ze wedding bands ♥

huzza! guess who's back! :D

3 weeks had passed since our wedding day. and updates had stopped not because i'm busy being a wife. but because, all the things i want to blog about is not yet with me.

yes, pictures! :))

will update once it's with me. i will share snippets of it --just the important things --so that i won't owe anyone reading this blog anything. haha. XD

supplier's review? i decided not to do it. boo me! hoho. people might say that i'm selfish not to. but to be honest, i'd rather not because the wedding was so vivid to me. to oso and me, both. the day just passed by and we just enjoyed the ride. then at the end of the day, we were like, "can you remember our wedding?". haha, we were laughing as we tried. we prepared so hard and long, the stress it gave, the budgeting it required. but at the end of it all, we felt we have not experienced most of it. you're in the clouds, just being happy that you'll be marrying the man of your life, your best person ever. so i'll feel it won't be fair for me to rate them. so hell with the reviews! :)) the people who attended our day should be the one to give this. hoho. :P

but i know in my heart, all of them were great. i mean, nothing happened that day i was really worried about. God blessed us so much by giving us wonderful suppliers. that, i can say. :)

so on with this blog now that explaining is over. haha. XD

since i'm sill waiting for so many things, let me just share to you first what i have right now. our wedding rings. huzza! :D

i was waiting for our photographer's picture of this since we captured this via phone and it would be unfair for our supplier to post it since it did not capture how good looking it were. but i happened to stumble upon it on our supplier's site. please let me share all of its pictures from the site. i'll just link her site here. it's so beautiful even as i look at it today. :D on my part, having the ring i wanted made me say that my oso will really do his best to provide for me. i'm blessed more than lucky. :)

o, so pretty! ♥ thank you ms. roxy for this! i will definitely keep in touch for future wants, haha. :D

invites rsvp and the like

before things get all intense for the last week of wedding preps, let me share you our invite. \m/

with the envelopes

inside

outside

why is our invite like this? well, why not? =))

if you're aware of our save the date video posted a few weeks back, we had a scene there where we exchanged letters. we do that in real life. so to commemorate that, we thought of making our invite look like a stationery.

kids nowadays may not know what it is. but those who are familiar, we were young on the same era! hooray to our younger years! =))

achieved? :D

let me just post it this way so that details will be discreet. and i'm lazy to edit.

a lot of months have been dedicated to achive this. and i thank littlemisspaintbrush for agreeing to commission us. she had been patient with us. and was very kind to do revisions. she made us achieve the stationery vibe we are going for. she drew everything for us. and also did free hand on our wedding details. the fee was very reasonable especially because of all our request and revisions. =))

thank you, chichi! i will continue to contact you for more cute things. i'm such a fan! ♥

we asked a friend to print it for us as a wedding gift then we did the envelopes ourselves. bought 12 rolls of paper at divisoria for Php 72.00. Sticker was around Php 700 for 240 pieces. not bad for a sorta DIY. =))

i'm happy with this. even if it does not look like the normal wedding invite. even if it's simpler and a lot less formal. atleast this is us. and i can say that it is not like any other. 

asar

now i can really say i'm feeling the wedding vibe. not because our event is one week from now but because of all the asar i'm feeling. haha.

we prepared for this for a year. we planned and planned. all are set. then, may mga tao lang talaga na pang-asar. ewan ba. i guess it's part of it. pero bakit naman kasi maraming mahirap kausap?!

kaya i thank all the people who are not part of this alalahanin. for the family members and friends who respected our decisions and understands what we want our wedding to be, thank you for not making this hard for us.

para sa mga tao na andami pa request at  sinasabi, pinagdadasal ko kayo na sana magkaroon kayo ng pang unawa na nararapat para sa'min. nakakaasar kayo! pinapahirapan nyo kami!

hindi totoo na you want to help. hindi totoo na you respect our decisions. kasi if you do, wala kami ganito'ng feeling!!

please be reminded that this is our wedding. we have a say in everything!

