On our 3rd Month

On our 3rd month-sary.. Kinda cheesy, but heck, who cares?

This time we went to Figaro, and instead of pizza, we ordered pasta! and Coffee Jelly...  :)

Umm, yeah, it was this appetizing I didn't mind Tom taking my pic.

 

Note: This is a late post. Official month-sary is every 28th. lol!

New Bed?

Nie? I think we sort of need this... Maybe later?  :)

hehehe..  :)

Our Wedding Video Teaser!

For those who missed the update, here it is:



Thanks guys!

One Month After

About one month from the wedding day...

Here are our pictures while celebrating over a box of pizza and some iced tea...



Just wanted to post something... Not feeling really nice today...
Boohoo..

Whereever You Gig is, Thanks!

For sure, busy ang life nitong make-up artist ko...

But of course, as promised!!!!

Here's my post para naman malaman ng lahat kung sino ang may kagagawan! lol!

[click image to enlarge]



To contact Ronnie Matudan, just drop him a line or call him at these numbers:

0918-5188292 or 0923-2184096...

:) tenchu!

ps: dapat may referral fee nako nito eh.... :)

Before & After - Hair, Make-Up, Gowns and Flowers

At last... Our fateful day went past without glitches, although of course there were very few minor events that may have brought us to tears, anger, irritation and even laughter, still - everything was as it should be.

Speaking of....

Here are the before's and after's of some of the ideas we previously had compared to the actual thing:

1. The Rings.


2. The Wedding Gown.


3. The Bouquets.


4. The Flower Girl Dresses.


5. Mommy's Dress.


6. Hair.


I'll post other updates as I finish them... lol!

:D

The 3-day Countdown

Glancing at the countdown timer just a few lines below this post is a reminder of how many hours before I surrender my father's legacy - his last name. Although I would have wanted to keep it forever and make him proud of whatever it is that I have and will accomplish, I couldn't do anything to stop the alleged "big event".

So far within this week - this fast-paced, busy, irking, sweaty and nostalgic week, several things and mini-events have bothered, excited, blessed, and quaked my life for the time being:

1. We went to Chateau de Busay to take pictures to use during the ceremony practice, so nobody gets lost during the ceremony - including ourselves - it is our first time, you know. (I really would have wanted to post pictures, but the lack of connectivity is currently an issue.)
   
2. Several more invitations are being taken away from our hands going to several other people's hands, with the never-ending reminder of "Jehovah Jireh" {God our provider}. This almost always takes me to the brink of dark thoughts. Just don't ask me why and how.
3. At least 2 more people came to realize that responding to the "RSVP re-worded" note on our invitation is polite.
4. More people are being emotional over being invited verbally. They all want an invitation. If only they come cheap!
5. Lechon confirmations have come in.
6. "Red carpet" sponsorship set-up has been printed already. (Just think, what kind of wedding is this, really?!)
7. My maid of honor is flying in tomorrow early early morning.
8. Mom and dad are "floating" in on the 27th, early morning too.
9. The office has been a living hell for people on leave preparing for their wedding - like me - just because of an over-reacting person who wants "justice".
10. The office will be a living hell to those who wants to take a leave just to go away from the living hell it already is.
11. More people in the office will believe in hell after those meetings we were talking about over the phone a while ago.
12. Crap - I will contribute to making them believe in hell tomorrow - I'll take a time off from my leave meant for my wedding preparations just to attend the meetings we were talking about over the phone.
13. Crap again, because I really had to attend the meetings or else my two angels will be in hell during the meetings. Right, Matet and Maddy?
14. Jitters over matters that jitters are not needed for is currently coming up, and will probably continue coming up until the time every thing gets packed up after the entire reception thing.
15. Tom is practicing the wedding march with our good friend and musician-by-blood Dave Sibonga. {Dave! See you and I'm n ow confident over the march... lol!}

So that's it? Maybe I'll update more tomorrow when Timothy and Tom are, again, either fed up with playing counter strike or are busy with other things.

Mom, What are you Wearing?

