I didn’t have a whole week of terrible things, but it was still annoying and stressful. I was waiting for some of my writing fees to be available, and accounting kept making mistakes with my kilometric name, or my checks kept getting delayed. That’s not funny when you have bills to pay.

Then the car broke down. Naturally Oneal was annoyed, and he didn’t have time to bring it to the shop. The weather made things more difficult for us, with three different wakes to visit, and Oneal having to go back and forth between Parañaque and Pasig. We were lucky that friends happened by and gave us a lift home, two nights in a row.

Oneal’s dad was able to pick up the car on Friday, and have it repaired in time for the busy weekend. All in all, it wasn’t that bad, but I did suffer a comical traumatic experience that must be shared.

On Thursday, I was scheduled to go to the office. Given how unpredictable the weather had been, I wanted to dress appropriately: sensible clothes and shoes for rain or shine, and presentable clothes for the wake of Dante’s uncle, which we were visiting that night. So I put on jeans, a tank top, a jacket, and brown boots. I was armed with an umbrella and two handkerchiefs, a bottle of water, and my knife tucked behind my back. I also had snacks in my bag, since I get grumpy when I get hungry. See, I was prepared for anything!

RIP rubber heel

So I stepped out and walked my usual route towards the corner of Ortigas Ave. and C-5, to get the jeep to Cubao. I trudged through Hypermart and Tiendesitas. Once I was on C-5, that’s where I noticed that my tread seemed uneven. When I looked down, I saw that the rubber heel was sticking out on the side of my foot!

I had walked so far, and it was so hot and I was sticky and sweaty. I couldn’t very well walk all the way back home lest the heel come completely off. So I waited for a jeep and got down at the corner to walk home. By the time I got to the house, the heel on the other shoe was coming off too!

When I looked at my shoes at home, I saw that the heels were cracked in the middle. It looked like the rubber couldn’t take the heat from the pavement. I had to change into a different pair of boots. And since I was already disgustingly sweaty, I had to change my shirt too.

Both shoes!

I set out again for the jeep, and I made it to IPI, unscathed and starving. I got on a jeep and made it to Cubao without incident, with only crackers to stave off my hunger. I boarded a Lagro jeep near Ali Mall, and sat quietly as other passengers got in.

Once the jeep crossed Aurora, it stopped at BDO as usual to get more passengers. One of the passengers who climbed in was a greasy-looking man in dirty black shorts and a black shirt. He looked like he was homeless, one of those wandering people who just picked up what they could off the street.

And he sat beside me.

I got a little nervous since he was muttering angrily, and he smelled not nice at all. I thought he was muttering at the young man who was hanging on by the back of the jeep. I tried to keep quiet and be inconspicuous. Then the young man got down at Ermin Garcia, and I thought the homeless fellow would turn quiet.

Alas, he was still muttering.

And he kept glancing at me.

Call me terribly bourgeois and middle class and prejudiced, but I thought he was going to rob me. I thought he was looking at my jewelry, so I tried to hide my hands behind my bag and under my handkerchief. I thought he would reach for me. Once when he looked at me, I looked at him, then looked away, hoping to show that I wasn’t intimidated by him at all. I thought I saw him smile, but he was still muttering so I thought he was still angry

I kept thinking, if he reaches for me or tries to touch me, I’ll slap him or elbow him. On the other hand, I was also thinking, he’s just a crazy old man, he can’t do anything. But then again I would think, if he tries to hold me I’ll kick him.

Eventually he got down at Kamias Road, and I was unharmed. I and the lady in front of me breathed a very visible sigh of relief when he departed, and she told me, he had been muttering as he looked at me, “Wala ako’ng asawa.”

I didn’t know if I was going to laugh or cry, so I just laughed as I told the story at the office. But that was creepy.

Ruby Bayan, our ninang

Our principal sponsors at the wedding are awesome, wonderful people, who happen to be very good friends and close relatives of ours and our parents. But one truly awesome ninang is Ruby Bayan, mom of my best friend and our best man Dante Gagelonia.

Tita Ruby is based in Florida, and is a woman of many trades: she writes, does Web design, creates gorgeous jewelry, does her own carpentry and gardening, and is often sound engineer for her husband, Mike Llamas aka DJ Stoney Burke.

When we asked her to be ninang, Tita Ruby jumped onto the Star Wars bandwagon without hesitation. She scoured the Web for a costume she could wear to the wedding, and not only did she indeed wear a costume, but she made it herself too! And she modified a costume that was purchased for her husband. Check out her costume construction progress on Multiply.

