Wedding Planning All Over

Another wedding coming up for my friends! Yehey! I mentioned here somewhere that Mands and Weng got engaged and are planning for their May 2010 wedding. Now, Charline and Allan got engaged! So they will probably get married next year or the year after. It really excites me to know my friends are getting married, to know that they finally found someone to share the rest of their lives with, their successes, happiness and even their failures with. It gets me doubly excited to help them in their wedding preparations. Offer them some tips and how to go about the preparation itself. Some friends even tell me I should consider wedding planning as a second job. Which I think I will greatly enjoy.

I wouldn't want to go through it without any background or experience. Well, I have planned our own wedding but I would think I need more information about the industry. Did you know that there are schools who offer wedding planning courses? One of them is Sheffield School. Sheffield actually began as an interior design school but they have now included wedding and event planning course in their curriculum. They are located in the heart of Manhattan. Oh if only I live in New York like Grace. Their website will show you the topics covered in their wedding and event planning course. I would probably enroll in this course. Sheffield School's training will include "look book" supplements, virtual internship programs and your personal student advisor among other things. I'm itching to request for a free course catalog to know more about this course. Maybe I should start charging my friends for being their bridal consultanti.

For Resty

Here are my answers to your questions:

1. POSD is Public Order and Safety Department. The family planning seminar is held at the back of the POSD building. Parang walang phone line dun sa mismong place where they hold the seminar pero here's the contact number that I get in touch with to ask questions...697-1325.

2. Pwede ka na magsubmit agad ng requirements for the marriage license sa Office of Civil Registry ng city hall without the seminar. Kaya lang kailangan mo pa ulit bumalik para sa seminar dahil nga isa sa requirements yun. Since we don't have time to go there again and again kaya we went on a Thursday para after the seminar, diretso submit na lahat ng requirements. Yung iba namin kasabay sa family planning pangalawang balik na nila yun sa city hall dahil yung una nilang punta wala pa silang dalang certificate ng family planning.

Here are my related posts regarding the marriage license application in Antipolo City Hall.

While Waiting
Marriage License

Best to call the contact number I gave you if you have other questions na hindi ko nasagot :)

My Maid of Honor Arrives

But before she did (this was Thursday before the wedding), we spent the entire day doing the packaging for our placecard holders. I bought the candy holders really early into our wedding planning. I think around March or April. Bought them at Living Well and got the cake and bell toppers.

I initially asked Grace if she could purchase for me the personalized M&M’s. But this proved to be very expensive. So when I saw those personalized Hershey’s kisses from The Knot website, I thought to myself, I can do that. I just need to buy the kisses and then print out those stickers (they are the same kind of round stickers I used for our save-the-date cards). But because I was out of time, I didn’t do the stickers anymore but stuck with Hershey’s kisses. My knows the local distributor so I can get them on discounted price anyway. Those were what we picked up from My the week before that.

So there we were, the whole morning of Thursday packing the chocolates in their individual packages and putting the name cards with their ribbons. That was a bit easy, but Marj wanted these delivered to them and packed per table.

Look how pretty they are

We can’t just put them in plastic bags because that will ruin the organza ribbons and the name cards, so we were desperate in finding boxes for them. We couldn’t find any in National Bookstore and Robinsons Department Store. So off we went to SM Megamall. SM really does have it all for you. We found shoe-box typed boxes at their Stationery department. I was exhausted after that because before the task of finding the right box, we were at Greenhills looking for jewelry for my mother. She wanted a specific kind of necklace that will go for her earrings that she wanted to use for the wedding. We then picked up my dad, before eating dinner and finally going home.

But the night was still too early for us. When we got home, we boxed all 180++ pieces of packed kisses in their respective boxes. Each box were labeled with the names of the guests for each table. And then I emailed Marj our guestlist with the seating arrangement. Had a few minutes to rest, and then my brother and I are again out of our house. This was probably around 10 in the evening already. We first headed to Lorena’s house to pick up Heili and Grace’s dresses. And then we were off to Makati to bring Heili’s dress and pick up the CD they made for the surprise audio-visual presentation for us. After that, we were cruising our way to the NAIA terminal 1 to pick up Grace. How pathetic the arrival area of our international airport is! You have to pay P30 just to get inside that waiting area where you can see the balikbayans across a road (you can even cross the road to fetch them, they have to cross the road to get to you) and watch them from a TV monitor that will not even show you a clear shot of your balikbayan’s face. Grace’s flight landed early but we waited for her for almost an hour to come out. I was watching the TV monitor the whole time but I didn’t see her, when I set my eyes across the road she was already standing there hahaha. Jay and I had to go back to the parking lot, get the car and go around the terminal to get her. Can’t anyone think of a better way to do this? We have lots of Overseas Filipino Workers. I’m sure a lot them come back to the Philippines each day, can’t we atleast make their arrival easy for their families waiting for their return and for the OFW’s as well?!?!?!

Anyway, we brought Grace to her condo after that. It was already Friday by then and was past 1am. I had her fit the gown because if there alterations to be done, we have to be up and about early morning of Friday to go to the modista. And as luck would have it, the dress didn’t fit her. Blame it on her for giving wrong measurements harharhar. We left her to rest but when I got home, I still had to some packing. I still had to pack my clothes – those I will bring to the hotel (nights before and after the wedding) and those I will bring for our honeymoon. Finally got some shut-eye at 3am but was already awake by 630am.

The Days Before

I’ve been back to work since Thursday last week but haven’t blogged much because I’m not sure how I’ll start blogging again now that I’m married – yuck ang drama! Di ko lang kasi maisip if I should start blogging where I left off (a few days before the wedding) or blog about my daily life as a newlywed.

