Saturday, January 3, 2015

Attending A Wedding Alone

Today, I attended the wedding of my office friend, Betchai and her groom, Lui.

Weeks before the wedding, I was almost sure I'll be attending alone. It's a spider sense thing - one I acquired from being a fan of Spiderman.

I committed to coming, without looking left nor right as to who's coming with me. And there I was.

How do you go to a friend's wedding on your own? I have no car even! - And had no idea how to get to the venue until the day of the event itself.

But I have already committed and I honor my commitment. Plus, I really want to attend a wedding. I'm not really sure why but it's just one of the things I want to watch.

So, it's a green light for me - alone or not.

I was planning on attending the wedding ceremony and leaving before the reception. I was, fortunately, able to convince a couple of office friends to come after office shift to represent the office friends who could not make it. So, I was covered for the reception.

But I didn't want to miss the ceremony, so I decided to push through with coming to the church alone.

I took a bus to a common jump off point. Then, I took a cab and, with the help of trusty google maps, got to the venue right before Betchai walked down the aisle.

The church was beautiful. Simple and easy on the eyes. Divine white. Tinted glass windows. Huge wooden doors.

The church doors were closed as we waited for the bride. And then, it was opened. Light flooded the aisle of the church. And there she was. All dressed in white. Swimming in the sunshine. It was a splendid sight.

It was a Catholic ceremony. First, the mass, the responsorial psalms, the homily... Then the I do's, then the vows, then the ring, the pronouncement as man and wife, then the sponsors - cord, coin, etc, then the "You may kiss the bride." and then the shower of petals as the bride and groom exits the church.

I was pretty much content, alone and hiding behind my cellphone camera - the trusty Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which I must say takes quite good snapshots.

For the after wedding photo ops, I confined myself to editing the photos so I missed it when they were looking for 'friends of the bride.' Honestly, if I heard it, I would've been absolutely shy and won't be able to make it to a post at the altar for the photo.

And then, it was done.

I was definitely out of my comfort zone, but I'm happy to say I survived it. Now, attending a church wedding is just among the list of things I can do alone.

Maybe the next wedding I go to, I can improve on social skills and score a few friends, and maybe get the guts to join the photo ops. But for now, I'm quite pleased with how this went.

The wedding was absolutely charming and I'm glad I went even if I had to go alone.












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