walking down the aisle

i can't resist posting this picture i took of st. francis of assisi chapel the last time i visited the chapel with eric. i can't help but imagine myself meeting eric, the man i'm going to spend the rest of my life with, at the end of this aisle...that and me walking down the blue carpeted aisle. :-)


our beautiful chapel

on gowns and fittings

i usually sleep late (okay, until noon sometimes) during saturdays (hey, this is to catch up on lack of sleep during the weekday!). but whenever i have fitting schedules, i never fail to wake up early even on saturdays.

i have a scheduled fitting with veluz today, together with mama and happy (my sister who is one of my bridesmaids). papa came with us as well so that ka kiko (veluz' tailor) could take his measurement. i told papa to bring his own car since i know that he wouldn't be able to endure waiting for us to finish our fittings.

papa was measured first and then since i wanted papa to see mama in her gown, i told mama to have her fitting first. mama's gown doesn't have any lining nor beading yet but at least her butterfly sleeves was in the same fabric already as her gown. veluz already has the silk organdy (really nice fabric, looks like jusi to me!) that will be draped in the moms' gowns as accent. at least mama already can visualize what the gown will look like.


my mama in her first terno ever


notice the low back cut?

happy came next. there's still a number of adjustments made to her gown so we didn't take any picture during her fitting.

my turn (excited of course!), we still need to make adjustments on the left bodice of the gown and where the straps will be attached at the back but overall my gown is already beautiful (love your own! or should i say i look and feel beautiful wearing my gown?). veluz finally showed me the much anticipated raw silk train and i just loved it (veluz honestly admitted to me that when she got the train, the design wasn't how she envisioned it. her description on the design of my train was vintage-y and emblem-like, different from what she normally works on)! even papa, mama and happy find it beautiful. i told happy that all of them (i have three sisters!) should use this train for their wedding, sort of a family tradition. that is if mama doesn't get to it first, she wants to have it made to a shawl after (a table runner is also an option! hehehehehehe).


4 meter raw silk over thai silk train (no beadings yet)


pattern on the entire length of my raw silk train

i thought of coming up with a list of things to bring and do during fittings:
1. don't eat breakfast (who needs the additional weight/bulge anyway?)
2. pee before fitting (see explanation on number 1)
3. wear the right undergarments (if you can wear the actual undergarments you'll be wearing during the wedding, the better)
4. bring a digital camera (to capture pictures you could add to your wedding preparation scrapbook, in my case, it's my webshots and blogsite)
5. shave (i don't need to explain this)
6. wedding shoes (i don't have this yet, but i'm sure once you're wearing your gown AND shoes, you'd feel more "bridal". and it doesn't hurt that your designer could measure on how long the hem of your gown should be.)
7. be open with your designer, make sure you're comfortable wearing your gown

next fitting on saturday...can't wait!!!

preps update and (almost!) wedding rings stress

SATURDAY
i went to immaculate heart of mary parish (my parish) to request our marriage banns to be posted. they'll post it next sunday and i would be able to get it from them around november 8. got confirmation from ate gigi (eric's sister) that they have already requested eric's marriage banns to be posted in pinaglabanan. after that, i passed by mt. carmel to submit our marriage license. eric and i just need to attend the canonical interview (which we could do only when he arrives a week before the wedding), submit our posted marriage banns from our respective parishes and provide them a list of our principal sponsors including the complete address of one pair of our principal sponsors. we're almost done with the church requirements!

i was able to distribute some of our invites today!

SUNDAY
i finished cutting all of our guestsheets (i think i need to print more) and some escort cards that i was able to print.

YESTERDAY
i started distributing our invites to my officemates yesterday. i was supposed to only give the invite to mrose, who is an officemate and seconday sponsor, but i couldn't resist in giving my other officemates their invites!

got a text message from my designer that my raw silk train is ready. even she was excited about it! the 4-meter train is a gift to us from eric's officemate who produces raw silk in their province.

