Discovery Weekend

We're preparing for the wedding... but have we actually prepared for the marriage? This was a good question i've read somewhere... and it kinda struck me...

Having read about the positive feedbacks from w@w, I pre-registered in the net a week before for the Discovery Weekend. It's a weekend experience designed for couples (engaged or not) seriously considering marriage.

Feedbacks from fellow w@wies:

"It really gives your relationship a different perspective. It even makes you
understand your fiance better. Consequently, the relationship is given a
better meaning."

"it's the best wedding gift you can give to each other."

And so, i called up Lala (their contact person) today to follow-up on our registration. WE're tentatively scheduled on September 3 - 5 at the OMI Retreat House in Quezon City. I'm nervous and excited at the same time!

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Set up meeting with Joana (Angelic Blooms)thru text... scheduled on July 13, Tuesday at 6pm. She will just inform me of the meeting place (somewhere in Makati) before the date...

Meeting with the w@w Supplier of the Year...

We arrived one hour early for the scheduled meeting with our cake maker Alex Franco... When i informed him that we were already at the venue, he said he'll be there in a few minutes... (turns out he lives just a trike away...)

When he arrived, he immediately took out his photo album filled with pictures of cakes he made... there was just one word to describe it... WOW!Ü

We then proceeded to discuss the details of our wedding and of course, the bridal cake... Ours will be a five-tiered cake - all edible!! Actually, the Pan Pacific Wedding Package we got already includes the bridal cake. But we were informed by Annie (our banquet executive) that the "5-layered" cake would have only one edible layer... and since we plan to share our cake with all our guests, we opted to get Alex Franco (especially since after we tasted his cake at the w@w bridal blowout)! Alex doesn't do fondants -- which is just fine with me...!Ü

Back to our cake - as i've mentioned, will be an all-edible 5 layer cake -with different flavors in each layer. The layer we will cut (similar to our free cake pictured below) is the black and white - this flavor was highly recommended by Alex since he said this will look good in pictures (notice the colors!) and not only that -the guests will be tasting 2 different flavors at the same time! Flavors for the other layers which we chose were: chocolate (2 layers), apple-cinnamon and carrot.

The wedding theme (butterflies) and our wedding colors will be incorporated with our cake. Fresh flowers (c/o his partner florist - Joana of Angelic Blooms - which we will be getting for our flowers) and fresh fruits will be added for a more festive look! He actually draw the cake and i could almost imagine how lovely our cake would look!!! And I'm sure it would be a big hit - not only because it would look good, but also taste good!!!

Alex even taught Jon how to cut the cake on our wedding... since he said the filling would be frozen and it would be a little hard to slice...Ü

After we've finalized the details, Alex gave us a free cake to take home... Now, i don't usually crave for sweets -- but there i was, harassing Jon to drive faster for us to eat it na!!! hehehe!Ü And boy, was it soooo YUMMY!!!


our free cake!Ü 


dee-lishhh!!!! 


uyyy... practice???!!!Ü 

Dream Weddings at the World Trade Center

..just got back from the Wedding Expo at the WTC... and because I pre-registered months before it, i received a gift from the organizers (C & C Creative Concepts) which was a cute little box which is now placed here at my office desk.Ü

Anyway... the fair was a little disappointing. First, it was small as compared to the Wedding Expo (which we atttended last March and looking forward to attending AGAIN on September) at the NBC Tent. Second, wedding suppliers were mostly photographers/videographers (which we already have). The only booths which were of interest (for us) were the Star Cruise booth (grabe!, gusto ko mag-CRUISE!!!), Wings of Dreams (butterfly release) and the butterfly souvenirs booth ( i forgot the name - i got their caling card somewhere, though). Ü And third, Charlie Villanueva was there... ÜÜÜ hahahaha!!! ÜÜÜ (sorry - private joke!)

Bess Garcia of M. Yumul Bridal

After work, we went straight to M. Yumul showroom and met designer Bess Garcia...

I told him i watched the bridal fashion show (gowns he designed) last Saturday and asked him agad how much the last gown costs... surprisingly, it was at the margin of our budget!!!

But anyway, i showed him the design i wanted for my gown... He told me that duchesse satin or star gazaar (he showed me the diference between the two) would be the best cloth to use for it... he even drew the back view of the gown (since the pic that i brought showed only the front) and it was similar to the last gown in the show -- i liked it! I then asked him to quote the price for the gown and the amount was the same as that of Tito Franco's... although Bess said that the veil (no emboidery) and pouch are already included with it. Now, the problem is --- who to get??? Di pa nga ko nakakapagdecide kung anong motif, now di na ren ako sure kung sino kukunen kong designer --- waaaahhhh!!!
HELP!!!!



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Talked to Alex Franco today and we've set up a meeting on Monday, June 28 at 7 o'clock pm at Chowking, Pioneer Center, at Pasig. He's really fun to talk to and i'm looking forward to finally seeing him on Monday.

Meanwhile, his partner florist, Joana of Angelic Blooms replied to my text earlier to have our meeting within the next month... She will be texting me again before the end of the month for her available shedule.

New hair 'do!

