Christine with her dolls - 1983
With elder sister, Amchit (L) and younger sister, Malen (R)
With her Mom (L) and the three sisters - apples of their mother's eyes.
And here she is now, Christine: "You don't find love, it finds you." (Excerpt from her wedding vows)
The groom - Daniel C. Salapong
The reception at the North Forbes Pavilion with family, friends, and guests.
The godparents (L) Fr. Tanseco (R)
The couple's wedding dance, with the proud mother/happy mother-in-law looking on.
Enjoying a light moment
Groom serenading his lovely bride
Daniel and Christine thanking everyone who in every special way have helped create the day's wonderful memories -- precious memories to last a lifetime.
Sisters' one quick pose before wrapping things up... a magical night!
Back at the hotel so tired - exhausted - HAPPY!!
"Forever and Longer"
Yes, my story ends here but nope, this is not the end but the beginning for them.. for my Christine. If I may say something....
Dear Daniel and Christine,
Marriage is a lot of things to many different people but what it is is this --- A marriage is defined by what you do or not do with it.. as individuals and together as husband and wife. A marriage is learning from each other -- is taking care of each other -- is being each other's best friend -- is loving each other with heart mind and soul -- is living an honestly truthfully shared life. To get the best out of marriage, you give it your best no matter what, inspite of, regardless. The challenges are many but you work at it because it deserves no less from you. And when at times you feel you have lost your strength, get down on your knees and be strengthened by HIM who alone truly loves you beyond measure. God listens with His heart and never fails -- All you have to do is pray. Remember too that a little bit of fun and laughter won't harm, in fact it softens the rough edges of a mundane life. You may be creating a new world of your own now, yet you cannot isolate yourself from the rest of the world, family, friends, people, and life. You bring it all together where you can and where you should.
I pray for you Christine and Daniel -- May God pour out His grace, light, peace, and love upon you both and may your marriage be twice as blessed with joy, happiness, peace, health, abundance, faith, laughter.
Love you... forever and longer,
Mom
(Sincere thanks for some of the photographs used in the blog to: Malen A. Santos Diaz, Alan K. Santos Diaz, Jason Magbanua, Joahn Mari Callao, Min Lopez-Pozas, Cors Fernandez, Mary Alix, Jessica T. Cruz, and our old reliable digital camera alternating with the new digicam sent by Sonia Torredes Miller. Thanks everyone and God bless.)
Dear Daniel and Christine,
Marriage is a lot of things to many different people but what it is is this --- A marriage is defined by what you do or not do with it.. as individuals and together as husband and wife. A marriage is learning from each other -- is taking care of each other -- is being each other's best friend -- is loving each other with heart mind and soul -- is living an honestly truthfully shared life. To get the best out of marriage, you give it your best no matter what, inspite of, regardless. The challenges are many but you work at it because it deserves no less from you. And when at times you feel you have lost your strength, get down on your knees and be strengthened by HIM who alone truly loves you beyond measure. God listens with His heart and never fails -- All you have to do is pray. Remember too that a little bit of fun and laughter won't harm, in fact it softens the rough edges of a mundane life. You may be creating a new world of your own now, yet you cannot isolate yourself from the rest of the world, family, friends, people, and life. You bring it all together where you can and where you should.
I pray for you Christine and Daniel -- May God pour out His grace, light, peace, and love upon you both and may your marriage be twice as blessed with joy, happiness, peace, health, abundance, faith, laughter.
Love you... forever and longer,
Mom
(Sincere thanks for some of the photographs used in the blog to: Malen A. Santos Diaz, Alan K. Santos Diaz, Jason Magbanua, Joahn Mari Callao, Min Lopez-Pozas, Cors Fernandez, Mary Alix, Jessica T. Cruz, and our old reliable digital camera alternating with the new digicam sent by Sonia Torredes Miller. Thanks everyone and God bless.)
Hey Ellen,
ReplyDeletehearty congratulations to the newly wed couple. I have been following your posts about the wedding and it is so touching that you took out the time to put down your thoughts at a time when you must have gone through a lot, emotionally. On the one hand you must have been the happiest person since the darling of your eyes was finally settling down and at the same time, the mother has to say goodbye to her beloved, something that is not very pleasant. I always am fascinated by this reality whenever i am at weddings. Throughout the whole day, the girls parents are very happy as their child is getting married to the best person who will take care of her, but when its finally time to say goodbye, its very emotionally overwhelming for the parents and the girl. I guess it requires some emotional strength to pass through those few moments.
