Thank you!

Dear all,

Thank you again for coming to our wedding. We hope you all had a great time. Many of you have traveled a great distance to be in Panama with us on this important day to share our joys and tears of love and no matter how many times we said it, we just can't thank you enough. My parents (and parents-in-law) have all told me many many times that this shows how much each of you care about us and what great friends you guys are. You have all been very important to us every stage of our lives and your support, love and friendship is what molded us into who we are today. 30+ flight/travel time is not something easy to endure and we never expected so many of you to be there given how busy each of you are and how difficult it was for you to take time off (3 full days in travel time!). I am so blessed to have all of you to be my great friends and to have you to be there with me as I walked down the aisle. For those of you who couldn't make it, we thank you as well for sending us your love and wishes, we regret not having you there but we were certainly thinking of you and wishing you were here with us. So again a big thank you, a big hug and a big kiss from both of us to all of you!

Second of all, I want to thank my new mom and dad. You have both worked so hard for this wedding and wow, I mean WOW, it was spectacular! I arrived in Panama only a week before everyone else did and already I could feel that the stress was unbearable and I can't imagine having to live through the planning and stress for the last six months. Mom and Dad went an extra mile to make sure all the little details were taken care of and that each of my guest would feel home as soon as they step on the soil of Panama. My participation in the wedding preparation was limited and short and yet I was able to show up at my wedding and have everything taken care of. I often joked that I was the groom in this wedding since I didn't need to do anything but the reality was, I was so busy with work last year I counldn't have done anything even if I was asked to. Even up until 2 weeks before wedding, I was still so tied up with my job change and my parents-in-law have so understandingly taken of the duty and responsibilities. Unlike many other girls, I never grew up dreaming about my ideal wedding but what you planned and delivered was so much more than what I have expected and dreamt for. When I walked in to the reception and the fireworks went off, I was so much in shock and couldn't believe what I was seeing. Fireworks! A surprise gift from Mom and Dad (and I can't even think about it without tearing my eyes). Thank you for taking me into your loving family!

Lastly, I want to thank Jaime, who's put up with me (and Linda) all these years (4 years and 8 months and counting!) and particularly the last 3 months when I was going through the toughest the decision with my job. He had left Hong Kong right after Xmas to be in Panama to take care of the wedding planning. Every time he called me, something had always gone wrong and our conversation would always ended with me screaming at him. He was alwasy so patiently waiting for me to calm down and never once lost his temper. Being the proud me, I was always reluctant to admit that I was wrong but he always found ways to calm me down, even though he was thousands of miles away. During the last three weeks, he barely slept, taking care of every single little details of the wedding and occasionally taking care of psycho Linda or freaking out JoJo. I was so touched and moved and was ever more convinced of why this is the guy I should marry. Thank you Jaime, for accepting all the little and big faults of me, for sharing with me a loving family and for adoring and spoiling me the way you do.

--Joyce