Django Boy

Django at 8 weeks old; Django at 3 months old

I miss that puppy. He's humongous now at 2 and a half years old.

This is just a filler post, I don't have much time to blog right now. No time to make these cute scrapbook pages, either.

Have a good weekend, everyone! I know I will!

The Search for the Church

Abet and I had our hearts set on getting married in Caleruega in Batulao, Batangas. It was the church of our dreams. In fact, we made a down payment last year because the weekend slots for 2011 were getting filled up, and we wanted to make sure to reserve our wedding date—a date we decided on back in 2007. However, late last year, we decided to be practical and have our wedding in Manila instead to save on out-of-town fees that most suppliers charge for Tagaytay weddings. To be honest, it broke my heart, and sayang ang deposit. But what the hey, we wanted to be practical.

So, early this year, we started looking for churches in Manila. We had two requirements: (1) the church needs to be air-conditioned, because Abet will just melt in the Manila heat if it isn’t, and (2) it needs to be small, because we only have around 100 guests and I don’t like vacant pews and a pangag look—I want the church to be filled up.

Looking for the perfect church wasn’t as easy as we thought because of one major reason: our preferred date is a Sunday, and most churches do not allow Sunday weddings. We had to cross out our top 2 choices: Archbishop’s Palace and Magallanes Church. *sigh*

Now, I refuse to move our wedding date. It is our fifth anniversary as a couple. October 16 is a very special, very memorable date. The last three October 16’s were beautiful celebrations of love, and we’ll celebrate it yet again this year. We celebrate the 16th of each month, we've done it the last 40 months, and 16 has always been our number. (Happy 40th month, love!) It doesn’t make sense to me to change our anniversary date.

So on to our search for a small, air-conditioned church in Manila that allows Sunday weddings. We narrowed it down to a handful (not that we had much choice, really): St. John Bosco in Pasong Tamo, St. Pancratius in Paco Park, Pope Pius in UN, and St. Ignatius in Camp Aguinaldo. We started with our ocular last weekend, and here's the church we decided on:

The Transfiguration Chapel

pic from Riandrew

Yup, we decided to push through with our Caleruega wedding! I'm so happy!

This is really where we want to get married. I even think that Abet wants this even more than I do, he was the one who suggested Caleruega in the first place. If we get married in another church, we'll be settling, knowing that we have our hearts set on something else. I'll just keep on justifying to myself over and over and over that we made the best choice. In short, lolokohin ko lang ang sarili ko.

Marrying Abet will be one of my biggest dreams come true, and it will still be the happiest day of my life at that point if we get hitched in Las Piñas City Hall. But if it is possible to make another one of our mutual dreams come true, why not?

Of course, getting married in Caleruega comes at a premium, and I'm willing to sacrifice for it. I'm willing to give up all my other wants, but not the church (and the groom, of course!). I probably won't be getting my dream suppliers for the cake, the invitations, and the hair and make-up artist among other things, but that's okay. Yes, I already have a list of who I want. I could probably even give up K by Cunanan, the caterer I'm in love with, and probably have our reception at Sonya's Garden instead. We'll see about the reception. I will focus on getting my top 3 wants: the church, the photographers, and the rings, in that order.

I'm very pleased with this recent turn of events. Boy, am I glad that I didn't have the heart to cancel our reservation before, I kept putting it off. I'll be a Tagaytay bride after all, a Caleruega bride.

February 11, 2010

Today is Joe's 18th birthday.

Today is the 12th anniversary of my dad's quadruple bypass surgery.

Today, my mom had her defense for her dissertation for her Doctor of Business Administration degree. She's now Dr. Mama! :D

I just love February 11!

Happy birthday to my dear brother, and congratulations to my dear mommy!

--=-=--

I can't believe that Joe is now 18. We're ten years apart, which makes me... ancient.

I don't care how big he grows, he will always be a baby to me.

Mario wedding cakes

Check out these lovely whimsical Super Mario Bros. wedding cakes!

From CakeWrecks.com

I wouldn't mind having a cute Mario cake for my wedding. However, I'm afraid Abet might want to suggest something crazy such as a Star Wars cake. No way, not even if it's as pretty as this Millennium Falcon cake:

Or this Star Destroyer, perhaps:

Also from CakeWrecks

Yes, Abet, I know what these are. No, we're not getting one.

I guess we'll be sticking to a traditional cake.

--=-=--

Yes, m'dears, I'm already thinking about my wedding cake. I take cake very, very seriously. :) In fact, we've already shortlisted our suppliers to two--my dream cake supplier which is a tad pricey, and the less expensive option that's so yummy and classic that it wouldn't be at all painful for me to compromise.

Ah, so many decisions. Good thing I really don't have to make any yet at this point.

I do want me some cake, though.

Norman Rockwell on Google

I love this commemorative doodle for Norman Rockwell's birthday on Google today.

I loved a Norman Rockwell painting before I knew what it is, this particular one that hung in the dentist's office when I was a kid:

I'd find out later that it's entitled Before the Shot.

When I got older, I found out that Norman Rockwell is my father's favorite painter. He had this as his desktop wallpaper at one point, The Runaway:

I'll have a print of this painting in my house when I grow up.

My dad also introduced me to these two humorous works, the Triple Self-Portrait...

...and The Gossip. Check out the expressions, especially that of the first/last lady:

I'm actually browsing more of Norman Rockwell's works on art.com right now and they're all brilliant. Go check!

Happy birthday, Norman Rockwell!

Barns + Bunny

My dear college friends Barns and Bunny finally got married last Saturday after 7 years! This is the couple I third-wheeled on the most. Back in college, Barns would take Bunny home with me in the back seat, and then he'd drop me off *hihi*. It was a wonderful wedding and I'm glad I got to witness the two of them become man and wife.

Bunny was the most beautiful bride ever! Here she is just after she entered the church, she was absolutely radiant:

Naka-jackpot si Barns!

One thing I love about friends' weddings is seeing everyone all glam-ed up.

SPECA girls


Locus (loosely defined by Speech majors as "kunyari may tinitingnan")
with Dr. Bulan, one of our favorite professors


Japan-Japan with the bride and (crazy-happy) groom

I loved my long purple dress, I hardly get dressed up these days. I kept my make-up simple though because I'm not really into make-up. Just Bare Escentuals mineral foundation + mineral veil, NARS Orgasm blush, MAC Lipglass in Pinkarat, and two coats of mascara, no eyeshadow.

My make-up was practically gone by the end of the night, we were having too much fun to bother retouching.

My friend Krst'll told us that night that we look alike, and today the photo above got a comment in Facebook that magkamukha daw kami. We get that a lot, and what I always say is: mas guwapo ako! Sorry, baby, I love you dearly, but it's true! Mwahaha!

Overall, it was a wonderful night, I had loads of fun. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to attend because I had what seemed to be sore eyes last Wednesday and was sent home for it, but by Friday my left eye was good as new (I irrigated it like hell). I got to dress up, saw Abet in a barong (he hates it, but I think he looks dashing), saw friends I haven't seen in a long time and had fun, enjoyed good food and the mobile bar (I hoarded the M&M's, shhhh...), and most importantly, witnessed two soulmates get married.

I can't wait for Adel's wedding in April so I can dress up and have fun with my friends again!

Congratulations and Best Wishes, Barns and Bunny!