wedding updates

Njork requested me to drop by their shop so I can fit my reception gown before they start sewing the crystals on it. They requested me to bring the shoes that I will be wearing so we can decide on the length of the gown.

When I was putting on the gown, I noticed that they lowered the neckline and made the gown deeper at the back. At first, I was hesitant to have a low neckline but they were explaining to me that a lower neckline would give the illusion of a thinner frame. (Emphasis on the illusion as my frame is far from thin.) When I looked at the mirror, I was happy with the result! The gown made me look 15 lbs thinner! yippee!

Francis and I also got to discuss the length of the gown - the lining will be cut mid-thigh but all the outer layers will be kept long. So the gown will be floor-length but it will show a lot of leg when I walk. That will somehow meet my friends' demands for me to wear a mini-skirt for the wedding.

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I put on a counter on my blogsite to help me panic. We've got less than 2 months to go and we're so excited!!!

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Rey's going to faint when he hears about this. I got a 3rd photographer to cover our wedding. We now have 3 photographers for our 58 guests. (I don't have to clear photo-related wedding preps with Rey since he's not into pictures. If it's up to him, we'll have our officiating officer taking the shots.)

Why get a 3rd photographer? Because I couldn't stop myself from getting the services of Carlo Villonco. He is such a nice person and we feel so comfortable with him. We are also very happy with our pre-nup shots and we just love the free PhotoDVD that he gave us. And Rey thinks that I look really pretty in Carlo's pictures (need I say more?).

this little pig went to market

while rey's in tagaytay attending a seminar on how to make money, i was at divisoria and tutuban helping the businessmen earn money. i went shopping!

it started with me telling an officemate, rosa, that it's probably a good idea to go to divisoria. that was last night at around 9 pm. earlier today, at 8 am, rosa picked me up for our divisoria-tutuban shopping spree!

first, i had to take care of wedding stuff. so our first stop was at morning glory so i can buy more ribbons for our invites. after getting that done, we started scouring the shops for bargains. and we found a lot of them!

we were able to buy cheap but good quality children's clothes (P80 to P150) wallets (P80) and bags (P250 to P350) at the new divisoria mall. (the new divisoria mall is a 4-level mall in the middle of divisoria. that explains why it's called divisoria mall. i just don't know why it's called "new" when it is so obvious that it isn't. it was probably new 20 years ago.) we also got cheap wrapping material at the paper store across the street. (i got plain gold wrappers at P3.50 each, gift tags at P10 for each 100 pieces and small rolls of transparent tape at P40 a dozen.) we went to gody's to check out their candles but i didn't like the quality of the products being sold there (i got so confused as i couldn't understand why a lot of w@wies were gushing about the store.) but i did get to buy vigil candles for my mom in time for all soul's day.

we went back to tutuban mall, left our purchases in the car and ate lunch in max's. we got spring chicken (my favorite!), lumpiang ubod (deliciously fresh and nutricious) and lots of iced tea (i think i had 5 glasses).

after having lunch, we went around tutuban center to do more shopping. we got affordable christmas decors for an officemate (different sizes of hot pink christmas balls at P100 to P180 per 16 pieces and leaves with hot pink decors at P256 per dozen. i also found the transparent stones that i needed for my centerpieces at the decor store. i got them at only P20 per bag! i was so happy when i found them that i almost hugged the store owner. of course he couldn't understand why i'm so ecstatic.) there were also really nice shirts for as low as P50! we also got nice children's clothes (all below P200). (i hope my godchildren or their parents aren't reading this.)

that whole area is really a shopper's paradise!!! when we left the area at 5 pm , we were exhausted and i only had P135 left in my pocket. there was a bit of a traffic but we couldn't care less. we were happy.

