..on the road to el dorado

*el dorado - meaning 'place of riches'*

whew.. of course after deciding to get married next year, the preparations follow. so now we are tracking our road to getting there hehehhe...

me and hubby first agreed on the date that we would want, and we decided it's best to have it on a december because it's a festive season and of course most of the relatives would be home including us and the kids. well it would also lessen the expenses of having to decorate the church and the reception venue hehe! *nice idea right?* ..and so we finalized the date to be december 27, 2007 at 4pm in the afternoon. our wedding theme is classic vintage, around 1950's era. i was inspired by the movie, mona lisa smile starring julia roberts *my idol*. color motiff is still tentative because i have to meet my couterier first.

the second task was finding our church.. i think this part is the easiest because i already had in mind the san agustin church in intramuros. i attended a wedding there twice and during those times, i would really feel the solemnity of the ceremony and the serenity of the place. there was this warm touch of god's hands and sweet lullaby of his voice. and right then and there, i knew, this is the place where i want our vows to be witnessed by god and by our loved ones. san agustin church usually gets filled up quite fast for couples so we decided to book them as early as now. my dear sister, grace, and boyfriend, aljo, went there last july 4 to book our date. well i know you've read the story of that from my previous post :)

along the way of meditating on our wedding date, we were also deciding on the person to get as our wedding coordinator. i know that it would be difficult for us to accomplish everything being both overseas so we decided to get one. initially i was thinking of getting somebody around the ten thousand peso mark. i read some archives on the discussion of w@w *weddingsatwork* and found such names as queen, teena, clarice, etc. so i did my homework and researched on their profiles. clarice was also referred by my kumare. i also emailed teena of hitched *referred by w@w sister*. both of them sent an email regarding their proposals for our big day. we were quite stunned with the budget that we would have to alot for them. niño and i discussed our options. he said that it's ok to pay as long as the quality of service is brought home and we're comfortable with the person. in our case, another hindrance is that we need to spend our time also with the kids so we need someone who could really handle the job. our final decision was to get teena baretto of hitched. i was able to talk to her already and sure enough there was this magic right from the beginning, so i know we're in good hands.

when teena and i started discussing some few thoughts and ideas *well actually i laid all my cards from the beginning to her so that she'd know what we want*, she gave me a list of things to accomplish at the end of the year. she wanted us to settle the church date, reception venue, caterer *if needed* and photographer/videographer, and then make a downpayment or pay the reservation fees..

church: check! done already.. next..

reception venue: hmm.. this is one of the toughest decision to make. we were comparing a garden wedding against hotel or ballroom wedding. i really wanted a garden wedding because the place itself is already presentable plus the ambiance is different from a closed-door room. niño also felt that we would need to get a caterer that would dress up a function room well, otherwise, we would need an event stylist or florist to jazz up the place. of course, that would mean additional cost. from my post in the w@w yahoogroup, i was able to get a list of garden venues around intramuros that has back-up tents and ballrooms. we found ilustrados; we checked their website and we like the place already! even the ballroom is very complimenting. right now, we are 75% decided on booking them for our reception venue..

caterer: no need, ilustrados has in-house catering service so i don't have to do several taste test.

photographer/videographer: another tough situation. admittingly, there are lots of talented kababayans back home and its really so difficult to find one who could fit in with the budget and could deliver what we want. the very important thing to us is the layouting. we want it to be somewhat dramatic.. something like when you're looking at them, you can feel the emotions and it's as if you were there on the occasion. also, we want someone who could do well with black and white art according to our theme. we're still deciding on this so i guess it would follow in my succeeding post eventually. hold on to your seats..


