Map to Bellevue and Sto. Nino de Cebu

Due to popular demand, we are posting this high resolution map to the church, Sto. Nino de Cebu in Southwoods and to The Bellevue Manila Hotel in Alabang. Just click on the image to enlarge.

Just more than a week to go and let's not forget the ceremony starts at 2pm, cocktails will be served at Bellevue from 330 pm and dinner will be at 6pm.

Trial Make Up Photos

Dinner at Tita Annie's House

Last October 5, Sunday we had a despedida of sorts at Tita Annie's place in Loyola.

Fitting My Barong

So I finally decided to go with the tailor in Kamuning. I saw my dad and my brother's barong and it was very well made and it fit really well on them, so I figured that this was the way to go. I had my fitting today and in approximately one week, the Barong together with my pants and undershirt will be done.

Developments to the Barong

I had set my mind to having my Barong Tagalog done by Kingsmen Tailors. But recently my dad went to Kamuning to buy fabric for himself and my brother (the best man). There they met a tailor who introduced himself as a former master tailor for RM Manlapat. He showed them some of his works and shoved in a couple of big names as part of his clientele list, among whom were a couple of high profile celebrities. In any case my dad decided to give him a try and turned over his fabrics to the tailor. Now we are waiting for the results, and if the results are anything like what he showed them, I guess there wouldn't be much reason for me to have it done for a much more expensive price tag. But for now we await the results.

The Black, the Blue and the Gold

Smoke, bubbles, party poppers, confetti guns and even fireworks are all pretty common gimmicks in weddings nowadays. During our trip to the Wavestation office, Mr. Booh Silloco showed us a great little device, well its just a bubble machine but with a big difference. It blows bubbles that glow in the dark. So the device is pretty ordinary but there's nothing ordinary about the bubble making solution. There are two different solutions that emit blue and gold colors when exposed to black light. Being the good host that he is, Mr. Silloco made a little demonstration of his gimmick. Sure enough when lit up with black light the colors came to life, making cool neon like colors. The problem is that everything that's white also glows in a weird color as most of us already know when we stand close to a mosquito electricution thingy equipped with a black light. But the thrill of having a CSI feel is just so unique and pretty awesome, but at the same time wearing white or whitish colors will make for a freaky almost gothish look for everybody. The solution is a giant follow spot, well just on the both of us though, so at least we will not be affected by the colors but the entire backdrop will be bathed in black light. A little bit expensive as an add on but I would think that the uniqueness of it all will be well worth it.

Designs by Delby Bragais

The Bride's Gown
When we decided to get Tita Delby as our designer, we knew that she'll take care of us. And as expected, she did. We met with her at Shangrila Edsa to talk about the design of the bridal gown and her first design made a really big impact. In line with the Simple yet Elegant requirement that I told her, she surely embodied this in the design she made for me. Even the fabric she showed us was made of special threads, gold threads interwoven in it.

Gowns for the Entourage
Theme... Theme... Theme... this was what Tita Delby told us about the colors we picked for our entourage. The bridal gown with pina colored fabric, the entourage with brown and copper, the ninangs in all gold, and the mothers in a combination of colors (browns, coppers, golds, etc). This will give a complete juxtaposition of colors.

Fabrics
The bridal gown fabric is an imported fabric with golden thread interwoven into it. Its color is the same as a pina barong, an exact complement with the groom's attire. The entourage will have 2 main fabrics ... one is a shiny coppery colored fabric, and the other one, a dark brown lacy overlay. The entourage will have a lacy top, where the copper fabric behind it, and their skirt will be the shiny copper fabric.

A Trip to the Wavestation

The official lights and sounds provider of our chosen reception venue, the Bellevue Manila is Wavestation. Going by some requests from Jessica (the singer we hired), we set out to meet with Mr. Booh Silloco in his office at Sct. De Guia, Kamuning. Although Karina had given me the license to make decisions regarding the technical aspects, I wanted her to have a grasp of what additional stuff that we needed and why. I had initially wanted to get a couple of PAR 64 lights on two towers, that would mean 4 colors, and maybe a follow spotlight and some smoke/bubble machines. Just as I had explained this Karina said that she did not like the smoke machine idea, which was not really a big disappointment for me. Just then Booh showed us this wonderful LED Light Array that would work just as well as the PAR 64's but with a far less footprint and cost. So we decided to get that instead. We spoke for a while about our expectations in music and effects and got to a real nice agreement in less than 15 minutes. A short visit but it cleared up a lot of things and meeting with suppliers face to face is really the best way of knowing who and what they have to offer you. Mr. Silloco was very helpful and we thank him for all his suggestions and help.

The Getting the Marraige License

Last week, we completed our application for our Marriage License in the Quezon City Hall. It was easy enough and lines were reasonable and the offices were adequately cooled. Being that we are both over 25 we only had to complete one of the required seminars being offered at the City Hall. So yesterday, we attended that seminar, entitled "Family Planning".

