Tempting Fate

It's friday, and so far we haven't really done much preparations this whole week. All I've actually done is tried to call String Minstrels to inquire about their quartet services, and even that wasn't fruitful at all since the contact person was out that day and there wasn't anybody I could talk to. I emailed them instead, but, well, until now there's no response. So I must say that we have zero progress since last week. But hopefully that will change this weekend.

Well actually, the week wasn't so bad. We've had some good news afterall. Early this week (I think that was tuesday or wednesday), my sister called me and told me that we may be able to book DBO's Lunchbox afterall. She didn't go into details of how and why, but she said that she just talked to Amiel and he said that they can still sing at our wedding. Yey, that's great news indeed! Honestly, I've already accepted that we may have to get another band. We were even thinking of asking Leo's friend, or even my officemate's band to play. But I still prefer DBO's since they were highly recommended (by LA and Bernard and Clar, ofcourse, hehehe). I've heard their demo cd and they sounded good. Plus they're from Ascension Parish, so I'm a little proud :) Love you're own, right?

Wait... here I go tempting fate again... We haven't even booked them yet but I am acting as though we have. We still need to talk to them to discuss pricing and arrangements, and to confirm that they are really available to play on our date. For all I know, LA could just be playing a joke on me (though she wouldn't be so cruel!). I just hope we can have an agreement soon. We are planning to meet them on Sunday after mass. I just pray that their rates are not so steep.... (crossing my fingers).

Aside from meeting with DBO's, we are also planning on meeting one of our Ninongs on Sunday morning. Leo's dad has been wanting us to visit his friend and client, Lito Chua, since last month, but we've been busy with other things. Hopefully we can accomplish this task on Sunday. I am also thinking of setting up a dinner with all the ninongs and ninangs one night so that we can get to know them better (and vise versa). But that would mean additional expense though, so...welll, we'll see...

Time to start moving again...

How do I love thee...

(warning: mushy contents... don't read on if you are mush-intolerant, hehehe)

Today I attended another one of my workshops. Now don't ask me what it is, cause I'm not saying. It's just something that I felt I had to do... something that I really wanted to do (hehe, is that vague enough for you?). The schedule of my sessions are mondays, wednesdays and fridays at 7-9:30pm, and these past three weeks that I've been attending it, Leo has been waiting up for me, either in his office - doing unnecessary OT, or at Shangrila - malling aimlessly. For someone who initially didn't want me to register for the workshop, he has really shown so much support and done a lot of sacrificing in terms of time and rest. Since we go to work together in the mornings, he has to wake up very early too so that I'd be in the office early enough for me to be able to get off work in time for my workshop. And if my MWF hectic schedule is not enough, I also have late night meetings every tuesdays and thursdays that I have to take in the office. So from mondays to fridays, Leo drives me in the morning and waits up for me very late at night.

So why am I writing this, you might ask. Why am I telling you about our schedule and all that? It's because this post is not really for you (though you may read it if you want)... It's because I want to say thank you... thank you to my baby who has been so generous with his love... thank you to that special person who has made me feel so blessed to have him in my life. This is for you, love... to let you know I appreciate all your sacrifices for me... that I appreciate you... I love you.

...Let me count the ways...

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death

SHMILY...

Going Medieval?

We are having a medieval theme for our wedding, complete with family crests and some formal dancing. Balay Kandila will be in-charged of the styling so I am confident that it will be beautiful and authentic-looking. If you haven't seen Balay's work, you can view their website at www.balaykandila.com.

Anyway, my problem is that I am not sure if I should stick to the theme for our outfits. Surprisingly, Leo wanted to go all-out with the theme, wearing costumes and all. I, on the other hand, am not really keen on wearing long puffy sleeves for my (and our entourage) gown and wearing my hair down and flowing. Now I know this "look" is very nice on movies like LOTR and Star Wars. They even have head dresses and the likes. I am not sure though if it would still look nice in real life, given that it could be very windy in Tagaytay. I also worry that the gowns will be more expensive since they will eat more cloth than the usual "almost-nothing-on-top" look. Hehehe, well maybe not "almost-nothing", my ento will kill me if they read this. Just the common spaghetti strap, off-shoulder, halter.... you know, the sexy looking gowns. On the other hand, wearing costumes could add to the "on a different time and place" effect, right? This is the main reason why we are having a theme wedding in the first place. It's so that they would feel transported and different... something to remember... Hmmm, now if only everyone will be game about it...

