It's been 10 years, Baby!

Yesterday, hubby and I celebrated a milestone in our married life… we celebrated our 10^th year anniversary!  Woohoo!

It may be a surprise to many but now it can be said, we got married thru civil rites 17 months prior to our big church wedding. Why? Well, it was one of those juvenile yet life-altering decisions we made out on a whim. Hahaha! Thank God we didn’t make a mistake!

It was on December 10, 1999 at the Manila City Hall when we first said our vows in front of our friends and a family member.

These are the shallow yet very valid reasons (at least in my book) why we decided to get married then:

1. December 10 was our anniversary as boy friend/girl friend. I wanted our wedding anniversary to be the same. In 1999, that date fell on a Friday. A perfect day to be married. If we let that chance pass, we’d have to wait for another 5-6 years for the date to fall again on a weekend. That is just too long a wait for us! (of course I didn’t realize back then that we can actually get married on any day of our choosing)
2. It was our 7^th anniversary… lucky number!
3. I really believed in the saying: “When you’ve found the one you want to spend the rest of your life with, you’d want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible!”. (in fact, this line was included in our church wedding invites)

We also prepared for the special day. I wore a white dress and silver sandals. Hubby wore a white long-sleeved polo and dark gray pants. As witnesses, I had a good friend with me (she had to go on leave just for this!) and hubby had his brother and a friend along. They also dressed appropriately. =) The ceremony was officiated by a little man wearing barong (later we found out that he was a minister from a religious sect). After the ceremony, we all dined at the Max Restaurant nearby where hubby had a table reserved. It was definitely a special day for us!

To be honest, I really thought it was all a joke. Hahaha! I mean, the intention was there, but I really thought the whole ceremony was a hoax. Something to assure couples… to give them a sense of union without being bound legally.  It actually reminded me of the experience in the marriage booth we got married in during our high school foundation day….until a few years later and I was processing our application for our passports and I had to request for an NSO copy for our marriage contract. When the document arrived, I expected the date to be May 2001. Lo and behold: It showed December 10, 1999! What happened in that dingy little room at the Manila City Hall was actually binding and legal! Hahaha!

Anyway, it’s been a decade and there are no regrets! =)