 Internet has been wonky and the days have been incredibly busy post the wedding. I haven't really sat down for supplier evaluations and I'm not really sure if I want to. For now I'll just do a rundown of the moments that touched us during the wedding. I'm sure I missed something. There's just too many and it all went by in a blur (of tears, bliss and disbelief).
Warning: super long post ahead! Enjoy though! How despite the 8am ceremony, the church was filled with our family and friends. Even to the point that some were already standing outside. We really didn't expect it. And we are deeply touched that people really made an effort to wake up Godforsakenly early to witness our wedding. Usually, only a handful would attend the ceremony with the rest waiting at the reception. We were so blessed that almost 95% were at the church. It was overwhelming. Really felt the love. The ceremony being officiated by our great uncle, Rev. Msgr. Amador Foz. His homily was so inspiring. I was crying through like half of it. And it means so much that he was also the one who united my parents in marriage. Isn't that like, so cool. My mom's labor of love - the katsa bag souvenirs she'd all sewn herself. She also bought the ribbon and wire accents from divisoria and rolled then tied them all beautifully. The bags were purely her idea that she began pitching months before the wedding. I had told her that it was totally out of my budget already. So she took it upon herself to get it done. Thanks mom, you're the best. The dance with Daddy that sent me bawling like a baby. The original idea was to call both our parents after we started dancing, then do the switcheroos of partners. But Chips suggested that I should dance with just my dad instead. It was a change we made just the night before, and I'm going to be eternally thankful that it happened that way. See, my dad isn't the best dancer in the world (he's worse than someone who has two left feet, if there's such a thing) and he hates dancing in front of people. I hugged him. Twice. And the tears came down like a crazy tsunami. I think it's also the part that sent the whole ballroom in an outpouring of happy tears and sniffles. My wedding gown - a genius of a creation by Niko Hernandez. He totally understood my traditional-slash-weirdo personality. And my need to be different without going overboard. The result is a gorgeous to the nth power wedding gown, comprised of two looks. A slightly conservative yet askew church look, and a somewhat avant-garde reception look which involved tearing off part of the lace and replacing it with our furry friend I aptly named Fred. All I could say is that Niko totally rocks. The entourage's lovely dresses, by Kat Corpus. Despite all the little bumps along the way (alterations here, there, elsewhere), everything pulled through. The hues were lovely. Kat also understood the style and theme I had in my head. The fabrics she found totally matched the intent. And the designs were simple and yet so elegant. My entourage couldn't stop gushing about their dresses. All the support from our family and friends. We couldn't believe that so many of our confirmed guests were, in fact, confirmed! People always say that 20% of "confirmed" guests would later on just not go. We're proud to say that at our reception, there were no empty tables. It's really surprising. Even our coordinator couldn't believe the turnout, especially since it was a holiday. We are so blessed! So many came to share in our joy. And they even stayed until the very end of the programme. Until the end of our thank you speech even. It's absolutely lovely. We can't thank everyone enough. The fabulous food, suite and service at The Peninsula Manila. It's safe to say that everyone loved the food. Chips and I agreed that we wanted to have a sit-down meal, so as to avoid the bustle of people standing up and walking around for the buffet. If anyone is booking or looking to book The Peninsula for the reception, do get the salmon as the appetizer. It is absolute heaven. And I don't even eat fish much. You can also expect nothing less than luxury and special treatment when you stay there. If only I could stay there like, every day. How I wish.
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 Yesterday, it all happened. Thank you everyone. Thank you God. Everything fell into place. Joy, tears, happiness, laughter and love - a beautiful cocktail for the soul. Couldn't ask for any of it to go differently.
Photo by Nelwin Uy Things are slowly falling into place. The wedding is next week. I'm typing this blog with my hair styled into a loose, romantic updo and my face dolled up in a somewhat smokey eye kind of drama. It's weird for me to look at my reflection and actually not see eyebags. Yup, I just had my trial HMU with Cathy Cantada. Brilliant job. What did my dad say about it? He said that he might cry because I look like my mom when they got married. Is that bawl-worthy or what. I sure hope the liner Cathy used is tear-proof. I cry like a baby at even the slightest twang of sentiment.
