Bachelorette Party Late Post - Pics from other cams, more video, and the traumatic Brando segment

My bachelorette party/bridal shower was ages ago, but I completely forgot about these pics and videos from my friends Hazel and Sheva. They sent everything to me right after the event and of course I forgot about them and eventually lost them in the deep, dark corners of my notebook. I was only reminded when my cousin Camille messaged me and our other cousins earlier asking for bachelorette party ideas. I'm such a doofus sometimes.

So, I'm posting it all here now. There are pics from the afternoon when they were still preparing and decorating the place before they took me there. There are also some funny candid shots and pics of the sweet part of the party. My friends wrote me notes that they put in a sort of time capsule and I'm supposed to read one note every month after the wedding until I run out of notes to read. I have actually forgotten those as well -- whoops -- so I'm going to look for them and catch up on the notes. Sorry girls!

I also stitched together all the videos they took into one humongous video. I posted a video from my own cam before of me getting there from my perspective, but there's also a video from the other side of the door, from the perspective of the girls waiting to surprise me. There are also a few funny videos of Pin the [censored] on the Borgy (haha), and the most traumatic part of the party for me -- when a guy named "Brando" surprised me. Here we go!

Sheva looks so into balloon-blowing lol.

Mini Honeymoon and Staycation

Note: Just realized we never posted this here!

Aleq and I haven't planned our honeymoon at all, so after the wedding, we went home the next day, dealt with post-wedding debris, and then went off to Edsa Shang the day after to have a mini honeymoon of sorts. The staycation did us good! It kind of let us escape urban life for a bit without leaving the city. It was a wonderful way to spend our first days together as husband and wife.

Hello, Edsa Shang! We stayed in their newly-renovated wing - it's so pretty! 

The Day After and Gift Opening 042213

Note: Just realized we never posted this here!

The day after that happy day we enjoyed the time we had left at Sofitel (and Spiral yum yum). Then we checked out and took our little junior bridesmaid home to Merville. Made a coffee stopover at our Ninong and Ninang's place there, then we went home to Pasig where we ate leftover wedding cake at Aleq's grandma's house. Our coordinator also sent all our stuff there, so we carried all of it over to our place.

Then we started sorting through wedding debris, and our wedding fairy Clang messaged that she was going to come over to eat wedding cake and take our pictures. We agreed right away, of course! Thanks to everyone for your awesome presents! We didn't include pics of the tags anymore but you know who you are. Thank you so much.

Twitpic from that morning. First breakfast as husband and wife: bacon love!

Six Months!

Somewhat late -- we forgot, LOL. 

Wedding Afterthoughts

Pic by my cousin Jhack of A and I talking to friends near the end of our wedding reception

My friend Payi and I were talking about weddings on Viber yesterday and I ended up telling her some of the realizations that Aleq and I had after our wedding. I've actually been meaning to blog about it after that conversation with the hubby, but I totally forgot and only remembered yesterday. Here goes my ramblings.

People get married because they love each other and want to immortalize that in a lifelong commitment. Some people think getting things down on paper is an important part of it, while some think that they want to honor the person they love by saying their vows to each other in front of friends and family. Others however, don't think that way. They reason that love is enough, and there doesn't have to be a wedding to prove their love to each other. I say, to each his own. Everyone has their own views on love, weddings, and getting married. 

For me and my husband Aleq though, deciding to get married and have a wedding is one of the best decisions we ever made in our lives. True, weddings come with a lot of expenses and stress, but we have no regrets. We think that the planning, preparations, and the wedding itself was one of the best bonding experiences we've ever had as a couple. 

See, weddings require a lot of time, effort, thought, patience, and love. It took us a year to plan ours, and it wasn't easy. There were a lot of things to consider and decide on, so it was very easy to stress out and argue. The budget -- which nobody really admitted to us until it was so close to our wedding date and therefore too late -- really doubles the last few months before the wedding. The division of tasks can also cause strife, as the sheer enormity of the event can make it is easy for one to think the other person is doing less and vice versa. There are a lot of issues that arise during wedding preparations, including the involvement of friends and family. It can be tough. 

Aleq and I decided from the very start never to fight about the wedding. We reminded ourselves everyday to compromise. Arguments did happen. There were times when we were so tired from running all over town, or worried that the money was dwindling, or infuriated about family input, but somehow we never let it cause enough of a rift to make ourselves question getting married. We tried to remember everyday not to let what friends or family think or say cause us to doubt each other's decisions. It was our wedding, and only what we thought and felt mattered. We learned to trust that we could pull it off and to never give up on each other.

