Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Love this Video

JK Wedding Entrance

I so love this video right now. If only we could do the same here...

Monday, November 23, 2009

Villa Luciana

After discarding the idea of having the reception at Villa Familia, the Cook and I went on looking for an alternative venue. I searched the Internet for possible venues near our area. I found a resort in San Pablo City that offers wedding packages. Their packages include: catering, venue, sound system, cake, room for an overnight stay and an emcee. All you need in a wedding reception, they have it. We were seriously considering holding the reception at this resort even if it is far from the church.

My BFF suggested a resort at a nearby baranggay. We went there to see the place. Coincidentally, there was a birthday party when we went to the resort. And Inay was a guest. :) We talked with the owner of the place and she gave us the price for renting the place. She was kind and since we are from the same area, she gave us a friendly-price. We asked if the sound system be included in her price. She said YES! So, the next day, we went back and paid the 50% downpayment to book the place.

So now, no more reception woes. And Cheps can now revise the invitation content and start printing. Woohoo!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Our rings


The Cook and I bought our wedding rings in Meycauayan, Bulacan. My college friend and Meycauayan native, M, helped us visit jelwery shops. She knows alot about buying jewelries so we're confident of buying the real kind and not the fake ones.

We went to Meycauayan early Saturday morning to avoid traffic and midday heat. Jewelry and pawn shops are everywhere in Meycauayan! It's kind of overwhelming. :)

Jewelry shops open at 10am and since we're early, we first ate breakfast at a nearby fastfood. After catching up stories with M, we started on our ring hunt.

Jewelries are priced by gram. In one of the shops, they price their rings as P1,400 per gram of gold. So, if your ring has 3 grams of gold, you'll pay P4,200 (around USD 87.5). Affordable, right? And you are guaranteed that you are buying the real thing.

We bought our rings in...(sorry, the name escapes me right now). We found our rings in a unique display of rings. Usually, you'll see jewelries in velvet boxes inside glass cabinets. In our case, we bought our rings from the what I call "rings-on-stick Collection". The rings are secured on a stick. Imagine your finger as the stick and you are wearing lots of rings in various designs and sizes. That's where we chose our rings. Notice that there are small tags in our rings. It shows how many grams of gold are used in the ring, the price and size.
Thanks M for helping us! Mwaaah!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Reception Woes

We are currently looking for an alternative reception venue. I love to have the reception at the Villa Familia Garden Resort but it seems it is not meant to be. The place is beautiful but the people working on booking the venue are difficult and confusing to talk with. Sad, but true.

September 2009
Inay and I visited the venue to see it for the first time. We were mesmerized and immediately liked the place. See post here. I told the resort staff that I want to use it for a wedding reception and she suggested alot of things like I can use the Master Bedroom during my pre-wedding photos, I can put the cake on the mini pool, etc. She said the rate in P6,000 for 12 hours of use. Affordable, right?

October 2009
The Cook and I went back to the resort for him to see the place and finally make the downpayment and book it for the wedding. The staff that I talked with before (Resort Staff 1) was on leave so we talked with another staff (Resort Staff 2). She called the owner of the resort to ask for the rates. She said it is now P8,000. Eight thousand?! A P2,000 increase from the previous month. I was taken aback by this since we budgeted P6,000 for venue rentals. We didn't book the place and will go back and talk to Resort Staff 1 in another time.

November 2009
We modified our budget to include the rental fee increase. I called the resort to see if Resort Staff 1 (RS1) is there. She isn't. The Cook and I went to the venue, hoping to finally book the place at P8,000. But lo and behold! Resort Staff 2 (RS2) said that their rate is P10,000. She said Resort Staff 1 thought that the event was for a birthday that's why she gave the P6,000 rate. I told her that it was impossible for RS1 to mistook the event as a birthday since I clearly told her that it was for a wedding. But RS2 insisted that there was a misunderstanding between me and RS1. And she gave other nonsense reasons why the rate is P10k (the guests are too many, they will have to pay more for the cleaning staff, etc). All bulls**t!

We were irritated by this constant changes in rental fees. They were booking the venue for other events, don't they know their rates that they keep on increasing it everytime we go there?! And this claim that there was a misunderstanding about what event the venue will be used, that's obviously a lie.

So now, that resort is off the list. I told Cheps not to start printing the invites since the reception venue is not yet final.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Pre-Cana Seminar

We were required to attend a Pre-Cana Seminar at the Parish. We registered for the Nov. 7-8 seminar. The next seminar will be on December which would be a little to late for us if we attend that schedule.

There were nine couples in the seminar and the first speaker was a retired teacher from the same school where Inay used to teach. She talked about responsibilities of a person to his/her partner. After an hour or so, another speaker came to discuss about Catechism. She also reminded us the prayers we should know as Catholics and how to properly make the sign of the Cross. :)

That afternoon, a retired teacher discussed about married life. About how to properly deal with marital problems that will arise. After the first day of seminar, I realized that what the speakers were teaching us was marriage is a very sacred thing and only death can make a couple part. Whatever problems, crisis, differences should be discussed by both partners, even with the help of a counselor to be able to resolve those. In short, there is no reason for a husband and wife to separate. Makes you think...

