pics by carlo villonco

i love our pics by carlo villongco!

We got him for our pre-nups. However, instead of going to some scenic place and posing for pics, we (actually ako lang) decided to have our"pre-nups" during the salubong for the people who took the bar last Sunday. Despite the absence of all the elements usually seen in great pre-nup shots (sunset or clear blue skies, bodies of water, plants, thin models, nice make-up for the female model, etc., etc.) I think that the shots he took of us were awesome! Ang hirap nga mamili. I think I'll go on a diet so I can save money and have all our pictures printed.

He was also very nice. Pre-nups usually take around 3 hours but he was with us from 4 to 9 pm(to think that he had to drive through all that traffic near Taft Avenue and had to walk several blocks to where we were supposed to meet!) And when I apologized, he said that I didn't have to.

Sobra siyang aliw kasama. Nag-vote pa nga siya sa wine tasting namin. He's also cool, so much so that Rey's friends felt comfortable with him. It was easy to forget that he's a photographer. He's like a friend who just happened to have a camera. He's also perfect for people like me with really low EQ - he took the shots last Sunday, and I was able to view the pics today.

And the best part of it? HE MADE ME LOOK THIN!!! (Actually, this is the main reason why I'm raving about him.)

If I were to rate him - he'd be a perfect 10!

things are not what they seem to be

remember my last fitting with njork? when the dress that looked good on a hanger looked like a pillow case on me?

i had a second fitting at njork earlier today. when i saw my dress on the hanger, i almost cried. it looked awful! it looked as if 4 different crudely-cut cloths were pinned together with a safety pin on a purple dress. it was bad enough that it looked like some child made the whole thing but literally seeing purple was depressing since they promised me a fuschia dress!

but the minute i put on the dress i almost cried again. but this time, because the dress was so pretty! it turns out that the purple cloth was just a lining, so that the colors of the draped cloths would look deeper. and it worked! the pink and fuschia colors looked so alive.

and the dress totally kept my treasured fat well hidden. i felt like kissing francis for making me a nice dress.

but when he saw me, he started tugging on some parts of the dress. i didn't understand it at first but when i looked back at the mirror, i was surprised to see the dress even prettier. i love my reception gown! i'm so excited to wear it with my shoes and my new earrings!

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since i was busy preparing for rey's i-survived-the-car-exams party, i thought that we would not be able to do anything for our wedding these last few days of september. but it seems that we were able to accomplish a lot of things - rey was able to get new glasses (he lost his old glasses during the party so he had to get new ones), we were able to have our pre-nups photos taken, i was able to design and order my bridal shoes from via venetto (i was only supposed to accompany an officemate to buy food when we passed by their shop), i got to fit my reception gown, we were able to watch our wedding singer (mia) perform and picked a few more songs for her to sing, i was able to get in touch with our stylist regarding our mock-up this october (actually, ronald was the one who called me up to follow-up my cranes) and now, it seems that we have our AVP (it's part of the pre-nups package.) cool!

moving forward

rey suggested that we cut our cocktail invites such that the background will be just enough to frame the printed portion of the invite. i think it's a good idea. (but more work for me and fatherlily!)

the wreck

things look better in the morning. it appears that one of the windows survived the crash. but the dashboard, the wipers and the windshield are totally destroyed. still glad that i wasn't in the car when the accident happened.

more of the wreck

surprisingly thankful

my car's a wreck.

my driver usually parks in my tita's house while i'm at the office. (i have parking in the office but i can't imagine what the driver will do at the basement if he has to wait for me there.) and i just call him up when i need him to pick me up.

that's what i did today. i called him up at 8 to tell him that i was planning to go home at 9. while i was having dinner at the nearby mall at around 8:45, i got a text message from the guard telling me that my car figured in an accident near the office.

i finished my dinner, paid the bill and walked back. as i was nearing the office, the guard immediately walked up to me and told me that the right side of my car was a wreck - all the windows as well as the windshield were shattered and both doors were totally destroyed. the gas cover was folded like an ordinary sheet of paper. the driver decided not to wait for me - he decided to bring the car home. (i still don't know how he drove that wreck from makati to quezon city.)

i called up my sister and fatherlily to tell them what happened and to expect the driver. i called up rey to tell him that the driver will notbe able to deliver the shrimps he ordered from my officemate because of the accident. i then proceeded to discuss with my officemates what happened and what work needed to be done by tomorrow. and i remembered to take the 3 kilos of shrimps home.

everyone expected me to be fuming mad (everyone knows that i have a very short temper.) on the contrary, i was uncharacteristically calm.

all i can think about is how thankful i am that i wasn't in the car when it collided with the cement mixer. otherwise, my face would have been ruined and not even the most skilled make-up artist can hide the wounds on our wedding day (i usually seat at the front seat.) i'm also thankful that i am so obsessed with our wedding that i couldn't get myself to get mad at the driver who collided with a parked cement mixer.

i hope i'll still be in this thankful mood when i learn how much i need to spend to have the car fixed.

move over, prince charming, my new favorite hero is here!