Bridesmaid jewelry

In addition to the awesomeness of her costume, she also gave us a wonderful wedding gift: bridal jewelry for me, and jewelry sets for my bridesmaids and main and matron of honor! We gave these sets to the bridal entourage on the day of the wedding, and they all shrieked like teenage girls when they saw the beautiful, beautiful things. Check out the jewelry and the process of making them on Tita Ruby’s blog.

Tita Ruby, thank you for being an awesome ninang!

So what have we been up to? I’ve been trying to tie up loose ends at work so that everything’s okay when I go on leave. Oneal’s been doing the same, I think. Together, we’ve been delivering wedding invitations, getting RSVPs from the guests, and preparing for the despedida de soltera, which is happening this Friday.

Perhaps among the most exciting things we’ve been doing of late are the attire fittings, and the dance lessons. I can’t wait to see my finished dress and veil, and Oneal’s really excited about his barong. And last Sunday, we took our first dance lesson!

In the days to come, we’ll be meeting with our ninongs and ninangs, finishing off supplier payments, and pampering ourselves in time for the wedding.

I can’t wait till I’m married to my hunny bunny.

– rej

We spent Tuesday night in Roseroland, then woke up bright and early on Wednesday to go to Parañaque City Hall. We applied for the marriage license, which only took an hour. The documents required were the CENOMARs (Certificates of No Previous Marriage, obtained from the NSO), our NSO-certified birth certificates, and Oneal’s barangay clearance, since he’s a resident of Parañaque.

We went to the office, where the nice lady gave us a form to fill up–in triplicate. Naturally Oneal made me fill them up–”Your handwriting’s much better than mine!”–while he went to have our CENOMARs and birth certificates photocopied. That form was pretty detailed. Not only did it ask for the bride and groom’s personal information, but also for our parents’ information. Good thing I’m 28–if I’d been anywhere from 18 to 25, I would need a parent’s permission to get the marriage license. Zoiks.

Upon completion of the form, we had to have it notarized. We went to a law office that the nice lady specified, and for P50 they notarized and signed the forms. Then we had to make a payment of P200 at a payment lounge. Then we returned to the nice lady (it helps to be there early, and to smile at them), who gave us a slip of paper and told us to go to the DSWD office on the second floor for counseling.

This is the funny part. The nice lady told us the counseling wouldn’t take long. So we went to the office with our slips of paper, and a secretary told us to sit down, fill up some forms and sign our names on some logbooks, while she typed up a form with our names and had it signed by some lady of authority. Upon signing our certificates, she called Oneal, gave us the certificates, and said we could go. Uhm. Yep, counseling! Oneal said, “Well, if they leave you alone for a few minutes and you don’t end up yelling at each other, then you don’t need counseling!” Haay.

Then back to nice lady, who gave us our receipt and told us to come back for the license on December 21. Done!

Up next: Oneal’s baptismal certificate! We were done at the city hall by 10, so we rushed to San Vicente de Paul church in Manila, near Adamson University and TUP. Traffic was getting congested, and it was 11:30 when we made it there. Fortunately the parish office didn’t close for lunch till noon, so we had time. Oneal got his baptismal certificate. Yay!

We hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast at 6:30 AM, so we went to Makati for lunch. By 3:00 we were on the way to Bulacan, to get our wedding rings and arrhae. Traffic was bad, and I was tired and full. I fell asleep somewhere in Mandaluyong; when I woke up, we were back on EDSA and approaching Cubao. The jewelry shop was closing at 5, so we had to hurry down NLEX to get to Meycauayan. It was a little past 4 when we made it there, and boy was the trip worth it. Our rings are beautiful! So beautiful that I didn’t want to take mine off na. It looked so lovely on my finger, next to my engagement ring. The jeweler said it was a really nice design, like something she saw from Bulgari. Sosyal!

After that, it was back south. We went to the Fort, and hopped into Make Room for our wedding registry. We started picking out a few things, while waiting for Aids to come over so we could go to the dress shop. It was fun to pick out things for our new home (wherever that may be). It must be noted that most of the things we picked out were kitchen items and serving dishes; we love having people over, and we expect that both our families will be coming over a lot, especially when we have our first baby!

Then Aids arrived, and we went to Tita Jenny’s. He got measured for his barong, and we discussed Oneal’s barong with Tita Jenny. Also, good news for the lovely ladies of the entourage: your dresses will be ready for first fitting by next week. Mine too!

So in one day, we:

1. Applied for the marriage license
2. Got Oneal’s baptismal certificate
3. Got our wedding rings and arrhae
4. Picked out things for our wedding registry
5. Designed Oneal’s barong

That’s a lot for one day! And WE’RE NOT DONE! *faint*

All we wanted was a pair of two-tone rings, two outer bands made of yellow gold, with a white gold band in the middle. Matte finish, no diamonds, no engraving. Quotes at bridal fairs placed it at P30,000.

