November 19, 2010

The Finalists of the Metrophoto Wedding Giveaway

After about a hundred entries, and a bit of a delay, the painstaking task of sorting such inspiring stories and narrowing them down to the finalists is finally over.

It was a bit overwhelming to read such many stories especially given that I don’t read that much anymore. It actually felt like I read all the volumes of Harry Potter again – seemingly endless but very engaging nonetheless.

Initial elimination was pretty easy. There were entries that sort-of bribed us and some that were blatantly plagiarized. And then there were quite a lot that didn’t qualify also because Metrophoto is already booked on their wedding day.

The final picks were given thought and had gone through some discussion with the Metrophoto Team and a set of highly distinguished judges that consisted of Madge Lejano, Jason Magbanua, and Ernest Pascual – it was our version of Paula, Randy, and Simon. hahaha =)

In the end, we increased the finalists from three couples to five to provide a wider spectrum of the stories plus it was really hard to just choose three.

So help us choose the winning couple by commenting and voting on this post (you can also retweet by pressing the green button to your left). Please make sure you leave your name when you comment. =)

The winner will be announced on November 30, 2010 =)

1. Pipo and Chaz

Dear Metrophoto,

It all started with a call. A “call” from God that is.

They met 2 years ago when God called Chaz to serve Him fulltime as a lay missionary for Kids For Christ (KFC). And at the same time, God called Pipo to come back to mission work for Singles For Christ (SFC) and be assigned in Manila. Both hesitant but obedient to the voice only their hearts recognize.

Pipo noticed and got interested with Chaz’s bubbly character and captivating charm. He spoke to God about Chaz often. When he was certain that she was the one he was to get to know better, he made bold moves to court her.

Chaz on the other hand, enjoyed discovering more about herself and loved the adventures of serving God takes her. She didn’t take any notice and was actually annoyed by his audacious moves. He sought the advice, support and prayers of the people around them. After 5 out of town conferences, then both of them heading a 13-week Christian Life Program, twice a week prayer meetings, seeing each other at the office everyday (10months after), Pipo got his most awaited answer on the 18th of December 2009.

Pipo proposed 5 months after. This happened in Chaz’s mom’s hometown- Iloilo. After organizing a conference for KFC in the Visayas, she decided to introduce him to her Lola who liked him right away. Chaz’s cousins arranged a day tour and a narration of their family’s heritage. A simple alfresco dinner was served at her cousin’s beach house. Pipo and Chaz’s cousins later orchestrated the surprise proposal at the beach by spelling out the words “WILL YOU MARRY ME?” with 250 candles in brown paper bags along the shore. Pipo took Chaz to the balcony overlooking the beach and knelt down on one knee.

This couple deserves to be blessed with your prize because…

1. We couldn’t think of anyone less than you guys to cover the start of their lives together

2. They are selfless individuals who have touched and inspired countless lives by sharing their love and their faithfulness to God

3. They have given up their careers to serve others

We will pray you pick them.


2. Rex and Maxie

Our Love Story

Schoolmates…..friends……lovers

How we met?

How we met and got to know each other…thanks to Friendster! :) Yes! It was through Friendster where he saw my picture and realized that we’re schoolmate during high school. He sent me a message in Friendster, that was November 2005. As friendly as I am and since we came from the same school where we treat each other as brothers and sisters, I did not hesitate to respond to his message and say Hi! Messaging turns into exchanging of numbers and meeting in person. We are both in the US on that time. He was petitioned by his father and I was seconded by my previous employer.

The first time I met him, I knew that he will be a big brother to me but I did not even thought that he is the ONE. I’m pretty new in the US that time and as usual for all people outside the Philippines, I’m very happy to make friends with all Filipino I came across. We became friends and I used to call him “kuya” (until now hehehe) since he’s older and that is how we show respect to everybody during our high school.

Since 2006, he has been persistent in courting me. From the start, I’ve been very true to myself and to him that I only want friendship…nothing less..nothing more. But he was so persistent, doesn’t mind the long drive every weekend at all. Super makulit! If you do not pick up the phone to answer his call, you will receive number of missed calls, text messages, voice messages and emails. And to top it all, sometimes, he will drive from his place to my place (about 90 miles away) without even assurance that he will see me. I didn’t know about it not until we became a couple.

It has been a long courtship….from 2006 to 2009. Yeah, we became formally boyfriend girlfriend on January 6, 2009. We were at the church that time because it was his birthday. He said I love you and I said I love you too! He was surprised by my response and requested me to say it again

I can’t remember when it started (I think in 2006) but he used to say I love you to me everyday…no skip. Since I’m not interested at all and I’m just seeing him as an older brother, I just normally responded “thank you”. So, when he heard I love you too, he was so surprised and of course super duper happy :)

1st Proposal
Five months after we became officially bf/gf, we went to East Coast (Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia) for vacation with my friend (Yusha). We were at the top of Empire State Building (tallest bldg in New York) one night, I realized that he was always trying to bring me to a spot with no other tourist behind us and I can’t understand why he’s doing it since we have a friend with us. And then he threw the question “Will you marry me?”. I didn’t expect it so I did not answer because I don’t know what to say. So I just smiled at him.