My Ideal Mate

Ever since I was in high school, I envisioned my ideal man to be someone who is intelligent, charming, speaks well and plays the saxophone. Being romantic was also a requirement.

I met that man. When we first met, I couldn't take my eyes off him because he was cute but still looked really masculine - he personified the word "macho". We got to talk and in a few minutes he got me laughing with his wit and he made me ponder on his ideas. Two hours later, we were still talking. But since it was getting dark and we were getting hungry, we decided to grab a bite. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as it would turn out), the nearest fast food place (we were still in college so that was what we can afford) was full so we just decided to take out the food. On a whim, we decided to have a picnic in the middle of the field. While I got the picnic mat from my locker (it was actually a banner from a seminar that I organized for my college org), he went to his car to get some stuff. In just a few minutes, he came back with a black case.

On that night, on a picnic in the middle of a field, under the moon and the stars, he serenaded me with his sax.

But there were no sparks.

There were still no sparks the day after when he called me up first thing in the morning. Still nothing when we met again for lunch. We lost touch after a few weeks but I didn't feel any loss.

And so I've met my ideal man but now, as I write, I couldn't even remember his name!

And then there was Rey. He was intelligent, spoke well but he didn't know the difference between a cello and an oboe. He smiled only to the people he knew and liked. His idea of courting me was getting drunk in a nipa hut in Antipolo that served "Cole's Low" (which was why I never knew that he was courting me until he actually told me).

But there was something in him that made me feel warm. He made me feel so secure that I only allowed myself to get drunk when he was around.

Eleven years later, Rey has learned to smile at people he knew but didn't like. He still couldn't tell a cello from an oboe and his idea of a love letter is a hotel stationery with the words, "Leave Tip." But he still makes me feel so secure, warm and truly loved. He doesn't fit my requirements for an ideal mate but I have no doubt that he's the one for me. And after meeting him, I wouldn't settle for any other man.

Our CD Sleeves

Here's a sample of our cd sleeves! As you may notice, Mazinger z's pic is different from the pic I posted a few days ago. Rey requested me to take new pictures of Mazinger-z (yes, nag-reshoot kami) because the first pic wasn't consistent with Rey's image of the megabot. 'Di raw bagay kay Mazinger-z ang nakaluhod. It's a good thing that Mazinger-z poses for free.

Our Menu Card

this wedding really forced me to learn new skills. rey loved the poster on the left but hated the huge crane in the middle and wanted a smaller second crane. by experimenting with photoshop, i was able to create the perfect graphic for our menu!

take these rings . . .

here's what mazinger z did on our date (more truthfully, what i made him do.)

my date with mazinger z

i have rey's most-treasured mazinger-z model. why? because rey wants a pic of mazinger-z on the back cover of our cd souvenirs. the front cover kasi has pics of porkchop, my chowchow (who's turning one next week!)

when i asked rey how he plans to integrate the picture of mazinger-z into our wedding cd cover, he told me that among the mega-bots, mazinger-z is the only one who has a girlfriend and that his girlfriend is pretty useful with her killer boobs. (the boobs are some sort of rockets. or missiles. whatever.) so does that mean that the killer boobs should also appear on our cd cover?

the reject

this is the cocktail-invite design which rey rejected. rey said that it looked like an ad for an abs-cbn event.

Time and Money - Literally

Rey's mildy disappointed with me. He was asking me why I needed more money when he just gave me money last month. My reason - I placed the whole amount that he gave me last month on time deposit. for 90 days. which was really stupid because I wanted to take advantage of the bridal fair on the 4th. (And we're only earning P1,000 pesos from it!) So now he's giving me more money. And he's reminding me again and again that I shouldn't put it on time deposit. I should spend it daw for the wedding.

Hmmmm. That's not too bad - don't save, spend. I can't argue with that. I've been doing that my whole working life.

And now for the remaining question: does a pair of earrings count as "spending for the wedding"? I'm planning to wear it for our wedding reception, anyway. I think it does. I hope Rey doesn't read this.

Busy bee

Hay. Dami work! I've got to take care of a million things here in the office and I feel like I have to do another million things for the wedding.

I have to make major revisions on a 36-paged contract, review 4 5-paged contracts, draft a memorandum on 3 Supreme Court cases that are at least 50 pages each, come up with a corporate structure for our client and draft 2 more letters.

For the wedding, I just finished printing our cocktail invites but I have to design our Menu and Drink Cards, as well as the dorsal page of our CD front cover. I also have to do our CD front cover all over again because the file just mysteriously disappeared! And I have to go to Rey's house so he can give me more money. Yehey!

I have so much stuff to do that I decided to go to the parlor and have my eyebrows waxed. When I got there, I decided to have my underarms waxed (for the first time!) too. I think having braces increased my tolerance level for pain so having hair waxed isn't too painful for me. What is more painful to bear is the amount of time and money that I spend on vanity. But now that I am recharged, I feel that aside from the 2 million tasks that I need to do, I can still do another million! So I guess, going to the parlor isn't really a waste of time and money after all.