[i want to post this for myself. to remind me that preparing for our wedding is not always stars and sunshine. i know i'll be looking back on my posts after the wedding. and i want to laugh at this post after all is said and done.

but then again, right now, i can't laugh at it. mga next next week siguro. hahaha. k tnx bye.]

boys outfit, check!

my mom always tells us that we're paying so much for our  wedding. i believe we decided on this with our budget in mind. and i think we do our best to cut cost whenever we can.

for example, on our boy entos' outfits:

the complete cutie boys' set

tie for Php 25 at tabora, peach long sleeved polo for Php 360 at freego, grey slacks for Php 180 at tabora

suspenders at 168 for Php 80

all these for less than a Php 600. huzza! :D i have 3 sets of these.

i believe there is no kid that is not cute. they can practically wear anything and be adorable none the less. so i'm confident they can strut to this. :)) i just wish this would fit them. i guessed their sizes based from the last time i saw them. hahaha. i'm always right --most of the time --with sizes. so i'm really confident. haha. XD

and the amount it took me to complete these? two days from separate weeks trip to tabora and one day searching at the mall. imagine the time i spent?! now you tell me i should do DIY. it's not time practical for me. i was very exhausted. hulas kung hulas. =)) finding things in our color palette is very difficult since peach and grey is not a common color. so if you plan to do divi trips for your wedding and you want life easier, go with the basic colors. daanin nyo na lang sa theme to make it unique. =))

the rewards in completing these is very very fulfilling though. that i can assure you you'll get from doing DIY. hehe.

because i can't D.I.Y.

i want to be defensive, haha.. i cannot DIY not because i cannot do crafts. i believe i have the talent for it. i'm not good, but i have potential. :)) and it's also not because i do not want my wedding to have our personal touch. or that i do not want to prepare for it so much.

it's just that, when i weigh my pros and cons into doing it, the cons just won the pros over. i want to be practical with life. i'm juggling work --which is not like what people normally have -- and coordinating the wedding things that, it would be unfair for me to be so tired. one might be sacrificed and i cannot afford to come to that. i don't have a lot of free time. believe me when i say that.

but please do not say that i do not love preparing for my wedding. who can tell me there is such a bride?!

ok, i'm done being defensive. on with my post!! :))

to make things a little personal for us. and not to make our wedding props look kawawa, i thought of ways..

here is one:

our wedding cord! had it made for a very reasonable price, haha. XD for the time i will take to go to a beads store, to the amount of purchasing and making it, the price i paid is very considerate.

my photo did not do it justice. because i'm a point and shoot person, auto setting is my bestfriend. =)) it's very sparkly and shimmery. your eyes will smile when you see it in person. when our photo guys shoot it on our wedding day, will post it again. hehe

here are the details. i did my best =))

prenup hangover, haha

i'm always wondering about our prenup bgm --yes, i still can't get over our prenup video. please forgive me. XD

 

it was difficult for me to figure out the lyrics. so it was a struggle for me to find it. never knew it was from grey's anatomy. haha! i don't watch it, please forgive me. XD

 

the passenger by daniel ellsworth and the great lakes

we can run
until the light of day
is done

 

holding on
strings attached to
setting suns

 

we'll fly away

 

you're all i'll ever need
you're all i'll ever need
love forever burning
yearning
wild
wild & free

 

open road
with no direction
we must go

 

lovely soul
passenger seat angel

 

windows open

 

you're all i'll ever need
you're all i'll ever need
love forever burning
yearning
wild
wild & free

 

always on your side
always on your side
love of mine

 

you're all i'll ever need
you're all i'll ever need
love forever burning
yearning
wild
wild & free

 

 

 

marriage license, marriage banns, pre-cana seminar. check!

