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This site was chosen as a winner for the "Ultimate Wedding Website" award for the month of June by the Ultimate Internet Wedding Guide.
This site is featured on
the Philippine based Weddings@Work website. For more information on other Filipino
weddings around the world,
This Engaged
Couples Wedding Page Ring site Want to join the ring? Then click here.
Copyright © 1999
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A few short months later, the letters stopped, and Ninette’s last letter received no response.
Their reunion lasted 7 days, and a new promise was made…
With tears in her eyes and a smile on her face, she said, "Yes."
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Hi!
Welcome to the official site of the Aguinaldo-Villanueva wedding celebration. Our
celebration began April 17, 1999, and what a memorable day it was! We enjoyed every minute
of that wonderful day, and we are excited to share the events of the day with you. Since
there are literally hundreds of pictures and stories we'd like to share with you, we ask
that you bookmark and visit this site as often as possible for we are constantly adding
new items to it! So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the site...Ninette & Arnel.
The Honor Roll—this
was their connection when they were 9 years old. Ninette was always first, and Arnel was
close behind, but always second. It was at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Ewa Beach,
Hawaii that these two met as classmates in Sister Gavina’s fourth grade classroom in
1981. Arnel was the new kid at school, and he was smart—a threat to Ninette’s
first place status on the Honor Roll. But they became friends, not just classmates, and
their Moms became friends, too. And just like Moms do, they played matchmaker with their
children—but Ninette liked school too much, and Arnel liked breakdancing too much.
Boyfriend and girlfriend? No way! Fourth grade came and went, as well as fifth grade. At
the end of sixth grade in 1984, Arnel’s Dad got stationed in the Philippines, and the
Aguinaldo family moved away. Ninette was a dedicated pen pal, and she never let a friend
leave without a promise that he or she would keep in touch with her. Arnel promised to
write and kept that promise…
Time Warp—September
1993. Ninette and her family now lived in Washington. A longtime family friend, Belinda,
was getting married in San Diego, and Ninette’s mom was asked to be one of her
sponsors in the wedding. The Villanuevas prepared for the week-long trip, excited to see
old friends from Florida who had relocated to San Diego in the late 70’s. Ninette was
excited to see Lizza, a classmate who attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help in 7th
and 8th grade with her, with whom she kept in touch over the years after
Lizza’s family moved to California. A few days before the Villanuevas made the trip
south, the girls made plans to see each other. Ninette was extra excited because Lizza
told her that she knows "an old classmate from grade school" and that they could
have a little reunion. His name wasn’t supposed to be revealed until Ninette got to
San Diego, but she got impatient and made Lizza tell her: Arnel Aguinaldo. Thoughts buzzed
through Ninette’s mind—"What does he look like now? Is he still chubby?
What does he do?" She just had to call him. They were only able to exchange messages
with each other’s answering machines. And then Ninette and her family were on a
flight to San Diego…
Frequent Flyers—this is what Ninette and Arnel
became as their relationship grew. She went to San Diego almost every other month, and he
flew to Seattle whenever he racked up some vacation time. It was August 1996 when
Ninette’s friend, Janice, got married, and Arnel made the trip to Washington to
attend—and to bring Ninette’s belated birthday present. The day after the
wedding, they went to Salty’s on Alki Beach for dinner. Ninette didn’t realize
just how hungry Arnel was—he practically inhaled his meal without even stopping. It
was time for him to give her her birthday present—it was in a giftbag that he
wouldn’t let her touch the whole evening. She suspected that they were new Nike
shoes, and she was right. He made her try them on—she tried on the right side.
"It fits…thank you!" He made her try on the other shoe "just to make
sure they both fit." Puzzled, she slipped the shoe on her foot under the dinner table
and assured him that it fit, too. "Why don’t you TIE it?" Arnel said
suspiciously. At this point, Ninette wondered why Arnel was being so weird about the
shoes. So she lifted her left foot to tie it, and a gold sparkle from the shoelace caught
her eye. She thought, "Cool, he got me a ring, too!" Then she spotted the
diamond and knew exactly what came next—Arnel knelt before her with the shoe in his
hands and said, "Will you be mine?"
Fate brought them
together as grade school friends. And it brought them back together to fall in love.
Seventeen years after they met for the first time, Ninette and Arnel are together again,
but with a different bond and a different promise—to love and be true to one another
as husband and wife.