may 2, 2009
are you willing to travel 700+ kilometers both ways by land just to attend a wedding? that’s the test-of-friendship question thrown by rex and imee to us, their friends – and our answer? heck, yeah! 🙂
so, together with cedrick and wengi, off we went to zambales. we were told that the approximate travel time was about 6-7 hours and expecting such a loooong drive ahead, we devised a plan with cedrick and i alternately driving. but what happened was i did most of the driving. 😆 (ok lang, binawian ko naman cedrick because he did all the driving on the way back. 😀). the road trip was long but not boring. the scenery was beautiful and the roads were in tiptop condition. they were so good we had to stop quite a number of times and just to take pictures. 🙂
it took us almost nine hours just to arrive at the resort prepared for us by rex. yes, nine hours. aside from the photo stops, we had other delays along the way:
- horrendous traffic jam from trinoma to nlex exit (oo, alam namin. ang lapit na nun… pero it took us almost an hour just to traverse that distance)
- lunch stop at petron station in nlex (gutom na kami so we stopped at the very first establishment we saw. dapat pala sa shell kami kasi mas malawak at mas maraming choices.)
- traffic at nlex (huh? nagkaka-traffic ba dun? wala eh, na-timing kami ng road maintenance works)
- “typhoon” somewhere in zambales (the visibiliy was so bad that i had to turn my fog lights on for the first time – not that it helped. 😆)
it was nighttime already when we arrived and we didn’t get to see the beach anymore so we just settled in our cottage. for dinner, cedrick and i went out to the nearby jollibee (wala eh. no choice. :-D) for takeout. nakakatuwa nga mga tao sa drive thru kasi they were so enthusiastic… not sure so sure why though. hehe
after dinner eh bagsak na ako and slept early. pero si cedrick eh nagpuyat kakanood ng tv… palibhasa d napagod mag-drive. 😀
early morning the next day, selle and wengi decided to checkout the beach. 🙂
afterwards, we prepared ourselves so that we can go and visit the famed potipot island. after breakfast, we took the very, very short boat ride to potipot.
potipot island is like a deserted island (wait a minute… it is a deserted island. 🙂). very small yet extremely beautiful. we didn’t have much time to stay so inikot lang namin island at nag-picture-picture.
we then hurried back to mainland and went to trinidad bay resort to prepare for the wedding.
at the resort we were greeted by the very hands-on groom, rex… who was both nervous and excited at the same time. (don’t worry, rex, we understand… we’ve been there. :-)). rex had his preparations at the same room as ours so we had “backstage” access to this wedding. a few shoots here and there and then we were off to the church… with the groom. (btw, muntik na maging instant bridal car yung aming focus… but that’s another story. :-)).
at the church, we saw the other guests:
- karl and leah who made the trip in a short time of 5 hours (speedy. :-)).
- ferdi, joel and roju who went through their very own amazing race experience jumping from one public transportation to another (talk about passing the test of friendship w/ flying colors :-)).
then the wedding began. after taking shots of the guys from the entourage, i ran out of the church to take a shot of imee. i was pleasantly surprised when imee saw me and said, “hi dyoks!” surprised because i only saw her once and, according to rex, that was their first “date” pa. makes me wonder kung anu-anong pinag-kwe-kwento ni rex kay imee about me. 🙂
anyway, rex and imee were very candid throughout the wedding ceremonies. that’s very nice because it’s just so natural. you could really see and feel their love for each other… as can be seen in the pictures below. 🙂
at the tail-end of the wedding, it was very humid and i noticed that it was getting dark outside. i was thinking, “no, no, no… pls don’t let it rain.” when we left the church going to the reception venue, rain fell… and it fell real hard. we felt really, really bad. outdoor kasi yung reception eh. sobrang lakas ng ulan that we couldn’t get out of our car to get to the reception. we waited a while for it to die down. eventually, humina din ulan (no, it did not stop) so we finally were able to get in. seeing the tables all wet crushed our hearts. this was a time that the newlyweds really needed us… so we had to stay.
and the guests must really love the couple as most did stay. so what if it rained? the reception program was extremely fun… and i was busy taking pictures. 🙂
btw, vena and neriz arrived at the reception… just fresh from vigan… and got somewhat lost in the process of going to the wedding (that’s yet another long story. :-D).
with the program about to end… even if we really, really wanted to stay pa (kahit overnight pa)… we couldn’t. si cedrick kasi – the best man – had to go to work the following day. so we had no choice. nalungkot nga kami noong nagpaalam kami eh. but we vowed to make it up to the couple (especially to imee).
we arrived home at around 4 in the morning. 700+ kilometers were logged by our focus during the whole trip. would we do it all over again? for friends, heck, yeah. 🙂
congratulations, rex and imee. lovely, lovely, lovely wedding…
checkout the official wedding photographer’s photos here.
selleANDdyoks 