Val and Louie tie the knot

What a wonderful wedding! My college friends Val and Louie have been US-based for more than a decade and they got married there already, but as a lot of their family and friends are based in the Philippines, they decided to have their church wedding here. The ceremony was held in Della Strada in Katipunan, but I woke up quite late, got stuck doing errands, and ran into heavy Saturday traffic, that I didn't make it to church. Instead, I headed straight to Val's family's house where the reception was held.

A lot of our college friends were already there when I arrived - Mitch (and Ferg), Hes (and Migoy), Kermin, Lala, Letlet and Gosh, Jed, Aries, and of course Val and Louie. I also ran into my colleague Farah. I told her the couple and I were batchmates back in college and we've remained good friends all this time. I ask her what her link was and she said she and Val were cousins. Why I did not realize immediately that she shared a last name with Val (at least before Val got married), I don't know LOL. But it was nice seeing another familiar, unexpected face there.

A fantastic tapas spread greeted us in the frontyard and I could have filled myself with all the different appetizers plus the cheese and wine but I knew I needed to leave room in my stomach for the rest of dinner. And dessert! Once we were told that the buffet was open, I made my way to the dessert table first to get a piece of practically every dessert there - mango torte, strawberry shortcake, apple pie, sans rival, and a few other items I can't recall anymore. Plus the yema pie that Val made herself. I ended up with two full plates of dessert! And I ate almost everything I got. Yeesh! On top of that, I still filled my plate with the main course options in the buffet. Suffice it to say, I was stuffed.

But food wasn't just the theme of the night. The party was also filled with laughs. Practically every speech and toast made were hilarious. The guy taking the videos set up his camera right next to me and I'm afraid my unabashed and boisterous laughter will be heard all throughout the video! Louie actually mentioned to me that he could hear me laughing all throughout the evening. Then again, so was everyone else. But the laughter didn't end there. While everyone else had left at around 10pm, our gang stayed on until half past 1. We spent that time catching up, enjoying cheese and wine and apple pie and Nespresso, and reliving hilarious and gut-busting funny moments in the past. It was definitely a terrific evening and all the food and laughs definitely make this wedding very memorable.