Butch and Lelette's Silver Wedding Anniversary

by: Dada Javier

On December 5, my classmate, Lelette Monasterio & Butch celebrated their 25th Anniversary at the Rockwell Tent. It's a permanent tent but with real classy interiors. The ceilings were draped with white material that you feel like you're in one of those Arabian tents. The tent was air-conditioned, of course.

Lelette wore a beautiful silver spaghetti strapped long gown while Butch was in his dark suit. There were about 300 guests who attended. We were told it would be formal attire so luckily I had brought a long black skirt & had a cranberry colored lace top (from the Old Navy lang iyon, but it worked out OK naman). I just put my multi-colored pearl choker necklace & voila! Our classmates & some husbands had 2 tables. In lieu of gifts, guests were told to just make donations to their church. What a great gift idea for the church instead!

The ceremony started with Mass in the tent. The UP Singing Ambassadors sang several songs during Mass. The singers wore formal black and white native attire. It was more in the baro't saya for the ladies while the men wore the traditional Barong Tagalog. After Mass, a catered buffet style dinner followed. While we were having dinner, the UP singers serenaded us with beautiful Tagalog songs.

After dinner, it was time to dance with a live band that was flown in all the way from Cebu. The band's name was One in Him and the band members all wore white. They look so pure & actually play a lot of religious music in Cebu but at the Rockwell Tent they were a jazzy band. They played a lot of Brazilian & Bossa Nova music & lots of contemporary music, too.

Lelette & Butch also hired about a dozen DI's to dance with the ladies. Heto na naman ako dancing with 5 different young men in their twenties. Masaya na naman ako!!! The first one who danced with me was the DI that I hired for my birthday party. We just danced the night away!

My good friends, Primie & Leo Tan were there, too. Primie is the cousin of Lelette. Primie introduced me to her other cousin, a Kulasa awardee, too, who happens to be the wife of Senator Drillon. He was there, too.

We left at midnight but I heard the party went on until 2:30 am! Way to go!!!!

Seated from left: Les Osmena-Aguado, Guia del Rosario-Casas, Dess Allanigue-Madsen, Offie Angeles-Marino
Standing from left: Raffy Aguado, Ampy Lim, Vinchu Mantaring-Lapid, Dan Lapid, Butch Cabrera, Lelette Monasterio-Cabrera, Gigi Prats, Liz Monponbanua-Gomez, Dada Javier-Tan, Emi Villanueva-Padla, Temi Padla, and Lucas (Dess' son) Madsen