The other day, I browsed thru the net and decided to look for a dress that Mommy can wear to the wedding, and we both liked this one:



Hopefully, her seamstress can get the exact thing... :)

Also, we got to see all the gowns last night, I also tried on my wedding dress - which shall be the buzz of all my sectarian friends and acquaintances because most of them believe that superstition that the bride should not try on her wedding dress except when she finally should wear it on the wedding day. Well, for the record - I don't believe that. POint driven, case closed.

And! I really, really loved it! The dress was really lovely... although there were some final touches that needed to be done, still, it was good to go.

And just an update, Matet has tried her gown on, and she decided to officially go on diet until the wedding.

;)

To my Dear Guests

This post has been revised.

To all my dear guests, please go ahead and read below:

1. Please read through all the details on your invitation.
2. Kindly SMS or in other words, text Sam (her number is also on the invitation) if you are coming to the wedding.
   
3. Text Sam also if you are NOT coming. This is the idea behind the acronym RSVP, répondez, s'il vous plaît, meaning "please respond". If RSVP is written on an invitation it means the invited guest must tell the host whether or not they plan to attend the party. It does not mean to respond only if you're coming, and it does not mean respond only if you're not coming (the expression "regrets only" is reserved for that instance). It means the host needs a definite head count for the planned event, and needs it by the date specified on the invitation. (quoted from The Meaning of RSVP.)
   
4. Praise God we did not choose to just write RSVP, or else no one might actually decide to text us either way. BTW, thanks to Atty. Fer and Don S. for the prompt confirmation! Thumbs up to you guys for not waiting for the deadline!
5. Do not wait for the deadline. Just inform us immediately so we can invite others who really wants to come in your place. And so that we can update our reservations for the reception as early as possible.
   
6. As many of you have read in my previous posts, we have two (2) kinds of invitation, a white one and a blue one. There are actual and rational reasons for those two, but just leave those to us. If you received the white one, well and good - it doesn't necessarily mean that you are special. If you received the blue one, still good - it also does not necessarily mean that you are special.
   
7. All are invited guests are important and special to us, so there's no need to fret over which invite you received. And can I personally ask a favor? Please just don't tell us to our face that you wanted the blue one if you received the white invite. It kinda irks sometimes and a bit hurting, hearing that you were invited (it's already something to be thankful for!), and you still wanted to choose which invitation you should have received because you "like" it better than the other. Please, it's getting ridiculously annoying.
   
8. As I said in the first item of this list, please read the details on the invitation. We can answer questions with absurdly obvious answers (which were actually in the invite if you could have just read it) at the moment we handed the invite to you, but please, if you could just stop asking the same question again and again every time we see each other, it will be such a big help and we'd truly appreciate it!
   
9. Again, RSVP!
   

Thank you for taking the time to read these, I just had to post it.
{It's driving me crazy. (^_^) }

The Rings

Yes, I have seen the rings already and would like to thank the Pulmones Family for their help. It almost looked like this, but so much nicer!
Note: They are also missionaries of our church, so if anyone also wants to support them, you can contact them directly or via Bible Baptist Church in Katipunan, Cebu City or thru me. :)


By the way, in the photo is DD, one of our cute flower girls, the bestfriend of EJ, who's shown in the next photo with her Kuya Tom.

The Pulmones Family

kinda pangag, but still cute! she's talking to Barbie, so hush!

Anyway, other preparations are still ongoing, plus we've already started giving out the invitations and so far, only 2 or 3 people has responded to the most coherent, understandable and simple RSVP note ever invented. I was just wondering, what's so difficult about it? they can even SMS their confirmation, just P1.00 and yet...

Oh well.

Cheers.

PS: Please help us pray for the loveliest weather that anyone can have for a garden wedding - not too sunny, not too windy, not humid, and certainly no drizzles nor rain!

Thanks!

:)

Preparing the Pouches

Sam suggested we use pouches instead of the packaging material itself - and we all knew she had the nicest of ideas ever.

And so here we are, fumbling with the pouches, trying to change the string from gold to the navy blue ribbons that we were supposed to use for the formal invitations.

This is Sam (at least half of her..)

This is the ramble of the pouches, strings, and ribbons.

and this is Tom (look at his expression - seems seriously busy, right?)

