A Change of Fortune
I’ve had my heart broken many times throughout the years that Mark and I dated. My family went through financial difficulties and our house was submerged in flood waters during Ondoy. We eventually lost the same house—and everything in it—to a fire in the early hours of November 15, 2014.
That day was a date to be remembered for all the wrong reasons. But Mark, being who he is, decided he wanted to replace the bad memories of that day with good ones. Five years later, to the date, Mark and I got married.
When we first started with our wedding preparations, we knew we wanted our wedding to be timeless and classic. I started thinking about what to give Mark for our wedding day. I didn’t want it to be too extravagant, but I wanted the gift to be personal.
Exactly a year before our wedding, I started making a diary for Mark. Every night, I would sit at my desk and write about the things I wanted to tell him. I documented each day that went by for a year, whether happy or sad, pouring all my sincerity with each entry. This diary was the main event of my wedding gift to Mark. It also became the inspiration of our wedding giveaways— blank notebooks that can be used as journals.
We wanted everything about our wedding day to be easy and uncomplicated. We shied away from extravagant decorations, color requirements for guests, and the much-dreaded singles games. Instead, Mark and I pushed for beautiful centerpieces in place of ceiling decorations. We told our guests to wear any color they like.
Mark chose the main color of our theme—it was celadon, like the traditional ceramics in Korea, one of our favorite countries to visit. As for my dress, I have an affiliation for more traditional items, so I opted for a piña silk gown and we had a celadon sash added to make the dress more in theme. My mom and I also went all the way to Lumban, Laguna to have customized piña cocoon cloth made for our flower girls.
Mark, meanwhile, wore his late grandfather’s cufflinks, having gone to his grandmother to ask for them specifically. Our engagement ring also carries a stone from Mark’s grandmother’s ring, surrounded by stones from my mom’s wedding ring.
Our reception ended later than we thought, but, to our surprise, hardly any of our guests left to go home. Mark and I found ourselves surrounded by most of our friends and family at our after party. To us, this was a sign that people had a good time just as we had wanted. Mark’s dad hired a singer-guitarist, but our guests started volunteering to sing their preferred songs. The night turned into a round of spontaneous rockeoke, our friends and family just having a good time with us. At the end of the day, this was all that we had hoped for.
Our recently married peers would tell us that we’d hardly remember what happened during our wedding day, but my wedding experience taught me otherwise. Mark and I set out to turn November 15 into an uncomplicated day of good memories and new beginnings with the people that are important to us. I know for a fact that we have succeeded in achieving that goal. Because November 15 is now a date to be remembered for all the right reasons.