i just want to post these for our own satisfaction and while i still have free time. :)) knowing we're done submitting and attending all these makes me pat myself in the back. --ok, shoulders. i can't reach my back. XD

marriage banns were posted at our parish bulletin:

saw this with my family when we attended church a few sundays back. seeing this made me feel how this is really happening for us soon. i still can't describe the feeling i have as days grow nearer. i'm still waiting for it to kick in. hehe.

we got our endorsement from SSJ by early june this year. we claimed the endorsement when we had our pre-cana seminar on the first saturday of july. then, we submitted it monday the following week. we paid php 300 for this in our parish. i'm not sure if this is the standard payment. but i'm glad oso and i are from the same parish. else, we'll submit and pay on two different parishes.

marriage license was submitted:

you'll need to submit:  filled-out marriage license application, cenomar and birth certificate from nso, 1x1 picture and cedula. you will also attend a family planning seminar at the city hall.

after all these are done, you will have your marriage license.

also, please do not make mistakes writing in the marriage license. they do not accept applications with corrections. so fill in the boxes carefully.

we're also done attending our pre-cana seminar early this july. haha. XD

SSJ do not allow late comers. if you're late for 30 minutes, they will not allow you to attend anymore. believe me when i say this. it happened to us last june. haha. XD

you can do walk-ins, no problem. and they also allow couples to attend this even if they are not to marry at SSJ. you will be given a certificate after the session. it went from 9am to 6pm. whole day, i tell you. but it was worthwhile. it made me reflect on things. they have answer sheets for each modules they discuss. if i remember it right, you are to pay php 600 for this. they provide snacks, water and coffee the whole day. and the session room was cold. so better be ready for all these things.

now, let me leave you with a picture for you to know how happy we are to be done with all these. =)) this bread was eaten for lunch when we had our pre-cana seminar. lovely! :)

banapple connecticut ♥

music, check!

i have lots of free time today. so i'll do this. hehe ^________^

there are two suppliers left for us to book: l/s and our band.

please don't be like us. do your best to book all your suppliers 2 mos before your wedding. so you can just do follow-ups and other things like applying your church requirements and rsvp on the last mos of your preparation. it's stressful not to. haha.

good thing for us, we have mom to our rescue. =))

we booked the sentimental groove through her. hihi.

we met sir ian and ms. kate a few weeks ago with my mom. very nice people. and their group is very talented, their site and fb page says it all. i pray that their new business venture will be as successful as their music group. i'm confident having them for our wedding. especially that sir ian is helping us with our l/s dilemma. haha.

ms. kate, sir ian, mom and me

save the date: 09-08-2013 ♥ by filterpan photography

it's finally done! ♥ sharing our prenup video. heartwarming, i cannot have it any other way. ♥

ALDRIN & LOREN PRENUP from filterpan on Vimeo.

i'm very proud of my oso, most of these are his ideas and ms. pat's.

we had a hard time conceptualizing this. we wanted it to be as close to who we really are. we're afraid that, what we might do would shame our future family. =)) our goal was for us to be able to share this to our kids in the future and they'll be able to see how we really are. :)
so for this, no theme nor concept was made. we cannot pretend. so why bother? it's easier to be us. this is just our story only on a prettier setting. =))

plus, we can't do cute. we're not cute and we'll never be. hoho. :P

so we just redid our old life: bike rides going home from school, letters and relieving our tree meet-ups.
how i wish we can still do these. but now, we need to be adults most days. boo. but, i'm happy that we still do these from time to time. ♥

i love our love. and we're blessed to last this long. ♥

oohh, my concept contribution: i just wanted our pre-nup to be on a prairie and look pinterest-y. haha. XD

thank you, Filterpan Photography for making this happen! :D
the shoot was not the way we expected. we were thinking that we might do a lot of poses that we never ever did before. but you made us just be ourselves. slight lang ang pagod namin since all we did was sit and lay on the grass. haha. you worked your magic through and through. yey! :) you really are our right choice. :)

thank you Tippy and Savannah for making me pretty. love it!♥
just the though that our shoot only lasted for 5 hours with 3 looks to do, everything went fast. but the results were great! i love my eyebrows! i wish it can look like that my whole life. :)) and to think that our shoot was on a summer afternoon. as in, tanghaling tapat! walang hulasan na naganap. two thumbs up!

