That Happy Day: Behind-the-Scenes Pics from the Wedding [April 20-21, 2013]

These are pics of the behind-the-scenes action the day before the wedding and on the day itself that I would like to remember forever.

After sleeping at 7:30am, waking up at 10am, having a biscuit for breakfast then furiously packing to be ready by the time my brother, sis-in-law, and nephew picked me up at noon - plus a bit of scheduling stress to boot - I finally made it to my room in Sofitel. Hello, balcony.

Opted not to get a suite - I made sure the men in my family (who are real sticklers for time hehe) were in other rooms so that they don't share any of my wedding stress.

This was the room I shared with my cousins Shell and Lek and my aunt Eve. By this time, Aleq had also checked into his room in another floor with his family.

The hallway and closet

The minibar

The bathroom

The shower

We got a kick out of the L'Occitane toiletries - which I'm amazed I forgot to take a pic of. Must go back to Sofitel at a less stressful time so I can enjoy it. The last time I got to use the brand's toiletries in a hotel was in China years ago.

Emz - my Candle Sponsor - was my first visitor. She flew in from Singapore that morning and had to get her dress. Unfortunately it took all day to finish and caused quite a bit of stress. Thanks for your patience that day Emzy!

p.s. Aleq got there around the same time as Emz. He came over to talk about preparation details.

My cousin, Wedding Fairy, and bridesmaid Lek finally arrived - in orange as well. She woke up at my apartment that morning at 6:30am, went home at 10am, and was at Sofitel by mid-afternoon. She left shortly after with the driver to pick up my Dad and Aunt Eve from our house in Cavite. What a trooper!

Cielo also came over. She lives nearby so while the other bridesmaids dropped by my apartment in Pasig over the course of the week to get their dresses, she opted to get her dress from the hotel that day. That way she also got to hang out with me a bit, aw. The prob was, I was so stressed. My phone was ringing off the hook, getting calls from coordinators, suppliers, family, and friends. I had to coordinate with everybody. It was already past 5pm and I haven't had lunch yet! I decided to just call room service because I didn't have the time to go out to find food anymore, but I couldn't even get a free second to make the call! Lucky Cielo was there - I chose from the menu real quickly and she called room service for me. She also served as my shock absorber - I vented my stress while eating. Thank you Cie!

Finally, food!

Yay! Lunch at 5:30pm!

This was my first real smile after all the stress that day.

Got the smoked salmon salad, woop woop.

This awesome bread basket and spreads came with my order. I gave it to Cielo and my sis-in-law in the next room, Ate Weng.

Fresh lemonade and toast. That is way too many carbs lol.

Pretty orchids

I was also too busy to get my nails done the entire week before the wedding so I brought my favorite nail polish with me to the hotel knowing that I had no choice but to get a mani-pedi done there. Cielo accompanied me downstairs to Sofitel's Le Salon too.

Orange dress, orange flip-flops, blue nail polish.

Cielo took this pic.

After Cielo left, I finally got some peace and quiet. My phone had finally stopped ringing, and I was all alone there with the manicurist. I was happy I got some alone time amidst the chaos.

Dinner was with the family at Max's Blue Wave. Everyone had arrived by then - cousin Sheila, aunt Eve, sis-in-law Ate Weng, Dad, my priest brother Kuya Father, his sacristan Dos, my teacher brother Kuya Manny, nephew Rejn, cousin Lek.

Kare-kare. We ordered so much food. We made a mistake and thought the set meal came with just one of each dish. It turned out there were two servings for each. Gah.

Sinigang na hipon

Lechon kawali

Fried chicken

Bangus

Buko pandan

We'd like to think that my mom joined us for dinner that night. A moth just came out of nowhere and stayed on my brother's shoulder for an entire minute or two before flying away.

When we got back to the hotel, Aleq and I went down to the hotel lobby where there was free Wi-Fi to work. We spent our last hours as single people together, working on the final details of our wedding. Thanks for the coffee and iced choco, Kuya Father!

I think this was around 2am. We finished at around 4am haha. We vowed not to see each other anymore after we slept and woke up.

Good morning! I woke up with wedding jitters - butterflies in my tummy and all that - so I only had that for breakfast. Mango yogurt, bacon, bread pudding and grapefruit juice. Didn't even finish everything. It was really weird. I couldn't eat - what a waste of the Spiral buffet! I hated myself.

My Tita Eve had breakfast with me though, and she thoroughly enjoyed it.

After breakfast, everything became a whirlwind. Coordinators, photographers, and designer and makeup people covered every inch of my room. It felt like a hurricane blew in and I just found myself in my dress, taking pictures.

I actually managed to Twitpic this picture in the bridal car. My Tweet said: "On my way to my wedding! "

I gave my camera to Lek so she could take pics with it throughout the day, but she didn't, haha. She only managed a few shots with it. Very good lol. Anyway, look at some of my lovely bridesmaids.