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when i got home, i excitedly unpacked my purchases while waiting for my tub to fill up. seeing all those nice but affordable items made me giddy again!
after locking up everything in my suitcase (so that my nosey family will not see what i got them) i made lots of bubbles (i just love lander's raspberry sorbet bubble bath, it makes lots of fruity smelling bubbles and it costs less than P100 for a 1-liter bottle!!!) played my "zzzzz . . ." cd (the cd i compiled for our wedding souvenirs. it has all the songs that porkchop and i listen to when we sleep. rey's cd has all the songs that we like listening to when we eat. it's called "burp!") grabbed a hard-bound, plastic covered bobo book (which i got for P99 at a sale in national bookstore) and sank into the tub for my baboy bath.
it was heaven all over again!

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oh yeah, i almost forgot. rey and i went shopping in duty free yesterday. he bought me my favorite lindt chocolates! i was so happy with my chocolates that i almost skipped my way to the cashier.

so why didn't i skip my way to the cashier? it's because i found my jacob's creek shiraz cabernet right before the cashier's booth. since duty free had this peso power promo, we were able to buy a case (12 bottles) at a little less than P4,800! we were also able to grab a bottle of moet et chandon for around P1,900. yey! we no longer have to worry about the first round of wine for the wedding!!!

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after 2 days of shopping, this not-so-little pig will stay home tomorrow. but rey will come over so we can finally taste the chilean wine that we got! i hope rey has money for pizza.

what a pick-up line!

ikakasal na talaga ako!

while crawling inside a cu chi tunnel in vietnam, i chanced upon one good looking foreigner. and all i can say was: "can you take my picture?"

and after he took it, i wished that i met someone else instead of him. he had shaky hands! ang labo ng picture ko!!!

more vietnam pics are posted at:

http://community.webshots.com/album/203384545GfYbsS

inertia

it's been a while since my last blog - i had to take a 4-day trip to vietnam from thursday to sunday (october 14-17) so i had to finish a lot of work AND a few wedding preps before wednesday last week (october 13).

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we didn't get to have our wine tasting last tuesday as i had a 6 pm meeting at the office. but i did get to meet ronald of balay kandila at 5 pm. the funny thing about it is that before i went to 6750 where i was supposed to meet ronald, i passed buy photoline to meet dowa, another w@wie. it turns out that she also needed to speak with ronald so i invited her to join us (i was only supposed to give ronald my paper cranes.) when ronald and tisha arrived, tisha had a meeting with another couple while ronald met with us. it turned out that the bride at the other table was also a w@wie!

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on wednesday morning, rey and i went to MG CD printing. when they opened the door for us, mervin's staff excitedly greeted rey. it turns out that rey was there 3 times the week before! and when we reached mervin, i was surprised! rey and mervin acted like they were friends. before we got to talk about our CDs, mervin showed rey the games that he bought during the weekend and upon rey's request, gave us a sneak preview of doom 3. they then talked about upgrading computers and scheduling a night of network gaming. after about 45 minutes of computer talk, we got to see the CDs. the samples were really nice! and since we preferred to have our CD's in matte silver, we didn't need to have them laminated. we saved P2,400! all we had to do was listen to the sample CD that mervin prepared for us before we can give him the go signal to mass produce the CDs. we finally agreed on the price and rey gave mervin our downpayment. yey!

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after mg cd, i went to my designer (fidel marquez) for my first fitting of my wedding gown. the gown was still rough-looking but it looked really nice. the fabric is not like most bridal fabrics - instead of having a subtle sheen, my gown sparkles! my designer and i were laughing about my choice of fabrics - i was telling them that i need a fabric so dazzling that upon seeing me, my guests would be confused and not notice my curves which are concave rather than convex. my designer already warned me that it would be difficult to have an understated gown using shiny fabrics but when i saw the gown, the shine didn't look vulgar to me. and the best part of it was that the dress managed to hide my bulges. cool!

i was also surprised that the dress that i'm supposed to wear while i'm dressing up is almost done! at first, i thought that the designer would just make a sarong out of the indonesian malong that i gave them. but when i saw the dress, i found it so pretty! i can actually wear it for other formal affairs. cool! i finally found use for a piece of cloth which i've kept for 10 years.