having both of you on our team makes me confident that things will go well for us on our event. i'll see you all soon! :*

one year since

i want to commend myself for even finding time to blog this post. :))

i had been engaged to a lovely man since may last year. proposal is here and here. and since our wedding day would still be this september, we had time to celebrate our engagement. glorious! ♥

my oso took me to a very nice place in makati to celebrate it. i can almost know when my oso is up to something. and that day, i sensed that he really prepared for it. so, i made myself look nice and decent when we met, hoho. :P

we had dinner at top of the citi in makati. you can google the place, it's easy to find. located at the topmost floor of citibank tower at paseo, the makati cityscape would serve as a nice background for a laidback meal away from the busy city streets. the ambiance is great for fine dining and good conversations. oso  reserved us a table outside of the resto for the scenic view. good thing there are few customers, hooray weekday dates! haha. XD

our table was in a nice place outside. though the setback was, i did not have a good photo on our food since my phone cam cannot handle candle light dinners. =)) come to think of it, this is the first time we had a candle lit dinner. nice! :)) we enjoyed our dinner: salad, pasta and steaks. full belly. :)

that day was so perfect for the both of us. ♥ with the wedding preps and work in our minds everyday, it's nice not to discuss about it and instead discuss about the real important things. we did not want our celebration to end that we decided to walk from paseo de roxas to jupiter st. before hailing a cab. it was a day worth remembering not only because it was our engagement day but because we know that our relationship continuously grows.

God is good, we are blessed! ♥

will share some of our pictures for aesthetics, excuse our phone cams. :P

took this so you would have an idea of our table XD oso took a picture of me while i took this.

here is  the picture oso took. :))

we demanded a picture long before we ordered. excited? :))

the menu with the endorser? :))

we tried capturing my ring. this is one of our crazy ideas. forgive us for playing with food, we ate it afterwards. ;;D

photo sesh inside the resto just before we leave. thank you top of the citi staffs for being so kind. :D

candid love it ♥

i just want to share this. stumbled upon it while blog browsing --a habit of mine. XD
the beauty of candid moments. what's not to love. :)

bridal car, check!

this is how i got our bridal car, haha. XD

i was at work one day, and mom txted me.

we were just discussing a few days back if she knows where we can borrow/rent a pick-up or a car as big for our bridal car. i told her 'yun ang peg ko talaga. i want a big bridal car because it's more me.

and because mom is always the best, she found ways. =))

thank you mama for always supporting us with our wedding endeavours. :D

o, please pardon her "hammer" spelling. hummer 'yun. gets nyo naman 'di ba? hihi :P

random txting series 2

i always believe that our relationship works because we do not put much complication in it.

for example:

 

 

if a man lets you eat, never let him go. ♥

incidental trial make-up --tippy destacamento :)

as mentioned, we already had our engagement shoot last wednesday. ♥

but what i'm going to share is my trial make-up with my hmua, tippy. i came to the conclusion earlier upon booking him that i won't do trial make-up anymore. i know people will have different opinions regarding this. but, that's me. i'm so trusting that way. haha. :P i did not have second thoughts on that decision so i moved on with my life right after, hehe.

but come engagement shoot meeting with our p/v supplier, i realized i need to consider my hmu. so, first thing came to mind was tippy. i contacted him and asked if he's free on our shooting date. and lucky was i, he was. even if it was short noticed. :))

 

we came early for our schedule so he suggested that he will show me my wedding make-up look before he will do my engagement look. i agreed, hihi. XD

i'll share my wedding trial make-up look. please excuse my face. XD

photos were taken from my phone cam.

fresh lang, haha. i have eyebrows, hooza!! X))

ze hair. yes?

engagement shoot, check!