We entered a small building in the Health Department of the Quezon City Hall. We were a bit surprised when we felt how cold it was in that room. To be fair we just came from the scorching midday sun, but never the less this was a pleasant surprise if not for all the iced tea that I had drank for lunch. Bathroom breaks aside, another fact that we found strange was that when we signed up for the seminar we were told that only 15 couples were allowed per session for obvious space issues but I could swear that there were at least 20 couples in that room, it was a full house. Then came this huge man with a mustache bearing a TV antenna, we supposed that this was to be used as a pointer, but still he looked pretty menacing in wielding that metal rod, well maybe if he didn't wear a pink blouse we would be more intimidated. He had a huge voice filling the entire room. He started by going into the nuances of Marriage (something that we both had already learned in college) A couple of hours passed and it turned out that this man is an insurance salesman and does these lectures for free. He did endorse his product to the class but by no means pressured anybody (because he could've with his mighty rod, hehehe) The next speaker was the health worker from the local health department to talk about birth control. She was quite boring and lingered on every thought, which is kind of annoying really. But not strangely, the class was a tad more alive when it came to this discussion. This seemed to take the cake, as most of the class had a wise crack about birth control.

At the end of the day it was very tiring sitting through all of those lectures, but it is a requirement and we were just so glad that it's over. We learned a little, we wanted to sleep a lot and we got really hungry. Now we're just waiting for the License to be released this August 4.

The German Puppy

Last May, we set out to find shoes for me for our wedding day. It was the start of the back to school rush in the malls, so sales were easy to find but unfortunately so too were crowds. Karina was dreading this trip a little bit because, I tend to be very picky in the shoes that I buy. I am one of those people who like function more than form. As Ferdinand Porsche's ideals go, make something that works flawlessly first and if it looks good in the process then that's just a bonus. The first shop we went to was Linea, which features a nice collection of Italian shoes, nice look but I found most of them horribly uncomfortable to wear. Then our second stop was the SM Department store, we headed for the Kickers and Florsheim displays first, both brands build very nice and comfortable shoes but even with the sale the really good ones cost 5,000-7,000 pesos. Then we went to the Hush Puppies display, and in a split second one shoe immediately caught both our eyes, and in that shoe the German's (Porsche's) ideals were realized. And in less than the time it normally takes us to order merienda in a menu, we had already purchased the shoe. Now I will not post any images as this may be seen as a spoiler, so if you want to see the shoe just look down on the red carpet on October 19.

The Barong Story

I had already gotten the materials for my Barong Tagalog a couple of months ago, thanks to Tita Lina and Tito Nelson (Karina's Parents) for the tela. I had already bought the cloth for my undershirt as well as my pants at the Kamuning Market. I thought finding a custom tailor would be easy, when I was a kid I always had my formal attire done by Kingsmen Tailors, so we went over to their branch in Robinson's Galleria. To my surprise, the store was no longer there, but since I know that they are still selling RTW (ready to wear apparel) in the department store, it didn't really bother me too much that this particular branch has closed. Searching the internet, I found that their main branch is located inside the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati. After a bunch of botched trips there, we decided that even if we do find it, it might be too inconvenient to go back and forth for fittings and such.

So then, we started looking at our alternatives; namely R.M. Manlapat Tailoring, located near Pioneer. Tito Nelson has his Barongs and pants done at R.M. Manlapat so it must be quite good. But then looking through clickthecity.com I found out that there was a Kingsmen store located in the basement of The Podium. So we set out to find that store and sure enough, we had found it. Just borne of my own curiousity I asked if they might still have my old measurements (back in high school as a senior), just as a benchmark, no doubt that I had put on more than a few pounds since then but hey, I was just curious. Unfortunately, they had thrown away all the patterns prior to 2004. Then I saw these studs as they called it, it's like cufflinks for barongs, one pack has six buttons; 4 smaller ones, for the front and 2 larger ones, for the cuffs. The studs looked really nice, cast in white and yellow gold, with a nice semi-precious stone in the center, and the price also matches, at 4,300-13,000 pesos; those are no cheap buttons.

Then one afternoon, I found myself walking through the SM Megamall basement, where I curiously stumbled upon the Onesimus store due to the huge 70% off sale sign (now that's a sale). I think this was the first time I came in this store and I saw a tailor taking measurements of some guy. That's when I came to know that Onesimus also does custom tailoring. I love the quality that Kingsmen, plus I really trust that brand, but Onesimus being in Megamall would be the most convinient place for me plus their work is also first class. It was just starting to get confusing, but then I remembered that I had already bought material for my undershirt (a long sleeved camiso chino which is a flesh tone, that is also worn tucked out so that it just looks like lining on the barong) The Onesimus representative said that being that they have not made anything like this before, they have no idea how to price the peice although they could probably create the peice. But that just swayed my confidence in them, and knowing that Kingsmen can do the camiso chino for me, I made the decision to just have the Barong done by Kingsmen. I am still trying to loose some weight (around 10 lbs would do it), and I am just waiting for my body to be at a good enough shape so I can get a good fit come october.

Welcome!

Relatives and friends. We created this blog not as a replacement for the weddingannouncer site but rather as a supplement for it. Here we will post developments in our wedding preparations as the date draws nearer and nearer. We thank you for all of your support and hope that you enjoy the tales of our preparation as we certainly have in preparing them for you.