are late comers. "Her comes the bride…" , the song expected by the bride but to her surprise (and the guests), a love song (Beautiful in my Eyes) is sung by the Groom. How sweet! The ceremony is indeed very solemn. After an hour of coming back and forth to the altar assisting the bride’s gown and veil and keeping the flower girls quiet and obedient we head back to the Hotel for the reception. Bridal march was first in our itinerary, followed by lunch and wedding activity for the couple. After the reception had ended, Edong, Marvin and I went out for a walk. We don’t have enough time to roam around the city so before we head home we stopped at Sizzling Plate resto and bought the best Sansrival I’ve ever tasted.

04.19.2009
Sunday morning, after breakfast, we check-out and drove to La Trinidad to buy some pasalubong. I’ve always wanted to experience the strawberry picking in Benguet so the three of us decided to give it a try. For a 250 peso per kilo, we head to the field of fresh strawberries ready to be picked. The manang who assisted us said that those strawberries with a little greenish will changed its color for about 2-3 hours. We didn’t expected that the path of each row is so muddy that I had to take off my slippers so that I can walk without hurting my butt and I can still go home with my slippers in one piece. I’m sweating all over my body; my feet, hands and jeans are covered with mud. After filling up the basket, we gave it to manang and weigh it. I picked more than 1 kilo and paid the bill. It’s exhausting but it was a nice and fun experience for us. We searched for a place where we can wash up our feet and hands before going back to Teacher’s Camp. After paying P20, we head back to Teacher’s Camp to eat our lunch and celebrate Ate Rachelle and Kuya Harold’s success for finishing their MA with flying colors (Cumlaude and Magna Cumlaude). Around, 2 PM we said our goodbyes and drove down to Manila. The three of us planned to commute via Victory Liner from Baguio to Manila but my relatives and our driver assumed that we won’t get a seat coz’ we didn’t bought a ticket in advance. So they decided to drop us in Tarlac terminal instead. When we arrived in Tarlac proper, the driver said that even in Tarlac terminal there are so many people that we still won’t make a seat on the bus. Until the driver decided that he will drop us off in Calumpit where many buses and fx are traveling going to Manila. Around 6:30 in the evening, we waited for half hour for cubao/pasay bus or fx cubao but unfortunately there aren’t any so we went to fx terminal in crossing to take our chances. We arrived in the terminal and to our surprise the line for cubao fx is soooo long. I’m not sure if every Sunday evening this pile of people is going to Manila so after 10-20 minutes we decided to take the Monumento jeepney via NLEX or just wait for a Caloocan bus just to reach Manila. Still, many people are scattered on the street waiting for a transportation going to Manila. We waited for about one to one half hour and still no luck. We don’t have any choice; it’s getting late and were still in Malolos so we reached our decision to ride a jeepney going to Monumento via McArthur Hi-way. The funny part is that the signboard on the jeepney is Malinta and the driver decided to extend his travel until Monumento. We were asked to pay P60 until Monumento. Marvin had a doubt feeling about the driver going to Monumento even his signboard is Malinta so he kept our money in his hands and will settle our fare when we reached Monumento. Dirt, pollution and heavy rain while traveling; great, what a great day! Just when we thought we’re going to make it, the engine of the jeepney stopped (somewhere in Valenzuela) and the driver told us that we need to transfer to another jeepney. Ha! Just what Marvin suspected. Edong immediately transfer to another jeepney and followed him even without paying our fare! (sorry manong driver) The second jeepney where we transferred will not travel until Monumento so we had to transfer again to another jeepney (3rd) going to Monumento circle. And finally we made it!!! I saw familiar places; I can see cab waiting for passengers, busses going to Edsa and buildings! We hurried to take a cab and went home. It’s kinda scary, dangerous and exciting feeling. :p Whew! What a once in a lifetime adventure.