The enjoyable moments during prep overpowered all the negative ones. We had a lot of fun picking suppliers and deciding on what we wanted. We were excited about everything. We went to each and every bridal fair and supplier meeting together. We learned a lot about each other along the way -- how one deals with stress, how one likes certain things, so on and so forth. We found ourselves wanting to give each other what the other wanted. We had the time of our lives putting our wedding together. 

Then came the wedding itself. After a year of preparations, just seeing it all happen on top of finally getting married to the person we loved truly made it the happiest day of our lives. To finally reach the finish line and have all our loved ones there to celebrate with us was the best feeling ever. Each moment of that one happy day was like a jewel for us. 

In a way, a wedding is a project -- one of the biggest, most important projects you'll ever have in your lives. You have to go through it together. It's a trial by fire, and it takes a united couple to come out of the entire process unscathed. It's also a gem of an experience to be treasured forever. Aleq and I will always have this time in our lives to look back on and remind us of what we are made of as a couple. 

If you, dear reader, are already married, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you're engaged right now, enjoy this time it to the hilt! If you are single and still wishing for the person of your dreams, remember this when you finally find the one. And if you, on the other hand, are in a relationship and thinking of getting married, we say go for it. It's a wonderful way to prepare you for a life together. It's a trying, but fantastic and unforgettable experience. 

What We Wore on that One Hot Summer Day

Note: This is a cross-post from my obsessions blog, The Blue Purse. Please bear with me when worlds collide.

Hello, Flashback Friday! The hubby and I have finally posted our prenup pics --  One Hot Summer Day -- as well as the behind-the-scenes photos at our wedding blog, That Happy Day. It's only fitting then to document what we wore that day on this blog. 

We wanted a casual prenup. We didn't want it to look like a movie or have magazine poses. We didn't want to act differently from how we would typically act. We also didn't want to have props or wear stuff that we wouldn't usually wear. We just wanted it to show us spending time with each other on a normal day at one of our favorite places, UST -- the place where we first met. 

Our only concept for the shoot was modern color-blocking, which was the overall theme of our wedding. We chose orange and blue outfits, our favorite colors. When he wore a blue top, I wore an orange top, and when I wore something blue, he wore orange. We really went orange and blue all the way, from the proposal day (when we didn't know we wanted blue and orange for our theme yet), to our wedding day.

On A: denim Cotton On shirt, orange jeans and brown sneakers from Forever 21 Men

On J: orange Bayo top, navy Zara trousers, blue and orange Punkberry ribbon flats

Behind-the-Scenes Pics from the Prenup Session

Now that we finally posted our prenup pics (I know, it has taken this long because it's been really hard for us to choose a hundred photos from thousands of good ones), here are the behind-the-scenes pics from that day. We really weren't planning on documenting it that thoroughly because it was such a hectic day that started early in the morning and ended late in the evening, but one of our Wedding Fairies, Clang, took my camera and just snapped away the entire time.

In hindsight, Aleq and I are super grateful that she did it, because at least we get to remember that one hot summer day. This is also a chance for us to give credit to all the people who worked hard that day to give us pictures to remember.

Thank you so much Wedding Fairies Lek and Clang, Cindy of Shu Uemura, Avril Seguin, MyPhotato/WeCelebrate, and my sis-in-law Ate Weng!

Here go the pics!

A+J: Prenup Session

One hot summer day at the place where we met 13 years ago.

Location: University of Santo Tomas
Photo and Video: MyPhotato / WeCelebrate
Makeup and Hair: Cindy Pineda Dela Cruz of Shu Uemura Rockwell with Avril Seguin
Moral and Literal Support: The Wedding Fairies - my cousin Lek and friend Clang
UST Assistance: Sis-in-law Ate Weng

Aleq & Julls Video Teaser from MyPhotato on Vimeo.

Five Months!

The Tunes from That Happy Day Mixtape!

