Of Monograms and Save-the-Dates

To give proper tribute to my rocker sister Ate Jo-an, who made our unique Monograms:

our cute pink and navy insignia

full-named monogram with the insignia at the center :)

with a country house background since she wanted to incorporate my cozy country theme too

Plus also our fab Save-the-Dates :) The following are the ones which did not make because I wanted the STDs to have at least three photos (vain much? ;P):

The one below is supposed to be the final STD but we opted to change the words COZ WE'RE GETTING MARRIED to FOR OUR WEDDING and changed the 3rd pic as well (para mas romantic and mas visible yung ES)..

Until finally...
Thanks again Ate! Love yah! :) You really rock! ;)

Lamps for our "Lights" :)

Choosing the proper gifts for our Principal Sponsors (Ninongs and Ninangs) have been quite challenging for us. We wanted them to be unique but useful, and not something that will just dust away after our wedding. We know there could be more options back home in Manila but due to time constraint, we have decided to get the gifts here.

We have been eyeing these beautiful glass lamps for a month now but did not know how we were gonna personalize them or if they were even feasible as wedding gifts:

And so we thought twice about getting them. However we were not able to find any other gift which would be suitable for our godparents, and we wanted to get them before i go home for the wedding by end of March coz we did not want to rush anymore..

Today I went back to the Festival City with my friend and again those elegantly simple lamps were there.. I really wanted to buy them as our gifts, I could imagine their potential. My imagination, albeit my lack of artistic talent, goes wild whenever I see them! To me they are like blank canvasses full of promises :) Plus the prices are quite reasonable considering it's something that they could definitely use again, be it at work or at home :) And so I called E and he agreed that we definitely should get the lamps at last :D

Here they are!

we're hoping we could get blue and pink bulbs somewhere, any suggestions? :)

We're thinking of glass etching at least the sponsor's initials vertically, then maybe our names and wedding dates in very small font at the bottom part of the lamp. We're basing this on our own opinion that we personally do not wish to use mugs/pens/lamps/whatever with another person's name marked in huge letters or worse, with their faces! Ugh!

The upside? These are like symbols of our godparents roles in our new life together: our Lights to guide us in this crazy married coexistence :)

The next big challenge (aside from finding colored bulbs) is to look for Glass Etching materials or company which could personalize our lamps for us.. If it proves to be quite expensive we could try to do them ourselves, or worst case scenario use those artistic glass paint with our Ate's help :)

Any suggestions please??

the tricky Monetary Gift wordings :)

to copyright these words as 100% MINE! :p

Your presence and prayers are always the best
Boxed gifts are precious nevertheless
But as we do reside far far away
An Enveloped Gift will come a long way...

Another Wedding Nightmare??

woke up to another stupid wedding nightmare.. apparently we got married in this Big church (again!) and it was a disaster coz the Misalette was not ours (meaning ibang names ang andun and ibang motif) ..

what the hell is wrong why am i getting all these nightmares?! am i really that stressed na?! ugh!

here's a couple of my fave girls Lorelai Gilmore and Beyonce in their "wedding"dress, just to keep me positive:

lovely dress
l

lovely bride

only Beyonce can pull off this kind of wedding gown :)

one hot bride ;)

Our Cozy Rainy Invites :D

When it comes to the our Invitations, we only had three rules: 1) They should be designed by my sister Ate Jo-an. 2) Should NOT be too formal! So not us! 3) Should have some cozy in the rain theme, and of course in our wedding colors Pink and Navy.

We trusted my sister completely on the layout and design. I just sent her some pegs i got online, gave some ideas on the layout of our photos, and also emphasized that I really wanted to incorporate the Cozy in the Rain theme so I sent her pics of umbrellas, coffee mugs, and pink boots. :)

She wanted the layout to be sort of like a Windows page wherein there will be tabs/windows at the bottom where you will see what page you're at. She had a Home Page, a Who's Who page and an RSVP page, and she sent me this initial pic to show the tabs she was referring to:

The following are the initial designs/layout she sent me for the first page (after I told her I wanted more pics in front hehe) :

Until I realized I really did not want it to be too formal with the blessings of parents thing (no offense to anyone!) and so I decided to come up with my own wordings..

