"yes, your honor"

November 23 was a normal day - the sun was out, traffic was bad, and the Philippine legal system was at its slowest. I was with my parents, and Aldo was with his, as we met at the parking lot of the Makati City Hall at 8am... only to be told that our little ceremony had to be moved to 10am because the judge had a few matters to take care of.

Instead of melting in the heat while waiting for 10am, our parents decided to have breakfast at the Mandarin Oriental's Paseo Uno... what would have been our small civil wedding celebration was 3 hours early.. but that was definitely THE best way to start a special day! Although a bit pricey, everything in the buffet line was yummy. Paseo Uno wasn't a full house as well, so it was pretty cozy despited the fact that our schedule was going haywire. During breakfast, my future MIL pulled out a gift - a set of earrings that once belonged to her and a jewelry pot. I was touched and surprised that she had a gift for me, and a lovely one at that.

On the way back to the munisipyo, our moms had ample time to recap pamanhikan details (pamanhikan was scheduled the following day) and even talk about what dress they would wear to the wedding. After going through a maze of photocopiers, stacked papers, and weaving through people in the building, we finally reached the judge's sala. Being in the sala with Aldo and our parents felt surreal - probably a mix of relief that this was indeed happening, and of being nervous at jumping to the next step upon signing the marriage contract.

Aldo and I were asked to sit together on the pew with a Bible, closest to the judge. A few minutes later, a bunch of papers were brought to us for signing, which we did. Our moms happily played photographer and videographer, since we had to have wedding photos for our sponsorship application. A few heartbeats later, the judge came out of her small room and started leafing through a folder where the marriage rites were written. Before we knew it, we were asked to swear on the Bible and were reciting what I now call legal vows... using our full names - that's why I was stifling my giggles. To top it off, instead of "I do"s, we exchanged "Yes your honor"s. After several "yes your honor"s, we were pronounced "legally bound to each other", and were asked by the relatively cool judge to kiss... after which she said "yun lang?".

In hindsight, saying our vows (albeit using our whole names) to each other was a goosebump moment. It wasn't one of those dreamy fairy tale moments, but rather a real defining occasion that caps our long list of real moments - like when Aldo told me he was moving, crying together over the phone when something goes wrong, and being in that final hug before one of us enters the Passengers Only area in the airport.

That day, there were no flowers, no dreamy white gown, no flowergirls, and no choir or string quartet... but it will always be special because it was the day we took a big step towards being together, and shared it with the people who have literally been with us through our challenges.