Hi everyone! How's this for a throwback? I finally got around to uploading our wedding playlist, from the march to the party! Here's a mixtape of all the songs we used for That Happy Day. Well, more like a bunch of mixtapes, heh. 90s soundtrip muna tayo friends. Just click for a flashback to the 90s! :)

http://tape.ly/tunes-from-that-happy-day

A and J grew up in the 90s, met in the 90s, fell in love in the 90s. Their wedding was a tribute of sorts to their favorite era. These are the songs they played at their wedding -- from the march to the party. They're alternative/rock people, but they tried to make a good mix of songs that would bring back memories of that magical time. 

MyPhotato/WeCelebrate's Party Video

Hi peeps! I haven't updated this thing in a while, but that's because the fiance and I decided to take a break for a few months after the wedding just to recover from the stress of the wedding preps and focus on building our new life together. We're finalizing our prenup and wedding pictures (I know, we're one of those couples who take so long in choosing pics) and I'll be talking more about that happy day soon.

For now, here's a video from our very cool wedding photographers, MyPhotato/WeCelebrate with party scenes from weddings they covered, because they're awesome party people haha. Our wedding is in it, and I took some screenshots of me, the hubby, cousins Lek and Em, our friend Clang, and our host Atom Ungson because our party faces were hilarious!

Par-tey!

Three Months!

Our Wedding Photo Slideshow

Since it'll take us a while to go through all the photos, here's the same-day edit/on-site photo slideshow that was shown at the reception with pics chosen by our photographers, MyPhotato. ♥

 

A+J Wedding Same-day Edit/On-site Photo Slideshow from Jullienne Yerro on Vimeo.

Photo Bomb!

This cute package from MyPhotato arrived yesterday! The hubby and I had a grand time going through the pictures. Dilemma: How are we going to choose among more or less 3000 photos?

Now that we're married I keep forgetting to post here! Anyway here is a post from Facebook that I made last Wednesday. One month, yo.

Our Prenup Photo Slideshow

A+J Prenup Photo Slideshow from Jullienne Yerro on Vimeo.

This photo slideshow was presented at the reception by our photographers/videographers, MyPhotato.

Our Prenup Video

ALEQ & JULLS VIDEO TEASER from Photatoes on Vimeo.

Behind-the-Scenes Pics from the Wedding [April 20-21, 2013]

These are pics of the behind-the-scenes action the day before the wedding and on the day itself that I would like to remember forever.

After sleeping at 7:30am, waking up at 10am, having a biscuit for breakfast then furiously packing to be ready by the time my brother, sis-in-law, and nephew picked me up at noon - plus a bit of scheduling stress to boot - I finally made it to my room in Sofitel. Hello, balcony.

Opted not to get a suite - I made sure the men in my family (who are real sticklers for time hehe) were in other rooms so that they don't share any of my wedding stress.

The Same-Day Edit / On-Site Video of That Happy Day

ALEQ & JULLS WEDDING from Photatoes on Vimeo.

Pre-Wedding Family, Friend, and Sponsor Meetups

The two weeks leading up to the wedding were the busiest - we met up with our Principal Sponsors aka Ninongs and Ninangs, and also met up with family and friends near enough for us to give the invitations in person to. They were fun, but incredibly tiring! Here are the pics from those hectic days.

The first Ninang meetup was actually with my Aunt Eve but these pics somehow got misplaced and I just found them. We met up at SM Manila (random) because Aleq and I had wedding business to do at UST the day she was in Manila.

Tunes from That Happy Day

Aside from the videos and the photos, this is the most requested thing from our wedding: our playlist. Friends have been bugging us for it, so here it is. We made our wedding a tribute of sorts to our favorite era: the 90s.


GROOM AND ENTOURAGE MARCH
I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith, performed by Vitamin String Quartet

BRIDAL MARCH
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins

CHURCH PICTORIALS
1. Yellow – Coldplay performed by Vitamin String Quartet
2. Sweet Child O' Mine – Guns 'N Roses performed by Vitamin String Quartet
3. She Will Be Loved – Maroon 5 performed by Vitamin String Quartet
4. Bizarre Love Triangle – New Order performed by Vitamin String Quartet
5. Some Medley performed by Vitamin String Quartet
6. Under the Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers performed by Vitamin String Quartet
7. With or Without You – U2 performed by Vitamin String Quartet


COCKTAILS
Foo Fighters, Incubus, Nirvana, Aerosmith, Red Hot Chili Peppers songs performed by Vitamin String Quartet