Yup, my proud contribution is the wordings: they are 100% MINE :D Being a frustrated writer the wordings are quite important to me; I wanted them to be fun yet heartwarming and not too tacky.. And I think I did a great job ;)

Also I wanted the Home Page to be just our monogram, and some wordings until I remembered one of our most loved verses from the Bible which got us through our dark sad days apart (when E had to come in Dubai and I was to stay in Manila)...

Then came the You're Invited page as per my request, so 4 pages na sila.. Lotsa revisions, and here are the final designs and layout.. Exactly how we wanted them to be!

the Home Page with our monogram and fave Bible verse

the You're Invited page (notice our insignia on top right and boots/umbrella on left side!)

the Entourage (Who's Who) page
*with Twin Towers Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Hotel, plus more visible raindrops :)*

my personal fave the RSVP page
*we changed the RSVP name and number to mine*

my surprise! the Location Map from Graphizar!
*yipee i'm wearing pink boots!*

We put them inside navy blue envelopes which I got from Magrudy's and we used a pink tulle ribbon to wrap around them. Hon printed our monograms on stickers to be used as seals on the envelopes, and I used a pink gel ink pen to write each guest's name :)

Here are our finished products, all printed from home! Completely DIY talaga, yey! :P

The best invitations EVER! Thank God for my sister! :D

Sharing Some Good News :)

Good News #1: We got an Officiating Priest already: Rev. Fr. Gerard Zabala, O.P. :) And I've already read good feedbacks about him from W@W :)

Good News #2: My headache of a seamstress for the Entourage Aling Baby (Makati) finally followed through with her promise of two gowns for my Secondary Sponsors and two for my Flower Girls.. Thank God! I was really worried that we would have to pullout..

Faye our Flower Girl
(will ask to shorten the skirt; I wanted it just below the knee so they could wear white stockings)

for my Veil Sponsor Jam (who is the model here)

for my Cord Sponsor Eileen (was not present then)

Good News #3: Finally someone agreed to make the Cake Topper that I would like for us: Bride in Boots and Groom with Umbrella.. Thanks to our Kuya Meng and Ate Grace! :)

meeting our future little girls :)

something to de-stress the bridezilla in me.. courtesy of morphthing.com :)

cutie little baby girl! :D

looks more like E :)

super fun! that's my cheeks, erick's eyes... hmm not sure about the other parts hahaha! but in fairness i can see the similarities h?? :)

happy bored lazy bride on board :)

Don't Mock the Mock Dress! :D

What exactly is a mock dress?? That was the main question in my mind when my designer Ms. Gretchen Pichay (http://gretchenpichay.multiply.com) suggested that she sends me mine for fitting.. I had no idea how we were gonna do my fitting through that, until she clarified that a MOCK DRESS is a very simple fabric which has the exact same measurements she took from me when I went home for the Measurements last year. The cut would be somewhat similar too to the real Dress though not exactly the same. This is really helpful and a great idea for overseas brides who cannot go home for fittings until weeks before the wedding. They can have the mock dress shipped or sent through families or friends on vacation! Genius!

Thankfully our good friend Lanie was back home for a two-week vacay, and we asked her if she could bring that dress along with the Invitations for the Dubai invitees (yey!).. She arrived two nights ago, and I had to fight every urge from calling or texting her coz I know she must be tired :) Finally this morning we saw each other at the locker room at work and we both shrieked like stupid high school girls hahaha! :P So much fun! :D She then gave me the small package sent by my mom... Hay thank God for friends! :)

On my way back from work I could not stop thinking about my dress and finally I called another friend Shawie and asked if she could dropby at out flat to help me fit the dress :D To which of course she said yes. Fun girl bonding moment! :)

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

front (gotta shorten that skirt)

back (wahhh! i gotta lose weight!:()

sitting pic (kelangan may ganyan daw haha!)

this is me asking E to call back later hehe :D

my photographer and seamstress this afternoon :) thanks Sha! muah!

So what do you think?? I actually love it in front, I was quite surprised that I did not look as chubby as I thought I would be with that neckline.. However I really hate it at the back :( This sucks because the back part is what is seen for a full one hour during the ceremony.. What should I do??? :(

Anyway I will email Gretchen that I got the dress already, so we could schedule the online webcam fitting.. Will update you guys on that one ASAP :)

I gotta say though that I love how she cut my dress, I can already picture it :) And again this idea is so fab! Perfect for thousands of Overseas Brides like me! :D

Happy preps!