An Old-Fashioned Wedding

As she walked down the aisle of the Santuario de San Antonio, the bride, Lia Padilla, looked beautiful. So did her mother, Menchu Dayrit Padilla, widow of Luis Guerrero Padilla.

Lia’s wedding gown was the epitome of elegant simplicity; fully aware of Lia’s simple taste Boysie Villavicencio meticulously reflected it in his design.

The sponsors, likewise simply attired in keeping with the times, were Senate President Franklin Drilon, Dr. Ludivino de Guzman, Nonon Padilla, David Jilensky, Danny Arrieta, Vince Soco (Toto Cruz proxied for him), Cecile Cruz, Lourdes Cruz, Josie Padilla Rufino, Mila Reyes and the bride’s sisters Rita Dayrit Camacho and Tess Dayrit Villaruz.

Monsignor Teodoro Bacani’s deeply meaningful homily was complemented by the exquisite singing of the internationally-acclaimed UP Singing Ambassadors.

Inevitably guests at the reception which followed in the Manila Polo Club called to mind that it had taken Sunny Medalla, son of former Governor Peter and Jing Filart Medalla, ten years to win the heart of Lia. To begin with, the courtship lasted that long. Indeed, after he had met Lia, he knew she was the woman he would marry some day. Consequently, he patiently waited for her to finish her medical course at the UST. It was only when Lia had become a resident pediatrician at the Cardinal Santos Hospital that she agreed to exchange vows with Sunny.

At the same reception in the Manila Polo Club, Jose Gabriel "Joji" Cruz, an executive with the San Miguel Corporation, and lawyer Miguel Solis, both Sunny’s high school chums at the Ateneo (Class 1990), reminisced to the amusement of their listeners, over the boyish pranks they did along with Sunny, now an executive of Ford Philippines. The two former classmates then disclosed that after Sunny had met Lia 13 years ago, he told them he was convinced she would be his life-long partner.

What impressed the guests even more was Menchu’s expressed hope that the newly-weds would keep their vows as faithfully as her own parents–Dr. Aurelio Dayrit and the former Imelda Katigbak–did. When Dr. Dayrit passed away in 1998, he had been married to his wife for 63 years!

Menchu now hopes that Lia and Sunny will give her at least one apo who will become a pianist. Why? Menchu’s own mother, Doña Imelda, was one of the first piano graduates of Sr. Baptista Battig, and was the first to hold graduation recital for a Teacher’s Diploma at St. Cecilia’s Hall, with Oscar C. Yatco conducting the orchestra.

For her own part, Menchu–recently appointed Commissioner for the Culture Committee of the UNESCO National Commission–obtained her Bachelor of Music degree some 40 years later, giving her graduation recital at St. Cecilia’s Hall likewise.