sending out thank you cards

We thought that things would relax a bit after the wedding. Boy, were we dead wrong! It's been so toxic! We haven't even opened all the gifts yet :( (although that part is sooo much fun to do *grin*) We haven't finished doing all of our thank you notes. Much less giving them out. Boohoohoo! But I'm now working double time so we can say our thank yous and let our guests know how much we appreciate their attendance and thoughtfulness.. :D

trying to get back in shape

Ahh.. What a glorious feeling after the wedding. Now we can eat as much as we can. :D Mwehehe! But then again, didn't we do that all this time?? :D

Val decided that we have to "try" to get back into shape soon. And so we went back to playing badminton like we used to. The wedding preps got so toxic that we had to stop playing for a while.. We were so happy to see our old friends and to be able to play again. There's nothing like getting a good workout, sweating so much, and getting a good release of endorphins. :D We had good game time.

And today. Today is the next day. All our bones are aching. Muscles are sore. Huhuhu! :( I think we had too much too soon (you think?) *wink* We couldn't move. We were trying to figure out how to get down and eat breakfast. Hahaha! We were trying to put it off for as long as we could. Until our stomachs were complaining big time. Hahaha!

Oh well. Today's another day. Good luck to us! :D

chiles' blog entry about our wedding

I have a very good friend. We've been through a lot. And I mean a lot. He's the sweetest, but mostly misunderstood. He has a clever sense of humor, sometimes dark and funny. Smart as a whip. Probably the smartest person alive (next to Steven Hawking *grin*) But never completely happy. I've known him since forever.

His name is Chiles. We love him.

And now he's about to leave for sg. :( I'm happy and sad for him all at the same time. Happy that he's spreading his ever hesitant wings. Sad that he has to do it so far away.

Big decisions. Real life. Sometimes it's funny. Then again sometimes not so much.

We loved our wedding. We had fun and happy emotions were rampant all around. Chiles gave the sweetest compliment ever. He posted an entry in his blog entitled Irene. Read it and see why I couldn't help but smile. http://irenewedsval.multiply.com/links/item/7

our videos - MTV and On-Site AVP :-)

Today we saw our videos on Threelogy's blog. :D As we expected they gave a pretty good summation of our Day and ourselves. We're a happy couple wanting our guests to have a grand time at the wedding. Our ultimate goal is to share the happiness we feel to all the people who love us and we love at our wedding. We want not just us to have fun, but for everyone to have fun. We're so glad that the Smoking Three (plus of course Omeng) were there to capture everything on video (widescreen). :D Wonderful wonderful! :D

Bong uploaded two out of three videos. Our MTV and our On-Site AVP. For your viewing pleasure please visit http://irenewedsval.multiply.com/links/item/6 :D Have fun with us! :D

threelogy's blog entry of our videos :-)

We are now in Boracay. In our "honeymoon" :D when I received a text from Bong of Threelogy saying that he'll be uploading both our AVPs in their blog. :D Whoopee! Excitement! Had to tell Val right away :D We're going home tomorrow. We'll see it then. Yay! *clap clap clap* I wonder what he'll be putting in that entry... Knowing how funny he is we're sure it'll be a riot. :D

countdown to the wedding..the day before..

Oooh boy! Today Val and I can't see each other. We are forbidden to see each other! One of those old Filipino pamahiins that we are to follow. Thank God for mobile phones that allow us to text, and thank God for landlines that allow us to talk. :)

Every movement must be precisely choreographed. We cannot see one another. Geez! We have to check in our hotel, Astoria Plaza, today. Aileen is going with me. She's sleeping over with me. Ingrid, my cousin, decided to follow after a day of going around with our parents. I let Val check in before us knowing that there would be last minute things to do before going to the hotel. The bulk of the things to bring for the hotel, church, and reception will be with me.

I'm not really nervous nervous. But there's a wave that happens in the pit of my stomach and in my chest cavity every now and then. The room is gorgeous! Although we had a bit of a problem in the original room (both bedrooms had twin beds when we specifically asked one room to be a king size and the other two twins) so we requested to be transferred. Our final room became Room 2608. Val is on the 31st floor. We just love hotels! The clean smell. The fresh sheets. The interiors. My sister and I were trigger happy with the camera :D I really love the giant mirror in the living room. :D I thought that I'd be a wreck jsut before the wedding. But apart from the little flutters here and there I thought I was feeling pretty good. There's a certain calm wrapped about me.

We have to check with each other before we go down to grab a bite to eat or wander around the hotel for fear of bumping into each other by accident. Haha!

I think my sister and I were both psyched for tomorrow. Sleeping was a problem. But we need our beauty sleep!

We decided to buy our dinner from mini stop just outside the hotel. :D I bought everything we wanted. Yum yum! And it was fun in the hotel room. Then we went to have our massage. I've been having a stiff neck days before today :( and it's been bothering me. I already drank pain reliever for it but it hasn't gone away still. We think it might be brought upon by the wedding stress, and I'm hoping that the massage will relax me.

And so we went on down to the spa area. We didn't want the massage in our room. My therapist was kinda scary =S She had the voice of a man and the humor of a multong bakla. Oh boy! But she did give a good massage. Hahaha! :D But it wasn't good enough to take away the crick in my neck :(

Ingrid came late tonight. She had her massage after ours. When she went up she offered to give my neck a massage. Boy, she had magic fingers! The tension eased and I could slightly move my neck after when it was frozen solid and uncomfortable before that. Tomorrow she promised to give me another massage. :D hurray!

