Snapshots from Engagement Photo shoot

Finally, after a few months of anticipation, we already had our E-session/ Pre-nuptial pictorial last Saturday! ♥ It was such a stressful, tiring yet successful pictorial. Even if it rained few minutes after we started the pictorial, the weather cooperated! Here are some pictures that my cousin took behind-the-scenes. I'm still waiting the official pictures from my photographer though. ♥

Preparing :) 

SOLE- mate! ♥ (check out what Mark's holding ;) )

The action star pose! ♥

Adrian, thanks for not letting me fall! :) Sitting at the airplane's wing is not that easy. :D 

The battered boyfriend! ;) 

Checking the pictures from my photographer ;) 

Mark and I really hate planking. So what we did is we "Planked" to show that we are ready to face/embrace hatred. LOL. ehehe

With my two lovely friends! ;) 

Say Yes to the Prenup dresses! ♥

Yesterday, before sleeping, h2b and I prepared the clothes we are going to wear for our engagement photo shoot. During the first few months of our preparation stage for this pictorial, we were too uneasy where to start, knowing that we have to shed a couple of bucks just to buy the clothes we need to wear for the prenuptial pictorial. A simple shirt would do, and a little touch of make-up I suppose; but since we both wanted to exude a “vintage” feel on the pictures, we ought to wear something vintage to match up the theme.

Guys, you know who you are, thank you so much for letting us borrow some of your clothes!!!  =) Now, since we have a lot of clothes to choose from, we’re now having a hard time which one to wear. Hehe. ;) 

Here are some of the pictures we took while we tried to mix and match the attires they lent us. ;)

Oh, it has been a part of my frustration to wear a dress, so I would like to take this opportunity to wear 3 dresses on our E- session. Haha! This is the first time I am going to post solo pictures of h2b and myself. hehe. :D  

Wedding gown ;) 

A real vintage dress - ♥ This was given to me by H2b's mom

Cocktail dresses for our Secondary Sponsors ♥

Ever since Mark and I planned for the wedding, I have been very serious looking for ways how to trim down our wedding expenses. I never get tired looking for other choices and computing how much we are saving for every penny that gets out of our project-wedding savings.

Being an uber-practical budgeted bride-to-be, I can truly say that I am already a fully-pledged lover of clearance and super sale in shopping malls! That’s what h2b and I usually do, every time we need to buy something for our wedding. We only go to the malls, 2 to 3 days after our payday, just to find great deals. That’s what we actually did for our wedding rings and most of our wedding accessories, and just two-weeks ago; we bought cocktail dresses for our secondary sponsors during one of the most awaited sale of every shopper – the YEAR ENDER SALE!!! =) 

Thankfully, we were able to find three dresses with same designs from the racks of Viola dresses; designed by Anne Bichelmeir. 

Simple, elegant and I must say, reasonably priced! Since Don Bosco enforces  church attire decorum, we're going to buy shawls for our lovely secondary sponsors, who also happen to be my H2b's sister! ♥

Please note that the brown brooch below is not included; the brooch is a part of our DIY's. ☻

Related link: http://www.bloggingb2b.blogspot.com/2011/09/practical-wedding-entourage-dresses.html

Thoughts about our upcoming E- Session

For the past few months, I wasn’t that really into our engagement photo shoot. However, as the pictorial day gets nearer and nearer, I am already starting to feel giddy, and cannot organize my thoughts which inspiration to follow – since my thinking cap is sharing too much ideas.

I always wanted to have a colorful yet “vintageous” photo shoot, that’s why we opted to have our pictorial at Philippine Air force Museum. Looking and searching for props to bring during the pictorial is not an easy task to do, but thank you to the ever reliable Internet, and I was able to find some pegs and mood board to fit in the theme that I want to happen. I am not that sure if my photographer would be able to pull off the ideas I have in mind, but I made sure that he knows very well the inspirations I have in mind – and I want to have a colorful, happy, vintage look on the pictures. Would that be possible? Hopefully yes!