Anyways, let me go back a few days before our wedding day.

Monday night

Joema and I met up with the choreographer of our first dance, Phyllis Lim. Phyllis is such a sweetheart. She not only arrived on time, but she was early (promptness is plus points for me as I’m a stickler for time). She didn’t teach us any steps that we were uncomfortable doing. She suggested that we do separate steps as intro for our dance but Joema was adamant he will only dance if we’re dancing together hehe. The first part of our dance was … shucks I don’t remember what style of dancing it was called =P The second part was swing. Phyllis was really patient in teaching us. She was the one urging us to practice, practice and practice. She even suggested we record our dance on video so that when we practice by ourselves, we have something to guide us. I'll upload this video on my multiply account soon.

We chose the song “Honey, Honey” from the OST of Mamma Mia. Actually, Joema was in charge of all the songs/music used in the wedding. He gave me the list of the songs and I just gave my final sign of approval.

Phyllis even gave us some tips like we should practice before our first dance. If we have an “alone” time between the church and the reception, she said we should practice then since if we just go there unprepared even if we practiced the night before we might forget a few steps. Another important tip she gave, never make eye contact with your audience. If you’re not a seasoned perfomer (surprise, surprise we’re both not!), you should not make eye contact with anyone during the dance. If you have to look at the audience, look at the top of their heads. She said making eye contact will make us lose our concentration and forget our steps.

When Phyllis left, we felt we accomplished so much hehe. Now learning the steps is one thing, pulling this first dance off is another.

Tuesday

Joema and I met up for another round of dance practice. This would be the last day that Joema and I will see each other before the wedding. He was telling me we should see each other Friday night so that we can practice but I told him we shouldn't. We were both eagerly anticipating our wedding day.

Wednesday

Since it was only a few days before the wedding, I planned to go to confession on this day. I went to EDSA Shrine because they had regular confessions everyday. It was my first time to confess there so I though there will be a confessional box. Of course before going, I had an examination of conscience and started listing down all my sins. It was really my plan to just read the list when I go to confession. When I got inside the “box”, the set-up was face-to-face with the priest. I had a big paper bag with me because I brought home Mama’s gown. I reached into it because I placed my prayer book there with my list. The priest (he’s a funny one!) said “Oh I thought you were going to give me pasalubong” ahahaha. He was I think of Indian descent so I was surprised to hear him speak Tagalog. When he saw my list, he just asked me to hand over the list and he read it himself. There’s probably something on my list that made him ask my age. When I told him, he asked me if I have a boyfriend so I told him yes and that we’re getting married. I also told him that we were having a mixed marriage because my fiancé isn’t Catholic. Then he asked “What? Muslim?”. Before I left he asked about the wedding again and I said it was that coming Saturday and he wished me well. It was a very “easy” confessional. I wasn’t terrified to be there at all. The priest was very warm and very “forgiving”.

Countdown: 5 days to go

I think I spoke too soon that I'm not worried. Because the other night (mm...that was Saturday night)I woke up in the middle of the night (nyak! redundant!) so worried about some wedding details. Now, I don't even remember what it was about. Good thing, I was able to fall asleep again. This morning I woke up really early and worried again! I know I woke up early because my alarm went off only after a few hours (I think). Hate that feeling that your mind is awake but you still don't want to get up and fix yourself. Hate it that I woke up before my alarm went off. I'm pretty sure I don't have anything more to worry about. I just keep on thinking about the small details which is sooo frustrating.

I'm also paranoid I won't fit into my wedding dress. For the past couple of days, I've been eating rice three times a day and not going to the gym. I only went once last week for a 30-minute cardio exercise, that's after a week of rest (because of my sprain). So I decided to go today and surprise surprise! I lost 1.5 pounds. Now that is amazing. I don't know what happened for me to lose that weight. Although I've been drinking tea and using this foot patch that's supposed to detoxify you. Note to self: blog about this patch after all the wedding hulabaloo!

And then later this afternoon, we'll be doing something as a surprise for the our wedding guests hehe. I hope we pull it off. (Is that giving away so much on what it is?)

Countdown: 7 days to go

It's exactly one week before our wedding. I'm left here at home while my family left for the province to visit the grave of my Tito. They didn't want to bring me just to be safe, since I already proved that the saying is true for me hehe. Anyways, I stayed here the whole day. Joema didn't visit because his family stayed with him at the condo. It's their last weekend together, his last as a bachelor, so I can't force him to come here. Atleast I still get to be with my family everyday. Unlike him, when he started living at the condo he only saw him atleast every other week.

So what have I been doing for the past 12 hours? Not really twelve hours because I woke up at 10 this morning. I think I haven't slept that long since we were in the thick of wedding preparations. Then I started watching Samurai X heheh or should I say Rurouni Kenshin asindicated in the DVD. I saw Jay watching it the other day and I was hooked. I was fascinated that it tackles much of the political arena in Japan during an era after their revolution. I just don't know how historically accurate are the things in this anime. Or if these are all fictional. The primary character, Kenshin Himura, known as Battousai the Manslayer was a former part of the Imperialist group. As his name suggested he slays the enemies of the Imperialist government. Most of the fights are done with much talking between the two opponents. Himura usually convinces his enemies that their principles are not for the good of the majority in Japan. See I'm really into this hehehe. One more thing, Himura reminds me of Zaizai. I don't know why because as Joema points out Himura is Japanese while Zaizai is Taiwanese =P. Must be how the Japanese anime is where one moment the charachter is serious and then the next the drawing will be all whacky. Zaizai is like that in his Taiwanese dramas and in real life I suppose because he's the clown in F4.

