SIGNED WITH LOVE

By: Misty Granil

Hats on, capes up, all beaming with smiles --- but newly graduates not only don those on their special day, they also have their hopes high for the new chapters in their lives.

However, the luck of landing a job right away might come a bit slow for others. Like Jelyn, a BS Nursing graduate from the Arellano University Manila who was waiting for her board exam results, decided to get any healthcare related jobs for the meantime.

But Jelyn was unable to get any jobs for the past two months. Desperate, she submitted her resume to all companies. A day after, an IT Company called her and congratulated her for passing the exam six months ago.

Having little recollection when the exam occurred, she still entertained the invitation and upon meeting the recruitment HR, she found out that this was the IT Company that visited their school to conduct an exam for the Computer Science graduating students. Unfortunately, the ComSci students were on a field trip at that time and any students seen by the Guidance Counselor in the school lobby were requested to take the exam. All of her friends were given an offer to be a software engineer but only Jelyn took the offer.

Meanwhile, on the southern part of the Philippines, Marine was also graduating but unlike Jelyn, he must have been born under the lucky stars for the same IT Company traveled to Mindanao to conduct a mass hiring. Together with his friends, they celebrated the joy of passing the exam and getting hired on the same day. After graduation, they decided to move to Manila to start their employment.

And on August 18, 2007 --- Jelyn and Marine both signed their contracts, on the same building and on the same floor. Destiny might have played a little trick on them that day for their paths did not cross, not knowing that a love story of a lifetime was bound to happen on the days to come.

After two months of boot camp, the new hires including Jelyn and Marine were relocated to the Mandaluyong office while waiting for project deployment. Marine would often visit his friends located on the other side of their production floor and saw Jelyn one day; sitting alone taking an online training.

A simple, cute, quiet girl with a long and beautiful black hair caught his eyes. From that day on, Marine never failed to visit his friends during break time to have a glimpse of heaven. “I tried make eye contact with her on several occasions, but too bad it was as if I did not exist. She was aloof and didn't want to initiate a conversation.” recalled Marine.

After some time, Marine was assigned in a project which he had to be relocated to another floor. “I didn't have any news of her since then. I just focused on my work and joined different company clubs and activities. Then one evening, my friend, who was also my housemate, asked to save their pictures in my hard drive. Then, I saw her in one of the photos.” Said Marine. He also shared that he was surprised by the photo but tried to hide his reaction “Oy, kasama ninyo pala siya, sino na nga ba siya?” and his friend responded, “Ah si Jelyn, bakit? Oy huwag na yan. May manliligaw na yan.”

Knowing that Jelyn is being pursued by another admirer, Marine accepted the fact that he had no chance to be with her. Then on June 12, 2009, Marine joined the “Freedom Climb” in Tarak Ridge, Mariveles, Bataan and to his surprise, Jelyn was an attendee too. I found out that she was an outdoor enthusiastic. “Great!", I said to myself, “now I can have a chance to talk to her.” But before I was able to make a move, an embarrassing moment happened. The pineapple juice I was drinking the night before was spilled on my pants. It left a yellow stain. One of my friends pointed it out in front of the whole group. They thought that I peed on my pants while I was sleeping. Everyone was laughing, including Jelyn which made me feel so embarrassed.

After a year, Marine and Jelyn became friends by being members of the North face Trail Run in Nuvali Laguna. However, despite the possibility of being together in their activities, Marine seemed to not have the side of cupid for his intentions for Jelyn was turned thrice. But with a person who’s willing to prove his love, Marine won’t budge. “I waited until she was ready for a relationship. One time after our dragon boat practice, I went with Jelyn to Quiapo church. It was my first time there and I prayed, Lord, kung siya na yung nakalaan para sa akin, ibigay Mo na po siya sa akin ngayon. Bigyan Mo po ako ng courage na maipakita at ma-express ang pagmamahal sa kanya.” Marine recalled.

 Jelyn later shared Marine her prayer, “Lord, alam ko ako ang pinagpe-pray nitong katabi ko. Lord naman pag-isipan Ninyo naman po ng mabuti! Ang nais ko yung totoo at hindi po ako sasaktan, walang perpekto pero… Lord pag-isipan Ninyo po talaga.  Pero kung ito po ang will ninyo, wala po ako magagawa at magtitiwala po ako sa Inyo.”

