Day 46 Dutch Wedding (Amstelveen)

20 December 2012

We went to a wedding today. It's my first time to attend a wedding outside the Philippines. It's the wedding of friends of my sister's, whose love story is very not-so-love-at-first-sight. They were colleagues in Manila (at SGV, to be exact), became friends, really good friends, then a couple, then finally tied the knot a few hours ago. All these were shared by the judge who presided the ceremony earlier at this place in Amstelveen.

She was a really funny judge, literally. She's so candid, even cueing the sound system herself ("Should we play the music while the couple signs the marriage certificates? Ok."). She really related with the audience; you could see she did her homework really getting to know the couple, even visiting them at home for a pre-wedding interview. She's probably my first encounter of a really funny Dutch. And to think she delivered her jokes in English, not her native tongue. And she's a legal judge for Pete's sake! Really!

Getting to the wedding venue, by the way, was painstaking! Just imagine, we were in our pretty almost-Sunday dresses, our faces all made up, and only a pair of stockings (not leggings) to cover our bare legs (for fashion's sake). And we took the train, changed trains, took the metro, crossed the street, took the bus, all under the four-degree cold, drizzling, freezing to death. With. A. Baby. I wished we were simply sitting pretty in the comforts of a car. Whiner! I only whine when I'm in heels, really.

Anyways, the entire ceremony was brief and fun. Reception followed at a 15-min drive restaurant called TGEREGT. Go figure how that is pronounced.

From the things I heard today, it seems like marriage is a totally different ballgame. Not exactly more complicated or harder. In fact, I heard it's the small things that are the big things in married life, to not sleep angry, to not fail to say I love you at least once a day, to live and face the world as one.

There was one symbolic activity during the reception involving two clear bottles with colored contents (maybe salt or sand), one pink, the other white. When the pink and white are poured into a bigger bottle and shaken, they are mixed to the point of impossibility of re-separating the pink from the white & vice versa. This symbolizes harmony in marriage, or so said the also-funny emcee, who did not deny that she drew these ideas from the internet. On the other hand, when the pink and white are poured into the bigger bottle one at a time, each color forms a pattern inside the bottle, but is not mixed with the other color. This symbolizes the married couple's individuality even as they live as one. When viewed from afar, the bottle, with its colored contents, creates art.

I wonder when my time will be. I wonder who I'm gonna end up with. I wonder when it'll happen and how it'll happen. I wonder if it's next year, or five years from now.

Since this blog is titled reflections of a nearly 30, with emphasis on the number, you can't fault me for wondering.

This day ended with a Christmas pictorial by the Christmas tree, with my sister, her husband, my 11-month old nephew, aunt, and myself. We kept our wedding party clothes on, including boots. Took us forever to get the baby in the mood for it.

One future Christmas, I will be doing the same. I will sit by the Christmas tree with a husband, a baby or even babies, maybe an aunt too, or my kids' grannies, or a close friend, or even a dog, a big one, or just a stuffed-toy dog, and the camera will capture that perfect moment when we're all facing straight up, smiling. One for the albums. One for family history.

Time is all it takes. #

funny female Dutch judge. Seriously!