Saturday, May 14, 2016

Celebration time

In the last couple of months, I attended a few milestone celebrations. First of these was the wedding of my friends Kent and Sheila. The church ceremony was held in Paco Park Church. My friends asked me if I could be one of the readers and I naturally said yes. The reception was held at Sampaguita Gardens (my first time to visit this place). What made this reception a unique experience for me was that it was the first Japanese-style wedding reception I attended.


This made sense because Kent is part-Japanese. While their wedding still featured many of the traditions that we are generally familiar, the reception featured a few activities that are inspired by Japanese culture. This included the San San Kudo, or the ritualized drinking of sake by the couple. One of the wedding games also involved participants playing with a Kendama.


The wedding emcee also mentioned that at the back of the reception venue was a wall that had one thousand paper cranes, all of which were made by Sheila. That was pretty awesome!


The second milestone event I attended was Raych's golden birthday celebration. I got there quite late but thankfully, the program hadn't started yet. The highlight of the evening, apart from getting to catch up with our set of friends whom I hadn't seen in several months, was watching Raych and her siblings perform a dance number to a medley of music taken from different decades. The celebration was held in SOLAIR or the School of Labor and Industrial Relations in UP. That was actually the first time I had set foot in SOLAIR.


The third and most recent celebration was the wedding of my colleague Robbie and his now-wife Sheena. Their wedding was held in Palazzo Verde, which was previously known as Fernbrook Gardens.


The ceremony started in the late afternoon. It was supposed to start in the mid-afternoon but because this was a garden wedding, the couple decided to start later because it was tremendously hot under the scorching summer sun.


Despite the heat, the guests still showed their support and sat outdoors during the ceremony. Many people got some refuge from parasols which I think were provided by Palazzo Verde.


The reception started in the early evening. Finger food was served to the guests while we waited outside the ballroom and Robbie and Sheena had a Starbucks stall set-up where guests could enjoy a Frappuccino. (I decided to wait until dessert to have mine. :))


It was really cool hearing how Robbie and Sheena became a couple and how their love story unfolded over the years. The coolest thing during the reception was when some people from the entourage joined the couple onstage to perform a song number that was written by one of Sheena's closest friends I think (or maybe it was her sister). As if that wasn't enough, both Robbie and Sheena actually joined the band and played guitar (or was it a bass guitar?) and keyboards respectively. That was just such a special moment. (Oh and the food we had for dinner was also very good.)


I am really happy that I was able to celebrate these important milestones with my friends. My best wishes go out to Kent and Sheila, Raych, and Robbie and Sheena and I hope their lives continue to be enriched.

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