PRENUP VIDEO
Sembreak – Eraserheads

ENTOURAGE ENTRANCE
Crash and Burn – Savage Garden

GRAND ENTRANCE
Semi-charmed Life – Third Eye Blind

FIRST DANCE
I Knew I Loved You – Savage Garden

GROWING UP VIDEO
Can't Stop Lovin' You – Van Halen
I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness
Into Your Arms – The Lemonheads


ON-SITE EDIT PHOTO SLIDESHOW
Deep Inside of You – Third Eye Blind

ON-SITE EDIT VIDEO
Dreaming my Dreams – The Cranberries

4PLAY BAND SETLIST

SET 1
1. Champagne Supernova – Oasis
2. One Headlight – The Wallflowers
3. Every Breath You Take – The Police
4. Kaleidoscope World – Francis M
5. Semi-charmed Life – Third Eye Blind
6. Crash Into Me – Dave Matthews Band
7. Sunday Morning – Maroon 5
8. Wish You Were Here – Incubus
9. Close to Heaven – Color Me Badd


SET 2
1. Deep Inside of You – Third Eye Blind
2. Are You In? – Incubus
3. Each Time – East 17
4. Girl on TV – LFO
5. Till I Hear It From You – Gin Blossoms
6. 1979 – The Smashing Pumpkins
7. Back for Good – Take That
8. Someday We'll Know – New Radicals
9. 214 – Rivermaya
10. Closing Time – Semisonic


PARTY SONGS


1. Wannabe – Spice Girls
2. Quit Playing Games With My Heart – Backstreet Boys
3. Sometimes – Britney Spears
4. Love Me For A Reason – Boyzone
5. Step by Step – New Kids on the Block
6. Too Close – Next
7. Fill Me In – Craig David
8. Gettin' Jiggy Wit It – Will Smith
9.  Always – Erasure
10. Stars – Simply Red
11. The Sign – Ace of Base
12. Mr. Boombastic – Shaggy
13. Tubthumping – Chumbawumba
14. This Love – Maroon 5
15. Drive – Incubus
16. Baby One More Time – Britney Spears
17. Come On Over – Christina Aguilera
18. Honey – Mariah Carey
19. I Want It That Way – Backstreet Boys
20. Tearin' Up My Heart – N Sync
21. Because of You – 98 Degrees
22. Summer Girls – LFO
23. MMMBop - Hanson
24. You Get What You Give – New Radicals
25. Semi-Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind
26. Two Princes – Spin Doctors
27. All I Want – Toad the Wet Sprocket
28. Breakfast at Tiffany's – Deep Blue Something
29. Sublime – Santeria
30. Love Song – 311
31. Crash Into Me – Dave Matthews Band
32. Save Tonight – Eagle Eye Cherry
33. Barely Breathing – Duncan Sheik
34. As Long As You Love Me – Backstreet Boys
35. Good Vibrations – Marky Mark
36. Relight My Fire – Take That
37. All For Love – Color Me Badd
38. I Want You – Savage Garden
39. Only Wanna Be With You – Hootie and the Blowfish
40. Crazy – Aerosmith
41. Push – Matchbox 20
42. Don't Speak – No Doubt
43. Learn to Fly – Foo Fighters
44. Ironic – Alanis Morisette
45. So Little Time – Arkarna
46. Heroes – The Wallflowers
47. Dishwalla – Counting Blue Cars
48. Extra Ordinary – Better Than Ezra
49. Every Morning – Sugar Ray
50. Rollin – Limp Bizkit
51. Bawitdaba – Kid Rock
52. Bullet With Butterfly Wings – The Smashing Pumpkins
53. Zombie – The Cranberries
54. Pardon Me – Incubus
55. Sex and Candy – Marcy Playground
56. Kamasupra – Eraserheads

Just Married!

After a year of preparations, it's over. We got hitched last Sunday! We actually just came back from our mini staycation at the Edsa Shangri-la Hotel, and we're still busy responding to well-wishes and cleaning up post-wedding debris. The last couple of weeks before the wedding were such a whirlwind, we didn't get to post about our final preparations and wedding events anymore. We still have much to share on this blog, but for now, here's our favorite wedding picture so far, taken by our friend, Paolo.

Spell S-T-R-E-S-S?

Sometimes I feel like we are never going to finish our DIYs, but when I see how cute they are, I smile and just get on with things.

Note: Photo taken by Wedding Fairy Clang.