Okay, I'll continue watching as I'm having a hard time typing and watching the subtitles of this anime.

Countdown: 8 days to go

I'm on a holiday today (one of the rare times that The Bank is on official holiday and the outside worlds still have to work hehehe). My brother and I did some errands for the wedding. We first picked up my purse from Dream Bride. I actually have my wedding gown already together with the pillows, veils and cord, we picked them up last Saturday. But Tria was not satisfied on the purse so she had it re-done. I'm really really happy with Tria. She didn't scrimp on the materials used in my gown and the paraphernalias even though I really haggled with her on the price. It doesn't matter if you paid a little or you paid so much, she really gives you her 100% attention and makes sure your gown is really beautiful. As I kept on mentioning, I'm really happy with how my wedding dress turned out. It was more beautiful, if I can say so myself, now that I've seen it complete, than when we had our last fitting. It's simple and elegant.

Our next stop was meeting with Marj. This is actually the fifth time I've met up with her. The first time, I was with Penny, and we were still scouting for wedding coordinators then. I actually didn't meet up with any other coordinators as I was satisfied with my meeting with Marj. The second time, I was with Joema, and we discussed the details of our wedding. I was actually surprised because Marj contacted me more than a month before the wedding to have the meeting set up. I was expecting to receive word from a month before but was happy she was pro-active that I didn't have to be the one to initiate the meeting. The second time, we were supposed to have the final menu tasting with Eloquente but Ms. Tina begged off at the last minute. Marj decided we could still meet up and jsut make chika hehe. But we still managed to talk about so may things about the wedding details. She has a lot of stories about her other brides. She also makes suggestions on how we should do things. By the way, she's also our emcee for the reception so I'm pretty sure our program will flow smoothly. I didn't actually have to think about the program proper because she just gave it to me and we just have to make some inputs. She and her husband, Carlo, were also with us for our final food tasting (4th meeting). I was with Joema and my parents then, so Marj got the chance of meeting the 'rents already hehe. She and Ms. Tina talked about the details for our wedding reception. In the end, we had Carlo be in charge of our sound system (my quartet specifically requested for a direct box and monitor speaker, which are not included in the basic sound system of Eloquente). And of course, we all had a taste of the good food provided by Eloquente. Today (5th meeting), I turned over some of the wedding stuff to Marj. She really wanted to make sure that her bride are worry-free come wedding day. That's why she requests most of the stuff to be turned over to her a week before the wedding. We (me and my helpers - Jay, Mama and Papa) were still finishing the misalettes last night but everything turned out okay. Just a few more things and everything will be in Marj's hands. I can sleep well (if I can) the night before the wedding.

After the meeting with Marj, we went to My's house. We picked up the Hershey's Kisses we'll be using as fillers for our place cardholders. My knows where the local distributor of Hershey's is so I requested her to buy a box for me.

Last stop was SM Megamall for some last-minute buying. Although I'm pretty sure I will still be back there next week to buy more stuff for the wedding hehehe.

When We're Not Busy Going to Hospitals

We managed to buy Joema's shoes. Where else but at Cubao X.

Joema choosing among the myriad of shoes

Mirror shot

And we also got his suit.

Mang Oman of KNIK altering the length of the pants

Waiting...waiting...

Two more weeks, baby!

Invites Out

I know I’ve mentioned that we started giving out our invitations. I’m very happy with how our invites turned out. We had A Perfect Creation print the main invite as I blogged before. We went back there, I think after a week, and got our sample invite. We were expecting to get the invitations by the end of September but I think they had some problems with the printing. It was okay because we asked them to make additional 20 pieces (we originally ordered just 80). Iona informed me that there were some delays and that the invites will be ready by 6 Oct. But the 6th was a Monday and they don't open shop on Mondays. Iona suggested that they can deliver it the following day instead. So on the 7th the invites (all 100 pcs of them) were delivered right on our doorstep.

The invites came in these cute brown boxes

But there were some pieces that were damaged - either there were stains or the embossing was not correct so I asked Iona again if they can do anything about it. She said they will replace all those pieces and again had them delivered to our house. The replacements were delivered today. Now that is customer service!

Anyway, on the night of the 7th I started assembling our invitations...

The rest of the invite was DIY. I made the RSVP card..

and the map..

and the sticker (just like our save-the-dates, i just corrected the order of the name, guy's name first yada yada and changed the font)...

and the envelopes too..

(which my family helped me fold, our little assembly line)

So when you open the envelope you will see this...

and it will open up to this..

My Kumpil

The day before my scheduled confirmation, I emailed Penny and confirmed with her our meeting time. I had a fitting in the morning so I had asked her to meet up around 12nn (when I called San Miguel Church they told me the confirmation is scheduled at 2:30pm but we should be there by 1:30pm and there's a seminar at 2pm). She replied saying that she needs to bring their car to the talyer to have it fixed. Dinaan kasi nya sa baha kaya ayaw na umandar. But after a few hours, she emailed me again saying the car has “miraculously healed” haha!