More and more, I find it hard to sleep at night. Besides wondering who and what on earth I could've forgotten, I wonder about what would happen after the wedding. Like, how different will we be? After almost 9 years of being together, how much will we change? It's not me having second thoughts, it's just me wondering. It's the right thing. But it's me scared of what can go wrong. I guess it comes with the territory, this wondering. During the first months of this engagement, I felt such a rush with the preps. So much excitement booking the suppliers, making the rounds, evaluating possible vendors. Now I'm just plain excited about getting married. It's something Chips told me months ago -- that the important thing is that we're getting married. I guess I was too much of that typical bride to listen. Now it's like, come on let's get it on. Let's do this! I can't wait! The important thing is that we end up together like we've always wanted, and we have our family and friends to see it happen. Sometimes we think too much. And we make everything too much. But the simple truth is, we can't wait to spend the rest of our life with the love of our life. That in itself is special. Happy holidays everyone. Spread the love. Mwahs! 1) It takes at least 2-3 weeks (depending on quantity and degree of difficulty) to print and assemble invitations. Sending them out to your guests one month before the wedding is ideal. Work backwards.
2) If your budget can afford 20 or even 50 extra sets, get those extra sets. New names will always come up as you’re writing the invitations and sending them out. Especially in this culture where “tampo” is so rampant. 3) Your parents, being your parents, will be forgetful of the list they initially gave you. Or, they will forget in general some people that should (at least by their perception) be invited. So item number 2 will be all the more critical. 4) Check with your printer if the envelope would be safe to run through your home printer. Some paper types are prone to creasing, especially if your printer eats paper from the bottom and not from the top. Printers that eat from the bottom need to feed / rotate the paper through almost the entire spool ergo, more crease risk. 5) Get extra envelopes. Especially if you’re doing calligraphy. Usually, printers will provide for up to 20 pieces for free. 6) When approving your design and your paper, always clarify color registration with your supplier. Certain papers in certain weights will absorb ink differently, thus you may not get the exact shade that you saw (and probably fell in love with) on your computer screen. That’s what makes the proof VERY important. 7) Pay attention to names, especially if they require special characters. Some fonts do not have these special letters or symbols. So if you’re planning to use a non-typical typeface, be sure to proofread! 8) RSVP is somehow a practice that never left the ground in this country. Have an email or text blast requesting for them to confirm attendance (and request for a headcount as well). 9) Be wary about invitations that the family sends out just out of courtesy. They just might come. 10) Lastly, your invitation should make you happy and feel all-so giddy inside every time you see it. Like excitedly flashing fireworks in your soul that yes, you’re getting married and you want to tell the world. To those couples still prepping and stressing, I do hope this helps. Cherish the moments when joyous tingles run through your smiles. At some point, you may think it may be too much for just one day. At the end of it all, it could get too much. But above all, know that you're doing this because you want to spend the rest of your lives loving each other. Spread the love, guys!  The weather's getting colder and the wedding's getting freakinishly nearer. Time to scream! The weekends are non-existent. My eyebags are getting the better of me. We've been running around trying to complete everything and so far here's what we've got:
- Wedding rings done! We just got them over the weekend. Lovely lovely. Chips will need to get used to wearing jewelry. We've got skinny but bony fingers, so there may be some difficulty in getting the rings worn during the actual ceremony. Fair warning to those who will be watching us. - Already bought the gifts for the Principal Sponsors. Yehey! That's finally done and over with. - Coordinators have also gone on oculars at the Church and at The Peninsula. We've also turned over our supplier contacts already. Just a few kinks remaining, but other than that, we're fine. - Calligraphy personally done by moi - on 180 invitations. I haven't done calligraphy since high school. Feels great to be doing it again. Chips says I could make a career out of it. Invitations have been sent out and some RSVP's have been logged. We've got more invites to send out, just waiting for the extra envelopes we ordered. Now yammering on the other things left to do: I'm currently working on the guestbook. Laying out the photos from the prenup and stuff. Chips is also laying out photos for the Lomowall, which will be the backdrop for our photobooth. Which reminds me, our supplier has yet to email me their proposed design for the print-outs. Hmmm... what else? Oh yeah, need to check the misalette because we just copied off from some past wedding. I haven't even read through it yet. Fitting for gowns and suits are supposed to be this week. I really hope they turn out well. Especially Chips' suit. I'm going to die if it doesn't. Okay that's it. Enough yammering on a Monday morning. Cheers! Spread the love.  It's getting more and more hectic as the day draws near. Will have to DIY print the map to insert in the invitations. For those who'd like a quick online reference, uploading it here.
