Wedding Ceremony

[Onemore52]

My partner and me received a wedding invitation yesterday for a wedding tomorrow, nothing unusual about that except the invitation asks for no presents but Money.

I guess the days of giving a set of steak knives or a vertical grill are a thing of the past.

And as usual I will sit there like a shag on a rock, I wasn’t going to drink but what the hell.

[Mike J]

My wife and I have asked to be sponsors for nine weddings since we moved here in 2013.  We declined on one wedding because of covid and we had not yet been vaccinated.  Seems to be a bit of a status thing to have a Caucasian as a sponsor when you get married.  At most of the wedding I was the only foreigner present.  On three occasions I was asked, without previous warning, to speak and give "advice and council" to the newlyweds. 

[OnMyWay]

2 hours ago, Onemore52 said:

My partner and me received a wedding invitation yesterday for a wedding tomorrow, nothing unusual about that except the invitation asks for no presents but Money.

You may not know it yet, but you are a sponsor!  

[Gator]

1 hour ago, Mike J said:

On three occasions I was asked, without previous warning, to speak and give "advice and council" to the newlyweds. 

Stay single 🤣

[Jollygoodfellow]

5 hours ago, Onemore52 said:

nothing unusual about that except the invitation asks for no presents but Money.

Don't you pin money on the bride or something or is that another culture? 

[manofthecoldland]

3 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

You may not know it yet, but you are a sponsor!  

For the uninitiated..... When you agree to be a baptismal or wedding sponsor, and do so.....  you join a sort of Philippine cultural version of 'the Borg'.... a collective, of sorts, with traditional ties and sometimes semi-obligations, or at least the right to appeal for assistance at times. 

Your Pinay wife, in particular, now is a co-madre to the other sponsors. She has just expanded her social network. Sometimes nothing much comes of it, but other times in may lead her down social obligation roads. Not sure how voluntary all of this is, but my Pinay decided (as some do) long ago, to limit the number of sponsorship she requests she receives.

I'm sure that others, particularly any Filipinos or knowledgeable ex-pats on this site, may be able to add more on this, or perhaps tell tales of what the sponsorship ties may lead to.

Often when there is a need or problem to be solved, people here turn to family and then these other social connections to find solutions.

 

[Mike J]

8 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Don't you pin money on the bride or something or is that another culture? 

The bride and groom will do the first dance at the reception.  Guests will pin money to either the bride's or groom's clothing.  Unfortunately this is in addition to a wedding gift.  And if you are a sponsor you will be given an envelope for a "donation" to the happy couple.  Sponsors are also given an envelope at the wedding if done in a Catholic church.  Those funds go to the church.  So being a sponsor is more expensive than being a guest but you do get sit at the "special table" and get served first. 

[Old55]

Freebie, hid your comment not that I don't agree with you. Thanks for understanding. 

[Onemore52]

So reading the invitation again I was  reminded that I have to wear a colour of the groom’s colour choice, not a big deal BUT.

To be there at the designated time I asked my partner to be ready at half an hour before, now being ex military I am anal about being on time, comes with the military training I guess.

We were only ten minutes late at the cathedral, so I grabbed a park under a tree close to the entrance and in we went, after being asked to get some tissues I went back to the car and while I was closing the door a branch fell from the tree glancing me on the shoulder before landing on the bonnet of the car, I brushed it off and went back inside, no pain. Was this a sign as the last time I was in one of these places was fifty five years ago. Was it  a  reminder to buy a lottery ticket?

By some miracle the branch had disappeared when we came out, I am supposing that they don’t want legal action against them, seeing how poor they are if I was injured.

As usual at these things there is a lot of standing up, kneeling and sitting down but because of my knee replacements I just sat there with my legs outstretched, which didn’t go down well at all because the proceedings were stopped at one stage with the man in the funny costume pointing at the person sitting down and not following the rules, as my partner pointed to her knees and then to me.

The whole thing was organised with a choir and candles everywhere with the candles being constantly being relit as the fans kept blowing them out, quite a comedy show.

Then off to the reception where there was a person in charge of proceedings, the person was neither male or female, I get confused with this but it had a microphone in the hand and they started playing games with the sponsors being first up, luckily we were spared that privilege.

The music was and the person in charge of playing was so loud that it made my head throb, together with that ridiculously stupid canned laughter that I detest which is on the TV and radio. 
So I excused myself to my partner and left, and found a quiet bar where we go and asked the barman to turn all of the noise off.

My partner informed me later that I missed out on  great meal with seafood lechion and all the trimmings.

Serenity Now.

Apologies for a long post but.

Don’t know how much the whole thing cost but they came around with a pouch on a long stick for people to put money in, probably to pay me for the damage to my car.

[Old55]

Onemore, perfect description of every wedding I've attended in Philippines except mine.

I'm curious..... any Expats receive cash at their wedding?