Tuloy ang Kasal!
Our Lady of Mount Carmel finally said they are accepting our documents and we can proceed with the wedding!
We can finish the pending documents after the wedding so we are not in a stressful rush.
- Oneal
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Anak ng tokwa, ang hirap naman magpakasal.
It seems like every free day or hour we have is spent on the wedding. Or in the car, going somewhere wedding-related. Take Wednesday, for example.
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. Continue Reading…
Arrhae!
We got our arrhae! with the rings and the cord, all we need now for the ceremony are the Bible and the veil. Oh and the candles and pillows. Yay!
note: this is a 40 year old arrhae, it was the one my grandmother had made for my parent’s wedding in 1970, that’s why the 50-centavo coins are from way back in 1967
- oneal
Nitty gritty
Why is getting married so complicated?? All I want is to be one with my hunny bunny till death do us part. Why is there so much paperwork and fuss????
Right now, we’re working on our marriage license. We need to make a personal appearance at the Parañaque City Hall, and present our CENOMARs, NSO birth certificates and Oneal’s certificate of residency.
We also made reservations to attend the pre-cana seminar at the Center for Family in Ateneo in January. But before we can do that, we need an authorization letter from the church. AND we need to submit our birth, baptismal and confirmation certificates. Egads! Surely getting married was never this complicated before?
On the upside, I think all the suppliers have been booked. The venue is now fully paid, yay! We’ve also finalized the program.
It’s only two months away, and it feels like there’s still so much we need to do. To top it all off, it’s Christmas! But I guess Christmas is just another opportunity to be thankful that I have a wonderful Oneal who wants to marry me.
It’s going to be a Merry Christmas indeed!
– rej
Back on track
Typhoon Ondoy has sidetracked many people, and many plans. That weekend, we were supposed to have a family pictorial! Obviously, we had to cancel it.
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:
- Book the hair and make-up artist
- Complete our wedding documents
- Draft and finalize the missalette
- Design and finalize the invitations
- Decide on the music for the ceremony
- Decide on the music for the reception
- Decide on the preps hotel
- Finalize the reception program
- 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 Entourage
Our best men with Oneal at the Eraserheads reunion concert
These are the wonderful people who have agreed to play an important part on our big day:
Our Best Men
Paul Julius Martin Catiang – Our housemate, and my orgmate and friend from college, Paul is a little too enthusiastic about Monty Python. He’s also our C-3PO!
Dante Gagelonia – Our housemate, and my best friend from college, Dante loves many of the geek things we do, and it’s hard to pin down what he likes most.
Our Maid of Honor
Kat Magallona, MD
Kathleen Magallona, MD – My close friend and classmate since fourth grade, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Kat is also active in their church choir.
Our Matron of Honor
Joanna Marie Orena Cemine – My best friend from high school, and classmate since fifth grade, Anna is now married and has one son.
Our Secondary Sponsors
Our Candle Sponsors
Jovan, our Candle Sponsor
Jovan De Ocampo – My college orgmate and our awesome geek friend, Jovan is into Transformers and Harry Potter.
Julius Rivera – Oneal’s barkada since grade school, Physical Therapist and very physical. lives in romantic Sonoma valley and very romantic.
Our Veil Sponsors
Amaris Grace Cabason – My cousin on the mother’s side, Amaris is going to be a brilliant lawyer one day.
Orland Gregorio Axalan - Oneal’s buds since high school, athletic, one of the other big Star Wars fans in the barkada, has taught his son well about the Galaxy far far away.
Amaris, our Candle Sponsor
Our Cord Sponsors
Celeste Pampolina – Oneal’s cousin is based in the US, and can’t make it to the wedding. Representing her at the wedding will be Oneal’s neice, Danielle Luna.
Mario Madrid - Oneal’s barkada since grade school, the group’s accountant, recently married and soon to be a father.
Oneal's barkada, L-R: Odge, Martin, Mario, Caloy, Oneal, Julius, Nick and Iñaki
Our Groomsmen
Ronaldo Rosero, DDM – Oneal’s brother, and our dentist!
