Four weddings and a trip to Tagaytay

November to January tends to be wedding season, at least for most of the people I know. In the last couple of months, I’ve attended four weddings. Denise got married to Yong Han in Singapore last November 3. Zarah and Ruter tied the knot in Alabang last December 18. Three days later, I headed towards Alabang again to attend Peegee and Randee’s wedding in Fernbrook. And on December 29, my uncle Tito (cousin of my mom, actually, whom we call Tito Tito… cool ey? :) ) got married to Grace in Calaruega. The common denominator of all these weddings is that I had to travel really long distances to attend them all. And if you factor in Donald and Tisha’s wedding in Boracay on February 1, then it’ll be the first time ever that I attended five out-of-town weddings (okay, technically Alabang is still in Metro Manila but it’s so far away that it may as well be out of town) in three months. Now that’s a first!

And as is usually the case, I had a special role in three of these four weddings. During Denise’s wedding, I was one of three vocalists who performed several songs to entertain the crowd that night. Cheapest wedding band ever, according to them LOL but it was such a pleasure because I got to perform several songs for the first time ever. My repertoire that night consisted of:

• ‘In my life’ by The Beatles ‘All I want is you’ by U2 (second time I’ve sung this in a wedding)
• ‘Through the barricades’ by Spandau Ballet – this isn’t the most appropriate song for a wedding but it’s Denise’s favorite song so I just massacred the lyrics to make them more appropriate (my apologies to Spandau Ballet…)
• ‘More than Words’ by Extreme
• ‘Stand by me’ by Ben E. King (this turned out to be the impromptu first dance – Denise and Yong Han weren’t supposed to have a first dance but while I was singing, they were asked to dance and they did so very gamely)
• ‘Friday, I’m in love’ by The Cure
• ‘That thing you do’ from the same movie

For Zarah’s wedding, I hosted the wedding reception and sang ‘The Gift’ by Jim Brickman with Jenny, the vocalist of the Bernie Pasamba band. (I’m almost certain that I sang a duet with Jenny before, in Nats’ wedding). And during Peegee’s wedding, I sang Eric Benet’s ‘The Last Time’. This was a special request of Peegee, who sent me an mp3 of this song a few months before his wedding so ago so I could learn it. I knew immediately from listening to it that it was difficult to sing. The band (Bernie Pasamba again) was going to play the music and it was only right before the reception that I got to run through the song with them, but I think it turned out okay in the end.

Of all these nine songs, the only one I had performed for a crowd before was ‘All I want is you’ so I was actually quite pleased to have gotten to learn and to sing new songs. (I later on performed ‘Friday, I’m in love’ again during our office Christmas party.)

I didn’t have to do anything during Tito Tito’s wedding. Which was really good for me because I was really tired when I got there - the traffic going south that day was horrific. It took me 4 hours to get from Fairview to Tagaytay (it should’ve taken only 2 ½ to 3) then another 45 minutes to get from Tagaytay to Calaruega. And since I was driving (I was with my grandparents, mom, and 2 nephews), I was immensely tired by the time we got there.

The wedding ended up starting really late. It was supposed to start at 630pm so when we got there at 745pm, we thought we would only make it to the reception but as it turns out, they were only midway though the church ceremony. We left the reception at around 11pm. Our relatives were inviting us to join them partying somewhere but we were all too tired. We had booked a room in T House so that we didn’t have to make such a long trip back that night, and so that we could spend a day in Tagaytay.

T house (website: http://thousetagaytay.com/) is a really good hotel. I was a bit lucky to get a room there because when I called the first time, they said they were fully booked. But they asked for my number in case someone cancels, and a few days later, they called me, asking me if I still wanted a room for 4 adults. Pretty cool!

It doesn’t provide a lake view like Taal Vista or Days Hotel, which also means it’s less expensive. The room was very spacious – 4 adults and 2 kids all fit in one room – and the hotel had a really nice, relaxed atmosphere that makes you feel like unwinding and taking things slow, especially when you factor in the very helpful and friendly staff. They also serve a really good and fairly large-portioned breakfast with great coffee and hot chocolate. The gate to the hotel compound is closed at night which provides an added element of security. And T House also has a very good location – just a few minutes away from People’s Park and Picnic Grove. The only downside is the fact that you can only pay with cash (i.e. credit cards not accepted). However, they charged us for only one extra person even if we had two extra people in a room for four (I guess they decided that two kids count as one adult…) which I thought was a really good thing.

After checking out on Sunday, we headed towards Picnic Grove People’s Park so that my nephews could go horseback riding. We did this once before, when both CJ and Ciera were still very young. This time, they both were allowed to get on the horses by themselves, so I decided to just take pictures of them (and of my mom who also went riding with them).

We decided to enter Picnic Grove to take a few photos of Taal Lake. My nephews then spent half an hour in a playground while my mom and grandma bought a few souvenirs.

Once we were done, we went to 'Breakfast at Antonio's' for some lunch before heading home. It was my first time there and it was okay but a bit overrated I thought. I wouldn't mind eating there again but I guess I didn't feel the 'wow' factor that I've heard from so people who have eaten there before.

All in all a good weekend, despite the difficulties in driving through unbelievable traffic. I'm supposed to attend 4 more weddings in the next month. So I'll guess there'll be a few more wedding singer stories from me soon...