Once again, would like to wish Christine and Daniel a very happy married life ahead:)
take care
ciao:)
Thank you for such lovely words, TD23. Warms the heart so. :-) Yeah, I think it's always an emotional juggling act a mother does on her child's wedding day, son or daughter. But of such is life, isn't it? Both beautiful and sad. A wonderful moment or moments but which too just like the rest of life would soon enough simmer down. The reason why we so much more should relish such once-in-a-lifetime moments when it comes to us.
ReplyDeleteThank you for appreciating the post and the effort behind it. Delights me so. Take care and may God bless you and your family.
thank you very much mother dearest for a wonderful write-up of our wedding. :) i'm so blessed to have you as my mom. :) thank you for praying for me - to find my own St. Joseph. :) sana malen will find her's soon. hahahaha!!! will send this link to all of our suppliers so that they will also see how beautiful my mom writes! my officemates are teasing me that i didn't get the blogging talent from you. hay naku! if only they knew na i was the one who taught you how to chat years ago! that was the only thing you knew then! hahahaha! i love you mama! thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much! hehehe. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your wonderful wedding photos :-)
ReplyDelete~Ron
Best wishes for the couple and lots of love for you Elen.. You've described life and not just marriage in your recent posts. Bless you and family
ReplyDeleteSmiles
Aby :-)
Beautiful pictures! What a wonderful wedding day. A happy day for you, and your family. I just love weddings! And when they are that close...all the more special. Thank you for sharing these gorgeous pictures. Wish I could have been there!
ReplyDeleteChristine honey, you have done so much more for your Mom than teaching her how to chat online :-) ..you gave me new doors to open and restored the joy I thought was no longer there. But as tough a child as you were to handle, you were no match to the Sto. Nino. Lols! With His love unmatched even by a mother's love He made sure you were watched over, protected, kept safe, and never lacked in love and care. So then you are God's work. That, above all things, makes me a happy and proud mother. :-) Love you!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ron, for your lovely visit. Take care and God bless.
ReplyDeleteHi Aby! Your best wishes will be relayed to the couple, thank you. And thanks for coming by.. your visit every time lights up my blog. :-) Have a lovely week and blessings to you and your family.
ReplyDeleteOh this huge distance separating us is indeed a frustration, Deb! How lovely truly if you were here with us. :-) Thanks for your lovely visit.. glad you liked the pictures. Take care always. Tons of blessings to you and your family.
ReplyDeleteEllen,
ReplyDeleteHow I wish I had atteded this! Wonderfully captured for future. May God be always kind to them.
Take care
PS : They are most welcome to be with us if they ever visit Delhi.
Delighted to see you, Jack! Yes wouldn't that be so lovely if you were here? Oh thank you for your blessing. And thank you for such a wonderful gesture of your warm hospitality and friendship. Take care always. May God bless you and your family.
ReplyDeleteEllen everything looks wonderful, handsome groom and pretty bride, and the pictures are beautiful. I pray that God will guide them every step of the way. It must have a Happy Day for the your family.
ReplyDeleteHeu Ellen heartiest congratulations to the new couple and to their beautiful mom. The couple looked stunning and you were looking amazing Ellen :)) Thanks for sharing those beautiful words with all of us, got to learn a lot from them. A mothers words are always beautiful and full of wisdom :)
ReplyDelete'Twas truly a very happy day for us, May. Thank you for your wonderful prayer. God bless you as well.
ReplyDeleteI will surely relay to the new couple your best wishes. Thank you so much! Oh we had a lot of help in all the activities. So blessed to have these good people with us on that joyful day. Blessings to you and your loved ones for always.
ReplyDeleteYour daughter looks gorgeous and of course the whole wedding entourage :) Ellen you look great.
ReplyDeleteNice outfits and looks like you had a lovely ceremony. Best wishes to the newly married couple. God Bless them! And loved your message to your daughter too :P
Oh how nice to see you here, RGB, after such a long while. Busy I would suppose. :-) Thank you for your message and will definitely relay to the new couple your best wishes. Take care always and God bless!