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we plan to make our own website soon at weddingannouncer.com :) keep you posted promise!

it's a sign!

july 8, saturday. at exactly 12 midnight, niño kissed me and said, "mami, happy anniversary!". those were the sweetest words i heard to start my day. of course, i did the same. that morning, we together with my sis and nixon, went to sentosa with the pasaway kids. yeah i know.. not the typical anniversary where you spend some quiet time together. i think we would like to share that special day with the special friends we have here in singapore. we had a picnic at lunchtime at palawan beach. the dessert was assigned to us so we brought leche flan. the others brought poki poki *ate twix recipe of eggplant mixed with i duno.. i have yet to get the recipe from her*, chicken, tinapang bangus *smoked milkfish*, tomatoes and bagoong *anchovies* and plenty of rice hehehe! we proceeded to kusu island, a 30minute ferry ride across sentosa island. it's inhabited by turtles *my relations heheheh*. the 'calendar boys' spent some time in the beach while the 'beach babes' stayed and enjoyed the view. we packed up at around 4pm. our family went home straight because nixon might be tired already, plus we have a dinner date hehehe..

however, our date turned out to be disastrous! i won't go with the details anymore, i just got so irritated with the waitress from cafe cartell that dinner was postponed. good thing we decided to book a movie before leaving the house. at least there was still something to look forward to. otherwise, i would have cried right then and there at the restaurant. we enjoyed superman, so at least my disappointment subsided.

the turning point of our celebration was when we decided to get wed at the church :) i was so happy when niño and i agreed that we would do it december next year. at first i was pessimistic about it because it was just an idea that we were playing at when noah was born last february. supposedly, we should be wed this christmas if noah hasn't come. but somehow we thought that if we don't push it, more responsibilities and priorities will come along the way and build up. and our plans for our dream wedding will not materialize anymore. so bravely, we went against the odds and ask my sister and mother in the philippines to book our date with san agustin church.

that was 3weeks ago. within that time period, i was having second thoughts of really pushing it through. i joined weddings at work yahoogroup. it was a group of couples, mostly brides to be, who discuss issues concerning weddings. as i read through all there discussions, i was overwelmed with so much things to do and things to buy. that made me really scary. i posted some questions and consulted some coordinators to find out actual costs from each. i came across a coordinator whom i felt very at ease and comfortable to deal with. then i told her about my sentiments. she was very accomodating and realistic. i gave her my budget, and i was happy that she can help us stay on that budget or maybe less. so, i knew that somehow, we can make it happen.

the final sign came. this morning, my sister, my mom and i were having arguments about the reservation of the church venue. we wired the reservation fee to my mom. my sister grace and her boyfriend aljo would be the one to go to intramuros. however, miscommunications led us into upsets. i thought that grace would go home *she stays in makati* to get the money and go to intramuros. but there was a heavy rain around metro manila so she wanted to go there directly. but she didn't told me that, and it was unforeseen. if i had known so, then i would've wired the money to her account. my mom was getting hysterical because she was out and don't want us to argue. she was explaining to me that grace came from her night shift schedule. but anyway, before lunch, we all calmed down and my sister finally decided to just go home because she didn't want my mom to go out with the bad weather and her being tired from attending to business. i called around 3pm in the afternoon, my mom told me that the office closes at 5pm so grace and aljo were about to leave. due to the heavy rains, grace and aljo decided to hail a cab. at around 4:20pm, my heart was thumping fast. i went to chat a little to ate twix desk. at 10minutes past 5pm, when grace was still not texting, i decided to call her. she was whispering and said "achie *a term for older sister*, we're in the middle of the mass. i'll call you later.. it's already booked." i hanged up and smiled and told niño the good news :) earlier i said that if they're not going to make it, then it's really a sign that it's not yet the right time. but god gave the blessing. so i knew, in my heart, despite all the responsibilities of parenthood, we will be able to make it. we'll just put everything to faith and confidence in god and in our love.

i love you dadi.. and yes, i'm willing to say yes once more to our love. but this time, in god's presence and our families and friends as witnesses. happy first year rom anniversary!!! *tsup*



P.S. this is my signature at weddings at work yahoogroup at the moment:
aslee wife ni niño
dec. 27, 2007 (woohhooo nabuk na!)
san agustin/??