Telling our story through a special song written for the groom

While preparing for our wedding reception, I was thinking of the best song to sing for my groom, Tyrone. I can’t seem to find the song with the perfect lyrics so I decided to write some lyrics for a song (although the melody wasn’t mine). It was my dream to write a song for my love and so I tried writing and telling our story through a song.

I chose the song Tagpuan by Moira and I didn’t re-write everything, I just altered some lyrics to tell our story through this song. This song is in Tagalog so in this blog I will be writing a mix of Tagalog and English. So here’s the song:

I’d like to tell you more about the song lyrics. The song goes:

‘Di, ‘di ko inakalang
Darating din sa akin
No’ng ako’y nanalangin kay Bathala
Naubusan ng “bakit”

Bakit ang weird ng nakikilala?
Bakit ‘di bumagay kahit konti?
Bakit ‘di maitama ang tadhana?

Before meeting Tyrone, I had probably met quite a handful of people that weren’t for me. They were just not “bagay” for me and at that time when I met him, I wasn’t looking. Di ko inakalang may darating sa akin noong panahong yun.

At nakita kita sa inyong laboratory
May kinang sa mata na ‘di maintindihan
Tumingin sa akin, kahit na ako’y gusgusin
At tumigil ang mundo
No’ng ako’y ituro mo
Ako ba ang panalangin mo?

We first met at work, in their laboratory. He was a chemist, and I was a chemical engineer. At that time, I was really “gusgusin” or very dirty because as a chemical engineer I just came from vessel inspection where we literally go inside engineering equipment and come out with black grease on our uniforms. Think of those little kids that play in the floor or wherever, I looked like that. My skin was also dark chocolate brown, darker than I am today, because I came from the beach, and was sun burnt. So, it was really not the perfect glow-up look for princesses meeting their prince charming, lol. I am definitely not a princess. In contrast, he looked very fresh, add to the fact that he had very white skin.

He was busy talking with his girl officemate at the time I entered the laboratory to deliver a sample (with a guy officemate). He immediately stood up when he saw me and entertained my needs. He was very friendly and he talked to me like he knew me. He said, “diba ikaw yung roommate ni….?” and I was thinking “Sino nga ba ‘to? Bakit parang kilala ko dapat siya?” and from then on I was curious about you. You made a very good, lasting first impression.

At hindi, ‘di mapaliwanag
Ang nangyari sa atin
Saksi ang yong mga kaibigan
Sa iyong panalangin
Pa’no biglang nagkaron ng first date?
Bakit biglang nag backout ang barkada?
Pa’no mo naitama ang tadhana?

And a series of unexplained events happened to us that you probably planned or hoped for. Your friends saw it all. We unexpectedly had a first date together! We started with dinner after Zumba, karaoke on your birthday and other occasions, often with a group of friends, and then suddenly, this one time, it was only the two of us. It was supposed to be a karaoke session hosted by him. I was almost overtime that day, I went home around 5:30pm (work ends 4:30pm), and I was excited because I knew there was karaoke! When I was changing clothes, my roommate said “Saan kayo punta?” and I said “Girl! Akala ko kasama ka??” I really thought it was a group having karaoke or dinner together. But oh well, it was me and him only. It was okay because I am comfortable with guy friends, I have brothers and a lot of guy friends. I go out with them but it’s not necessarily a date. But with him and me going out for dinner together, I felt that it was our first date. It was amazing because I felt it on that first date. I felt that he was the kind of guy I was willing to spend my life with. But at that time, I still have to verify (Hey, we’re engineers, we must verify our assumptions hahaha!)

No’ng nakita kita sa bus ng Bataan transit
May kinang sa mata na ‘di maintindihan
Tumingin kung saan ako’y merong upuan
At tumigil ang mundo
No’ng ako’y ituro mo

Another unexpected moment was when I saw him in Bataan transit while I was on the way home. He offered a seat next to me. Bataan to QC is a 3-hour ride so we talked a lot. He was supposed to go hiking the next day that’s why he was on his way to QC but there was a storm so I advised him to be careful and he decided that he will not push through. What’s interesting at that time was because my family was fetching me in SM North, I invited him to have dinner with us. He wasn’t courting me then (hindi pa siya nanliligaw) but I invited him because I wanted my family to know him as a friend (my family loves to meet our friends), and I kind of had an inkling (na baka manligaw siya, feeling pa lang, haha!). After that dinner, my brothers (who had good Spidey sense, my brothers know my crushes even if I did not tell them) asked if “nanliligaw ba siya sayo, Ate” and I think I said “hindi pa naman, hindi ko alam.”

At hindi ka lumayo
Minahal mo ang pamilya ko
At nagbago ang mundo
No’ng ako’y ‘pinagpaalam mo, oh

From then on he did not go away, he was consistent. Pinagpaalam niya ako sa parents ko, sa lola at mga pinsan ko habang nanliligaw. He even went to Lola’s house in Bicol, which is a rural town far away from his home in Legazpi, to ask for her permission. Lola was so excited that she thought “namamanhikan na ba” or that he was already asking for my hand in marriage at the time. We even visited our late Lolo’s grave.

He again asked for my parent’s permission and blessing when we were going to marry. I feel that he loves my family and I really love his family too! He brought me to his family home a lot of times and I felt so loved and accepted… I am very happy.