anyway, i was so looking forward to lunch so i could go to glorietta and get our engraved wedding rings. to my dismay, ang pangit ng pagka-engrave nila sa rings (i should have taken it as a sign when i wasn't satisfied with their engraving when i asked them for a sample when i gave them our rings to be engraved!)!!! in addition to that, what's engraved pa is different from what we've discussed. instead of ERIC 12-DEC-04, what's engraved is ERIC 12-DEC.04! their excuse was abbreviated daw yung december that's why instead of a dash, they put a period (why are they even bothering asking their clients what to engrave in their rings if they won't follow it anyway?). they said they can easily remove the period and change it to a dash. i decided, since i've already proven that hindi sila nice mag-engrave, for them to remove whatever they have engraved and i'll just have it engraved in rustan's. i was so disappointed in them. they said to return the next day, but i was so bothered that our wedding rings wouldn't come out nice after they remove the engraving that i have to keep on asking them over and over again what the wedding rings would look like after they remove the engraving (would it come out manipis since they have to even out the rings for the engraving to be removed?). they confirmed naman that it would come out the same as the original, all shiny and smooth, since they make their own jewelry (i was so oc about this since when i had my engagement ring fixed, the part wherein the stones were reset/reinforced, parang it wasn't shiny and smooth anymore). they even told me to go back early evening instead the next day and got my contact numbers so they could contact me in case it wouldn't be ready by then or would be ready earlier. anyway, before the time we agreed on when i can pick up our rings, i received a text message from them saying that i could already pick-up our rings. i immediately went back to glorietta and was so happy in how they removed the engraving. they even told me that they had to add more gold into the rings. they were very apologetic naman on what happened so they're forgiven na (buti na lang di sila pumalpak sa pagtanggal ng pagkakaengrave nila on our rings! although medyo na-stress talaga ako when i saw the engraved rings at first.). i hurriedly went to rustan's (5/F engraving section near the embroidery section and cartier watch repair area) to have our rings engraved. i asked rolly (the engraver) for a sample first and was satisfied on their engraving (they do script for wedding rings). paid php 75.00/ring and waited for less than five minutes, and then got our rings! i'm so glad everything turned out well eventually...

i was texting eric the entire time about our rings, from the moment i saw how ugly the engraving was to how it turned out well after having it engraved at rustan's. his exact text message to me was "dats ok. relax lang ikaw. wat s mportant s dat we wil get maried 2 share lyf 2geder." i kept that message in my inbox just in case i stress out again while preparing for our wedding. i just have to be reminded sometimes on what is it exactly all these preparations is for.

TODAY
got an email from bubbles (w@wie from whom i'll be renting the blue carpet for the church's aisle). she already provided me details on how to settle payment for the carpet as well as pick-up and return. i just need to coordinate with my church florist to install and remove this.

barely two months to go...

notice that i was able to put pics already in our blogsite? the things that a bride is forced to learn and do...hhhmmm...here's my list:

1. post pics in blogsite
2. have a webshots account
3. go to national bookstore so many times in such a short period of time (hey, you never know when they're going to have new paper in stock...)
4. be artistic (how else can you make your guest sheets and escort cards?)
5. visit my dermatologist once a month (i remember i only get to visit her whenever i have major skin problems)
6. print a booklet via microsoft word
7. buy a font (who buys a font anyway???)
8. rent a blue carpet (to match my motif) for the church aisle (hey, i'm going to walk down this aisle to meet the man i'll spend the rest of my life with, why not? anyway, i rented it from somebody who actually BOUGHT it.)

i went out with my college friend/officemate, oly, for lunch in glorietta. she accompanied me to landmark to look for neckties that we could provide our male entourage (i always make it a point to look at neckties whenever i go shopping. but the cheapest i've seen is at php 400.00. i know it's not that bad but hey i don't expect them to wear it again anyway!). as soon as we walked in the men's section of the department store, i knew there was hope...there were so many neckties and the price was so cheap (think less than php 200.00)! initially, i was thinking of just buying plain colored neckties fro the male entourage but there wasn't any available. so after much debate on which necktie to buy, oly and i decided on this blue textured one which gives this monochromatic illusion (will post a pic as soon as i get the chance!). we looked at available neckties at the children's section but there wasn't too much of a choice (just plain ones) but it was really cheap, around php 30.00 each. i decided to just purchase the same neckties i bought for the bestman, groomsmen and male secondary sponsors for the bearers. veluz said that if it was too big, she could just alter it. i'm really happy with my purchase!

passed by acme jewelry to have our rings engraved. i gave eric the task of deciding what to engrave in our rings. eric initially wanted to have "LOVE ABOVE ALL THINGS" engraved but since our rings have little stones on it, there wasn't enough space. he just settled with AUTUMN 11-DEC-04 on his ring and ERIC 11-DEC-04 on mine. i would be able to pick up our engraved wedding rings on monday.

oh, and last night, i was finally able to have an initial draft of our misalette printed in booklet format. just a few more changes and i think i'm ready in having fr. romy (our celebrant) review it. i hope he doesn't ask to make a lot of changes so i could already print it and send to noky of printsonalities for binding.

wedding preps weekend

SATURDAY
i was so excited that i woke up early (which i rarely do, just ask my officemates!) because i would finally be able to fit my wedding gown in the actual fabric! i felt really "bridal" wearing my wedding gown. minor adjustments just need to be made but we have already finalize the cut (a-line; empire) and neckline (v-neck that has a slight sweetheart to it). veluz took a couple of pictures of me wearing my gown (i went to her again solo flight that's why she had to play the part of my designer cum photographer). i didn't even want to take it off!