 The after the mass, Jelyn jokingly asked Marine, “Ako pinagdasal mo no? Kumakain ka ba ng street food? Tara treat kita!” Marine then knew that she’s the one and he promised himself to protect her all his life. “God has his plans and He is just preparing us to meet our one true love. Having faith is the key!” Marine said.

The Proposal

The most intense day for Marine happened after three years of being in a long- distance relationship with Jelyn since he worked in Malaysia and Singapore.

On September 3, 2013, their 3rd anniversary became extra special, “Marine had lot of surprises for me. I received a bouquet of red roses in advance. On the morning of September 05, he surprised me with a cake. He even requested my co-worker to surprise me with another cake in the office. I called him and joked that he might be proposing. That was a pure joke and I had no idea that it will come true. I mentioned to him that a few days back I dreamt of him with a ring for me. He dismissed it said, guni-guni mo lang yan bhe. I was elated to know that he really bought a ring and that he bought it on the day that I dreamt about it!”

During the course of their relationship, it is common for Marine to create surprises. “He would always leave a gift or card in the place that I least expect them to be. When I came home that night, one of the condo guards greeted me a “Happy Birthday”. The other guard tapped him on the shoulder and said it was a surprise. I smiled. I knew right then Marine that prepared something for our anniversary. Whatever that was, it made the guards think that it was my birthday. When I entered the unit, there were pictures on the wall arranged to read as 3rd Anniversary - pictures of our climbs, marathon and dragon boat competitions. There were red paper flowers hanging on the ceiling. Rose petals on the dining table and floor. He even lit my favorite scented candle and cooked my favorite food. Marine went in and came back with a bouquet of red roses. I loved it and I hugged him tightly. I noticed there was a camera set up at the corner. He told me that he wanted to record that moment. I also noticed the blinds and asked him why they were closed. He didn’t respond. Instead, he prepared food for me. So I opened the blinds, and voila, the “Will you Marry Me?” was revealed. I turned to face him. I saw him with another cake on his hand. It read “Would you be my Mrs. Hot?” with the ring on it. I didn’t respond, but instead, I stared at him. I was processing the situation and asked myself ‘Is this really happening or this is a joke?’. After a few minutes, it all sank in. I cried and finally said “YES!” He put the ring on my finger. “Wow, kasyang kasya, para sa iyo talaga iyan mahal!”, he said. My heart pounded so hard that I can even hear it when I hugged him again. I wished that moment wouldn’t end, having that feeling of being so in love.” Jelyn recalled the fantastic feeling she had with all of Marine’s tricks under his sleeves.

Capping off the momentous event was when their friends came out the rooms they were hiding in and congratulated the newly engaged couple.

The Preparation

When asked how did the couple came up with their wedding motif, Jelyn answered, “Marine and I were engaged for 5 years and every time we discussed about the wedding, a lot of different ideas came to our mind. When we both reached 30, ideas of having a grand celebration were replaced with just having a simple and intimate wedding. I guess you could say that it is one of the perks of getting old -- you learn the value of money and how to spend it wisely.”

The ocean blue motifs was chosen to be the color of their big day because aside from it was closely resemble to beach theme reception, it’s close to Marine’s favorite color. “We decided to combine the countryside (rustic) and beach theme - a simple, unique, and unforgettable design. To achieve it, we should carefully select our event stylist.” Jelyn added.

As part of the tradition, the church ceremony took place in the bride’s hometown; Mariveles, Bataan where the Our Lady of Fatima Chaplaincy, a round-shaped chapel on the mountain, was located. “We admired the structure of this chapel and how peaceful and beautiful the place is. The serene place and view of the mountain, the century-old trees scattered around the church and the cool-breeze, were the perfect combos for an amazing church wedding.”

The reception was held at the Camaya Coast Beach Resort because the couple’s main goal was to also have their guests attend the wedding and have some sort of vacation at the same time.

Despite spending a lot of time researching during the preparation stage, it turned out awesome in the end especially with the help of Eventist Manila, “Since Marine is in Singapore and I’m on graveyard shift, the excel tracker served as our agenda during our video calls when we were discussing the wedding preparations. We set priorities to each task and identified target completion dates. We also discussed the risks and, of course, the budget. And the detailed list provided by Eventist Manila (our wedding coordinator) was helpful. This tracker and the list were most especially helpful to Marine when at one point I lost interest in the wedding preparations.”