Multi-tasker Sam. Watching tv as we work.

this will be the finished product. :)

And oh, in case you missed the updates, here are the links to the RSVP page and the online gift registry (if you opt not to give us cash - lol!).

1. GIFT REGISTRY
2. RSVP
   

- -

Invite me, Ok?

Can someone be so imposing it irritates you?

Seems like one person directly assumed that he/she shall be invited and that he/she is allowed to bring a mandatory companion. How convenient. I haven't even finalized my decision to invite him/her!

Oh anyway, was so happy yesterday because we already have the formal invitations! And they are lovely lovely lovely...



All we need now are the RSVP cards. :)

Cramming... And sometimes, Work is a Burden

So far, so good...

At least that's what I think...

We're a bit busy cramming for the wedding preparations and what's a bit annoying is that the nearer the wedding date is, the more "office-related" things kind of appear out of nowhere and then voila! It already has a deadline and I'm told that I have been told about it before and that I'm the one slacking. Hmmm... Kinda fishy... But I'm too pumped up to care.

I'm more concerned about other things - like our health and our appearance when THE day comes. Darn it, we're so pre-occupied nowadays and we're becoming to super stingy that we imagine that we can't even afford one full hour of decent body massage. Not even a hot oil treatment! (But that's ok, I have such long hair that even a hot oil treatment would be so damn expensive! Ugh!)

So things to do for the next 2 days:

1. 2 reports from the office
2. 1 audit program/schedule
3. SOPs for my department
4. meetings, meetings, meetings

And for my wedding:

1. proof read the invitation from Paperworks (SM Cebu Branch)
2. contract for the invitation printing
3. purchase the frames (what the heck they're for? hahaha! it's a surprise!)
4. find me a makeup artist (I think I'm going for Bobbi Albert. Whatya think?)
5. follow-up the gowns
   
6. convince Tom to stop overthinking everything and to chill 'coz I think he's gonna break down sooner or later if he doesn't relax
7. Downsize my guestlist, and
8. Check my checklist!

That's pretty much it! Goodluck to me..... Oh crap...

Run Florist Run

Just joking....!

After having a blast testing out our food for the reception and also to sign the contract, we went directly to our church to talk to our pastor's wife for the pre-marriage counselling...

We even thought our appointment was cancelled because the signage said "closed".

Guess we were wrong.

It was a lovely session, with lots of valuable input. I thought we needed more time and more points to consider. Maybe we'll have it continued it Mrs. J had more time in her hands. What was a bit amusing was that I always thought she was a "small but terrible" type of person. Turns out she was just as normal as normal could be. And quite lovely too. Very pretty for a 74-year-old lady whose height cannot begin to represent her hugely timid, soft-spoken and yet impressive personality.

After the said "talk", we went to karbon to meet with our florist for the first time. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jun Cañete of http://juncanete.multiply.com. He promised to make my wedding "the bomb"! (So here's his photo...just in case.. lol!)


;)


ps: updated the mini-invite already..

Contract Signing for the Venue

Last Friday, we went to Chateau de Busay for our food tasting and contract signing. Victor, the owner/manager entertained us during the said event.

Here are some shots I took while we were trying to figure out where to put the platform for the ceremony:


There was something set-up already because they had a booking for a birthday. Lol!


Tom also took part in the "negotiations"...



And here's a shot at the delicious food! Promise! No biases, it was just yummy!


We later went to our florist...

:)

Mini-Invites

Hey ho... I have mini-invites.

I think you know what I mean for mini-invites... Because of the financial recession and everything, part of our budgeting plan was to print out mini-invites because this seems more cost effective and also maintains a certain level of "us" in it... Formal invitations seem to not embody the personality of the couple too much so we, well I, designed these mini-invites... (have to blur some parts because we haven't actually had them printed yet.

Lol.. excuse the watermark.

Updated pic:

:)

New Links Available

For everybody who receives an invite to our big day, please RSVP here:

RSVP Form

While for those beloved generous souls who are willing and will be giving us gifts, please go here (our gift registry online):

Gift Registry

Thanks everyone!

Food Tasting

Our contact person usually says "food testing".

We have scheduled our food tasting on July 3, that's Friday. We're in a bit of a rush, and so far, Tom has been cramming. I mean cramming. He's getting queasy and weird.

