Words and Concoctions: A Coffee-inspired Wedding: May 2011

What a difference a day made, twenty four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers where there use to be rain
My yesterday was blue dear
Today I'm a part of you dear
My lonely nights are through dear
Since you said you were mine
Oh, what a difference a day made…
And the difference is you, is you”

"What a Difference a Day Made," by Dinah Washington

We hardly ever, if at all, copy and paste lyrics in our entries. Which can be sometimes intriguing, ironic and regrettable as Gab and I both have such different, voracious, and accessible tastes in music – i.e, my experience as a performer with Center for Pop, and Gab’s as a bassist for three amateur bands. We’ve only managed to share a handful of eclectic/pop/sentimental renditions in our wed-site, although surely, the remaining weeks before September should allow us to swoon everyone with an additional wholesale inventory of Videoke hits. :-)

Gab in his revered den

Banyo talk w/ the architect

…But the lyrics to the song perfectly capture our present Manila State of Mind. That – despite the extra-ordinary, super-sized, bottomless busy-ness surrounding our blistering days/nights/in-betweens, we’ve kept at our sweet, lovely miracle like two little engines that could. Every week is a heatstroke-worthy trek to the condo, to a wedding fair, to Wilcon or Home Depot, to meet a vendor, to meet our contractor, to go over our priority list, to meet up with friends and guests, to the bank/parlor/dress shop/Church, or to have my lovely gown refitted, etcetera. Our weekends these months in no order comprise city-wide searches for stylish (but reasonably-priced) lavatory/bathroom fixtures and floor tiles, canvasses for wedding favors, scanning the WorldWideWeb for prenuptial, reception and floral arrangements, and putting in the work for DIY items. WHEW.

DIY resumes at 38 degrees C.

Oh. And gasoline prices be damned!

But we’re still smiling and shining ala Stevie Wonder and Friends, never minding the torturous perspiration and agitation. I should be so lucky that Gab is very much involved in the fiery planning process (and I thought guys weren’t supposed to dedicate their time on these granular, petty details?? Awww.) – because I wouldn’t last another day without him :-) Our cash flow/accounts are also taking a s-e-r-i-o-u-s hit because of these regular appointments and disbursements; but luckily, we’ve been gifted with the occasional generosity of a few friends and family members. God’s love still truly works in the ways of others. :-)

...with another Save-the-Date fan and fellow frappe-drinker, Ao.

Sometimes, our quieter moments at our respective offices provide stables for reflection and perspective. Reflections and revisitations can never be mundane: what started out as an honest albeit playful “what-if-we-get-married proposition” back in February 2010, has become this epic, maddening kind of life-altering event that has pretty much consumed our every spare weekend and centavo over the past year!

We wonder to this day, less than 4 months from our D-day: how did we ever get here? How did we ever fall into each other’s place, countenance and comfort? How did it happen – plunging headlong into each other’s ethereal daydreams and thick, ice-blended concoctions – that we’ve ultimately found ourselves joyous and resolute atop our very wishes-on-a-star? Was it the first kiss, or a crooked, circumspect smile, or the gentle tap of two fingers on the shoulder, that did us in? Was it the first trickle of iced coffee intertwining with our first share of shallow stories as they ascended from our larynx and out of our lips? What made the difference?

with Gab's cutest nephew, Zeke

world's finest: bride, couturier, bridesmaid

A lot of conjecture can be thrown in and out of the furnace, and be wrought from its voluptuous flame, so to speak. None of which would be entirely accurate, but, romance has its way of filtering out all logic and deduction, and to speak only through metaphor, if not, hyperbole. And we are romantics, are we not? What we can tell with some veracity is how, one slow afternoon in 2009, we ended up having drinks at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet in Q.C., and snacked happily on the remains of the day. Fittingly, Gab and I turned from mellow acquaintances into good friends that day; although it wasn’t until a few months when our partnership took off in which we concluded our first out-of-town dinner (Bag of Beans) with memorable frappuccinos amid the cool palpable darkness of Tagaytay. The smaller dates that would follow were no less evocative.

Bag of Beans, baby

Starbucks Tagaytay (2010)

In hindsight, we sort of regret not to have taken pictures of our “older” events - particularly, as neither of us anticipated the momentum that would transform our cheerful friendship into a lifelong commitment – the greatest and happiest decision we’d ever made. :-) But while there are only a few photos to tread our just-friends past with, the places themselves retain their relevance, ambience, and indelible power. For posterity’s sake, we’ve managed to somehow sneak into the thickets of wedding preps a few quaint dinners at those very cherished places. (Sadly, the old Coffee Bean outlet’s been shut down, since)

Commemorating partnerships and sweet transitions at Chocolate Kiss Cafe, UP Diliman

But at the end of the day, we realize: we’d still much rather head home. We’d much rather find time to chat, lie down and relax, embrace, sleep, tug, dream and care about each other as if it were the most precious alibi for missing out on the many fleeting, immaterial urgencies of the waking world. The beautiful difference had always been with us, no matter how sentimental, no matter how grandiose the world allows our metaphors to be.

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And it always starts out best, as friends.............................