I had to excuse myself from my sister and cousin already. I wanted to get some shut eye so I'd look fresh on my big day :D I tried. But I couldn't sleep. Ahhh.. My benadryl for my allergies finally kicked in. :D And I was off to lala land. My sister came to bed a little later (I'm not really sure what time). But we hugged so tight. We fell asleep in each other's arms. We cried and cried. It would be the last night for us to share a bed. :( All those years of sharing a room. It's sad really. Heartbreaking. Even though we had separate rooms we'd still share a room. Even when the other was sick or when the other felt scared or lonely, we'd room in together. Our sobs were uncontrollable. It was funny because I told her I didn't want to cry because I don't want to have puffy eyes on my wedding day. But I couldn't stop. Even now as I think about it my eyes well up. :(

I pray that our closeness will never go away. That it won't change. Only to be strengthened by the years.

We fell asleep crying, hugging each other.

tokens for our suppliers

The following is an excerpt from my would-be thank you speech towards the end of our wedding reception :D it's still a work in progress. We want to get a little something for our suppliers. Again, something utilitarian but will hopefully be liked by them. :D

There are so many facets to the success of this wedding that I will not be able to mention them all. But I will try. There are a battalion of people I have to thank. So many have helped us prepare for tonight. Everyone has been nothing but kind and generous in their love and unwavering support.

First, I have to thank my dream team. A gang of suppliers that have become more than just people that we work with. They have become our friends. It took quite a bit for us to complete what we’ve done today. I can’t say I have a favorite out of all of them because it’s so hard to decide. We’ve grown to love them all so much.

From the design team to its creation. Tita Edwin Mondia helped me illustrate the gown of my dreams. And it became more than I dreamed it to be. To creating my gown and the entourage’s outfits. Tita Yasmin has been very kind and patient all these months. Her creative eye is just amazing. Of course, my Mom did the embroidery. Poring over it laboriously and executed by our master embroiderer Genio :) Thank you so much.

Gela Laurel, her magical fingers made me look and feel beautiful. Jerry, crazy and funny, magically coiffed my hair into the beautiful art that it is now.

The photographer is a good friend of mine from childhood, Patrick Mateo. Thank you so much. Along with Terry Uy. Keeping Val and I looking so fresh and exquisite in the pictures.

I have the greatest team of videographers. They go by the names of Bong, Jon, and CJ. More popularly known as Threelogy. They just crack us up every time :) Thank you.

Our beautiful flowers in the Chapel were done by Scenta Flora and of course our bouquets by my beautiful sister in law, Flowertowne by Bechaves.

Thank you also to VS&F. Our caterer. Please enjoy the food. The buffet is still open for everyone.. :) Paulo Clemente, our witty and funny host. He just keeps the ball rolling without ever giving it a chance to stop! :)

And to set the enchanting setting for tonight, thank you to Fernwood, especially Al. :D The garden is just perfect and magical and captivating. It creates the perfect setting to which the celebration of life and love fits right in.

Our wonderful band, The Sentimental Groove. They are just oozing with talent. Thank you for helping us set the mood for tonight.

And of course our coordinators, Beth and Lala and the rest of the gang. They’ve helped us every step of the way. Doing more than they bargained for. Doing more without us even asking. They have been wonderful. Thank you so much. :)

These are the people who have worked so hard in helping us achieve the wedding of our dreams. I hope I didn't forget anyone! =S We gave them tokens to show how much we appreciate all their efforts and hardwork. :D

gifts for the entourage

It's really very difficult to think of what to give your entourage. We want our tokens to be useful and at the same time they'll love it (hopefully). We want our gifts to come with love and fondness from us. :D

My bridesmaids: Julie, Anna, and Net. They have been my best friends since grade 5 or 6 (depending on who we're talking to *grin*). Two of them have been my classmate since Prep! Imagine the history we have. We're giving them silver bracelets :) They're so dear to us.

Our secondary sponsors: Ingrid, Merche, and Kathlyn. Two of them are cousins, and the other one is practically family. :) We're giving them silver bracelets as well.

Some of our Ninangs will be receiving silver bracelets, too, only with a different design. Other Ninangs are getting a linen table cloth. I do so love them. They're very elegant. I wish I could've bought one for our own home :)

For the male members of our entourage, we will be giving them digitized clocks. The young ones will be getting a futuristic looking clock *grin* You can see through the glass! Aliw when I saw it. Bought it right away. The Ninongs will be getting a clock as well. Only theirs has a night light and pen holder built with the clock. :D

The wrapping came out very nicely. The bracelets were placed in pillow boxes (made by yours truly *ahem ahem*) :D The linen table cloths were wrapped in kraft paper and placed inside natural fiber sinamay. They went wonderfully with our ribbons. And the clocks were wrapped in kraft paper shelled by pandan green woven wrapping paper.

And now for the children in our special line up. The little girls, our precious flower girls: Anna, Bea, and Patis, will be receiving scented strawberry shortcake bracelets. Through the years we saw these girls blossom into beautiful and intelligent creatures. Just looking at them makes us proud to be their godparents. :D

The boys, our bearers: Joshua (ring), Riggs (coin), and Vince (Bible), will be getting toys from us. Josh loves to play with toy guns and spy toys. Riggs and Vince will be getting Spiderman boxing sets. :)

All the gifts came with personal handwritten notes. These people are very special to us. We want them to feel that. We had the notes written down in our monogrammed thank you cards. :D

our wedding souvenir :-)

Like most of the other things with our wedding, our souvenirs is also a labor of love. I made our table runners. They come in three colors: white, yellow, and beige. There are a cluster of floral embroidery on two opposite ends of the runner. And our personal tag electronically embroidered in the middle edge of the fabric. :D

We love the way it turned out. :D For packaging, we just rolled them up with the embroidery showing. Some corrugated cardboard and ribbons to spruce it up a bit. And of course our little thank you card. :D

It's so dainty. :D Perfect for everyone's homes. :D