My Surprise Bachelorette Party

I thought last Saturday was going to be another ordinary day of running wedding errands, but no, my fabulous girl friends surprised me with a bridal shower! The little liars! Haha. I really wasn't expecting anything at all because I knew everyone was busy, my friends aren't obligated to throw me one, and I was actually okay with not having it. The fiance had his bachelor party a couple weeks prior (more on that when I get pictures), but his friends planned it months before. So, I really did not expect or suspect anything when I didn't hear from my friends.

Then a week before last Saturday, my matron of honor Hazel texted about dinner at Tender Bob's Shang for Saturday. I thought "Okay. We're just going to have a nice, girly dinner, yay!" Then I didn't hear from her or any of my other girl friends after that. The next text I got was Saturday, when Hazel texted me the time. 7pm. That was it. So I planned a meetup with one of my bridesmaids, Cielo later that day because she has been bugging me for a shopping date since I've been on a shopping ban for the wedding the entire year. Aleq and I had our gown and suit fittings that morning at Edwin Uy, and then we had a very late lunch at Kimono Ken before my meetup with Cielo. Then Cielo came, we walked around a bit but ended up just having coffee and sharing a crepe at Dome. She started talking to me about how she didn't like the bridal shower venue - Tender Bob's - because she had a bad memory that happened there. I just told her why she didn't tell Hazel, the known organizer, about it, and she said she was just shy. Then my veil sponsor Sheva texted me if she could sleep over at the Yellow Pad after and I said yes, and then she arrived at Shang and told me she couldn't sleep over after all. I said ok without really thinking about it. Then she asked me if I really liked Tender Bob's, because she said it's such a normal thing for me since I eat there a lot, and she thought it wasn't that special of a venue for my bridal shower. I again wondered why she didn't tell Hazel about it, or suggested other venues when she was contacted. She then suggested going to Cafe 1771 at El Pueblo since we could at least have wine there. I said ok, whatever you guys want is fine with me. Then Hazel arrived, they asked her about games, and she said she prepared some that we could do in a restaurant, and then we worked out logistics for the change of venue pretty quickly. Cielo said her driver would just come back for the other girls that Hazel got in touch with and we could go ahead. So we hopped into her car and Sheva said she had a present for me. She then pulled out a sleeping mask, took my glasses off and put the mask on me. I readily put it on to humor her because it was her gift. She asked me to keep it on till the venue, and I said that was silly because I knew where we were going. She said we could pretend I didn't know. Yes, I'm that gullible.

So I stayed happily blindfolded until the car stopped and we got off the car. I knew I only had to make a couple of steps before I was off the sidewalk and inside Cafe 1771 anyway so I was okay with the blindfold. And then we walked a few more steps and I realized - wait a minute. This is not Cafe 1771 if we have to walk quite a bit to get into the place. Then the ground changed from the sidewalk to floor tiles and then to the sound of elevator metal. Where are we? They all started laughing and holding on to me so I wouldn't take the blindfold off. Then this happened.

Church and Government Requirements - Check!

To me, the biggest hassle in getting married is getting all the documents in order. There are a ton of requirements from both the church and the government and it was such a challenge finding the time to work on it all. The fiance did the brunt of the job, going to the city hall and government offices on his own. I only showed up at the city hall for the personal appearance bit once. My dad helped too in getting my documents from Cavite, and my sis-in-law Weng helped in shuttling documents to UST. Thankfully, we encountered no problems during the entire process and were able to complete our documents last March.

Our marriage bann approval from our neighborhood parish. 

Our marriage license from the Pasig City Hall.

We're free to marry! My advice to other would-be brides is to work on the documents as early as you can because you never know what kind of problems might crop up. Also, make sure you get the official list of requirements from your church and the government. They change all the time and vary from city to city so don't rely on blogs or the Internet for it. All your preparations would be for naught if you don't get the necessary documents, so this is of the utmost importance. 

Shopping with the Wedding Fairies

Things are crazy busy and insanely hectic on our end already but I have to make this quick post about shopping for outfits for my prenup shoot with my Wedding Fairies. They are truly awesome and have really gone above and beyond what I thought they initially signed up for. I messaged Lek and Clang last Friday very randomly and last minute if they wanted to go shopping with me at Megamall, and they said yes immediately and brought along their other friend Eah to boot.