Well, I still have a lot of months to decide. Hmm... come to think of it, I guess I don't really have much time anymore since I have to finalize the gowns with the designer soon :( Oh well...

Feel free to comment below if you have suggestions and ideas :)

Meeting With Jing

We had a meeting with Jing Almeda-Guiua of Villa de Oro the other day. It was originally scheduled for Saturday at Southmall, but I got a call from Jing last monday and she offered to move the meeting on Tuesday in Makati instead so that it would be nearer for us. So on tuesday 11:30am, we met her at Shakeys Glorietta for the contract signing and our 50% down. We had pizza, potatoes and chicken (hehehe, so who's on a diet again?). I must say, Jing wasn't at all what I was expecting. I don't know why but I expected to see this really sophisticated "sossy" person. Maybe because of the voice. She has this deep strong authoritative voice on the phone. I was half expecting to be intimidated by her. It was therefore a nice surprise to find out she is actually very approachable and easy to talk to - not at all intimidating. She gave us some discounts and waved some corkage fees (though I must say that despite that, the rental of the place is still a bit on the high side - though I believe worth it, of course :b), and she even gave us a copy of the floorplan and map of Villa de Oro.

After the meeting, Leo and I got to talking about our suppliers. We really do have great suppliers, if I must say so myself. Not just for the actual services contracted (some of them I still have yet to see of course), but for the good customer relationship. Everyone's so nice and accomodating. But then I guess they have to be to stay in business, since the wedding biz is fast becoming crowded. Still, it's nice to see suppliers who are not only there for the money, but more for the love of their work.

Breaking New Ground

I realized that we've been a little too relaxed with our wedding preparations lately. I guess I didn't really want to overwhelm Leo yet with all the things that we have to do, and at the same time I also wanted to have a little break from all the stress of the first wave of preps. But now, Leo and I decided that it is just about time to resume the preparations again. Time really flies too fast for us to relax too long. Before we know it, it'll be ber-months and then everybody will be hectic (specially suppliers since that's the start of the wedding peak season).

So today, Leo and I spent saturday at my house, trying to break new ground in the wedding preps. Ok, so we really didn't cover a lot. Most of our day was actually spent playing PS2 instead of planning. Still, we were atleast able to accomplish some tasks, minor as they may. So these are what we have accomplished:

Finished "almost-final" entourage list. Unless there are people in the list who cannot make it to the wedding, then that will be the final entourage. We're still needing a couple of ninongs and a ninang though. We're leaving that buffer incase our parents suddenly decide to add a ninong or ninang. Our ento will consist of 1 maid-of-honor, 1 bestman, 3 pairs of secondary sponsors, 4 bridesmaids, 4 groomsmen, 2 junior bridesmaids, 2 junior groomsmen, 5 flowergirls, 3 bearers, and 10 pairs of sponsors. Yeah, I know the list is kinda long. Most are relatives though and will be in the wedding anyway, so why not give them roles to play, right?

Organized Leo's guest list. I've been bugging him about this a long time now, so it's great to finally have atleast a realistic list from him. Now my problem is how I will be able to bring down my guest list since now I can see that I need to cut down atleast 50 heads ("off with their heads", hehehe). I have to start working on that again this week... *sigh* such an impossible task :(

Called Leggiero and inquired about their out-of-town quartet services. Ok, so their local rate seems reasonable at 10K for the quartet. What's killing me is their out-of-town rate since they charge double their local rate for that. Double! That'll make it 20K - and that's over our budget for the strings. We may be able to pool the excess, but my worry is that, since we are having problems booking DBO's Lunchbox, we might (very possibly) go overbudget with our band as well. Add the choir fee (even if it's just minimal) and that would really bloat our budget for entertainment :( But Leo and I are still deciding though, since most of the good strings are already booked on our date.