Anyway, so we've scheduled the food thing, we've also finalized, well sort of, the guest list, together with the entourage and the sponsors (yipee!). Think I'm going to add up some sections to this blog to accommodate guest RSVPs and the gift registry. I really don't think it's too late, do you?

Gtg. Have to contact Sam now. Ciao!

Invitations - again!

lol!

Guess, we really haven't decided yet...

Found a few more ideas from the net today:



Really at a loss... grrr!

Help!

Flowers, flowers and more Flowers

I wanted to cry.

Not because of the flowers, but because yesterday, I watched my aviator shades go under the tire of a taxi. Darn it! {yes, I did cry yesterday.. buhuhuhu!}

Anyway... Back to the topic - Flowers!

Went over to the church to meet up with Sam, our "wedding coordinator". She handed over the materials from the potential flower person (I mean the Florist). Good thing he has a website so I went over to it and took a peak at the photos he has posted.

Let me just say I had several thoughts popping out of my nutty brain so I went back to google some wedding bouquets that I, for the time being, enjoyed looking at...

I'm thinking I like this one for my bridesmaids:



And these, I think maybe I'll choose the most cost-effective and relatively unique and cool-looking bouquet from these:




But I'm leaning toward this one - might look great with my gown:



Wadja think?!

Need to Lose some Flabs!

Heck yeah. Definitely need to. For the gown. Ugh!

We went to Ade's yesterday (Ade's is the name of the boutique) to try out the lining of the gown. It was a very thin layer of cotton fabric, I think - but I might be wrong! - but it definitely has the main shape of the gown already.

Didn't take pictures, if you're looking for them because aside from the fact that I totally forgot, mercy me, I really don't think flaunting my flabby tummy in a sheer fabric will do me some good. Besides, I'd really love for the gown to be seen when it's finished already.

Anyway, we also decided which fabrics to use for the bridesmaids gowns and for our cute flower girls. So attention to my maid of honor and my obnoxious and kinda lazy bridesmaid, please get your measurements asap! Grrrh!

Hmmm.. By Saturday we might already have the final list of the entourage members and maybe final - and I mean final - design for our invitation. We're kinda leaning towards simplicity and cost effectiveness right now. God knows how that will look like.

BTW, got to go. Still in the office. ;)

Gown Lining Not Yet Ready!

Back in Cebu City since Saturday evening... Had a good flight and safe arrival. It's good to be back! I've missed my Tom and he's so excited I'm back - now he can have decent meals again... ;)

Anyway, I was told I was supposed to be fitting the gown lining (the inner fabric layer) of my gown this afternoon, but somehow, early this morning, Cheryl (the boutique owner) sent us an SMS asking if we could move it tomorrow afternoon. Another alibi was given, but Tom and I both think that it's because it's not done yet... No problem though. Quite alright. Lol!

So far, everything's fine.. Just have to finalize the members of the entourage, particularly the secondary sponsors so we can go ahead with our invitations - like 67 days to go?! Eeeek!

Got to go... :)

Barely 70+ days to the Big Day

Crap. It's soooo near!

Barely 75 or so more days and I'm finally be a missus. *Giddy*

Anyway, I'm in Davao City right now, in an unconnected business trip to audit one of our auditables. You raising your eyebrow yet? Lol!

Okay, without too much beating around the bush, here are some updates to my wedding preparations. We have chosen the shop that'll do my dress and all the lady entourage's dresses. And the boutique owner has also given us with a fabulous discount! Yey!

To refresh everybody, here's an image of my planned wedding dress:


Apologies, for I forgot to take a snap at the image we tore out of a magazine for the other ladies' dresses. But one thing's for sure, it's in midnight blue!

Hmm, for the guys, well they already have their Barongs on hand for quite a while already. No fuss. The kids, our cute little girls may be wearing this one, but in midnight blue linings also instead of the gray and red in the photo:


So far, we haven't met a snag - God forbid it! All our papers are on the way, the ceremony and reception venue just lack our final approvals and the contract of course. Flowers?

The flowers?! Oh my, got to contact my trusty ally, Sam, for that.
Got to go, I'm still in the office. Lol!