The next day, my confirmation day (naks!), while I was waiting for her to pick me up, she sent me a message saying the car won’t start. Nakupo! But all’s well as we figured we can just commute going to Malacanang. I called my Tita who’s familiar with the area and asked whether we can go there via LRT-Purple Line. I met up with Penny (and her family) and her dad gave us a ride to the Santolan LRT station. I think it was already 1pm by this time. I don’t know what was into me that day but I wasn’t really worried we won’t be on time. And that’s big for me because I’m a stickler for time. I hate being late (this is the reason Joema and I always have our petty quarrels). But that day I was calm, I wasn’t worried. So anyway, when we got to the station there was a long line for the LRT card, which is unusual because they have a lot of card-dispensing machines there. But on that particular day, only 3 or 4 were working. We lined up and after a few minutes got our cards. When we got off the Legarda station we didn’t know where to go. We figured we can ride the taxi from there going to San Miguel Church. My Tita told me we can also ride a jeep going to Quiapo, get off Mendiola and from there ride another jeep going to San Miguel Church. But according to Penny’s dad jeepneys weren’t allowed in that area and that me wight have to walk going to the church. So when we were out of the station, we started waiting for a taxi or jeep to Quiapo. But most of the jeep signs were Stop and Shop or Divisoria. Okay now we’re lost. We had to ask one of the trike drivers there. Buti na lang alam ni Manong. He told us to cross the street and ride a jeep going to Quiapo. Then get off Petron which is along Arlegui Street and there we can ride a jeep going to San Miguel. We followed his instructions and got off Arlegui and rode the San Miguel jeep. I had to ask the driver if he’s going to pass San Miguel Church and he said yes, thankfully. But there’s this creepy passenger (there were only 6 of us inside the jeep – me, Penny, a lady with a child, the creepy passenger and then another kid seating in front), who immediately asked if we’re going there for the confirmation. I said yes. Then he asked kung sino magpapakumpil, so I answered na ako. But I wasn’t looking at him when I answer him at baka matandaan nya mukha ko. I can’t not answer him din naman dahil baka kung ano gawin nya noh. And I was seated inside inside the jeep and he’s seated right beside the door, the only way I can get off the jeep is passing by him or thru the window haha! And then he started telling us that we should go there during fiesta because the confirmation is free during fiesta. And then he started saying that date of the fiesta, and that they changed the date in the recent years. Was praying so hard we reach the church immediately, not only because we’re running late but also because of that creepy passenger. He was helpful but nevertheless still creepy.

We reached the church siguro quarter to two. There were a few more people coming in after us. I accomplished the form and then had to pay the P600 fee (plus P25 pa for the small medallion). Then we proceeded inside the church. The person in charge, a bald guy, let’s call him Manong Kalbo, started giving us instructions. He was a bit OA in teaching us what to do. We’re not a bunch of idiots you know. It seemed like he was talking to a group of second graders. And I felt like a second grader, I was terrified of him. It seemed we can’t make any mistakes and if we do, we’re a bunch of morons. He discussed part by part the things that will be done during the confirmation. And then the last part he warned us that we shouldn’t seat when the Bishop says “Magsiyuko kayo” or else we wouldn’t be getting our confirmation certificate. But what do you know, when we got to that part, it did sound as “Magsiupo kayo” ahahaha.

Altar of the National Shrine of St. Michael and The Archangels

The Bishop was a small old man. He was old but you can see that he’s also very strict (we were warned actually, I don’t know if we’re brainwashed into thinking it or if he really is that strict). Anyways, since it was obvious most of us were there because we’re getting married (Catholics should have their confirmation as early as age 12), he gave some words of wisdom regarding getting married. What really stuck to my head was his song. He was lecturing us not to engage in pre-marital sex. He told us that brides who wore white and are not virgins are hypocrites. That the song should not be “Here comes the bride, all dress in white”. The bride should instead were polka dots and the song should go “Here comes the bride, three months inside, six months to go and … “ I forgot the last few words. But we were all laughing. He was laughing himself. Like a kid, I might add. Imagine a kid who’s laughing at something naughty he has done but is trying to suppress his laughter or his parents might catch him. That’s what he was like at that time. So funny! Penny and I were still talking about it on the ride home.

St. Michael

When I got my certificate pala I checked it and Penny’s name was misspelled. We had to have it corrected but it was fast naman so no sweat.

With my Ninang Penny. Thanks Ninang! :)

Kawawang Bata

Mukha kaming kawawa ni Joema nung Saturday. Ewan ko ba kung bakit wala kaming dalang pera non.

We first went to Denden’s to pick up our wedding rings. Remember, we weren’t able to get them because there was an error in the engravings? So we were finally able to get them with the correct engravings. They are beautiful. I love my wedding ring. It goes beautifully with my engagement ring.

We’ve also booked A Perfect Creation for the printing of our wedding invitation. We actually contacted another printer, that’s highly recommended by Pao but they cannot do the printing that we liked. I wanted the texts embossed and the design dry sealed. Iona of A Perfect Creation gave us a very reasonable price for the printing of our invitation plus they didn’t require a minimum number of invitations. Yey! Our invites will still be mostly DIY. We only booked them for the printing. I ordered papers from them for our envelopes but I will make those. It’s came out cheaper as the sheet was only P35 while if we have the envelopes custom-made they will charge us P20/envelope. I figured we still have time and we don’t have the budget haha so I better rely on my crafting skills! I will also printout the RSVP cards and the church/venue map as well. I think our invitations came out more expensive (per piece) because we decided to stick with our design, compared to just picking out readily available designs from other invitation suppliers but I’m happy with how our invitation looks like. No other invitation supplier (yung mga natanong ko lang naman) has a design like that.

Joema and I had lunch at Philcoa before we headed out to Kamuning. We went to Mands’ tailor, Knik, for Joema’s suit. We actually went to Onesimus the Friday before that and inquired how much the suit will cost us. Since we can’t buy their ready-made suits - Joema has a very small frame, even their small sizes don’t fit him properly – we had to have his suit made to order. It would cost us atleast 10k if we had it tailored at Onesimus. But at Knik, the price was only about 6k that includes labor and tela for the coat, pants and white longsleeves polo. Here’s the nakakahiya moment – when they asked us for money for the deposit, I asked if it was okay to pay only one thousand pesos (yun na lang buo kong pera). The old lady told me if we can make it atleast 2thousand haha. Omygosh! Kakahiya wala na kaming pera by that time. Ewan ko why it didn’t occur to us to withdraw money before proceeding with our other errands. Buti na lang Joema had 600 pesos pa and I had some one hundred peso bills on my wallet. It didn’t occur to me to ask if we could pay by check pero siguro kasi I thought they might want cash because theirs is a small shop, yung mukhang only cash payments are made.