I had previously gone shopping for a few pieces here and there, but I needed to complete everything that day. Luckily, with my fairies' help, we got everything done quickly. We even got a dress for my bachelorette party and my big day preparations dress. We also had time for dinner at Savory with fiance Aleq. Here go the pics.

The night's loot

Bridesmaids Day

Last March 24 was my Bridesmaids Day. It was the day when they tried their gowns on for alternations. Our dressmaker had to cut sections of the dresses so they were still far from finished. Like last time, it was held at my brother and sis-in-law's other house in Marikina. The dresses were actually a nice surprise. We didn't think the color combo would work - it was such a risk - but it turned out great. The dresses look so summery! My cousin Lek says they're mannequin dresses - they look pretty normal on the hanger but they magically morph into something else when worn. Here go the pics!

My girls' frocks!

A Day with my Matron of Honor

Last Friday was spent with my Matron of Honor. Hazel is my best friend and our friendship goes all the way back to high school. She had a prior commitment and couldn't make it to the bridesmaids' dress fitting last Sunday, so we did her fitting in advance.

She picked me up bright and early at my apartment and we hied off to Dapitan. We met up with my sis-in-law Ate Weng, and we went over to The Secret Creations for her fitting.

She asked for a lower back! Haha. Kuya Edgar obliged.

We were there about 30 minutes flat, but a ridiculously heavy downpour suddenly happened just as we were leaving. We dropped off my sis-in-law at UST Grad School and then went on our way. We got to Espana and it was flooded like hell after only just 15 minutes of rain! We spent an hour there because traffic was slow-going and we just couldn't get to Welcome Rotonda no matter how hard we tried. We were worried that her car was going to stall the entire time! Thankfully some people on the street gave us directions to an alternative route and the rain had stopped by the time we got to E. Rodriguez. Then we encountered more traffic around Greenhills. We ended up having an adventure on the road for about two and a half hours! 

Really heavy downpour at UST

Wow UST solid ka talaga sa baha. Ang bilis lang, grabe na tubig agad kanina.

Hazel and I held our breaths every time we went through a flooded area! 

Acoustic Rock Band - Check!

Aleq and I are 90s kids, which means we want mainly rock and alternative music from the 90s to the early 2000s at our wedding. Our awesome coordinator suggested a wedding rockeoke band and we liked that idea. However, logistics made us think otherwise. The Pergola is a pretty intimate venue and we thought that the electric rock sound would easily overwhelm the place. We also didn't think our older guests would like the noise, so we had to find other options.

We decided to look for an acoustic rock band instead. The fiance started googling acoustic wedding bands and came up with this band that seemed really interesting. We liked their sound and they had videos of a couple of songs we liked. However, when we contacted them and they sent us their repertoire, we decided otherwise. We couldn't relate to most of the songs they played, and we only get to request a certain number of songs outside of their repertoire - if we go beyond their specified number, we had to pay extra.

So I started googling in more specific terms. I searched for "90s acoustic wedding rock band" or something like that and 4Play came up. One look at their YouTube channel and we liked them instantly. It felt like they stole our iPods - they had exactly what we were looking for.

We called them up, they sent their playlist over, and we liked almost everything. They even had stuff nobody else here plays! They're South people too - they play at SM Southmall and Gilligan's in ATC and Festival Mall. Those were our old stomping grounds. So we met up with one of the band members, Randell Tan, last March 9 at Starbucks, Alabang Town Center and sealed the deal. It was a great meetup. We were able to pin down a set list for the wedding without a hitch. They also had a set number of requested songs, but since we liked almost everything in their repertoire it didn't feel like we were restricted at all. A lot of the stuff we wanted, they already played. We also talked about music the way kindred spirits would. We discussed songs and riffs and concerts we went to and missed, etc. It was a real good fit!

The clincher for us by the way, was this video of them playing One Headlight by my favorite band, The Wallflowers.

Pre-Cana Seminar at UST

The Pre-Cana Seminar is basically a crash course on how to be married. Who knew that you can have lessons on being a responsible, married adult? Haha. It's actually a church requirement for marriage. You can't get married without going through marriage preparation classes. The government also requires couples to have a family planning seminar for the marriage license, but lucky for us, we applied for a license at the Pasig City Hall, which accepts the church's seminar in lieu of the government's family planning seminar. [Tip: Make sure you check with your local city government if they accept the church seminar. If they don't, you have to take the government's family planning seminar as well. Not all municipalities allow it.] The UST seminar is free, but I'm not sure if it's free for those who are not getting married there.

So we hied off to UST super early in the morning last March 3 to undergo marriage training. The seminar started at 8am and ended at 6pm! We felt like we were back in college, there in the mezzanine of the Ecclesiastical Faculties building. There were five classes that ranged from responsible parenthood to couple finances. (I'll post the names of the other classes when I remember them, hah!) We had recesses and a lunch break, and we were provided food and drinks the entire day, which we didn't expect. We had different "professors". There was a Catholic OB-GYNE, a stockbroker who has a successful marriage, a catechist from the Archbishop's Palace, and a couple of church lay ministers who also have successful marriages. We had classmates too - we went through the seminar with four other couples with very diverse backgrounds. There were three couples who have been together for 2-6 years, and a couple who has been together for 8 months but are already living together. Aleq and I were the only ones who have been together for more than 10 years, heh.

Anyway, it was good in the sense that it got us thinking about the realities of marriage. The wedding is only the first day after all - we have to prepare even more for what comes after. It also gave us the opportunity to discover things that we never knew about each other - like what we wanted out of married life, what aspects of our relationship were really important to us, etc.

UST was beautiful that cloudy, rainy day.

Another Early Wedding Present - Wine Goblets

Remember back in August when I posted about the guestbook that we received as an early wedding present from one of our Ninangs, Aleq's aunt Deanna? She gave us another early wedding gift all the way from New York. She actually sent us a set of silver wine goblets for our wedding toast! They look pretty cool and kinda geeky. We're going to feel like we're in Game of Thrones or something, heh. Thank you Tita Deanna!

p.s. This is a late post because the fiance got the goblets back in December, but forgot to tell me about it. His mom was the one who remembered to ask me. Imagine that! Major memory gap, haha.

The Dress Code

People have been asking us left and right about the dress code, so here are all the pegs. We're going with a contemporary theme for our wedding, so we want our guests to have fun deciding on what to wear! We'd love to see them all looking chic and dapper in our wedding pictures.

Color-blocked Modern

Guests - Ladies

Long dresses/skirts

No prints

Two colors or one solid color

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First Wedding Gown Fitting + Invitation Maker - Check!

It's a life-changing event when you first try on your wedding gown. I've been pretty busy with wedding preparations that I haven't started feeling excited at all, and I'm still not in that frame of mind that I should be in already. When I saw my wedding gown for the first time last February 23 though, I felt a thrill go through me. I was really getting married!

When my gown designer Edwin Uy's apprentice, Jeon, called to schedule my first fitting, I felt really apprehensive. I didn't know what the dress would look like! I had the sketch of the gown but I didn't know how it would translate in real life, and, more importantly, how it would look on me. I've been working my butt off at the gym, but since I've only been working with a trainer for two weeks, I didn't expect much. I was thinking they would have to make adjustments to fit my body type because I'm not in the best shape and it would look awful on me.

Since superstition dictates that a bride should never wear her gown before the wedding, I only tried on the lining. That's how designers work around the myth now - I will never try on the finished gown, but I'll be trying on the lining several times to ensure that I can wear the dress on my wedding day, heh. Superstition also says that the groom should never see the bride wearing the dress, so the fiance had to sit in the showroom receiving area, and Jeon put a screen in front of the curtained dressing room for good measure. Aleq and I figured superstitions may or may not be true, but there's no harm in following them, just in case.

So I anxiously put on the dress, and then the magic happened. I just simply felt completely happy during that moment when I first saw myself in the mirror. "This is it, Julls!" My mind just zoned in on that immediately. Then I started smiling. Edwin and Jeon didn't let me down! The dress, in its very incomplete state, already looked utterly perfect. It was actually flattering, and I just couldn't believe it. Plus, I never thought I would do a princess dress for my wedding, but Jeon convinced me otherwise because he said it was the cut that suited my body type and that I'm the bride, I should pull out all the stops. What do you know, it did turn out pretty fabulous. The seamstresses came over to help me put it on and zip up and such, and I actually felt like one of those girls in My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding, haha. The gown was enormous, and the petticoat had to be put on separately. Jeon came over to look me over with his super critical eye, and then he showed me the detachable train, and I thought, wow, that is an awful lot of fabric! The best part was that the dress didn't fit! They have to take two inches off of it and the grandmotherly seamstresses said that I must be losing weight. Isn't that the best thing ever? Haha! Jeon told me not to worry if I lose more weight - it's easier to take out fabric than to put more in, heh. Sadly, the fiance told me to refrain from taking pics. He said we shouldn't risk having him see the dress accidentally, and he's right. I want that moment at the church when the doors open and I'm walking down the aisle to be as magical as it can be.

