Jay & Theresa's Wedding (The Ceremony)

Two of the closest cousins I have are siblings Theresa and Mhai. When I quit college in 1999 (I went back in 2001, if you wanna know), I lived for one year in La Union and although they were still high school at that time (Tere's 3rd Year, Mhai's 1st Year), I became real close to them - sharing things about crushes, dreams, and life.

When Tere left the country to live in England to pursue further studies, our communication stopped, but thanks to Facebook, we found a way to communicate again. There are many negative things about Facebook, I know, but I do agree that it became a very powerful tool to bridge people again - including Tere and Jay.

They were classmates in elementary, but after sixth grade, Jay and his family migrated to Canada. It was through Facebook that they found each other, rekindled the friendship and started their love story. I don't know the full story of it, but with her living in England, and him living in Canada, they found a way to make a long distance love story work. Last quarter of 2012, they announced their engagement and set the wedding day on the 26th of January here in the Philippines.


The ceremony was solemn, attended only by close friends and family. The wedding took place in St. John the Baptist Church in San Juan, La Union where both of them hailed from. We nearly missed Theresa walking down the aisle as there were miscommunications with the time (invitation said it will be at 10:30am, but we received a call that it was moved to 11am because there was a funeral service in the morning and they had to wait before they could decorate the church). The ceremony itself was short and sweet, but I did wonder why the priest didn't do a homily after the gospel. Anyway, I was wearing a pair of high heeled shoes so I couldn't roam around to take pictures, but I was able to find a good spot to capture images from afar without intruding the official photographers for the event.



My cousin and I haven't really got to the part of talking about relationships, but I know for sure how much they mean for each other. Long distance relationship was difficult, but they made it work. Of course it also meant sacrifices, and Theresa decided not to go back to England... she will just process some documents so she can live in Canada, after all, Jay is now a Canadian citizen.


Wedding days are always magical... and aside from celebrating love, it was also a celebration of close family ties. When my sister and I arrived in La Union a day before the wedding, I was surprised to see our Uncle Danny, whom I haven't seen for twenty years. It's amazing how an event could gather people and strengthen relationships.

To Jay and Theresa, may you love and take care of each other. Congratulations and best wishes!




{Pictures from the reception will be posted tomorrow}