So anyway, after that we went to my parish to submit our banns and get the permission from the parish priest. The form for the permission indicated that we had to pay P100 so I was expecting to shell out just that. But when we got there, the lady asked us to pay seven hundred pesos for the marriage banns. Ayayayay! Super walang wala na talaga kaming pera. We paid 6 hundred peso bills and then a fifty plus two twenty peso bills and two five peso bills. Haha baryang barya talaga! Joema and I were whispering to each other we didn’t have money to go home. Buti na lang the parish is just in the village next to ours. I told him we still have change for the tricycle and if we didn’t have enough change for the jeepney fare we can walk na lang! And if worst comes to worst, I would have called Penny and asked for money (she lives in the same village as the parish). Buti na lang din the atm machine outside the village was online. Joema was able to withdraw money kaya we had money na when we got home. Laugh trip talaga! Note that on our first two stops (rings and invitations) we paid by check haha. Note to self: always bring lots of cash when doing wedding related errands!



A Perfect Creation
44 Magiting St. Teacher's Village QC
Tel No. 9205910

KNIK
5 Kamuning Road, Kamuning QC
Tel No. 9284168

For Liz

Here's my answer to your comment:

1. Pre-cana seminar - Villa San Miguel couples should get their seminar from EDSA Shrine. The seminar is a two-part thingy. First seminar is Christian Doctrine which is every Saturday 8am-12nn at the second floor (stairs going up the second floor along Ortigas). When you get there to register tell them its for marriage purpose since they also do this seminar for couples who are having their child baptised. You can just drop by they will let you attend the seminar. The second part is Parenthood which is every 4th Saturday of the month 8:30am - 12nn (but we actually finished around 2pm). This one you have to call first their office to register. It's usually done in the free clinic, near the women's rest room (entrance along EDSA).

EDSA Shrine
EDSA cor. Ortigas Ave.
Tel. No. 6315734

2. Delegation from Sacred Heart Jesus - just go the parish office of Sacred Heart and pay the fee of P500. Sacred Heart is near Villa San Miguel, just a ride a jeep going to Quiapo and tell the driver to drop you off Acacia Lane. You won't miss it because it's the corner where Jollibee is at, Jollibee is at the left side of the road. Ride a tricycle parked at Jollibee and tell them to bring you to Sacred Heart. When we went there the church was being renovated but the parish office is open. And we also went on a weekday so I'm not sure if they are open on weekends.

Hope this helps! Drop a line if you need anything else. :)

You Don’t Give Me Flowers

The other day, when Joema and I were together we heard this song being played over the radio. I told him that was my song for him although we have to change the word “anymore” to “ever since” LOL I know that’s grammatically wrong but anyway. For the more than eight years that we’ve been going out, he only gave me flowers twice. Not that I really care. I’m not really fond of flowers but of course if someone gives me I will definitely be touched. My father gives me flowers on my Valentine’s day and birthday. :D

So choosing the flowers for the wedding was a no-brainer for me. No-brainer in the sense that I wouldn’t care what flowers you give me as long as there are some haha. Some brides might have envisioned themselves walking down the aisle holding a bouquet with their favorite flowers or something that has sentimental value to them but I’m clearly not one of those brides.

My mother and I went to Mang Boy’s stall in Dangwa to get a quotation from him. He wasn’t here but Mang Dinan (his florist) brought us to Mang Boy’s house, thinking that Mang Boy was still there about ready to deliver some flowers. But he already left, so Mang Dinan and Mang Jon showed us their photo albums and asked us about my wedding motif and proceeded on giving us a package. When I told them my motif was plum (or kulay talong as Mang Dinan wrote hehe) they immediately told me that tulips will be good for my bouquet. I was happy with that because I initially wanted tulips or calla lilies for my bouquet. These were the only flowers I’ve seen with colors that are the same as my motif. When I asked them about the calla lilies they told me that the variety of calla lilies in plum color will have small flowers, hence it’s better to go with the tulips. Okay I wouldn’t disagree with that as they are the specialists. Then they showed me a bunch of other flowers for my entourage, principal sponsors and the mothers. I just agreed to everything they said. After a few minutes we were done. Their initial price was a bit steep. My mother was there ready to haggle and haggle she did. If I were the only one there I would have looked for another stall and asked for a different package or I would have agreed to their original price. Actually when they gave the original price, I initially asked them to change the flowers to lower the price but they insisted that I should get tulips for my bouquet as this will be my special day hehe. They eventually gave in to the price that’s within our budget. Hep hep hurray for the haggling skills of my mother!

Two weeks after I was back in Dangwa together with Penny. Now Penny on the other hand, definitely knows what she wants for her flowers. She even brought along a picture of the bouquet she wanted. She had some input on what colors she wanted for her entourage too. They gave her a discount because I was with her. Naks! I, on the other hand, asked them to add a flower as my hairpiece. They showed me a flower and then I agreed, again haha! On that second visit, I was able to see Mang Boy. He was there but Mang Dinan was still the one who made the package for Penny. I guess that's what bosses do you know - boss their people around hehe kidding!

Boy Mahusay
Jarielle's Flowershop
Stall # 16 Dos Castillas St.
Sampaloc, Manila

Church Requirements

We finally went back to Archbishop’s Palace to submit some of the church requirements – baptismal certificate, marriage license, license to solemnize marriage, delegation from SHJ Parish and pre-cena.