ReplyDeleteDear Ellen,
ReplyDeleteGood Evening!
Wishing the newly married couple a long and happy married life.May Lord Shower His Choicest Blessings On The Couple.
Ellen,beautiful words and a wonderful wedding gift for your daugher and son-in-law.
You, the bride,bride groom all the members look awesome!A photo speaks thousand words!The beautiful moments of life to be cherished for ever!
Wishing you joy and love,
Sasneham,
Anu
Great to see you, Anu! :-) Thank you for your best wishes and blessing for the new couple. Will relay it to them. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou are so right... "A photo speaks a thousand words!" -- That's what the blog intended. It was an event that went beyond words to speak. I am sure that many who have gone that same road will heartily agree. :-) Thanks again, Anu, for your kind words. Blessings to you and your family.
Absolutely beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing. Ellen over on Multiply!
ReplyDeleteHello Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteWould be a lot easier if you left me your true name or your multiply link. Thanks for coming by. Hope to hear from you again soon. God bless.
Yeyy I remember.... Ellen or clearday over on Multiply!! Wow it's you! How wonderful that you could drop by. So delighted!! Thanks for finding the time to come over. Hope all is well at your end? Take care always. Blessings to you and yours, my dear friend Ellen. Will come visit you at your Multiply page soon.
ReplyDeleteHi Ellen,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked the wedding pictures on my multiply site. I remember when I was working in PS, I knew both Daniel and Tin through separate circumstances. When I found out they were a couple, I became a big fan of their love team. It was hard not to, really. It was like seeing Guy and Pip, or Edgar Mortiz and Vilma Santos, or Rene Requestas and Kris Aquino... couples that loved to laugh.
About a year ago, I took Daniel and Tin out of town to scout for the church and a place for the reception. I accidentally took a picture of Daniel botching a kiss with Tin -- one of my favorite pictures of all time. After that, I promised I wouldn't miss their wedding for the world.
It’s like their comedy makes me a bit of a better photographer than I really am.
Again, thanks for letting me be a part of the wedding and leaving the inspiring comments on my multiply :) It really made my day after reading it. I've also started a new blog on http://photopockets.blog.com, which I hope you can visit too.
Best regards,
Aureo
Hi Aureo,
ReplyDeleteOh my, this is so much a delight and pleasure for me to see you here.
I know, they're such a lovely couple, aren't they. It's wonderful to see how God brings people together --- a perfect match for two imperfect people. Lols! I hope and pray that Daniel and Tin would always remember to treasure what they have. But we do know that people, including you - me = the couple are all still 'work in progress' in God's eyes.
Botched a kiss..... !! that is outrageous hahahah... Well, the thing that I love most about them is that they can see the funny side of things - people - life - situations. It seems that they've decided to see the brighter side of life, as a rule. And that's quite contagious, I must warn you. :-)
Oh but your presence along with their other good friends made the occasion even more memorable. And you made it even more special doing the video. Thank you so much! And I'll say it again.... you'll make one darn good photographer if you decide to go serious with it.
But definitely I'm going to check out your new blog. In fact, count me in as one of your big fans from now on.
Thank you for your lovely visit.
Take care and God bless you.
Ellen
Hi Ellen,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to thank you for giving me advice and consider a career in photography. The United Football League have been paying for the use of my pictures and it's been working out like a 2nd job for me (www.photopockets.wordpress.com).
I can't thank you enough.
Aureo
Hi Aureo,
ReplyDeleteWas so delighted over your message here. And it's nice seeing you again in the blog. :-)
Oh don't thank me; you did it to yourself. You have quite a huge talent with photography so it was just coming to you given the right break. And I'm very happy for you. Too I appreciate your coming back here to tell me the good news. Such a nice sweet gesture... a rare gem, if you'll allow me to say so. :-)
I've been to your wordpress blog awhile ago and I liked what I saw.
Good luck and wishing you more blessings ahead. Best regards to your family.
Ellen
Thanks for sharing this valuable post, this venue is one of my favorite event place. I highly recommend North Forbes Pavilion.
ReplyDeleteHi Tanya. I will check out the place: North Forbes Pavilion. Thank you. And thanks too for dropping by. Appreciating it much. God bless you.
Delete