I can no longer wait to wear the REAL wedding gown and other dresses that our good ol’ friends lent us for this pictorial. For the record, Mark and I didn’t have to buy our E-Session attires, since our friends are kind enough to lend us all these things! Thank you so much boys and gels.

As soon as the e-session is already done, I'd share some snippets and highlights during the photoshoot.  – I am still not sure if everything goes well as the way I envision it, but there’s one thing for sure that I do not want to happen during our e-session day, and that is to RAIN! :D

This picture was taken last year during our ocular visit in PAF. The girl in stripes is my MOH, while the girl wearing black is one of my bridesmaids ♥ 

Wedding documents are Almost Complete ♥

Roughly 4 months to go, and we’re getting there already! I am very happy to say, that our documents are almost complete and we were able to secure some of the most difficult church documents to obtain. (The confirmation and baptismal certificate). I have heard some stories from previous couples that one of their partners had to undergo the sacrament of confirmation again, since their certificates are nowhere to be found on the church records. Fortunately, Mark and I didn’t experience this tight spot most especially that undergoing the sacrament of confirmation again really takes a lot of time.  I can still remember the time I had my confirmation way back 2003, I had to attend the church’s seminar for 3 consecutive Sundays.  Good thing there are churches here in the Metro that offers stress-free confirmation – to the extent that you can get your certificate of confirmation on the spot.

Aside from the 2 major certificates we were able to secure from our parishes, we were able to get the reply forms for our marriage banns already! Once we get the CENOMARs we have requested from SM Business Centers, our next pace would be application for MARRIAGE LICENSE. Woot woot!

My friend's wedding ♥

Yesterday, I was able to witness two lovely couples exchanged their vows in front of God and their loved ones. It was such a great feeling to see someone unfold the real meaning of Love – most especially these days that a lot of marriages are falling apart.

The moment I saw my friend marched the aisle to meet her husband to be (now her husband na) on super lovely wedding gown, I almost cried and can really feel the happiness in her eyes. It was one of the best weddings I have seen so far–nothing really beats an intimate and simple wedding. I am really glad that everything went well and no destructions happened on her most awaited day. I am really happy for my friend, most especially I know some of the most stressful moments she had during her wedding preps.

So to you Di, and to her hubby Karl, congratulations and best wishes to both of you! Just like what the priest said during the homily, marriages are not made in heaven. And if the time comes you feel something’s wrong with your marriage, please bear in mind that I am just here, to remind you guys, what happened on January 17, 2012. I will and always be thankful that I was able to witness your wedding ceremony. Again, congratulations and I am looking forward to see your cute babies!!! 

P.S.: Right after Di's wedding ceremony and party I felt more and excited and can no longer wait for my own wedding! Oh, I just can’t wait to exchange vows with my husband to be! ;) LOVE IS REALLY IN THE AIR THIS YEAR 2012!!! ♥

With my fellow 2012 Brides ♥ Aileen who's getting married on March, Michelle on Feb, Me on May while Joyce on December ♥

While waiting for the ceremony to start

Hotel Room for Wedding Preparations at Berjaya Manila Hotel - Checked!

Last Saturday, after work hours, H2b and I got the chance to do an ocular visit to the rooms we have booked for our wedding preps.

 I booked this hotel way back the last quarter of 2011 but only got the chance to visit their show room last weekend. Honestly, I only based my judgment by looking at the pictures posted on their website, and I must say the pictures on their page were really promising. We all know that some pictures look more beautiful as compared to ‘real’ life; but that never stopped me from booking the hotel since I was able to get a huge discount by booking the rooms online.

When the attendant showed us the rooms last Saturday, h2b and I were very glad that we had the chance to avail this promo discount. The rooms were beautiful and clean, and the place really looks cozy.

We booked 2 deluxe room for wedding preparations, and 1 suite room for the night after the wedding. ;)

Sharing some pictures! :) 

Hotel restaurant

Deluxe Premiere

My camera shy husband to be and I.

After checking the rooms, we went straight ahead to St. John Bosco to submit our missalette. