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!

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We have the wedding photos! Thanks, Pat Mateo! They’re awesome. We’ll post them as soon as we can! We got 3 cds, with a total of about 8GB of photos.

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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:

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

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I owe so, so, so much to Tita Peachy, my mom’s friend from college, for finding us our priest, Fr. Clod Bagabaldo. We met him last Tuesday, and the meeting went so well!

We met at Bizu in Greenhills at 8PM, since he said Mass at 7pm. He seemed a little lost as to why we needed a meeting in the first place. He said that for most couples he’s marrying, he doesn’t meet them till the wedding day itself.

So we explained that we wanted to get to know him, and for him to get to know us, so that we were all on the same page about the wedding. We wanted to know if there were any rites we were forgetting about. I also wanted to consult him on the matter of my confirmation certificate, and the bridal march.

Most important of all, we wanted to tell him we were having a Star Wars wedding, because we wanted him to understand how important Star Wars is to us. We wanted to show him pictures of the costumes the entourage were wearing, because we’d heard stories of other priests refusing to proceed because the bridesmaids wore strappy dresses, of the hemlines weren’t low enough, or some other objection. If Fr. Clod had any objections, we wanted to hear them early on, so we could address them.

Well, it turns out we needn’t have worried at all.

Fr. Clod is very open-minded, and he says whatever we want is fine. All other things associated with weddings are just fluff, traditions that aren’t crucial to the marriage rite. If all we wanted to do was get married, the rites would only take 15 minutes! He even said that since everyone was there already, and we had prepared so long for the big day, then it was just as well that we have a full Mass and have the parents and the principal sponsors play a part in the ceremony.

We asked him about the entourage attire, and the bridal march, and he just waved our worries away, and said those aren’t really important. The bridal march isn’t part of the marriage rite, so why should he mess with that? When we showed him the pictures of the attire, he admired them and said they really were different, and that was that!

In short, I should have known that Tita Peachy knew me and Oneal well enough to recommend for us a priest who was not conservative. Tita Peachy, thank you so much!

And Fr. Clod, thank you for agreeing to officiate our wedding. God bless you indeed!

– rej

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Last night Oneal and I brought my Maid of Honor and one of our Secondary Sponsors to the dress shop, so they could get measured for their dresses. My Maid of Honor, Kat, saw the pictures of my dress, and she shrieked! She and her boyfriend, Sonny, seemed pretty excited about the whole thing. She was asking how she should do her hair, and what everyone else would wear.

Jovan, our Candle Sponsor, was able to discuss with our couturier, Jenny Rojales, her suggestions and concerns for her dress. Jovan and Kat also got the contact info of the dress shop, so in case they want to go there on their own, for fittings or whatever, they cal call for appointments.

Tita Jenny showed me the type of lace they found in Divisoria, which they can use for my dress. She says she’ll go to Divisoria this week to buy it. Oh wow, it’s starting! I’m so excited. Everytime I see the pictures of my dress, my heart does a little somersault.

– rej

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i know its out of sequence but i finally got to do what i always wanted to do: Propose to Rej while in armor

video here: http://onealtr.multiply.com/video/item/21/Clone_Proposal

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our regular seamstress who makes and repairs most of our costumes from Jedi to Biker Scout has agreed to make the dresses and barong’s for the entire entourage!
Jennervita or Tita Jenny is a good friend of my mom and has been making her formal gowns for oath takings and other activities for years now, later we tapped her skills for making our costumes.
she’s known us for years and is now very familiar with the quality of costuming we require in the 501st. so she was our first choice to ask to do our wedding costumes, and she immediately agreed! she is very excited and already had lots of ideas on how to make the gowns look good, feel nice and not cost an arm and a leg.

fabric sampling will follow in April then initial measurements in June.

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… But you don’t know what to wear? Never fear!

The Star Wars universe provides many wardrobe options, especially the Prequel Trilogy! You can dress up as a Jedi, Royalty, a member of the Galactic Senate, an Imperial officer, a bounty hunter… the possibilities are endless! If you don’t know where to start, maybe we can point you in the right direction. It’s a good idea to check out the following sites:

• Padawan’s Guide
• Vader’s Fist: The 501st Legion of Stormtroopers
• Rebel Legion

Not only are there many ideas and pictures, but often you’ll also get tutorials, construction tips, suggestions, and links to fan-made costumes. <recruitment pitch> If you’re making a Star Wars costume, make it screen-accurate, and once it’s done, you can register for membership with either the 501st or the RL! </recruitment hahaha>

We’ll post more links and ideas as we find them. Already many people are saying, “Ooh, I’ll wear this!” and “Is it okay if I make that costume?” Hala, agawan na!

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One of the first things you think of when you get invited to a wedding is, “What am I going to wear?” This is especially true of our own wedding. In response to the news that ours will be a Star Wars wedding, most people–especially the friends of our parents–say with a small note of worry (or is it panic?) in their voices, “Will we have to wear costumes too?”

Oneal’s answer has been, “If you’re going to wear a costume to our wedding, it must be screen-accurate! It must be 501st quality!” I tend to say, “Well, it would be nice, but you don’t have to!” with a sheepish grin. Let’s face it: Star Wars costumes are not cheap, nor are they easy to make. Imagine having to explain to your seamstress what tabards are!

If you aren’t up to the expense and stress of having a Star Wars costume made, that’s perfectly okay! Standard formal attire is completely acceptable: barong tagalog for men, dresses–cocktail, long, or otherwise formal–for the women. Our motif is white and gold, so I’m sure you can find something appropriate.  But if you are planning to wear a Star Wars costume to our wedding, then YAY!

That said, here’s what you shouldn’t wear, because these costumes have been assigned/claimed:

• Padme’s Wedding Gown from Attack of the Clones

• Mon Mothma – Revenge of the Sith
• Mon Mothma – Return of the Jedi
• Bail Organa – Alderaan

• Bail Organa – Tantive IV
• Breha Organa

• Princess Leia’s awarding ceremony gown from A New Hope

• Imperial Navy Admiral’s uniform

• Gold handmaiden dress

• Sheltay Retrac, Bail Organa’s aide

This list will get longer as we get closer to The Day, so stay tuned!

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Now that the holidays are over, we have a full year of wedding preps to look forward to. Securing the church and the reception venue were the biggest hurdles we had to jump, I think, and we’ve covered those. The ceremony will be held at the St. Francis of Assisi Chapel, and the reception will be at the Coral Tree Garden, both in Fernwood Gardens, QC. So now there’s the rest of the preps to think about!

Our next target is to find a caterer. Having selected Fernwood narrows down our choices, since we’re only allowed to choose from their accredited caterers. While it’s a little disappointing that it limits our choices, it’s also a relief because it limits our choices. We’ve tried a number of caterers (food reviews soon!), and only one of them is accredited at Fernwood. At least now we don’t have to search far and wide for our caterer!

Our criteria: We’re not that picky. We’d like the food to be yummy, of course, but we’re not looking for anything too specific. It would be nice if there were a good balance of meats and seafood, stuff kids will eat, and more importantly, vegetables and soup that Oneal will actually like. A chocolate fountain would be a very happy plus!

We’re also hoping that the caterer we hire can serve the food lauriat-style. We really don’t like buffets, because we want our guests to be seated and enjoying their food, not rushing to the buffet tables for fear of missing out on the good stuff. Besides, it’s awful to have to wait your turn at the buffet line!

Our other big step this month: we want to go to the dress shop! We already know exactly what I’m wearing, and we have a pretty good idea of what Oneal wants for his barong. We’ve also selected designs for the entourage. We’re going to ask our loyal costume maker, Jennevita, to make my dress and the entourage gowns. Should be fun!

Other updates: We’ve already asked some of the ninangs and ninongs, and about half of them are confirmed, yay! We’re also in the process of informing our friends that they’re in the entourage.

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