Jhen and Jay's Wedding

My friend Jhen got married today to her long-time fiance Jay. They got married at the Sofitel and the initial plan was that they would get married seaside. However, I'm guessing because it rained yesterday and the weather forecast today was not much better, they moved the ceremony to the Davao room. The reception was held at the Mindanao ballroom.

Jhen was a teammate of mine a couple of years ago before she decided to explore opportunities elsewhere. Shortly before we became teammates, I was participating in our company's Valentine 'harana' activity and Jhen, after hearing me serenade someone seated next to her, told me that she wanted me to sing during her wedding. True enough, when I heard the news of her engagement, she told me that she wanted me to sing. I've never said 'no' to any friend or relative who's asked me to sing at their wedding and this was no exception. I was asked to sing 'N Sync's "This I promise you" although we followed the arrangement of an acoustic cover of this song that Jhen found online. I've never sung this song in front of an audience before so I did quite a few practice runs at home. In the end, with the band providing backing vocals, I think I did a decent job on a song that has some pretty high notes.

One other thing that was impressive about the wedding preparations was Jhen and Jay's wedding blog. In it, there was information on the event details such as the time and venue (plus map), dress code that included a suggested color palette, and a parking guide with instructions on how to get discounted parking rates that the couple arranged. Of course, it wasn't all just information as they also had a beautifully written story of how their partnership unfolded through the years as well as their pre-nuptial photos and a couple of videos including one that showed Jay proposing to Jhen. I can just imagine how much work went into putting together this wedding blog but I did find it very useful and entertaining to go through.

Before tonight, it had been a while since I saw Jhen last so this evening also served as a bit of a reunion with her (and some other colleagues who have also moved to different companies). Congratulations to the newlyweds and I wish Jhen and Jay a wonderful life together.