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we were on a wedding preps roll! i just need to start working on our preps again so we wouldn't lose our inertia.

hmm. maybe we should re-schedule the wine tasting soon . . .

and taba ko!

that's me in my dressing gown (the dress i'm going to wear while preparing for the wedding). i'm going to be sitting most of the time when i'm wearing this dress so my designer wanted to see the effect of the gown when i'm seated. we still haven't decided on the draping (in the pic, it's just pinned to one side) but the designer said that he'll find ways so that the burgundy design will be highlighted.


that's my sparkly wedding gown. i really have a problem with my bulging tummy (nope, i'm not preggy, i just look preggy) so my designer wanted to have a shot taken from the side to check if the corset that they've sewn into the gown works. apparently, it does. i still look big though. can't wait to see the gown with the draping, the bustle and the swarovski details! and i have to remember to tell ronald that there should be a lot of candles to maximize the effect of the gown.

more wine tasting and other preps

after all our wine tasting parties (we had 2) and the endless debates about which wine to serve for our wedding, we recently found out that the wine we finally agreed to serve (jacob's creek shiraz 1998 and windham estate bin 444 2001) can no longer be bought at wholesale price. it turns out that the sole distributor of our preferred wines just sold all of their inventory to a grocery chain! the grocery chain is selling the wine bottles with a mark-up of P80!!!

so, we now begin our search for alternatives. we already got 3 bottles of cabernet sauvignon (sol de chile 2003, terra vega 2003 and gato negro 2003), all of which cost at least 50% less than our original choices. (we're planning to serve jacob's creek shiraz 2001 or 2002 first then when's everyone's tipsy, we'll switch to a more affordable chilean wine. we needed to adjust our budget so we can serve food for the cocktails.)

we wanted to have our wine tasting while watching will and grace early this evening. but rey had to drive home so we decided to postpone it til tuesday. (i'll have to remember to buy cheese, crackers and pizza!)

can't wait 'til tuesday!!!

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rey just told me that we'll get our sample cds (for our wedding souvenir) from mervin tomorrow. i hope that they pass rey's standards and that he'd give the go signal to mervin soon so i can finally put the cds in the d-i-y covers which i simply adore! (siempre, love your own.)

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we're supposed to get our marriage license in 2 weeks! i can't believe that we'd be so lucky to have a friend handle this irritating but essential part of our marriage preps. because of my friend, we didn't have to line up for the forms, submit countless of documents and go through all the seminars! and the best thing about it? my friend offered to pay for all the fees. she said that it's the least she can do for my help in her adoption case. yehey!!!

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via venetto called me up to say that they ran out of the material that i wanted them to use for my custom-made shoes. when i visited their shop, they asked me if i wanted to wait until they get the new materials that they ordered from italy (this is probably why their shoes are pricey - they get most of their leather from italy) or to pick out another material. i chose to have my shoes done in a different color which was only slightly darker than my first choice.

in the meantime, when rey and i bought dog food in galleria, we made quick visits to several shoe stores. there was one store that was selling the shoes that were similar to what i'm having made in via venetto. the pair was 60% cheaper but when i tried them on, the material felt too rough. rey said that he loved my feet and he'd rather pay for expensive shoes than to see them red and blistered. i immediately made a silent vow to have a weekly foot spa!

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when we were at the grocery, rey and i were discussing about buying a car and getting a driver after the wedding. (i've been using fatherlily's car and i'm not planning to use that car when i'm out of fatherlily's house.) when we were doing our computations, we realized that we cannot afford to have a new car AND still employ a driver. and so i volunteered to learn how to drive so we wouldn't need a driver. but while we were talking (and shopping), rey had to continuously steer me out of danger. after saving me from at least 4 collisions with other shoppers or other grocery items, we realized that it would be more expensive for me to drive - with my low alertness level, i would probably meet an accident every week! and so rey had to volunteer to be my driver (of course he said this through his nose!!!) i had no choice but to accept his offer. (siempre, kunwari, napilitan ako.)