Set an appointment with Jing of Villa de Oro for the contract signing. We've set the meeting for saturday, April 23, at 2pm. Hopefully we'll be able to ask and clear out all our questions regarding the generator and the hotel being contructed in the villa.

List down to-do tasks. We started doing this, but Leo wanted to do it in MS Projects (talk about OC!). We just discussed some of the tasks needed and then I promptly got overwhelmed with it all. I guess I started panicking. Because of that, we stopped discussing and Leo just said that he'll do it at home (hehehe, I get a little "mataray" and so OC when I'm in panic mode that we often end up fighting).

So far, those are our accomplishments for the day. We also tried to call and register for the Discovery Weekend, but no one was picking up so we just decided to call again on monday. Next step would be to finalize the menu with Juan Carlo, and to draft the contact with them. Also, we need to set a date for the prenuptial pictorials with Lee so that we can acquire the endorsement for Tagaytay Highlands early on. Oh there's really still so much to do! Wait, I have to stop now before I stress myself all over again, hehehe.

I'll post again when we have more progress :)

One Step at a Time

Finally, we have a blog for our wedding preps! Hehehe, not that it's hard to do. The hard part is in filling it up. Well, I guess we'll just do it...

...one step a time. That's the attitude that we are trying to have with all these wedding preparations. Otherwise, we'll be overwhelmed with all the things that we have to finish! It's a good thing that we started early - ah, I meant I started early, hehehe. September 2004 (yes, I started this early even when our wedding is still on January 2006) to March 2005, Leo was in the US and was pretty much in the background while me and my sister (and her boyfriend, and my cousins, and my mom) did the nitty gritty part of scouting venues and attending bridal fairs and booking suppliers. Of course, Leo had to approve everything that we decided on. Well, now that he is here, he has readily jumped in the preps (note that readily for us involves dragging and nagging, hahaha).

So far these are our accomplishments:

Church Venue

• Booked Caleruega for the afternoon of January 7, 2006 (paid reservation fee of 5,000 pesos)
• Site visit with both our families
• TO DO: Site visit with coordinator and production designer. Check the travel time from church to reception venue on a saturday afternoon.

Reception Venue

• Booked Villa de Oro for the reception venue (paid reservation fee)
• Site visit with both our families
• First site visit with Coordinator and Production Designer
• TO DO: Call Jing and ask about provisions for power (generators). Also verify if there is a hotel that will be built inside the Villa.
• TO DO: Measuring of the ground area
• TO DO: Contract signing

Caterer

• Booked Juan Carlo the Caterer (paid reservation fee)
• Had initial food tasting at ferwood - food was delicious but serving is a little small (though this shouldn't matter since we are getting the buffet dinner). Set-up is nice.
• TO DO: Detailing and drafting of contract

Designer

• First meeting with Tita Vangie to discuss quotation and initial design
• TO DO: Second meeting and more detailing

Photographer

• Booked Lee Llamas Photography for Package A
• Paid reservation fee and 50%
• TO DO: Set date for prenuptial pictorial on May
• TO DO: Get endorsement for Tagaytay Highlands for prenup

Production Designer (Event Stylist)

• Booked Balay Kandila (contact is Ronald)
• Discussed design for medieval theme
• First site visit at Villa de Oro
• Paid reservation fee and 50%
• TO DO: Second site visit at Villa de Oro and Caleruega. Detailing and drafting of contract.

Florist

• Initial quotation from Mang Boy Mahusay for entourage flowers
• TO DO: Book florist for Church and Reception

Coordinator

• Booked Wini Sanchez of Witty Jobs Party Team for OTD services (paid reservation fee)
• TO DO: Discuss program flow
• TO DO: Contract signing

Hair and Make-up Artist

• Booked Ross Regala (paid reservation fee)
• Finished trial hair and make-up (make-up is nice, but hairdo should be changed to conform to the theme - needs to be softer looking)