Our Kuya finally got hitched!

I never had a brother. So when Kuya Stew came to stay in the Philippines for a year, we were given a chance to borrow an older brother even just for a year. So when Kuya decided to get married, October 20, 2012 in Kalinga, Apayao to be exact, we were given a chance to see what it felt like having a family member get married. We even went to Kalinga for the formal "pamamanhikan" to represent his family who are based in UK.

Weddings are big in the Philippines. The stress is always, always on the menu especially the day before the big day.But when you have a rush inter-cultural wedding like ours, stress is also magnified in the middle of flying people from UK and Laguna to Kalinga, three different languages for language barrier challenges, observing each other's cultural protocols, all for the coming of two people together to start a family.

I would always remember Kuya Stew, the groom, knocking at our door at 5:30 in the morning handing me the car key, telling me that the wedding car has arrived. The official wedding florist and Church designer, my sister Aprille, immediately went down and took care of installing the flowers to the vehicle.

Then a photographer arrived telling him that he's having a pre-wedding pictorial. He looked at me, zombie-like and surprised, then handed the key and said:

"If worse comes to worst, since you drive, you're driving!"

I stared after him, open-mouthed because I was slightly panicking. I have three heads to put make up on, two of them are bridesmaids plus I will have to rush to the church and help my sister set up the place.

Then after his "pre-wedding pictorial" with the photographer who instructed him to tie-his-shoe-lace-try-to-make-it-look-candid, I said:

Me: Let's have a last photo with you as a bachelor!
Stew: Trust me, cuz, I'd rather be taking photos with you guys than having a pre-wedding pictorial of my own!

So we did. Here's Kuya's last  photo as a  Bachelor:

After this shot, we're slightly panicking but my sister,who's in the wedding industry, gave the best advice: On the actual wedding day, just let go. Everything will fall right into place.

And you know what, after all the wedding mishaps, it did.

 The next morning he went to our hotel to see us off, because we're heading to the airport to catch our flight back to Manila...

He still got wedding hang over (reception was a whole day affair) and wolfed down our left-over food like a good ol' Kuya.

To our Kuya Stew,

Congratulations!

 and to our new cousin-in-law,Jaydee, 

Good Luck!

LOL!

Upcoming post: 

 How the Brits got jiggy with it: The Tagalog-British-Kalingan inter-cultural wedding