2nd Proposal
So it is his birthday again (January 6, 2010). We had bountiful lunch at home with his family. Then, we decided to stroll down in the mall because we are so full and would like to do some small shopping. In the shopping mall, he told me that he will go to the rest room for a while. Whew! he was gone for almost 30 minutes. I did not bother to ask where he went on that 30 minutes. By the way, we were in Stockton on that time and it was Sunday.

Then, time for him to take me back to San Jose since I have work on the next day. As usual, we’re just chit chatting for the whole time (1.5 hours drive from his place to my place). At my place, I told him that I just need to use the rest room to clean up before bedtime. As usual, I need to take out my contact lens so my eyesight is so blurry after I used the rest room. Addicted to facebook I am, after I cleaned up, I used the laptop right away and he was just staring at me. After FBing, I shut down the laptop and closed it and Viola! I saw a bible with rosary on top of it and the RING! Since I don’t have eyeglasses, I’m not really sure if what I’ve seen was true. So, I looked really close to it and I was correct. He knelt and asked the question again…and of course I said YES!.

3. Jem and Cheese

Who would have thought that long distance relationship with someone you met online won’t work? I did! I never believed in long distance relationship until I met my man. He was in California with his parents when my college friend, who happens to be his childhood friend, introduced him to me. Since the first day we met until today, we never missed a day without talking with each other. On February 24, 2008, we became officially each other’s “minE”. Few days before March 24 (our first month together), he called me up insisting that we change our anniversary date to 27. He said that 27 would be great since we were both born on the 27th. Finally, I gave in. On March 27, I was chatting with him when our office guard called me up to receive a package. It was a two dozens of red roses plus Ferrero (my favorite) from him! He ordered it online and have it delivered to my office. He then told me the real reason why he insisted on changing our anniversary, because there was no delivery on March 24 because it’s Holy Week and he really wanted to surprise me.

Two months later, he signed up for an unlimited call to the Philippines. He would call me up when he wakes up in the morning. Then he would talk with me while having shower, eating breakfast and driving to school. He would put down the phone once he reaches the doorstep of his classroom. He would also call me during their 15-minute break and lunch break. All the time he was not in school or at work he was talking with me. At night (my night and his night), we pray together thanking God for our blessings. We always asks him to guide us and help us overcome future challenges. Our love grew stronger every time we talk and share our experiences.

We had our first dates online. He would send me some pictures of flowers and bears. There was this one time when we bought Pringles and Rootbeer and watched the same movie as if we’re together. Most of the time we eat in front of our computers so that we feel that we’re together. There were days that we go strolling. He would tell me the places he’s been going and I would check how it looks like in Google Map. Sometimes, we spray each other’s perfume in our pillows just so we feel like we’re together. This made us feel so close yet so far.

On September 27 the same year, it was the night of my birthday when he called me up. My brother grabbed the phone and asked everybody to keep quiet so that they could listen to what he would say. Then he proposed to me, I was shocked to see my engagement ring on top of my birthday cake! They have planned it so well.

After almost a year of being together, he went home to finally meet me. We celebrated our first and second anniversary together. Until now, we are still in love with each other and will always be. We made HIM the center of our relationship and that is the most important thing in every relationship. Right now, we are already planning for our Wedding day. It will take more than a year before we could take pictures again together. So I believe that we deserve to have the best photographer to take pictures of our most memorable day TOGETHER!

4. Sylvan and Anna

I’m getting married to my ex-boyfriend’s best friend.

My name is Anna, and my fiancé is Sylvan. And yes, the third character in the story is Sylvan’s best friend, Wynn.

COLLEGE COUPLE

Flashback to 12 years ago, in college, when I met and dated Wynn: almost his whole high school barkada hung out at the same tambayan as mine. Meanwhile, Sylvan was studying at a different university, but since weekends were spent with the barkada, I still got to know him well. They were such a fun bunch that I grew really close to.

After a little over a year of being together (not to mention, a few days before Christmas), Wynn and I broke up. We had different priorities, and it just didn’t seem like things were going anywhere.

Though we weren’t exactly best buds, Wynn and I maintained our friendship. It was sort of inevitable, being in the same circle. My relationship with a few people in his barkada stayed very much intact as well – Sylvan was one of them. In fact, we even became much closer: watching movies, going out of town, etc.

THE REAL WORLD

The world continued to turn, and so did our individual lives. After graduation, we went into different fields: medicine, law, education, manufacturing, and so on. But almost every Friday at 6pm, we left those fields and met up with each other for some quality time.