my oso and i had our engagement shoot last wednesday. woot woot! :D

we were blessed with good timing, fine weather and good people that day. God is good. :)

will post more soon. XD i feel like it's too early to post them. but i want to blog because i'm very happy with the sample pictures they sent us yesterday. :))

the people who made it happen, our p/v team and hmua team, they are wonderful! ♥

first fitting, check!

i finally saw my bridal gown! *woot* *woot*

in all fairness, it really looked like this. but the belt part is not so much, i'll have it remade since it did not circle around my waist like i wanted. plus, i gained two inches on my hip area since my measurements were taken. so it's kinda tight and does not close at the back. :)) i blame it on my undisciplined eating habits --and yet, i'm munching on mrs. fields brownies as i'm typing. =)))

we had our fitting at oso's place since their land area is way better than our home. XD

my mom and sister came. mom suggested to add beads on my gown. she does not want it to be that simple --mom is mom, hihi. :> and i'm fine with it. we'll have another fitting by second week of may. i hope i will fit into my gown by then! :)))

i never thought that i'll have weight issues during this wedding preparation since i believe i'm thin and it is difficult for me to gain weight. but here i am, having that kind of problem. :))) balanced diet ftw! :D

oso is lucky. he had his suit in one go. it's finally done and he looks so fly on it! ♥

 

who made our gown and suit? ..will tell once it's done. :)

 

i'm happy with the results of yesterday even if i gained. things are finally coming together and the wedding is more realistic to me now. 6 months to go! ♥

i sorta met my jeweler

i finally convinced oso to show me who made my engagement ring. :))

it pays not to be persistent sometimes, hahaha.

here is her site. and here is my ring on her site. seeing things like this makes me chirpy! :">

i haven't met roxy yet. but oso promised me i will soon. we will comission her to do our wedding bands as well. i need to thank her for this fab ring. ♥

 

our wedding band design is not yet final. we need to discuss with roxy the style we want and also discuss the pricing. i hope the negotiation runs smooth. if it does, we will post as usual. :)

 

to be honest, choosing the wedding band was much difficult than choosing my wedding gown. seriously. :))

in choosing the date

let me tell you a bit about us that no one knows..

we're on our 8th year now, starting february 2004. but technically, we're officially in a relationship february 2005. i won't get into details. just accept it as that, haha.

we were supposed to be officially in a relationship in between the years 2004 and 2005. august 15th to be exact. but it did not happen due to sentimentality's sake. :))

we do celebrate august 15 still. just to remember how he turned me down. boo you, oso! haha XD

so we agreed long before that to make the date officially special, we will get married on that date. august 15.

it fitted in our plan to marry by 2015 since it would fall on a saturday. so it's a date for us! ♥

but then, my oso proposed earlier than expected. to get married by that year would take too long. i'm not a fan of long engagements. so we got sad a little bit then considered other dates as options.

firstly, we decided to do the wedding by 2013. just enough waiting time and prep. but august 15 that year would fall on a thursday. alanganin. think, think..

we discussed things, thought about the pros and cons, then we agreed we'll still pursue august 15. we can't think of any other date.

with that settled, off we went on church oculars. haha

basically, we're just considering two churches: my choice, SSJ and his choice, CTK. we visited both churches the same day and inquired about our target date. both were still open that time we inquired.

we found out during the SSJ visit that they offer Sunday weddings. i was surprised. i'm not aware that there are Sunday weddings. all along i thought that the Church does not allow it since Sunday is the Lord's day.

it is now very vivid for me how it happened since it was way back in may 2012. but i remember the parish lady suggesting a weekend for us. she says it would be nicer. so we flipped their reservation calendar/book over to consider other dates and landed on september. that's when oso saw that september 8 was a sunday. we looked at each other when we saw it and immediately changed our minds. haha. :P so we considered september 8*** as another option for us. :))

we had it pencil booked right away.