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the bonus for those who read this far:

rey and i had a tift last night about a careless remark uttered by one of his friends. my first reaction was to strike his friend out of our guest list and i didn't hesitate in telling rey what i thought! rey was smart enough not to make a big issue out of it.

but it bothered me so much that i just had to tell rey how bad i felt about his friend's remark. he explained that i misunderstood the remark. when i continued to pout and look as if i lost my precious kikay kit, he uttered to himself something that sounded like "oh no, it's the time of the month!". of course that made me cry.

when i woke up this morning, i found out that it IS the time of the month.

thoughts on intimate weddings

posted in weddings@work on 06 october 2004

hi, mik, meleen and clarice!

we're having an intimate wedding, too! we have 58 guests. 60 kasi kung kasama kaming 2.
i can understand couples who would want to invite everyone who had a part (no matter how small) in their lives. i can also understand parents who would want to invite their friends to their children's weddings (i can just hear the "she saw you when you were still in diapers" or "she prayed for you when you were taking the bar" dialogues.)

but for rey and i, we'd rather have a quiet meal with our family and really close friends for our first dinner together. (actually, we'd rather eat than go around and have pictures taken with all our guests.) we have lots of friends that we'd want to invite but we don't think we'd be able to entertain all of them properly if we have a ballroom full of people. (hmmm. tamad at matakaw lang talaga yata kami.)

with our 58 guests, we got to invite our immediate family and really close friends whom we see or communicate with on a personal level at least 3 times a week. (naku clarice, baka kailangan na kitang invite. buti na lang di ka pwede kasi nasa honeymoon ka. ang sama! hahaha!)

with a small wedding, we were able to make the invites that we wanted (i can't imagine how i can fold all those miniature cranes if i had 300 guests!) we were also able to request mandarin to serve the food that we wanted (they only agreed to serve the peking duck to a maximum of 60 people) and rey got his wish of giving out double cd's for our souvenirs (it would have been too expensive if we had more guests).

uninvited friends who are already married (or are preparing for their wedding) fully understood our decision. they too, experienced the difficulty of limiting the number of guests. but some friends (most of whom we haven't seen in years) would really come up and say, "o, i heard you were getting married, don't forget to invite me, ha". in these instances, our intimate wedding provides a ready excuse. 'yung iba naman, kung medyo hindi sensitive, sinasabihan talaga ng, "sorry, di ka invited."

i am just so thankful that my fatherlily is very supportive of our decision. since he's also helping us with our d-i-y stuff, he also appreciates the fact that we only have a few guests. ('yun nga lang, i think he's planning to host a little party for his own friends. is he celebrating the fact that after 29 years, he'd no longer have to support me and my dogs?)

sa akin talaga, the wedding is really our party so we should have the wedding that would make us happy. the wedding preps would be so much fun that way. (unless of course, your parents are paying for the wedding - that's another story.)

abie ni rey
mandarin/27 dec 04

dangling earrings by matus

i got my earrings from matus today and i love them!

for the price i paid, i believe i got a really good bargain. matus used brilliant stones and the workmanship was excellent! the earrings were exactly what i envisioned them to be and to think that i didn't give them a picture of the design that i wanted. i just told them that i wanted a pair of earrings, each of which is made of a row of diamonds on white gold. i also told them that i didn't want the earrings to be stiff - i wanted the earrings to move with me.

when i first saw the earrings on their display case, i immediately felt giddy! they were so beautiful. i was so happy with matus that i couldn't stop myself from gushing.

i am so glad i chose to get a pair of earrings in lieu of the expensive bridal gown that i wanted!