Before you brand us as “cliquish”, I’ll move on to say that life unavoidably introduced us to many other people in our respective fields. Some of us came in and out of relationships, others stayed single. I met someone and was with him for F-I-V-E years. Sylvan did too, and not only was he with her for 3 years, he also planned to propose to her! I was even part of the planning team, going with Sylvan for ocular visits to possible proposal venues. Our
relationship was that platonic (or so I thought).

Everything was set, except the girl. Sylvan was a few days from proposing to his girlfriend, when she broke up with him. She wasn’t ready.

That same year, my boyfriend and I broke up too. Like some strange coincidence, everyone in the barkada became single. And since misery loves company, we found ourselves spending more time with each other again.

Sylvan’s line of work involved being out of the country for 2 months every quarter. In short, we were used to him being away and non-contactable, except via email and Multiply (yes, Facebook wasn’t the social network yet).

In one of those times when I thought he was still out of the country, my life was merrily moving along. It wasn’t until I got an email from Sylvan that I realized he was already back in Manila… and saying good-bye. He said he couldn’t be my friend anymore because he was back together with his ex-girlfriend, who didn’t think I was good influence (or something like that, in case she’s reading this ;p). I thought to myself, “WOW. How ‘grade school’!!!” More than feeling hurt, I was surprised at how disappointing his move was, which turned me off altogether – I didn’t waste time trying to fight for the so-called friendship.

One friend lost. That was that. Next chapter, please.

ALL SECRETS REVEALED

Yet again, life went on. Sylvan and I had no communication whatsoever. His name rarely came up whenever I met up with our common friends, even though they weren’t included in his “black list”.

A year had passed when one of our friends arranged a dinner get-together, which, as he repeatedly clarified with me, Sylvan was going to join too. “Fine with me, it’s water under the bridge,” I said. At that point, I couldn’t even remember the past year’s delete-me-as- friend logic any longer. For me, life’s too short to have senseless negative memories.

On the night we had dinner, I found out that Sylvan and the girl broke up for the Nth time. My eyes just rolled like saying, “I’ve heard this before.” And as if no drama ever happened, we were friends again. Sylvan and I started hanging out regularly (again). Sometimes, we’d go out with the rest of the barkada, sometimes just the two of us.

One time, Sylvan and I were having dinner. The evening was going normally: I was telling him about my fabulous day at work, and he was cheerily making side comments. Then he told me had something to tell me. I asked him what it was about, and after half an hour of fidgeting and hesitating to speak, he finally said, “Can I date you?”

My thought bubble read, “Wow, how high school!” (As you will notice, I like compartmentalizing situations according to life’s academic periods.J)

Sylvan explained to me that the reason why he had to “un-friend” me the previous year, was because his ex-girlfriend was able to read an email that he addressed to one of our good friends, saying that he had feelings for me. (See, this is why couples should not share each other’s passwords!)

I told him I needed time to digest everything and think. But given our history, the depth of our friendship, and every other ingredient for a good relationship, I only had to think of answers to one question: “Why not?”

Only one concern came to mind: Wynn.
It had been a decade since Wynn and I broke up, we had both been in relationships with other people, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the idea of me being with his best friend would bother him. I confronted Wynn about it and saw the sign when he answered, “I’d rather see you happy with my best friend than with anybody else!”

The following day, I told Sylvan that I was ready to give dating a shot. Needless to say, we eventually became an official couple and the rest is history. Next up is our wedding!

It’s funny how you see these things in the movies, but can’t imagine it happening in real life. We’re set to tie the knot in 2011, and I couldn’t ask for any better foundation than what Sylvan and I have. As Jeremy Irons puts it, “Love is friendship set on fire.”

Nothing excites me more than the fact that in a few months, I’ll be marrying the one who could’ve gotten away. And oh, Wynn will be our best man – his best friend’s wedding… is mine too.

5. Anonymous – Written by friend Genevieve Roces

Let’s begin with the girl….

There was this girl who was in her twenties working for a small company here in Manila. She was going about her usual business, relatively happy about her career and life in general. She’s the type who people think has a lot in life and although she does, knowing her well, it was nothing at all as much as everyone hyped it up to be. The problem though, with every relationship she had, which wasn’t a lot to begin with, she saw the end of the relationship even before it began. So, in other words, although she had feelings for her past and present boyfriends at that time, she always saw a deadline to it. It was always, “I love you too! (then secretly to herself “Goodbye (insert name of boyfriend) I think I can only stand to be with you for a maximum of 6 months”. And it was her cycle.

Not that any of the guys she dated were losers. Nope, not at all. They were nice guys, decent guys, they would become good friends of the group. So nice in fact that this girl’s family ended up liking her boyfriends so much that her mom for the longest time would complain and ask why her daughter broke up this time and if there’s any remedy at all to the relationship and how it can be fixed if it’s not too late. Etc, etc. etc.. I think you’d know the drill by now.