happy wearing my wedding gown :-D (a peek at my wedding gown)

mommy (eric's mom) was also able to fit her gown as well. i got our marriage license already from ate gigi (eric's ate) who accompanied mommy to her fitting.


mommy's fitting (butterfly sleeves still not in the fabric that is same as the gown)

went back in the afternoon to meet with mutya (one of my ss) for her fitting.

i was busy assembling our invites so that i'd be able to start distributing them next week (exactly on the two month mark before our wedding). i actually was able to i was able to distribute invites to mommy, ate gigi, ms. faye (my boss in oracle who happens to have an appoint with veluz as well), mutya and tito robert (one of our ninongs).

SUNDAY
i started my day assembling invites again. what made me stop was i ran out of maps to insert.

focused my energy in taking lots of pictures of our wedding stuff this afternoon...which i will post in our webshots account and hopefully link in our blogsite.

marian started cutting our guest sheets.

my ate dawn commented on how much time i'm spending preparing for the wedding. she asked me what i'm going to do with my time after...i'll probably spend the time missing preparing for my wedding. :-D

guest sheets

since we'll be doing away with the guestbook signing (we already have our custom-made ceramic guestbook platter) ordered at the younique boutique), i decided to have guest sheets instead. this way, our guests can still provide us their contact details and messages (which they can't do when they sign our guestbook platter due to the limited space!). i so wanted these guestbook sheets from the guestbook store, but it was so expensive at $16 for the cover, $8/25 pages or $16/25 pages for customized design. what's nice about their guestbook sheets is that it comes in wedding memories and wedding predictions design. so given that and our budget, i then decided to make our very own guest sheets inspired (or should i say copied from???) by the guestbook sheets of the guestbook store.

the next challenge on this is what program to use to develop our guest sheets. i was told that one can use adobe photoshop and microsoft publisher to come up with layouts for this. well, i haven't used either program in my entire life...so imagine my dilemma. my only requirements for the guest sheets anyway are to have statements for guests to complete and questions for guests to answer and our pre-nup pics, no need for fancy art work...in addition to my lack of skills for such programs, i admittedly don't have any artistic gene in my body. my co-w@wie, co-december bride and DIY-guru, clarice, gave me this wonderful idea to use microsoft word instead! microsoft word i know...:-)

so there i am all excited working on our guest sheets in microsoft word. i pretty much copied the statements and questions in the guestbook sheets of the guestbook store and added our pre-nups pics. per page, i had two lay-outs and was able to make three pages! so that's six lay-outs all-in-all! i hurriedly bought paper from national bookstore, i'm a fan of star paper's curious collection (bought plasma blue, morphing mauve and genetic green), so i could start printing our guest sheets. i'll bind the guest sheets after the wedding...have to check though if there are any stores (karton in glorietta perhaps?) that can offer this service...

can't wait to read what our guests have to say!

side kwento: while buying the paper for our guest sheets in national bookstore, i decided to purchase artline's calligraphy pen for numbering our insert cards "we have reserved ___ seats for you". i already told my sister, marian, to practice her calligraphy "number" skills.

you're invited!

last friday, before i proceeded in meeting with my college friends (which i haven't seen for such a long time!), i passed by printsonalities' office in kamagong, makati to pick-up our invites. noky, who is my contact in printsonalities, was busy attending to her other clients, so when i arrived she referred me to vangie, one of her staff. when vangie brought out the box containing our invites, i was just so excited! it turned out just what we imagined it to be, in the perfect shade of periwinkle (dry embossed monogram in the main card and insert card as well as the envelope lining)! vangie was saying that they already got themselves a copy of our invites in their sample album. :-) i just couldn't stop myself from reading over and over again our invites (to check as well if i have everyone's name complete and correct)! they even provided us plastic pouches to use as "bags" for our invites when we deliver it to our guests. i paid the 50% remaining balance and off i went to my gimik with my college friends, box of invites at the back of my car...

as soon as i went home saturday afternoon (my college friend and i booked a room at astoria plaza for our overnight gimik), i showed our invites to everyone who was in the house. i couldn't wait to address it, assemble it and distribute it! my dilemma was whether or not our envelope can be printed in the office (using company resources...hehehehehe...i hope no one from my office gets to read this blog!). we didn't allot any budget for a calligrapher and i wanted to make full use of the font i bought over the internet at paratype store (linotype zapfino two) which is the same font used for all of our printed materials.


invite set with map and guest pass