status of wedding preps

i've been a member of an egroup called weddings@work for the past few months and a lot of e-mails sent by wawies (that's what they call the members of the egroup) are updates of their wedding preparations. at first i didn't see the point of informing everyone of the tasks that i've already accomplished and the stuff that i still need to do. but a private  e-mail from another bride who's also getting married on 27 december convinced me to make my own update - she's right, at the very least, i'd know if i'm already falling behind on my preparations.
 
so here goes -

essential requirements:
 
marriage license - we'll have to get one by october. i'll order our birth certificates from the National Statistics Office via the internet tomorrow.
 
officiating priest/officer - this will depend on whether or not our request for bishop's dispensation will be approved. i still have to submit the said request though. target is end of next week.
 
our health - rey's trying to survive the diet that his mom is forcing on him. i lost 4 lbs but gained 2 back. i need to get back to my exercise program. i'll also need to start eating sensibly. and i do need to go back to my dermatologist for my minor burns.
 
other requirements:

venue - done. we've booked the fontaine and nash function rooms at mandarin hotel. we've paid the downpayment and have sorted out details with our account executive. unfortunately, buffy, our account executive (ae) resigned so i just have to make sure that mandarin will honor our arrangements. so, i will need to confirm arrangements with the new ae. i should do this before the end of the month. oh, and i also have to make sure that the full payment for our basic menu is paid before 24 december. (perhaps we should pay up around the first week of december to take out any possibility that the budget for the reception will be mixed with our christmas shopping money. hmmm.)
 
menu - done. we've finalized our menu with our previous ae. i just need to request that the rice be served with the first main dish and to confirm our food tasting on 07 november. by the way, rey mentioned that he's expecting mandarin to serve fortune cookies, which are not in our menu. i hope that he forgets about these fortune cookies by december.
 
liquor - hmmm. we haven't done much for this detail. we're more or less settled on serving asti spumanti for our toast. (i'm still trying to persuade rey to agree to serve non-alcoholic sparkling drinks to our friends who do not or cannot drink alcohol). as for the wine, the cheap but good red wine i know is deakin estate shiraz and rey hasn't tasted it yet! i've to get a bottle and have him try it. but this can wait. he can taste the wine in october and we can start looking for a supplier around the same time too.
 
guest list - done. we only have 58 guests so it was easy to make the guest list. (the harder task is explaining to some friends and relatives that they are not invited to our wedding.) but, as the days go by, the list has to accomodate a few changes as some loved ones passed away and some friends have moved to far-away places (literally and figuratively).
 
entourage list - we've decided to have: (a) at most 3 pairs of principal sponsors; (b) my sweet and intelligent niece,  nikki, as bride's maid; (c) my cute niece, sophie, as flower girl. i've spoken to the parents of nikki and sophie. i also explained to the 2 gentlemen whom we chose to be our sponsors  that rey and 1 will be visiting them sometime in october to request them to stand as principal sponsors for our wedding. rey is in charge of looking for 2 ladies who will act as our principal sponsors. 
 
gowns - done. i've met the designer, fidel marquez, and we already agreed on the design, fabric and cost of the bridal gown and the gowns of the bridesmaid and the flower girl. i just have to remind him again that i do not want any embroidery on my gown. i also have to discuss with him the gowns of nanay (my nanny since birth, she's now our lessee) and my sisters. i'll probably do this before the first week of august. first fitting should be scheduled in october.

accessories - when we started dreaming about our wedding a few years ago, i told rey that i wouldn't want to spend so much money on a wedding gown that i would only wear once, i would rather spend my money on jewelry. so, when i was given an opportunity to purchase solitaire diamond earrings with a total carat weight of 1.72 carats at a reasonable price and terms that are friendly to people like me who are only beginning their career, i grabbed it. the grabbing was quite literal as my officemate was also interested in the earrings. i made my last payment for the earrings last february! and it was a good buy considering that a few months after i purchased it, an actress wore solitaire earrings for her wedding and the rich, the not-so-rich, the pretending-to-be-rich and the wanting-to-be-rich all suddenly wanted a pair. so, in less than a month, the value of my earrings doubled!!   i'm now looking for a solitaire diamond pendant. i wish i can find one that i can afford.
 
