Tragedy

The Philippines was hit by typhoon "Ondoy" (Ketsana) over the weekend. My apartment was affected and good thing The Cook and I were there. He just arrived last Friday amidst pouring rain. Saturday morning, the day where we plan to go to the province, that was when the flood hit our area.

We (correction, He) quickly moved appliances to the cabinets and put my books and shoes in plastic bags. Me, I was standing at the center of the room looking at the flood as it quickly seeped into the bedroom. I was almost crying in disbelief that the place which I call home is suddenly being ransacked by flood. I was in shock. In short, I was a damsel in distress (* kicks meself).

After putting important things into safety, The Cook and I hurriedly left the apartment. He left his luggage above the cabinet since it was heavy. We were shocked at what we saw outside. The flood inside the apartment was knee-deep, outside, it was chest-high! We bravely crossed the flood, holding our bags above our heads. There was no flood outside our street and we waited for a ride there.

We left the apartment at 11am and finally got home at 11pm. 12 hours of waiting rides, commuting and traffic! I was sad that The Cook had to be welcomed by a typhoon. I know he was tired from his flight but he was the one who did all the work in ensuring our safety. He kept assuring me that it was a good thing that we were still in the apartment when the flood happened. We were able to safekeep some of our belongings.

Even it rained hard and flooded in many cities, I still believe that God is merciful. The typhoon could have happened during office/school hours, or at night. But the typhoon hit us on a weekend where everybody was at home, with the family. Stuff that we lose can be replaced, our loved ones, irreplaceable.

The Cook Returns

The Cook will be coming back here in the Philippines this week. Yippeee! After a 9-month contract overseas, he is finally returning. And you know what that means. Start of our wedding preparation.

(I try not to panic as I look at the calendar and realize that we have a few months left till The Day.)

Guest List

Since the Cook and I cannot do anything yet about the wedding, we drafted our guest list so we'll know how may will be invited. We agreed to have a maximum of 40 guests each, including the drivers. I want everybody at the reception to eat and have fun. I attended a wedding before wherein the yayas of the flower girls and ring bearers are sitting in one corner since there is not enough room at the reception hall for them. Sad. :(

My list: 39

His list: 37

It's a tight race. I hope we could stick to these numbers.

Invitation colors

My college friend Cheps of DIY Pinay is doing the design of our wedding invitation. We haven't sat down and discussed about it so we've been exchanging e-mails in lieu of a face-to-face meeting. But we'll definitely meet for sure.

Colors. I told her that I liked pink and brown. I never realized that I should be more specific. I know that there are different shades of a color but I was amazed how one color could have it own family of colors.

I checked out Answers.com for a list of colors and their pantone. There's Light Pink, Salmon Pink, Amaranth (first time I ever heard) and even Hot Pink and Shocking Pink. I gave Cheps the list of shades of pink and brown that I like from the myriads of pinks and browns available in the palette. I told her to be in-charge of what specific colors to use, the important thing for me is that they should be pink and brown. I'll not be OC about their shades. :)

Dresses

I browsed the Nordstrom website and I was captured by all the beautiful dresses. I quickly searched for bridesmaids dresses for inspiration of cuts, designs, etc. Here are some of those I liked.

I specially liked this one. It looks light and airy. And in pink.