So last Monday, Oneal’s mom came to Yale with Tita Angie, and we all went to Meycauayan to order the rings. Good Lord, what a price difference! We told them what we wanted, and they measured our ring fingers (mine is 5 1/2, and Oneal’s is 11, haha!). After some computation and a bit of consultation with the craftsman, the proprietress quoted it at P21,000. Whoa!

In addition to the rings, we had also brought our arrhae. We decided to use the arrhae from Oneal’s parents’ wedding; it’s our “something borrowed.” It’s a set of gold-plated 1967 50-cent coins. There are supposed to be 13, but two were missing. A few months ago I put out a call for coins, but eventually it was Tita Baby who found them: one among her jewelry boxes, and the other just sitting in a ceramic bowl in the house.  Oneal said, “ It was in that ceramic bowl in the basement, right under the light switches. Mom wouldn’t have looked there if my dad hadn’t changed the light switches in the house, and that particular one stopped working. When he was checking the switch, my mom looked at the coins and found the 1967 50 centavo coin. They said it’s like something was telling them to look there.”

So as you can see, our arrhae is pretty special. We needed the jeweler to repair the crown that held all the coins, clean everything, and gold-plate everything.

We went to the jewelry shop last Monday. This morning, they called me. The rings would cost only P17,200. The arrhae repair and plating? P800. So everything for a total of P18,000! If only we didn’t have so much work to do, I’d drag Oneal to Bulacan tomorrow so we could get the rings na.

I can’t wait to see them!

– rej

Since that weekend, and through the other typhoons that have blown through the country, we’ve been busy with relief efforts here and there. Also, Oneal has a new job, and I have two new projects that keep me busy. So you can understand how our wedding planning got sidetracked.

Now we’re gathering our wits again, and going through all our wedding checklists to see what else needs doing. Fortunately, there’s not a lot left. All the major suppliers have been booked:

• Ceremony and reception venue – Fernwood Gardens, QC
• Caterer – Shangri-La Chinese Restaurant
• Florist for the church – 15-58 Flowers and Styles
• Florist for the entourage – Go4Flowers
• Photographer – Pat Mateo
• Videographer – 30fps
• Cake artist – Our friend, Reitch Calabia
• Couturier – Our friend, Jenny Rojales
• Rings maker
• Bridal jewelry – Our ninang, Ruby Bayan

So now, here’s what we need to do next:

1. Book the hair and make-up artist
2. Complete our wedding documents
3. Draft and finalize the missalette
4. Design and finalize the invitations
5. Decide on the music for the ceremony
6. Decide on the music for the reception
7. Decide on the preps hotel
8. Finalize the reception program
9. Attend a pre-cana seminar

There’s more that needs to be done, but these are the most urgent. We’re working on some of them already:

• Some of the documents have been obtained while a few others need to be requested.
• We’ve canvassed 4 hotels in Quezon City already.
• I know which HMUA I want to get.
• Jovan is working on our invitations.

Some things need more work than others, obviously. But we’re getting there. Wish us luck! In the meantime, it’s my birthday on Saturday, and we’re flying to Bora for a much-needed vacation. Yay!

– rej

Our first wedding gift, from Mario and Tricia

It makes me so happy that our wedding has brought out the thoughtful and helpful streak in so many people. Many friends have volunteered their time and effort to help us with all the things we need to do, the stuff we need to plan, decide, book, canvass, design and even edit. It’s so touching, and the best part is that they really just want to help! Most of them say, “Just tell me what you need. And please don’t feel obliged to invite me to the wedding, just because I’m helping you, okay?”

I really wish we could invite everyone. But alas, budget and venue constraints! I don’t think Fernwood could hold all the masses we want to invite.

Speaking of thoughtful, it was so sweet of Oneal’s high school barkada, Mario, and his wife, Tricia, to give us our first wedding gift: the cord for the wedding ceremony! They had a cord made out of beautiful beads, and in the colors of our motif, and with our initials! It’s so beautiful, and they’re so thoughtful, and it makes me so happy that people are being so wonderful.

Thanks, Mario and Tricia, and thanks to all the nice, generous friends we have.

– rej

Hair and make-up by Ms. Rose of Watercolors salon, Shangri-La Plaza

With my first hair and make-up (HMU) trial session, my hair stayed beautiful until the wee hours of the morning. I was happy with the make-up too, but in retrospect it seemed a little pale.

With my second HMU trial, my make-up was gorgeous! But my hair was only nice for two hours. That wasn’t so great.

My third trial seems to have worked out the best. Grace M recommended Watercolors salon, which her sister Marilyn and their event company, EventLab, patronize frequently. Marilyn recommended Ms. Rose.

So I scheduled an appointment, and got my hair and make-up done. So far, I think I like Ms. Rose best.