THE dinner

July 17, 2010 - Saturday.

 

To say that I was nervous about this day would be a gross understatement.  After Mr. J and I got engaged exactly one week before July 17, we already discussed that we need to have THE dinner with both set of parents - pronto.  For all the 9 years (and counting) that we have been together, our parents have never met each other thus the need for this dinner.  In Filipino tradition, we call THE dinner by another name.. pamamanhikan. 

 

Had we stuck with tradition, this dinner would be done on our house with Mr. J’s family coming over with them bringing a gift (usually, food).  Had we stuck with tradition, the number of guests could easily have matched that of a family reunion because sometimes both families would like to have the whole family join the pamamanhikan.  When I say whole family that would mean to include the relatives as well.  Had we stuck with tradition, I probably would have been sent to the emergency room due to stress-induced gastritis attach (haha).  Thankfully, Mr. J and I have the same mindset when it comes to our wedding: we will make our own rules.

 

Rule #1 –  Create our own tradition. (highly recommended to do as this is very liberating)

 

And so on the night we got engaged, we already agreed that the next weekend (July 17) would be THE dinner.  For a few days, we looked for a restaurant where the ambience would be laid-back and the food would be impeccable.  In the posh Greenbelt 5 mall, we found our answer: Zuni.  We chose a restaurant since we wanted a neutral ground to hold the “event” and also because we only wanted to have the dinner with parents only.  Mr. J has 5 other siblings and I have 3 and I wasn’t too comfortable with the idea of that many people socializing all at once when I was already nervous (stressed enough) with the idea of our parents’ meeting.  My parents are very different from his parents and I was stressed (with many very imaginative scenarios playing in my mind of how this meeting will be) at how this might be awkward or <insert worst case scenario>. 

 

Thankfully, it was anticlimactic.  There were a lot of long conversations (but some awkward silence in between, but hey, at least they were talking).  They didn’t really bother Mr. J and me with any wedding detail since they said we were old enough to decide on our own and we’d be the ones paying anyway.  I got to eat really yummy food (roasted tenderloin and coffee crunch soufflé) and got to see the Louis Vuitton’s Trunks & Toys Exhibition (at Greenbelt 5, Manila from July 15 - August 5, 2010).  All in all, I’d say it was a pretty good day.

 

Phew!  Thank God it’s over.  Now, I can start stressing about the actual wedding.  *grins*