All I have is a giddy pic of me in the car after we left the showroom to forever remind me of the moment.

The Weddings and Debuts Fair

One would think that after going to three bridal fairs the fiance and I would be done, but we just had to make a stop at one last one - the Wedding and Debuts Fair at Megamall last February 16. Why? To take advantage of the expo discounts, of course! Now that we're only more than a month away, we're making the final decisions on everything and we went back to the bridal fair to book some of our last few suppliers.

Our first errand was Josiah's Catering. We stopped by their booth to meet Karla, our banquet events consultant, so we could drop off one of our partial payments. They had a school theme going on at their booth, which was pretty cute.

Books

Meeting His Bros

If I had a day with my bridesmaids, the fiance of course also had meetups with his groomsmen. It's tough getting his guys together, so he had to meet up with them separately. He hasn't seen all of them though.

He met up first with his former officemates Rein, Dabs, Josh, and Ren Ren. They had dinner at Sonsi.

Then he got to see Jason and Ernie during a meetup with our college group at Bubba Gump Greenbelt. We had a catch-up dinner along with Melissa, JP, and Rommel. 

Aleq, JP, Jason, Rommel, Ernie

Lt. Dan's Drunken Shrimp and Delta Sunset!

 

Me and our bridesmaid Melissa

Aleq gave his guys their Will You Be cards and oriented them on what they should wear, what they're going to do, etc. It was actually a good idea that we did these orientation thingies with our entourage and that we made entourage cards so they have actual outfit pegs they could refer to. During my Girls Day, the girls asked me about accessories, what their hair and makeup should be, etc. When Aleq met up with the boys, they asked him questions about shoe colors and the kind of ties they will wear, among others. One of our groomsmen, Jason, was even planning on light-up cuff-links, a double-breasted peacoat, and a colored dress shirt, haha! Now he knows that he has to wear a white dress shirt, a black suit, and normal cuff links, heh. 

Church Hopping for our Baptismal and Confirmation Docs

I forgot to post this! Last February 3, the fiance and I had a church-hopping day to get our baptismal and confirmation documents.

To be able to have a church wedding, it is now a requirement to get new copies of baptismal and confirmation docs, specifically labeled "for marriage purposes". This meant that Aleq and I had to go back to the four churches where our baptisms and confirmations were held, and man was it such a hassle. For one, we didn't grow up anywhere near each other so we had to go all over the metro to get our docs. We also haven't been to those churches in years so we had to figure out how to get there and got a little lost along the way. We got Aleq's confirmation doc first at Angelicum the week before though, so at least we only had to visit three other churches that day.

It turned out to be quite the adventure. Our first stop was the San Isidro Labrador Parish in Taft. We got there during lunch break though, so the parish office was closed and we had to quickly figure out where to while away the time. [Obviously the lesson here is to be mindful of lunch breaks when you get your docs! Also, churches are usually closed on Mondays.] We decided to make the short drive to Vito Cruz and have lunch at McDonald's Taft. That's where the reminiscing began. I used to go there all the time back in grade school and high school with my parents and classmates after school at nearby St. Scho. I never thought I would one day be sitting there with my husband-to-be. It was sweet that we got to spend time there, and pay a quick visit to the University Mall next to it too.

Quarter Pounder, French fries, Coke, and a Banana-Toffee McFlurry!

Had to take a pic of course.

That day's Twitpic - McD's Taft.

After waiting it out, we went back to the church and got my baptismal certificate! We then went inside the church to pray a bit and I had such a flashback to my childhood. That church was where my parents and I used to go to hear mass when we were still living in Pasay. I really missed my mom there and wished she was with me that day. I know she was in spirit. Despite the sadness, I'm glad I got to visit that place again. The last time I was there I was probably still in fifth grade.

It was the same floor! It was weird to see my shoes next to Aleq's against those old, old, old tiles.