Nick Joseph Santiago - Oneal’s barkada since high school, Chef, restauranteur, matchmaker and asthma inducer.
Martin Luna, MD - Oneal’s barkada since grade school, married into the family, now emergency room doctor on speed dial.
Our Bridesmaids
Nina
Nina Lou Reyes – Awesome geek friend, Nina loves Star Trek and the Lord of the Rings most of all. also the Philippines’ resident Princess Leia.
Mary Ann Marchadesch – My friend from college, Mary Ann is a devoted Doctor Who fan.
Mary Ann Ortiz – Meann is the founder of Star Wars Philippines. She loves Harry Potter as well.
Our Flower Girls
Maxine Enriquez – Dexter’s daughter
Martina Llamas – Iñaki’s daughter
Mary Ann
Our Ring Bearer
Miguel Paca – Caloy’s son
Our Coin Bearer
Joey Torres – Oneal’s inaanak
Matron of honor Anna with our Bible bearer, Gabby
Our Bible Bearer
Gabriel Cemine – Anna’s son, and my inaanak
Thank you, everyone, for being part of our entourage! Soon we’ll post our Principal Sponsors.
– rej and oneal
all our suppliers are booked!
well, at least the priorities are done. we’ve given downpayments for the venue, caterer, ceremony and reception flowers, photographer and videographer.
just today we signed the contract with the Manila String Machine.
the funny thing is that we never tell any of them about the theme of the wedding when we initially meet. we only inform them about what we have planned right after we sign the contract and give them the check. fortunately, none of them reacted violently when we tell them what we have planned. they all seem to get really excited when they find out it will be a Star Wars wedding.
they can’t wait to be a part of it because it is something different from what they usually have to do, which can get tiring after a while.
the best part is that they can play the Imperial March! 
5 months to go and we are ahead of schedule.
- oneal
Updated pages!
Donation to the GMA Kapuso Foundation, September 2008, SM Marikina
As you may have noticed, we update the wedsite sporadically, but when we do, we post a lot of stuff! I usually write the long entries, and Oneal fiddles around with the code.
This time, we’ve added links to the websites of our suppliers, removed some clutter, and changed a few settings. Please feel free to leave a comment or two (or more)!
Also, please check out our other pages, as we’ve posted some updates:
– rej
All in one day: we have our musicians too!
We met Ted Amper a few weeks ago.
The best gauge we have for booking any of our suppliers is how well we get along with them. Naturally, we canvass different suppliers first based on price, availability, and the quality of their work. But sometimes their personality is more important than that.
Take for example one account executive from one of the florists we met with. She was polite, yes, but she also didn’t seem very receptive to our ideas, and was even correcting us on several points. It’s our wedding, not hers, and if she thinks she can improve on what we want, she should be able to phrase them such that we’d be inclined to agree with her.
Suffice it to say, we didn’t hire that florist, and instead we went with the one with very helpful and effusive account executives. So what’s this got to do with music?
From the start we knew we wanted strings for the ceremony, and possibly for the reception too. We asked around for contacts, but never really got to get in touch with the musicians until recently.
Our friend Zuri told us about Manila String Machine, which was the group that played at Issa Litton and Tiger Garido’s Star Wars wedding last December. I sent an SMS to the cellist, Ted Amper, and he gave us their website URL. The repertoire was all we needed to see.
It was full of movie themes by John Williams, and lovely, lovely music from Ennio Morricone, as well as a few other gems. There were links to YouTube videos of their performances, and one of the videos showed them playing Ennio Morricone! *swoon* I fell in love.
The price was also good, and their terms very reasonable. So we decided to meet with Ted.
Ted was really, really nice. He was very amusing, very warm and friendly, and quick to answer our questions and dispel any doubts. After he left, Oneal said, “You like them na, no?”
Indeed, the repertoire, the price, and the terms were great, and it sounded like Manila String Machine was a group that really loved to play music, and they already knew the music we wanted. What’s not to like?
So today, we booked Manila String Machine. I hope they can learn a few more new pieces for the wedding, like my bridal march. We’ll meet them in about two weeks for the downpayment and the contract-signing.
– rej