rings - we've found the jeweler who can make our dream wedding rings! we've had a design in mind for months but since we want our rings to have really clean lines, it took us a while to find a jeweler that would make them. i was supposed to claim them yesterday, but they called me up in the morning to tell me that they weren't satisfied with the finished products but i can take a look at them if a wanted to. the rings were beautiful! but since there are some imperfections, i agreed to have them make new ones. i'm already excited to see the perfect version of our rings. 

shoes - beacuse of my not-so-graceful fall, rey and i decided that i'll be wearing ballet flats for the wedding. i don't think there's any glamor in falling down the stairs in a wedding gown and rey said that he wouldn't want our wedding video to end up in some tv show.
 
groom's attire - rey is responsible for this. he'll be the one wearing it, anyway. i'll bug him again early november.

father of the bride's attire - i already bought jusi for my father's barong but looking at it now, i feel that there's something better out there. i'll probably go on a trip to divisoria one of these days.
 
photographer and videographer - i've already met with and paid the downpayments to eddieboy escudero,  john aguas and jason magbanua. rey's not too happy with the cost of the photos and videos but he couldn't complain as i'm the one paying for these services. i just need to give them final instructions sometime in november.
 
cake - bizu. my officemate, laxmi, is handling this. i just need to bug her sometime in october. rey and i have decided on the flavor (rainforest, the cake version of ferrero rocher. it's really yummy!) but we haven't decided on the presentation. 
 
flowers - tecson flowers. rey volunteered to handle this. 
 
musicians - done. we've already contacted mia, a friend who sings in lounges and jazz bars. we just need to send her our list of songs. we should do this by the end of july. i have to write her an e-mail before the week ends. i'm also helping a choir with their legal problems. they volunteered to sing for my wedding for free!
 
audio-visual presentation (avp) - still toying with the idea of flashing our pictures thru a projector during dinner while mia or the choir is singing. or should this be done during cocktails? if we do decide to have an avp, i'll have to start doing this next week.  but first, i will have to find and learn a software for this. i guess i'll seek help from my fellow wawies.
 
sound system - done. we already paid the downpayment with sound syndrome. i just need to get balay kandila's requirements so i can finalize the package with elfren.
 
decor/styling - done. we already gave the downpayment to balay kandila. we also gave some of the materials for our centerpieces and we've seen the mock-ups for our floating glass bubbles. i've also given them the first batch of paper cranes. balay kandila promised the full  mock-up by october. (i'm still thinking of looking for those round glass stones that are used in vases. what i usually see are the oval ones that are "rainbow reflectors".)
 
invites - we will be making our own invitations as we didn't find a printer that uses the paper that we wanted and that incorporates paper cranes in the design. we've made our mock-ups a few months ago and i'll start printing them once i confirmed the venues with mandarin. i've already started to fold the cranes but i still need to spray paint them in the exact shade that we want.
 
envelopes - i still need to contact the company that manufactures the paper that we want to see if they can make our envelopes. this should be done by the first week of august. if i have time, i'll have our envelopes lined. (i wonder if my helper can assist me on this one.)
 
souvenirs - we've decided on giving away double cd's. rey is compiling the songs for one cd, i'm responsible for the other. the songs in rey's cd are the ones that he likes to listen to while we're eating. the songs in my cd are the ones that i listen to at night. we've already found and met with the person (MG CD printing) that can meet rey's requirements and we told him that we'll give him the list of songs in august. as for the cd covers, we've already finalized the design for the front, we need to get rey's mazinger z model to a photographer for the back cover and we need a printer to execute our designs. this should be done by the second week of august.
 
gifts for parents - still looking!
 
program - still haven't done anything for this. we'll probably take care of this in november.
 
seating arrangements - done.
 
just making the list took me more than an hour! but i do feel better as i have the feeling that everything is under control.