flower girl

11th January 2006, Cerise walked down the aisle for the first time as a flower girl.

Uncle Elmer's (Edwin's youngest brother) wedding was held in Tagaytay, Philippines three days after we landed Manila for a 3 week holiday. As soon as we put down our luggages we rushed to ensure Cerise's dress fit her perfectly, shop around for her shoes (which she's outgrown by the time we returned to NZ!) and hair piece ('twas a mad hunt but well worth it coz I loved the outcome!) and Edwin's Barong Tagalog. No window of opportunity for rehearsals but that, thankfully, didn't cause any bloopers, well at least not during the wedding ceremony.

For shortly before the event, we did have a glitch which we now categorize as a blooper seeing that we can't help but laugh about it. After travelling two hours from our base in Cavite to the wedding venue in Tagaytay, Edwin asked me... demanded where his black pants were (to match the Barong Tagalog) and I threw back the question at HIM who VOLUNTARILY loaded all of our wedding attire in the car. THE pair of pants was left behind! You can imagine my mind screaming "How in the world can you forget to bring your pants? I knew I should have loaded those clothes in the car. I'm the DETAIL person and I wouldn't have forgotten such an important item!" but there was no time to bully but only time to PANIC!!!! Yes, panic and for a lot of reasons...
1. Edwin was to stand in for his deceased Dad and walk down the aisle with his mum... quite an important role, wouldn't you say?
2. He had no other pants except the SHORT pants he had on.
3. No one else had spare pants and even if someone did, I doubt it would fit Edwin and even if it did, I doubt Edwin would dare wear someone else's pants, knowing him.
4. We had no idea where the nearest SM was, if any, or if the town centre we drove past just before reaching our hotel was any good.
5. We had two hours to get dressed and travel from the hotel to the church.

Now, I take pride in being resourceful and creative and bringing out the "girl scout" in me when the situation calls for it. But THIS?! THIS was daunting. Too daunting I had to take deep breaths and tell myself "This is not happening. This is not happening. Think think think."

I, who was not part of the entourage but happily took on the roles of camera man and fashion guru to the mother of the groom, the flower girl and the proxy for the father of the groom, suddenly turned into a trouble shooter, a mad director who ordered Edwin to go to the nearest town centre or market and find himself some decent pants. I have to say, sending him off like that made me panic even more because I knew that I had just asked Edwin to do something he was not capable of doing at all... finding a pair of pants within a short period of time in an unfamiliar, chaotic town centre is not quite his cup of tea. I wished I had gone myself but I decided I needed to be with Cerise to ensure she was taken care of and Edwin had to be out of my sight while I tried to come up with a better plan. My cellphone rang. Edwin on the other line, sounding desperate, told me he couldn't find a pair of pants which I dismissed as ridiculous given that he was in a shop that sold pants and he'd only been looking for what, quarter of an hour! We hung up. A lightbulb-over-the-head moment and we realized that relatives from BF Homes, Paranaque were yet to arrive. I rang Auntie Mameng to check her whereabouts. Hearing her say that she and family were just leaving their house and they were happy to pick up Edwin's pants on their way to the wedding was like making it to the toilet in the nick of time. Pure relief! I rang Edwin to give the good news. He came back covered with sweat but his face displayed the biggest smile. He later explained that he found himself at an ukay ukay where assorted clothes hanged or were dumped on piles. He knew there was no hope for him... he who can only shop at a store where all pants are grouped together, neatly hanged according to colour and style. The pants didn’t arrive until a few minutes before the wedding so that the groom kept calling big brother Edwin who kept assuring him that the Yumul family, outnumbered by the bride’s family and friends (18 : 100+), was definitely turning up. Holding up the wedding like that brought the stress level to all time high.

With all that drama, I had in fact forgotten to feed my daughter lunch! Awful mum, I know. There was no excuse for that. I ought to be crucified. By 4pm, Cerise was the grouchiest she had ever been in her life! She is not one to throw tantrums, whether in private or public but not long after I took the above photo, she became more agitated and distraught she was going berserk, almost deranged it frightened me. In the middle of the ceremony, while filming and photographing, I found myself once again panicking at the thought that my famished daughter would make a scene right there and then and it was all my fault. I didn't know where to get food and how. She was bawling her eyes out, I felt guilty and helpless. But once again, Auntie Mameng, the woman of the hour, came to the rescue. She sent someone to buy McDonald's. The Happy Meal arrived just as the ceremony ended. In the car on the way to the wedding reception Cerise was literally shoving one chicken nugget after another down her throat.

And here she is cheerfully posing for the camera (overlooking Taal volcano), after eating 12, yes 12... you read it right... 12 chicken nuggets in record time! For a mum who limits her daughter's fastfood intake to once a week, I got nausea watching her devour those nuggets. Punishment for my crime of starving my daughter to insanity I suppose. I gotta give it to the Happy Meal for being true to its name and saving the day.