Baptismal Certificate

Joema and I got ours separately. No need to get it together since we actually weren’t the ones who got it. My mother and brother got mine at the Our Lady of Grace Parish in Caloocan. If you’re baptized there as well, here are their contact details:

Open Monday to Friday
Office Hours: 8:00 am – 11:30am, 1:00pm – 4:30pm
No releasing during holidays
Tel No. 634-5905
Fax No. 361-9515

If a representative, other than parent/s will get the certificate for you make sure to give authorization letter and photocopy of your ID.

As for Joema’s certificate, this was cause for an argument for us, simply because he kept on insisting that their church don’t issue baptismal certificates for marriage purposes. He kept on telling me that he will give me his original baptismal certificate while I kept on telling him that he has to get a new one. Oh well, atleast he was convinced to get it after our argument hehe. I think his mother got if for him as well.

License to Solemnize Marriage

This was easy to get since our officiating priest was easy to contact. He celebrates the first Friday masses here at the office so I just walked up to him and asked him for a copy of his license. He just faxed me the copy and we’re done.

Pre-cana Seminar

EDSA Shrine conducts their pre-cana seminar in two parts. The first part I blogged about here. The second part we attended last August 23. There were six couples in the seminar. The facilitators were a couple as well. They were married for 26 years already (if I remembered it correctly). They compared getting married to building a house with the pillars of the house, the stairs and the door representing the different facets of getting married (is it obvious I forgot most of it hehe). The latter part of the seminar we were asked to answer a questionnaire – the questionnaire was the same one we answered in the seminar held for our marriage license – and the answers were discussed.

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Rhoda and Jopen went with us to the church. We needed them as witnesses for our dispensation (mixed marriage). I’m very grateful they gave us their time (we all had to get off from work early to go Villa San Miguel). This dispensation as I mentioned before is sort of a contract that’s done between a Catholic and non-Catholic getting married in Catholic rites. The dispensation basically states that as the Catholic, I vow to remain a Catholic and to bring up our future children as Catholics, while he signs the contract in agreement. Both parties and the witnesses sign the contract and the parish priest as well. At AP, they have a stamp of Fr. Jun Sescon with his signature so he doesn’t need to be present there. The next day we brought the dispensation at the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila in Intramuros. They said to wait two to three days to pick up the document. I guess they will give us another document that we need to submit to AP. I will have to ask my brother to pick-up the document this Friday.

As for the other requirements, Brother Alexis gave us the forms for the banns and the permission from my parish. We already have the forms for the canonical interview but we have to schedule it with our officiating priest. We also have to get a schedule for my confirmation.

What I'm Doing Right Now

Consolidating my list of prenup pics to be included in our guestbook with Joema's list. We've had the CD for a few months now but haven't finalized our list yet. It's all Joema's fault really. Our game plan was I write my list then he writes his then we compare them and include in the final list the photos that both of us included in our list. So after only a week of the CD with me, I gave it to Joema. He said he looked at it within days of receiving it, and had written down his favorites. But lo and behold he lost the piece of paper where he wrote it. He wasn't able to look at the pictures again after that until last week when I gave him a deadline for his list - finish or not yet finish pass your paper! LOL I'm having a hard time because I have more than 100 photos on my list and he has around 60 on his (we had to submit around 40-60 photos for the guestbook) but only around 25 photos are both on our lists. So frustrating! And it's so hard to choose if there are tons of great photos to choose from. But this is a good probleam really. So I'll stop whining and continue with what I'm doing.

Imeldific Much?

I was supposed to have my 2nd fitting with Tria last Saturday, but it was moved to this coming Saturday. During my first fitting they advised me to bring my wedding shoes for my second fitting. Joema and I went to Marikina Shoe Expo (aka Cubao Expo, I still call the place Marikina Shoe Expo...old habits die hard) a few Saturdays ago to see if I can buy cheap wedding shoes there. I didn't want to spend so much on white shoes that I will use just once, unless I get married again. But then again, if that's a second wedding then I don't want to wear white. Anyway, everyone tells me that I should buy white shoes for the wedding so I was looking for a white pair. I already went around the malls but I couldn't find anything that I like. Anyway, Joema and I looked at almost every store in Marikina Shoe Expo when my mom arrived to meet up with us. We went around the complex one more time with her. And before we exited we saw one shoe store that Joema and I didn't enter. Actually, they have a rack of shoes/sandals outside the store that were selling for P200 a pair. I tried on a silver pair of strappy sandals and immediately liked it. I figured even if I don't get to use it for my wedding I can still use them on other weddings (especially Pam's upcoming wedding). The saleslady asked us to enter the store because there were more choices inside. While inside I saw this really cute pair of strappy sandals in gold/cream. My mother told me to try it because it can pass up for wedding shoes. I tried it and it looked good on my feet so I bought it. Yey! My wedding shoes for just P600 ahahaha! All the shoes in the store are on sale so I looked around for more shoes hehe. I've been looking for office shoes for a while now and I scored this gray peep toe slingbacks for just P300. So you thought I was done shoe shopping didn't you? Well, I wasn't. While I was trying on different shoes, another girl was in the store trying on pair after pair of shoes. I liked one of the wedge sandals that she tried on and asked the saleslady on what rack are those sandals displayed. I think she just took the sandals from the girl and asked me to try it on. I was a bit shy to try it on because the girl was still deciding what to take. In the end, she left the store empty handed. So then, I tried the sandals. And they looked good on my feet. My mother bought it for me coz I told her I didn't have enough money and I was thinking I'm buying too many shoes hehe. Yey! For a little over P1,500 I got four pairs of shoes. I was so happy and vowed to return to that store. I don't remember the name of the store but the brand of three of the shoes is Judelle's. The other one is Around World. LOL!