The next day, the seminar is only for a half-day. Another co-teacher of Inay was the speaker. :) And she always gave The Cook and my names whenever she gave sample situations. The Cook said among all the speakers, he liked this speaker best. He wasn't sleepy and learned alot from her. :)

I truly enjoyed these seminars. It makes you realize the gravity of the responsibilities you will be facing and the joys of married life. It prepares couples as they start on living as one.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Church Preparation


The Cook and I went to my Parish to fill out forms requesting our marriage. Both of us were given a form and would only answer in separate places, so as there will be no cheating. Hehe. The form contains questions about our religious backgrounds. Most are answerable by Yes or No.
After the sort of "religious pop quiz", Ms. Ana (the priest's secretary) gave us two booklets entitled "Sa Araw ng Aming Kasal". It contains all there is to know about Catholic weddings, including the Church's rules about the age of flower girls and ring bearers (should be 7 yo and up), number of principal sponsors (not too many. 4 is okay), etc. It also contains what happens during a wedding ceremony. We are to study the booklet since all we need to know about what happens in a wedding is in that booklet. Cost of the booklet: P50

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Gifts for the Pink Fairies

From now on, I'll be calling my friends and relatives who will help us out in the wedding as "Pink Fairies".

As a token of gratitude to the help that they will be giving us, I thought of giving them small gifts. I'll give them shower gels and aromatherapy soaps. Good thing they were on sale that time! I think they are the first items that I bought related to the wedding.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Family Planning Seminar

A requirement in getting a marriage license is a certificate from a family planning seminar. It is held every Thursday afternoon at the Municipal Health Center. I took a leave for one Thursday and the Cook and I attended the said seminar.

We arrived at the Health Center and there were couples already waiting. We signed a log book and saw that most of our batchmates in the seminar are having their weddings in November. I thought, "Are we the only ones who attended the seminar too early?" But, scanning the pages, there were couples marrying in January who already attended the seminar. We were not alone. :)

The first topic, the speaker talked about having a married life and the responsibilities to your partner and future children. The second topic is about family planning methods. But I think the seminar was a little bit too late for some of the soon-to-be-wives since they are obviously soon-to-be-moms also. :)

When it was time to discuss the family planning methods, I was laughing when the speaker talked about condoms. She joked about how to put it and who should put it and discard it. I won't tell you who should do what. :)

After the seminar, the speaker gave us our certificates and told us that we may give a donation at their donation box.

I enjoyed the seminar since I learned alot (not only about family planning) but about living with another person for the rest of your life. I learned pointers on how to go about once I become a wife and a mother.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Requesting a Marriage License

The Cook and I filed a request for a marriage license at the Municipal Hall last October 23. We submitted our Birth Certificates and filled out a form. As we were doing this, I saw a high school classmate who's also filing for a marriage license. She's getting married in December to a British man. Congrats to you G!

When you're living in a small town, it's more likely that you'll meet someone you know wherever you are. Case in point, The Cook. When we where at the Municipal Hall, everyone whom we transacted business with knew him. His eldest brother works at the MH and they immediately recognized The Cook. Even the Cashier staff whom we paid the license to is a cousin of The Cook. Small world. Silent wedding, be gone.

After Municipal Hall, we went to the Parish and submitted my Affidavit of Baptism (since my Baptismal Certificate is nowhere to be found). They gave us another document confirming that I was indeed baptized as a Catholic. The secretary advised us to keep a copy of the two documents for future reference. Since my original Baptismal Certificate is gone, I have these two documents as proof of it.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Tuxedo Mask

Since we were in Divisoria, we also bought the fabrics to use in The Cook's tuxedo. At first, he told me it was OK to just rent a tux since he will not use it in the future. I am saddened by this thought. Yes, it would definitely save us alot of money to just rent a tux, but I can't let him wear something not his own, something that is not new.

We bought the fabrics for the tux in one small shop. Then, the saleslady informed us that we should buy other materials for the tux and referred us to another shop. In this second shop, the saleslady imeediately got the set for the makings of a tux and gave us the price. It seems that creating a tux is more "mabusisi", not to mention more costly than my gown. :)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Divisoria Day

A week before All Souls' Day (Halloween), my Tita, Inay and I went to Divisoria to buy the fabric that will be used in my gown. The night before the trip, I showed my Tita (who is a seamstress) the design of my gown. It is a simple one-shoulder gown. My Tita scrutinized the design and immediately knew what fabrics to use.

The Cook wasn't able to go with us because he has an appointment with a doctor. :(

We went to Tabora, the mecca of all clothing stuffs. My Tita is a frequent buyer (suki) in one of the many fabric shops in Tabora so we had lots of discounts (one fabric was P50 less per yard).

Here is where we bought the fabrics:


Here is my Tita, choosing fabrics:


For my gown, we bought the following fabrics:
Silk Georgette
Satin
Dupe-dyed
Gina cloth (lining)
Veil cloth

I forgot the prices though. But they were less than P1,500.

The fabric shop also sells wedding accessories so I bought the arrhae, cord and veil. I chose the simplest designs so I could personalize them myself. :)
 
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