Cheerios!  It's getting scary-close. We've closed on our OTD coordinator already. She's Chips' friend from fencing. I'm glad to have someone that at least one of us already knows and trusts. I probably would find it hard to entrust like, the biggest day of my life on some stranger.
Over the weekend, we got the proof for our invitations. Some editing and font-enlarging, and today I sent the final files for mass production. I totally love how the paper texture absorbs the ink. I was actually quite scared for a moment that my font color (a kind of mustard yellow) wouldn't show nicely. But it was just perfect. Can't wait to have the final ones, with the translucent envelopes. It should look great. I squee. We also got to visit one of our ninangs, who will also be the one designing and making our wedding bands. Chips, being the simple bare-bones guy that he is, refuses to have ANYTHING on his ring. No design, no diamond. Save for my name which will be engraved inside the ring. It's kind of sweet, actually. We also got to buy a bed for his house. Since the condo won't be ready until February next year, we'll be staying over at his place first. But get this, we actually went bed-shopping with my parents. Because they wanted to also stop by Jollibee to redeem their credit card rewards. Talk about awkward. But dad was really helpful too - giving insights about the correct bed frame and all those technical stuff about different kinds of wood. It was fun. And we had chicken joy after, which was super delicious. Other things for this month? Finalizing the list for the bridal registry. Securing the marriage license. Third fitting for my gown. Pestering entourage people to get themselves fitted and measured. That's it for now guys! Spread the love.  Yehey! They're finally printed. The biggest cost to us here is probably the printer ink - because we had to go far and wide to actually find a store that actually still carries cartridges for my printer of more than 6 years (or more, even). That actually set us back a week.
Well now they're finally done! Ingredients: - Oncewed.com for inspiration - Epson Stylus Photo 830 - Ivory board paper 80gsm c/o National Bookstore - Coin pockets c/o National Bookstore - Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop - Patience - Fonts from www.dafont.com / www.abstractfonts.com - A whole lot of patience and LOVE! We're off to distribute them in the coming week, while waiting for our formal invitations. Which reminds me, I need to follow-up on the proof... I don't know if I want time to go faster or slower. On one hand, I can't wait to be married. To fall asleep and to wake up with my man beside me. To brew coffee and talk after breakfast (or dinner, since the odds of me getting up to afford breakfast is like slim to none). To watch TV and maybe fight over the remote control. To make a mess because I have way too much clothes and shoes. I know we'll argue. But getting thru those things makes life more fun, and makes us better at being "us". On the other hand, I can't help but think we don't have enough time for the wedding preps. The bridezilla has awakened, as Chips would imply. One minute we thought that we had all the time, and now my brain is in a panic of counting how many weekends we have left, and when I could possibly take a leave this month to get the papers done. Okay. I'll try not to think about what needs to be done. So I'll just focus on looking forward to Palawan. And that's 66 days until we see the beach again.   I got this idea from Oncewed.com where one of their featured weddings distributed paper bags with the loose petals towards the end of the church ceremony. I guess anything is better than the guests trying to hold as many petals as they could on curled palms during the recession. It's also a more organized / less messy way of distributing them. Not to mention, cute! Anyways, I also designed a seal that I'll just have printed on sticker paper. One of the w@w bride-to-be's mentioned that they had some labels printed in Megamall... so that's probably where I'll get these done. So there. Tada! I'm just too happy flexing my Adobe muscles. On a side note, we'll be in Subic this coming weekend. So that's two days out of the preps calendar. Chips will be running the full marathon (that's 42 kilometers, aka 4++ consecutive hours of running). I'm going to be there for moral support (waiting at the finish line). Wish us luck!  | UsFozzy will do most of the writing in this blog. Chips will be contributing some pictures and ideas. Together, we're awesome (and we've been so for over 8 years)! ArchivesJanuary 2010 CategoriesAll |
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