My hair was such a blah! these past few months (years even! --- hahah!!) that I decided to have my hair cut - a little over 5 months before our wedding. I decided to have bangs!Ü It was just one of those "spur-of-the-moment" thing.. Jon was the only one who was supposed to get a hair cut but he asked me if i wanted one, too... so, what the heck... I gave in! :D hahaha! :D

There... i'm not naman dissappointed and even took pics of myself (i'm soooo VAIN!!! Ü)...


cute ko noh? :D 


isa pa! heheh!  


new hairdo! =) 


Btw, jon liked his hair cut too but was too shy to pose for pics... :P (he had one - but blinked... )

VCQ handmade papers

After reading countless raves from fellow w@wies about Virgil Quiblat's "VCQ" Handmade papers, we visited his shop today for our invites and souvenirs... We found lots of stuff there.. fans, lamps, treasure boxes, picture frames, guestbooks, different bozes of all shapes, colors, and sizes. We got to see samples of their invitations which i found "swak" to my liking...Ü ...More importantly, he can customize items for us, for example, if we have a unique design for our invites, we can just tell him what to do and execute it with ease!! We also found nice "gifts" (i'm not telling what it is - para naman may element ng surprise... ;) ) for the principal sponsors... but of course it will be customized also for our butterfly inspired wedding!Ü

Busy Saturday...

Second Meeting with Jody Liwanag

Jody texted me last Tuesday and asked to meet us today at 9:30 a.m, at Starbucks, Greenbelt 3. We arrived there early; we were already at Greenbelt at 9:00 am coz i didn't want to make her wait like the last time... but i received a text from her requesting to move the time to 11 o'clock. So, i texted her back and told her we were there already and could she please make it a little earlier as we still have to accomplish some things...

She arrived at a little past ten and apologized for being late (she said she had a visitor which she can't just leave)... She then gave me checklists for the wedding which Jon and I found very useful (some of which we haven't thought of pa! - nyaiiiks!!!)... After she explained the items in the different checklists, we updated her about our wedding (it wasn't really much :( -haaayyy! ) since we last met... She stressed on those things that we have to do ASAP! --- URGENT needs to move on with our wedding preps! ... and that includes our WEDDING MOTIF!!! Ack!!! It's so hard to decide when you have to consider things like the skin type of our attendants, the flowers, the design of the cake, what would look good on pictures, etc. etc!!! She suggested monochromatic orange which would complement our wedding theme (butteflies), or celadon green and pink... ayan, nadagdagan na naman ang choices ko!!! waaaahhhh!!! I need to decide na!!! Anyway, i told her i would be meeting with Tito Franco later today and hopefully, he can give some tips so as to finally reach a decision...

After the meeting, I was tempted to go to Red Box again for their lunch promo but thankfully, Jon decided against it (although i know mejo ma-tempt din cia... hehehe)...


Meeting with Tito Franco

I was able to show Tito Franco the design I wanted for my wedding gown and asked for his quotation.. The first figure he gave me was expensive and out of the budget but i think he sensed that and he immediately took it back and gave me a more reasonable price... Ü
We were able to ask him questions (which were suggested by Jody L. ---thank God for her! Ü). and found out that he schedules very well, delivers one to two weeks before the wedding date, doesn't go to the hotel preps rather, will arrange for his assistant to assist me in dressing up and will do the pressing of the gown themselves, etc etc... He even suggested to modify the design of the gown which he told me was more for the tall and lanky so that it would be more fit for the voluptuous me (I just love his choice of words! heheheÜ)!


Bridal Fashion Show by M. Yumul

One more designer/couturier i was eyeing was Bess Garia of M. Yumul, and lucky me, he had a bridal fashion show tonight at Star Mall at 7pm (which really started at 8... Pinoy talaga, oo!) Bess has been in the industry for only 3 years --- which goes to say that he is young, vibrant and has modern takes which i would love to see... I enjoyed watching the one-hour show, took some pictures on my phone (we forgot to bring the digicam :( ), and most importantly, noticed that aqua blue was really striking at night... waaaahhhh!!! balik aqua-blue na naman kame!!! It's so very very hard to decide... :( ... anyway, i really loved the scene-stealer of the show that night... the wedding gown with gold embroidery and cathedral train, and the mile-long veil with lace.. it was breath-taking! I can't wait to meet with Bess to ask him how much it would cost me... (which i'm not quite sure we can afford... hahaha!!!)Ü

Jon's confirmation

As a requirement for the sacrament of matrimony, Jon had his confirmation today at our parish church together with his twin, Alex. He even had his confession this morning and he said he felt like a new man... ;) Looking at them during the ceremony and while i was taking their pics, they looked like two grinning little boys who had just received their very first kiss... hahah!ÜÜ


jon Ü 

jon and alex 

Exactly 6 months to go!!!

wooohoooo!!! 6 more months!!!! ÜÜÜ

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it's our 90th monthsary today and we're celebrating it by taking a leave(again!)... We planned to collect our baby pics and start scanning them for our AVP (audio-visual presentation)... It's never too early to start!

...and since it's exactly 6 months to go til the big day, wedding preps will be in full blast now! Gosh!!! So much to do!!!

Events Experts - On-the-Day Coordination

Jon n I took a leave of absence today to meet up with Ms. Jody Liwanag of Events Experts. We agreed to meet at Starbucks, Greenbelt 3, at 10 am this morning.

She was already at the meeting place when we got there. She somehow looked a little familiar and she later confirmed this when she told us that she was also at the w@w anniv dinner party at fernwood gardens where she awarded mr. alex franco (our cake maker!Ü) as the w@w supplier of the year. After jon got coffee for himself, jody proceeded to explain to us their on-the-day coordination package in detail that all the questions that i readied even before the meeting were already answered (jon had a few questions though...).

We didn't wanna waste time and energy (and not to mention leave credits!Ü) looking for other wedding coordinators anymore so since we felt that jody and her team "can deliver", plus she was well recommended by other w@wies, we got her na and paid the 50% DP already (she was even a little surprised kase ang bilis namen!)...

And since we finished our task for the day early, we spent the rest of the day just enjoying each other's company, walking around the mall and sang our hearts out for three hours at the Red Box (they had a promo from 12 til 3pm)! SARAP! =)