Pictures Galore!
Now that the wedding is done, photos of the amazing event have been flooding cyberspace. Check out the photos from Oneal’s camera, taken by the Managing Editor of Playboy Philippines, Misha Lecaros:
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Eight Days to Go
As I write this, Oneal is at Big Sky Mind for his bachelor party with the geek guys, and I’m at home with the cats and the laundry. Eight days to go till the big day, and my bridal shower is on Monday. (If you want details, please ask Jovan or Shey. I know nothing.)
I’m so excited that my nerves are in a frenzy. This past week we’ve been pretty relaxed, but now I’m listening to my bridal march song, and I’m so psyched that just listening to the song brings tears to my eyes. (Check out my epiphany about it from months ago.) Ted of Manila String Machine says they’ve been rehearsing the music they requested, and I can’t wait to hear their renditions of the Star Wars themes we love so much. Continue Reading…
Ten Days to Go
Sure, we’re stressed, but it doesn’t feel like the end of the world, or like a deadline looming. It feels more like the rest of our life is about to begin, and we really can’t wait.
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
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
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
and we present to you, the videographers!
From the start we decided that we want to have a photographer with at least two cameras shooting at once and that goes the same for the video. this is so that they can take multiple angles at once as well as get shots of us and the crowd simultaneously.
we selected and booked the photographer so now we were choosing from a shortlist of videographers who have the right number of cameras for reasonable prices. some of the ones we wanted were already booked on our date so we asked one of those our photographer recommended, 30Fps we looked at their website, checked out their rates and watched a few sample videos. they seem to have the right equipment including a glidecam setup and glidetracks for more stable sweeping and panning shots.
we asked for service only because a friend has volunteered to edit the video the way we would like it. i spoke to Paul Macasaet and told him they were referred by our photographer. he originally asked if we could drop by the wedding fair at the PICC to sign a contract and give the downpayment, i told him we didn’t like going to wedding fairs anymore and he said even though they don’t do pencil bookings, he’ll take our word and put us down as confirmed for the February 20, 2010 date and wont take any more clients on that day.
we are meeting them on Wednesday to finalize things.
on that note, we seem to have all the suppliers done and ready.
- oneal
Pending stuff
Other people keep telling us we have everything worked out for our wedding, but it still feels like there’s so much to do!
For instance, we have yet to meet our priest, Fr. Clod Bagabaldo. We’re finally meeting him for the first time tomorrow night. I hope our ideas aren’t too outlandish for him!
Second, we have booked neither videographer nor musicians! We have some shortlisted, but nothing final yet. Eek!
– rej