Updates as of June 29, 2012

Sixty-two days to go 'til our big day.  Wow.  Crunch time, this is it!!!!!!

To date, we have accomplished the following:

1. Paid almost 85% of our food and beverage expenses at Enderun Colleges
2. Gave the go signal for the production of my customized bridal footwear by Miss Mari of My Perfect Shoes.  I'll be claiming my shoes around second week of July.  Exciting!  In the end, I had it done in my favorite color, pink.
3. Sent Sweetie's barong and pants to our ever-reliable uniform supplier in the officer.  I will post the pictures once I get them.  I gave the barong and pants around two weeks ago, and they finished everything in just a little over a week.  I am sooo confident that this supplier will deliver excellently, like they always do.  In fact, they sew for major companies in our city like Mercury Drug, PLDT, Banco De Oro, among others.  Abangan.
4. Finalized my monogram and invite suite courtesy of the talented Miss Joy of The Monogram Hub, and sent them to Print Divas who will be printing my invites.  Yey!  I'm so happy with our monogram and invitations, plus all the other extra stuff I got from Sis Joy.  She's super nice and super talented too.  Even my AE from Print Divas was so impressed with her work.  

A sneak peak of what Sis Joy of The Monogram Hub came up for me :-)

Oooh, and let's not forget the other things I need to do:

1. Draw up song list for the ceremony and reception
2. Follow up the officiating pastor 
3. Decide whether to get a host or not
4. Draft the program for the reception (if any)
5. Create the AVP of prenup pics
6. Make a mood board of our stage and table set ups
7. Send to Sis Joy the size of our tarpaulin backdraft
8. And so much more!

Panic time! :-)

Dressing Up the Groom

Whoa!  It's only 80 days to go before our wedding, and I can already feel the pressure :-p    I think I don't have any reason to worry about my and the entourage's gowns, or the flowers or our invites, but every so often I am reminded about how close we are to the date, and how much more still needs to be done.  Every time I feel this way, I just do whatever I could with whatever time we had, since we are both neck-deep with our work.

So last Saturday, M and I went to Divisoria to buy his barong and some materials for decors which I'll be needing for the reception.  I never liked the idea of having my groom wear a tux, so I was more than happy to know that M feels the same way.  He did tell me though that in case I want him to be in tux, he'd gladly don one (I twitterpated with this!!!!!!)    :-)

Since he's dressing up for me on this day (hahahaha!!!!!!!), I tagged along with him to Divi.  We knew beforehand whom to go to, because M and I and this supplier, Brian, had been church mates since 2008, though we are not close to him at all.  One night while sharing the excitement of wedding preps to his small group, Sweetie mentioned about my preference for barongs.  That's when we found out that Brian's family is one of the major suppliers of Onesimus (yes, that trusted, classy brand you see in malls!), as well as other barong retailers and gown makers in Divisoria.  So it was only natural that we go to his shop when the time came for us to purchase my beloved's wedding attire.  Don't be fooled by Divi.  Yes, the place doesn't look nice at all, and sometimes I just want to declare my latest visit as the last time I will be there, but it's really a good place to find everything you can possibly ask for.  I must say that for the love of Sweetie, I'd gladly go to Divi again and again so we can spend wisely for the wedding :-)  

Here's the piña cocoon barong I chose for him.   Why did we opt for piña cocoon (the 2nd best type of fabric for barongs) instead of piña (the best type), especially since their difference is only Php 500 (cloth only)?   Well, I wanted something that Sweetie can still use after our big day.  Piña barongs are usually worn during weddings or oath takings.  If he'll be attending another wedding in the future and wear a piña barong, he might outshine the groom (and irk the bride!).   Sweetie won't be having any oath taking activity anytime soon (or maybe none at all).  So if we bought him piña, he'll end up using it only once.        

awesome details!

To add a Filipino twist to our cherry blossom-themed wedding, I picked a lavishly-made embroidered piña cocoon barong with coconut tree details.  The entire front of the fabric carried this design.  Happiness!

excellent craftsmanship!

I tried to find out how much a piña cocoon barong costs in Onesimus and SM Kultura, and I was shocked to know that they command as much as Php 6,000 (and to think, that was the lowest priced piña cocoon I saw)!  What a big blessing Brian was to both of us!  We only paid Php 2,500 for Sweetie's barong!  Throw in around Php 600-1,000 for the tailor who will sew it, and still we are way below the price you normally pay for a piña cocoon barong from the mall.  Thank you, Lord, for blessings like this!

Brian's company sells barongs of all types, and not just the top of the line.  If you need piña jusi, abaca or other types of barongs (even kimonas, women's barongs, uniforms, embroidery, logo/label, and RTW), they have them all.  I think grooms and brides who intend to shoulder the cost or buy barongs for their entire entourage would be happy to know that a ready to wear piña jusi barong from them starts at an outrageously low price of Php 900 (and mind you, it's a very, very good design and excellently sewn at that!).  

If you need a reliable supplier for barongs from Divisoria, chances are they are being supplied by Brian.  So please contact:

Brian Ong of Mychelyn House of Barong

Tel # 313-8093 / 986-5005 / 585-5034 / 0933-5880322

Email: mychelyn_barong@yahoo.com

Pas D-60 Ilaya St., Binondo, Manila

819 New Ylaya Textile Market (Beside BPI Savings)

Branch:  Stall 2K-15 2nd Floor, 

168 Shopping Mall, 3 Soler St., Binondo, Manila

Prenup: Round 2

As you know, we had our first prenuptial photoshoot last February courtesy of Imaginenation's Liz Ranola and Angelene Ong when we attended the Before I Do Pre-wedding Workshop.  The seminar-workshop was really very practical and insightful, and we highly recommend it to all who are getting married.  As an added bonus, we were given a free prenuptial photoshoot which was a truly memorable and fun experience.  Even if we started at around 2PM and ended at almost 8PM, we enjoyed it so much.  So imagine our happiness when our main photographer offered to do a second shoot with us --- free of charge!  Wow!!! Thank you so much, Lord, for this additional blessing!

So without further ado, here's our second prenup shoot taken at our beloved UP Diliman :-)  Why UP?  Well, we are both alumni of the university.  This is also where we first met.  :-)

Enjoy, folks!

at the Academic Hall overlooking the Amphitheater

Hahaha I felt like a politician's wife here.

With the oblation as a background

M + I

Props we didn't get to use last time

A must-read :-)

My favorite photo from this set :-)

Check out the "vendor"

Cheese flavor!

Did you know that we first laid our eyes on each other on a UPD Ikot jeep?  We were supposed to meet around 4PM of April 18, but then we both arrived in UP a little earlier.....

Check out the sign board :-)

My make-up artist (no, it's not Rae, who did a wonderful job with our first prenup and who will do my wedding make-up) didn't arrive, so I ended up doing my own hair and make-up.  But I think I looked okay with very light foundation and just lipstick, plus Liz was really good in coaching us with the poses, considering we are soooo shy.  So I just let it go and posed anyway :-)  When I finally got my CD of the pictures, I was really glued to the screen of my pc.  The pictures were really vibrant and great, and the outcome was more than what we had expected ---- not because of us, but because we were in the hands of a very artistic and talented girl behind the lens.

I didn't expect that God would give us a second prenup through Liz.  So thank you, God, for this wonderful surprise, and for blessing Liz with so much talent :-)

Next on my blog backlog:  my gown and other updates! Yay!