AN ONDOY WEDDING

From the journal entry of Atty. Raymond Fortun

Photo: Mangored & Att. Raymond Fortun

This is a story of the power of love in the midst of chaos.

Eli Pablo and Kathryn Louise "KY" Yap were meticulous planners. When they decided to get married at 3PM on 26th September 2009, they spared no effort (and expense) in planning their dream wedding. A super expensive wedding venue (Fernbrook Gardens), an ultra-chic wedding preps place (Vivere Suites), the best flowers, a bonggacious gown from Ammon Velasco, jazzy memorabilia, peacock feather-like fans for all the principal sponsors, an avant-garde main photography team and... oh yeah, twinkling blue shoes for this no-name photographer who likes taking photos of wedding shoes.

On 26th September 2009, Ondoy swamped Metro Manila in rain. Eli and KY's guests and godparents (correctly) decided to stay home rather than getting stuck in traffic and waist-deep waters. Early on, they were told that the way to Fernbrook Gardens was already impassable due to floodwaters, and the venue itself was already surrounded by the rising flood. Even the officiating priest was stranded in Paco, with clearly no humanly way possible to perform the ceremony.


I was a bit lucky. I lived 15 minutes away from Vivere Suites, and met my call time (11AM). However, MangoRed (the main photographer) and East Digital (the videographer) said that they just couldn't make it to the 3PM wedding ceremony on time.


At 12 noon, with their wedding plans in shambles, Eli and KY went out of Room 2017 into the hallway. They sat on the hallway, just the two of them, and had a good talk. I saw Eli comforting KY with sweet, loving whispers, holding her hands. KY was sobbing. And they prayed.


At 12:30PM, Eli and KY came back into the room. In the presence of the only people who were lucky to have gotten through to the hotel (KY's parents, Eli's mom, and close relatives), they announced that they wanted to get married that day -- it didn't matter where.


I started making phone calls. I asked my wife if our parish church was still "operational", and she said yes. I made a call to our parish office and informed them of the situation. They told me that there was a wedding scheduled at 4PM, but even that was in jeopardy because of the rains. I told them that i needed a church and an officiating priest, even if it was at 11PM; they told me to call back in an hour.


At 2PM, Eli and KY had a church and a priest. The wedding would push through at 8PM (after the church's regular 7PM anticipated mass). At around that same time, 1 flower girl and 3 ring/bible bearers arrived.


At 5PM, MangoRed (who had been informed of the change in the wedding time from 3PM to 8PM) arrived. They had to walk 1 hour under the rain along C5 just to catch up to the wedding.


The couple rode on a red 1967 Ford Mustang. It didn't have a bridal bouquet on the hood. It didn't matter -- they were getting married.


When we arrived at 7:30PM, the wedding coordinators asked me if i could scrounge around for a CD player, otherwise, there would be no music for the wedding -- no entrance march, no bridal march, no hymns during the ceremony, no songs during the pictorials after the wedding. I then remembered that: (i) i always brought along my laptop, that had a DVD player and iTunes installed; and (ii) i brought along an audio cable that could connect to the church's sound system. So as soon as the 7PM mass finished, and while the floral company rushed to set up the flowers along the aisles, i was able to set up Eli and KY's selection of songs for their wedding.


At around 8:30PM of 26th September 2009, Eli and KY were bound by God. It wasn't the wedding that they planned and dreamed for. But in their eyes, and the people who were lucky to have witnessed it, they couldn't have asked for more.


Love conquers all.


To a couple that defied Ondoy's wrath and wouldn't have "No" for an answer, may you have a long and happy life together.