Now my report on the shoes: I've only worn the slingbacks and the wedge sandals. For the slingbacks, the left one is pinching my little pinky so I was in pain by the end of the day (a weekday, I've worn it to the office). But I'm hopeful that it's only because they were new. I'm planning to wear it again tomorrow to see if they're really painful and not as comfy as I imagined. The wedge sandals, I didn't have a similar painful experience. I've worn it on a weekend from morning till night. I had some difficulty but it really comes with wearing high-heeled shoes so I'm still okay with it. As for my wedding shoes, I plan to start using them while inside the house so that come our wedding day, my feet will be accustomed to the straps, to the height of the heels, to my beautiful wedding shoes.

Doctrines and Rings

I’m happy to have started striking off one by one the items on our list of church requirements. The latest one off our list is the Christian doctrine seminar as part one of the pre-cana seminar of EDSA Shrine. We were there by 8am but we were informed that the seminar really starts at 9am, we can instead have our breakfast first and then come back. So that’s what we did. We went to Ministop at Galleria to eat breakfast. Actually I’m the only one who ate because Joema had his breakfast before meeting up with me. It was still too early when we got back but most of the participants started arriving. Most of them are there to attend as requisite for the baptism of their child. Joema was so paranoid he kept telling me that we’re attending the wrong seminar. Not even the first speaker acknowledged the fact that there were couples who are about to get married. She just assumed that everyone’s married and already has a child about to be baptized. Anyway, the first speaker was Tita Minnie. She started talking about the sex and family planning, though this wasn’t part of that seminar, just to kill time. She said that love making is holy because it intended by God for procreation. She added that it was like the highest form of prayer. So next time when we’re in a family gathering and we are about to make love we can excuse ourselves and just tell our family member that it was prayer time already. And then the in-laws will say “Napakabait naman ng napangasawa ng anak ko..napakamadasalin” ahahahaha! She was about to tell us how to make a baby boy or girl based on the Billings family planning method when she saw that it was already 9am and time to start the real seminar.

The Christian doctrine seminar tackled three topics: the Credo, the seven Sacraments and then the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. For each topic there was a different speaker. Tita Minnie was the most affable of them. She had tons of stories of her travel in the Holy Land. I wished she could have done the other two parts. But we’re lucky because she’ll be the facilitator in the second part of the pre-cana seminar: Parenthood. Anyway, after the first topic we had a mini-break and we’re told that we can go down to their office so that we can give our “donation”. The “donation” is actually the payment for those attending the seminar for the baptism or maybe it’s the payment for the baptism itself…I’m not sure. We went there just to confirm if we’re on the right seminar. When we asked, the guy said “Ah walang bayad yun” and then informed us that there is a second seminar.

The second and third topics were okay. We finished rather late because after the third topic they grouped us and had to report on what topic touched us the most. We were so eager to leave because we had to go to our jeweller to pick up my engagement ring and our wedding rings.

We arrived at Quezon City around 1pm. Yey! I finally have my engagement ring again.

Before

After

See i'ts now white gold to go well with our wedding rings. I love love love my wedding ring! Although we weren’t able to take home our rings yet because the engraving was wrong. Mine had “Cris” instead of “Joema” and vice versa. Boo! We had to leave them coz they will correct the engravings. Den den asked if I was in a hurry because she told me we can have the engravings corrected at Rustan's but I told her we weren't really in a hurry because our wedding is still a few months away.

License to Wed

Had a chance to watch a lot of movies during the weekend like National Treasure 2, American Pie Presents Beta House, Jerry Maguire and License to Wed. I was able to watch License to Wed last Friday - the night before our pre-cana seminar at EDSA Shrine. It was a bit funny because I can totally relate to what's happening in the movie. Mandy Moore wanted to get married in the church where she grew up in while her fiance is a bit skeptical about the idea. Her finace wants to have a destination wedding but had no other choice but to give in to her wishes. As I mentioned in my previous posts, we're having a bit of a difficulty on our church requirements because of Joema's religion. He knows from the start that I really wanted a church wedding - a Catholic church wedding. And he really can't say no to me hehe. In the movie, they had to go through the church's marriage preparation course before the priest marries them and they had to do it in three weeks. Although I think Robin Williams' character Rev. Frank went a little bit too far by bugging the couple's apartment, it is a really good idea to go through a pre-marriage counseling. I wish we still have time to attend Discovery Weekend or even the marriage preparation program of CEFAM. But if not, then we'll have to make do with the pre-cana seminar of EDSA Shrine and the DSWD family planning seminar we attended in Antipolo.

First Fitting

Last Saturday was my first fitting for my wedding dress. I’m having second thoughts if I should post my picture here wearing the lining. I went to Dream Bride with my family but only my mother saw me wearing it, well of course also Ms. Linda and Lennie of Dream Bride. My mother was telling me not to take a picture coz she was worried I might show it to Joema. I told her no I won’t show it to him. This was because she was asking Ms. Linda if brides really fit the wedding dresses nowadays (panahon pa ni kopong-kopong nagpakasal nanay ko) because during her time it was a big no-no or else the wedding will not push through. Ms. Linda told her it was okay for the bride to fit the dress but not to be seen by the groom while she’s wearing it. I love how the shape of the dress turned out to be. Ms. Linda was happy I didn’t have a big tummy. She said the fit is better without the bulges haha and then she told me to bring shoes the next time. So now I’m on the look out for my wedding shoes.