Unbeknownst to the mom though, she had no idea that her daughter was just so frustrated with all of it. That, she was seriously considering leaving the country just to get away from it all, and that she would only have the following options if she would choose to remain here in Manila: a) stay unmarried because anyway, both her parents have had all the relationships in the world it seems and has sort of a “free-for-all-attitude” and she has seen enough “relationships” in her lifetime. (Her parents has had an open marriage for the longest time), b) stay unmarried just for the sake of staying unmarried to prove a point (I always wondered what point that was which didn’t make any sense to me personally) c) marry someone whom she doesn’t really love that much just so that she’s not alone, and d) possibly marry a foreigner who has a completely different outlook in life and who she may see herself with more just because this foreigner could possibly be the one to accept her for who she is.

So there. These were the things going through her head at that time when she was working for this company.

Now, let’s go to the boy…

This boy was also in his twenties. He was also working, relatively content with his career, actually having been promoted at such a young age in his chosen field. Doing pretty well, climbing the corporate ladder, and getting quite a bit of attention from the ladies. His views on love really differ though from our girl. He took love seriously. He was type who liked to think of his girlfriend as possibly the one who he may end up with eventually. He was the type who made an effort with his girlfriend’s friends, family, and things that may be important to his girl.

So how did our boy and girl meet?

Well, so our boy had a girlfriend at that time and our girl was equally in a relationship. Our girl actually witnessed how this boy and this girl’s relationship blossomed because she was working at the same place that that girlfriend was. She never particularly cared at that time because she herself had a boyfriend. So, imagine this: girl’s boyfriend and officemate’s boyfriend would wait in the same place for their respective girlfriends – at the reception area. Sometimes our girl would come out first, or sometimes vice versa, but bottomline, our girl and our boy never paid much attention to each other. Or was it? It was later discovered that she thought he was conceited and he thought she was too high maintenance. However, being courteous as they both were, they would do the requisite “hi” and “hello” and leave it at that.

Mundane right? Well I thought so too. This is where I thought it got pretty interesting.

Turns out, our guy thought he would never get a girl like her because she seemed too much of a headache but admitted that she looked cute. End of story. But of course! He had his own girlfriend! But for the first time in all his years, a shadow of doubt was borne. And this is all because of some irritating, cute girl who really bothered him because he thought of himself as someone decent to even think of something like that.

For our girl though, at that time, she was confessing to me how isolating and lonely she was feeling- because of her parents, because of her responsibilities (she was putting her siblings to school) and because of that feeling that she would never find anyone for herself that she would truly, truly love. Because of this fact, she began to pray. She felt so lonely and alone that she was praying and asking God that if it is possible for her to meet the man of her dreams, if it was in His design to give her one. She told me that her prayer request was, that she didn’t need to have the man of her dreams be her boyfriend or be in a relationship with her at that moment, only that if it was possible for her to meet him. Just so that she would have something to look forward to maybe in the future. She actually only prayed for two things: 1) that she would meet the man she would marry someday just to get a glimpse of him and 2) that her future husband would have brown hair. Because she liked the man that she
would eventually marry to have brown hair.

When she told me this, I honestly believed that she had gone out of her mind. She was still one of my closest friends though, so no matter what she’d say, as her friend, I would always accept her.

Well, at little after our boy and girl meet, the company where our girl used to work for and where our boy’s girlfriend at that time used to work for decided to close down.

So, where does this story lead us? Our boy still in a relationship with his girlfriend and our girl also in her relationship with some nice boy but our boy and our girl have no more chance to meet.

Yes. The end….

No???

No.

Well, not exactly…let’s fast forward to seven years…

Seven years has passed, and both our boy and our girl are in their mid-thirties. Our boy and long left his girlfriend and so has our girl. But still, they weren’t together because they were never close to begin with. So, actually they didn’t get the chance to exchange any numbers to emails at that time…

It was just one fateful day when our boy and our girl decide to attend this concert. Not together mind you, but alone…both of them. Yeah, alone. In a concert, with at least a million people maybe? Yes I repeat, alone. Fun right? Glutton for punishment anyone?

So they meet again. Who’s to know? Boy is single, girl is single, and the rest they say, is history.

They are also getting married next year, but apart from this, I cannot give you readers anymore details. I was allowed to share this story on the premise that I will not reveal their true identities. That is my promise to them. Just believe that his story is true and that I am a witness. Guilty as charged. I suppose you figured out by now that our boy has brown hair right?

I love this story. It makes me believe that in this world, there are still stories that bring a smile to my face, the true stories that don’t have movie-like themes complete with ‘80s love song as back ground music. There almost is I think. Maybe if we just listen close enough.

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