my long awaited gown sketches by veluz

it's been 30days now since i received mama veluz gown sketches for me. i was so stunned with the designs that she made for me and deciding was really difficult. nevertheless, i have decided to inquire the details for designs B and C, well especially C hehehe.. you may give your comments and suggestions (if you have time) and drop me a message regarding these designs. i'm posting them now here on my blog for the pleasure of your viewing...

venue fiasco, changing church

yes it's been a while since i last posted anything with regards to our wedding preparations. i was about to, three weeks ago but the difficulties of dealing with our ae in ilustrados made me weak to the bones to make me blog these details. i was completely devastated of what has happened, and now we're just moving forward. anyway, here we go with our latest updates...

to date, we have decided to just let go of ilustrado restaurant. we just don't want to deal with anymore stress regarding package inclusions and alterations. it just sent us into more fear that in the span of one year ahead, there would be more movements in the deal that we made with them and we just don't like that idea. so better to pull off the plug right this early and find another venue.

for the past three weeks, we have been searching for a possible venue that would suit our taste and budget. we have looked through father blanco's garden, a venue behind san agustin church. we asked for their package rates and compared against ilustrados. after a week of researches and calculations, we came to the conclusion that costings for father blanco's garden is relatively high, and moving away from our initial budget, and so we decided to find another one.

along the way of searching, we considered having it in a nice function hall. and we came across ba lepanto penthouse in makati. a fellow w@w's wedding came just in time to give us a glimpse of how weddings are done in the place. at first call for inquiry, i was turned down because ms. revi, the managing officer for lepanto, said that the place would undergo renovations next year and she's not sure when. she said i should get back to her on january 2007 to inquire again. both my shoulders dropped in dismay as i hung up the fone.

i came across ramon magsaysay center, kind of a historic place. when the day came that i needed to inquire about the place, the line was busy. so i said to myself that i'd like to try and ask lepanto again when is the renovation starting. ms. revi told me that they only accept bookings til august 2007. my spirits where dampened... and she asked, when is our wedding date. i told her we're scheduled on dec. 27, 2007 at 4pm. she just immediately said that it's ok to book lepanto after christmas! hooray! i was able to pencil book our date and hopefully by end of november, we'll be able to send in our reservation fee. along our conversation, i inquired about the possible caterers we can get for the place. she recommended swan lake catering, somehow i had this idea already since they were the one's who made a fellow w@wie friend's wedding a success. well, thats another story. i'll be posting a separate blog entry for them once we touch base with their ae (accounts executive).

with these changes, we're now planning to change our church to nuestra señora de gracia in guadalupe makati. it's really a nice peaceful church, our 2nd option to san agustin church. we were thinking of getting nsdg if we ever get a venue in makati, and san agustin church if we land a venue in manila. so now, we are changing from san agustin to nsdg so that it would be accessible to our guests and us.

i'll just post again when we've finally decided on these matters and paid the required downpayments. *cross fingers*

toxic 3weeks *sigh*

what way to better spend your whole week than to sulk and burry yourself with work! it's been more than two weeks in the running now since i've been juggling with different systems and requirements from my bosses and users. never in my IT career was i able to pull off from finishing five programs in 8hours! but i haven't tested them yet... hopefully come monday they would all work accordingly. thanks to the help of some few mf friends *mareng twix, pareng buru, natsy, derwin and sha*, i was able to work it out with my tasks.

the best thing was that niño was always around to cheer me up and assist me in taking care of the kids while i take a breather at home. it was so sweet of him to treat me to dinner at suntec the other night even if it was another burger and fries meal. i just miss him so much at the office. before, getting by a task was easy because he was around to help me out with my questions, and now i have to handle them all by myself. but our dinner date relaxed me somehow and it helped a lot in bringing my sanity back to being a mom to our kids and a wife to my loving hubby.

*huuugggss and kisses @dadi rak*

twinkle twinkle christmas tree...

today we beat the storm and went our way to geylang road to find the store that sells cheap christmas trees and decors. there was a downpour of rain as soon as we sat down on the bus to get us to lorong 40. it was a long journey, around 30minutes ride so we were expecting that the rain would die down by then. but nooooo!!! it didn't even tone down so we have to wait for at least a few minutes in the waiting shed. but for the life of me, the rain would not stop! and we've been standing and waiting for 15minutes! so we just decided to walk our way to the store through the rain... *talk about real determination!*

mind you, we didn't really know the exact location of this store. all we know is that it's along a popular intersection at the corner of geyland road. so off we go the streets, dripping wet. we even forgot to bring our jackets. and the streets were really flooding with water. so we crossed the street and finally came to our destination. we just stayed outside for a while to shake off some water, and the storekeeper saw as lurking around the 'trees' so they asked us to come in. we were the only customers that time.

niño and i really enjoyed shopping around for 'the tree' for our family. basically, we're so excited since this is our first tree for our family, and the kids are here so we really want to surprise them. we decided to get red, gold and silver for our color motiffs and the tree we chose was a 6feet tall green christmas tree. it was soooo pretty! we never had a christmas tree taller than me during my growing years in pinas. and now, i just wanted a big tree for us.

upon arriving home, we ate our meryenda, and the kids were still asleep for their afternoon nap. we decided to put up our christmas tree while they're asleep so that we could surprise them when they woke up. we enjoyed putting it up, it was a bonding experience for me and my hubby. and when nixon and noah woke up, the expression on their faces were priceless. a total view of innocence and awe. there's no replacing that special feeling of making your kids happy and loved.

*and now it's time to start thinking of how to introduce santa claus to them hehehe...*

officially hitched weddings and rene gaviola

last november 6, 2006, we were able to give our downpayment to my coordinator, teena barretto, of hitched events wedding. we're now officially their clients, and even if our wedding is still a year more today, we're very happy to be able to move properly one step at a time especially with our dream team.

so far, teena has been doing an absolutely good job with handling our concerns. i admit i get into so much stress and tantrums when something is not going well with our expected plans for the big day. she's very reliable and she's good at calming my nerves. we had difficult times, but we were able to manage everything, and now we're back on schedule. we just need to smooth some more rough edges along the way. you may view their website link for more details on their services.

another talented person will join the team... our photographer, mr. rene gaviola. he's one of our favorites. i wasn't really looking much into his profile because i heard that his package is kinda way up our alloted budget. and i was kinda thinking that he's a little intimidating because he has a name in the entertainment business being part of abs-cbn. but i was wrong...

i looked up one of rene's work posted by a co-w@w, chie. from the beginning to the end of the photo video, i was stunned and mesmerized. it was like living through the moment of the event itself! so i got the strength to pull myself together and send an email of our preferred items. true enough, he replied very quickly and accomodated our requests, just like that! he granted our wishes within the budget that we have and he promised to make the most out of the littlest penny spent for his services that we'll pay. he was indeed a very good catch and we're very happy to be his clients. every now and then i would stop by his blogsite just to check on his latest works. his masterpieces never seem to stop amusing me. thanks also to my college bud and fellow w@w, carol nolasco, who is also rene's client for their upcoming wedding next year. alternatively, you may visit his official website to view his profile and more samples of his works.