About the photo, well maybe I’ll post it next time. Maybe I’ll blog about the before and after look of my wedding dress. Abangan!

Marriage License

We have our marriage license already! Yey! One down and a thousand more things to go hehe. Well, actually my brother has it. He just got it from city hall. Thank God he was free to get it or else I would have to file for another leave just to get it.

So anyway, here are the things that are needed when applying for a marriage license in Antipolo. I live in Antipolo while Joema lives in Bulacan so we have to choose between the two towns. It's no question who's in charge here haha joke!

birth certificate
certificate of no marriage (CENOMAR)
DSWD family planning seminar certificate
1 x 1 ID picture

If you between ages 18-21, you have to get a parental consent. While for individuals aged 22-25, you need to get parental advise. I don't know what the heck is the difference. Please note that different municipalities may require different documents when applying. Some would require a copy of your community tax certificate, some may even require barangay certificates. Fellow bride Dins blogged about how to get the marriage license in Manila, Makati and Quezon City. It's always better to call your Local Civil Registrar's (LCR) office.

For the birth certificate and certificate of no marriage, you can get copies of it from the National Statistics Office. You can go there or order by phone or online, which is what we did. It’s a bit more expensive when you order it online but if you don’t have the time to go there yourself or you can’t ask someone to get it for you then the easiest way is to get it online. The birth certificate will cost you P315 while the CENOMAR will cost P415. If you are requesting for both you and your fiancé and receiving from you both, ready an authorization letter from your fiancé. The site actually reminds you to have an authorization letter ready if you are not a family member or relative of the requesting party. It’s just weird that they are not consistent with their rules because I wasn’t even asked for the authorization letter. After paying, it will take only around 2 to 3 working days for them to deliver the documents.

Now the family planning seminar is held only every Tuesdays and Thursdays and it’s supposed to be from 8am to 12nn. We went on a Thursday because when I called, they told me we can attend the seminar in the morning and to everything else in the afternoon. I called them several times because I wanted to make sure we won’t wasting our time there. The first time I called and told that we have to have the DSWD family planning seminar, I asked where we should attend the seminar..in DSWD..their answer..yes. Of course I panicked. Where the heck is the office of DSWD and we wouldn’t be able to finish it in one day if we’re supposed to go to DSWD first (I’m thinking their office is somewhere in QC) and then go to city hall in the afternoon. Pam calmed me down and told me they probably have a branch there in Antipolo and that I should probably call again to make sure. She told me to ask which floor is DSWD located in city hall. So I called again and asked and made sure that DSWD is in Antipolo city hall. The lady from the LCR said it was located on the first floor and even gave me their phone number and then told me the schedules of the seminar. And then I was calm. Haha. Anyway, when we arrived at city hall a few minutes before 8am, we asked the lady in the “Information” where the family planning seminar is held. She said it wasn’t in that building, it was in POSD. OMG! Where is that? It’s near the market just after Mercury Drug. How do we get there? Just walk from here. So we walked and when we were nearing a couple was in front of us, looks like they were going to attend the same seminar. The men outside the building who saw us immediately shooed us away and told us to go at the back. They probably have seen many couples every Tuesdays and Thursdays and directed them to where the seminar is really held. When we got at the back of the building, the door was locked and no one was there. I told Joema to ask the man again where it is. I was coaxing him that we are players in amazing race and that these couples are our competition and that we have to be ahead of them hahaha. As I’ve blogged before we had to wait for an hour before the seminar started.

Before the seminar started the lady in charge had the audacity to ask “Who came in late?”. I didn’t have the power to control myself, I blurted out loud enough for her to hear “IKAW!”. Of course, she thought it best to just pretend she didn’t hear me. Stupid couple in front said they were the last to come in. Haller! We were all here before that stupid lady!!!! She asked them to lead the prayer. I was still fuming mad when she decided we should have a little game first – the boat is sinking. Grrr!!! Joema and I are the snob types (well more of me I think, he’s just too shy to mingle with the others) so we weren’t too happy with these. After the game, she sort of had us introduced ourselves. She eased on us when she knew we were both from UP. I don’t know why. Well, the seminar wasn’t really about family planning. It was more of pre-marriage counseling. She had us answer a bunch of questions about love in a marriage, communication, money matters, religion, sex, etc. It wasn’t really a total waste of time but I hope they can improve the hall where the seminar is held. There was no electricity and the place stinks. We finished around 12noon got our certificates from her and then we’re off for lunch.

We went back to city hall to apply for our marriage license. It was already one o’clock but the person in charge wasn’t in yet. Someone just handed me the form and asked me to accomplish it. When we’re done completing the form, the lady wasn’t there yet so I kinda submitted the form and our other documents to the person next to the counter for marriage license. I was terrified of this lady. She didn’t smile and asked me arrogantly where our documents where (they’re all attached to the form). And then she checked our form and then asked where the “Jr.” of Joema’s father is in the form, I pointed it to her. And then she asked why my father’s middle initial is different (it was a typo error in my birth certificate) and then asked why my mother’s maiden name is Arcilla in my birth certificate but I wrote Ercilla in the form (again a typo error). Registry in the earlier days sucks! I was so terrified of this person I couldn’t speak. The lady who signs the forms is much much nicer. When she saw that we attached all our original documents, she told we could just attach photocopies since she knew the original ones cost more (if we had to get new ones). After that we were asked to pay the P350 fee at Window 9. There were no lines for the payment so we were back at the dungeons in no time (their office is at the basement). And then they told us to return Aug 4 which is 11 calendar days after the date of our application. Voila! We were done! We would have been done in less than 30 minutes if the lady in charge was there by 1pm. But who am I to complain? I have to live with this kind of service.