Ten days from now, Benz & I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary.  October 26 - that’s THE date; hence 1026. Instead of a wedding monogram, we had a 1026 logo designed (we were major dumb-dumbs in Photoshop back in those days) and it became the unifying element for all our wedding details.  For us, it wasn’t the Rana-Co Nuptials or John & Benz’ wedding.  It was: “The 1026 Wedding!”  It sounds crazy now but that was our concept.  hahaha!

Fast forward to 10 years after…

We really didn’t have anything big planned to commemorate the special day.  For us — or for me at least — it will just be another regular wedding anniversary much like what we regularly had in the past.  But now I realize that it’s a milestone event unlike any of the past nine we’ve had so far.

Perhaps we were focused too much in planning WeddingsAtWork.com (W@W) own 10th anniversary celebration next year that I failed to realize sooner how big a deal our own wedding anniversary is to us. I bet most of you don’t know that W@W wouldn’t even be in existence if not for our own wedding and the attention it got at that time, which brought us our so called 15 minutes of fame.

We were ordinary soon-to-weds who didn’t know anybody in the wedding industry except for only the handful of suppliers we booked. But there were special little touches which made our wedding more memorable to us and our loved ones. Our friends and family were pleased with what we did.  But what we didn’t see coming was the impact it eventually had even on people we didn’t even know.  We never knew then that what we were would eventually get some media attention.  Suddenly and accidentally, we were thrusted into the limelight and that eventually inspired other soon-to-weds we barely knew to do the same for their own altar dates.  Some of those brides were among the first batch of what is now known as the W@Wies.

This countdown ’til next Sunday will be a time to revisit what happened 10 years back.  I honestly don’t know if I can stretch what I want to say in the coming days.  I wish we don’t come off as being too full of ourselves by dwelling on personal matters. I hope you would forgive me for allotting 10 precious blogging days talking about us and some wedding that happened a decade ago.  Like any other W@Wie, we’re proud of what we did to make our wedding special.

As an anniversary gift, I could buy Benz the LV bag she’s long been drooling about or perhaps the diamond ring she jokingly mentioned in passing yesterday.  But I’d rather give my wife something that money can’t buy. Something priceless. Call me a cheapskate if you will.  But this is the only way I know how.  Though she appreciates material things, I feel that my writing (with the typos, misspellings, grammatical errors and all!) have always had a bigger impact on her.  I guess it’s more heartfelt that way.

In closing, allow me to quote my wedding speech:  Back then, I told our guests that Bennette is the luckiest girl in the world.  I may have sounded conceited by saying that.  But I immediately clarified that I considered her the luckiest girl, for she married the luckiest guy in the world.

From that very day and now — 10 years hence –  I still am feeling very lucky for I’m the man she married.  Mimma, thanks to sticking out with me.

Happiness is being married to your best friend.