off we went to CTK after inquiring at SSJ. august 15 and september 8 are not booked there as well. CTK also allows sunday weddings. lucky us, hehe. XD but they do not allow pencil booking as i remember.

since we already know our dates' status, we discussed. i even recall us coming into CTK's adoration chapel before we talked about it. i personally prayed over the decision we need to make. and i feel oso prayed for it to.

i can't remember well why but, oso decided to go with my SSJ choice, hehe. XD my love for SSJ must have been more convincing than his love for CTK? XD

either way, i resolved to marrying him anywhere. as long as it's him. ♥

so, that settled it. we chose SSJ and planned to return for our downpayment after two days. haha.

wedding when: September 8, 2013

wedding where: Santuario de San Jose, Greenhills, San Juan.

***ok, let me explain what's with september 8.. it's Mama Mary's birthday. being a Legion of Mary in our parish and a Catholic, it says everything. period.**

pamamanhikan nga ba 'to?

our formula to making our wedding day happen is to make things happen. because our schedule is difficult, we cannot rely on chances to make things possible for us. what we need to make things happen: sacrifice sleep, extinguish energy down to empty and a love affair with google maps. yes, sacrifice is more than a word i must say.

i just want to get that out. but it is not post related. :))

this is a late post since i'm such a good blogger that i get to update often. *sarcasm* ^______^

pamamanhikan. i really wonder how it is suppose to work. they say it is the time the families need to talk about the wedding. discuss expenses, decide on who gets to go --a.k.a. the guest list, who's in the entourage, when and where, etc. etc..

when i learned about this, i was like, "so, we shouldn't do this anymore since a lot of things are already settled?". =))

note, if you want to stick with traditions, this should come first before the preparations started. haha. we fail. :P

but then again, oso and i both felt that this should happen due to two reasons. one, i'm the eldest of the family, i should start this. two, he's the youngest of the family and they have never done this. haha. XD so, we made it happen.

it happened during my oso's 25th bday last november. :D

we were surrounded by all our families plus, pj and martha. we are very thankful they came for us. salamat paps and martha. :D

what we did? well, a weekend of fun and relaxation that's all. no marriage discussions. just spending time together, laughing, eating, singing, gambling and things in between. we treated banio kreek like an extension of our homes. tsinelas and the glamorous pambahay all weekend long. :)) our pamamanhikan did not seem to be a formal and business-like affair. it just became a communion of two families. we are lucky to have the families that we have. ♥

where: banio kreek, silang, cavite

photos from my canon s95 in auto. XD

some cheesiness for our fans =))

pj and martha, sooper thank you. :D

lulu and mom enjoying the swing

swing time, fun time

sunday started with breakfast

and mahjong for the gents

with ze sisters over videoke

ofcourse, oso sings too :X

with our lola dearest

oso with his family over the kitchen

more singing :P

now you see how oso looked like when he was smaller. nath the pogi. :*

swimming for the very brave kids. it was very cold. i did not dare. :))

loisa and kaye, i don't know why they're so happy. XD

with the cutie pie dhannia shane :*

oso's mom over the chapel

banio kreek with some of their hundreds of stair steps :))

oso, his mom, andy and ate minay

by banio kreek's creek, haha

oso spent the whole morning chasing josh for a kiss. :))

birthday song singing for oso over lunch.

he gets shy when people sing happy birthday for him. so cute. :">

happy birthday pogi! :*

handami ng spaghetti. love, love, love. :P~

that sunday morning, my oso surprised me with a bouquet of red roses by the swing. i did not have a chance to document it. it was the sweetest thing. his ate, ate amie, came with their nieces and took pictures of us though.  i hope i get to share it.

after his ate and nieces left, we were just by the swing, silent. admiring the trees in front of us, feeling so much loved by God and by each other. i cannot ask for more, this is too much for me. ♥

after our stay at banio kreek, i went with oso's family to picnic grove. i'll find pictures of that on my phone. i hope i can add it here, haha. XD

thank you Lord for chances like this. bless our family more. :)