The Invitation Dry-Run

Tom printed out a sample of our invitation. The colors look good, but I just can't pinpoint what exactly it was that I was finding to be lacking.

Hmm, maybe the silver? I dunno. It looks a bit like a concert ticket though. It's a bit dressy casual - just the way we would have liked it, still, I'm looking for something I don't know. Maybe I'll look around the net for some inspiration.

I also have a homework, I should be drafting the initial guest list from my end of the table, I guess I'll do that after lunch.

Entourage, Wedding Souvenirs and Costumes

UPDATE!
Already put up the online gift registry, so for those interested - please let there be a lot of you! - just go to THIS LINK and take a look at the listings.

And yo my invited guests, the link to your online RSVP (meaning, reply if you will come, reply if you will NOT come) can be found here if you choose not to reply via SMS.

*thanks!

- - - - - (^_^) - - - - - - -

We have tried finalizing the list of the entourage but my excited Ate Jovi seems to love adding new names to the list. Hehe.

Spent a bit of time yesterday downloading possible designs for the gowns of my ladies (the guys already finished picking out the design of their costumes, what we lack right now are their sizes...) and showed them to Tom last night. Apparently he had some stroke of genius and so edited some of the colors and then this came up:


And oh, that's not black, that's midnight blue. We'll just have to look for the right boutique or something which can give us a bargain for these. We don't have a lot of funds, as you all know, so we basically have to scrimp on areas where we can.

Hmm, on other preparations, we're still canvassing for the best venue for the reception. By "best" we mean - relatively cheap, nice ambiance, delicious food, and clean surroundings. So far, what I know is we're targeting 100-120 persons for PhP 55,000 - PhP 60,000. I think that's just about justifiable, given that we'll try to negotiate out on some parts of the package that we won't avail of, right? Like the bridal car, souvenirs, etc...

And speaking of souvenirs and wedding favors... Tom's trying to talk me out of fussing over these souvenir thing, but I still fuss about it in my mind - silently at that. He doesn't want expensive ones and he also wants them to be ready - I mean retail and ready to go. I, on the other hand, want them really cheap but personalized. Darn. I mean, I wouldn't want my guests saying, "Ah, their souvenir? Umm, figurine. That one o... karbon..." ... Or something like, "Ah, a tiny candle..." Ugh! Call me a bit crazy, but I really don't want my guests thinking like this.

So here are ideas that, given I can find good suppliers, are really cheap:

1. a really tiny cutesy native handwoven basket, with nicely packaged flower seeds in it which our guests can plant themselves and watch grow, and revel on the nice flowers they may get afterward;
2. a cute test tube with incense sticks inside; and,
   
3. so far these are just it. Sorry.

So if any of you would like to help out in some way, you can leave a your ideas for the wedding favors which should be really really really cheap, but can be easily personalized, and basically are unique. By trading ideas, at least I'd know what my guests might like to receive, ayt?

Got to go, have to think about the online gift registry we're planning. Cheers!

Wedding Checklists & Wedding Gowns

Yesterday was my first day of the year in the office and what a surprise! Nothing. Haha.. (Just kidding)...

I was just so happy I have internet access again and so searched for checklists that I can download and use for the wedding preparations. So far the progress has been quite satisfying. And to help other bride-to-be's in their own wedding preps, I have uploaded my checklists and other templates, just as a teeny tiny help for you. The zip file contains the following:

1. Wedding Gift Tracker (excel);
   
2. Wedding Budget Tracker (excel);
   
3. Wedding Planner Notebook (for MS OneNote);
4. Wedding Planning Tracker (for MS Project); and
   
5. Wedding Day Emergency Kit list (for MS Word)
   

here's the link to the zip file:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/11/21/2194790/wedding%20preparation%20help.zip


I also thought I can suggest to Tom the flowers to be used, downloaded some pictures from the internet also, like these:



And also some possible gown designs... He liked the princess-ish look of the picture with the word "noble" on it. It looked good, but a bit too costume-y, wouldn't you say?




ps:
Last Tuesday we already signed the papers for a house somewhere down south, we also saw the model house and were convinced that we can have one like it.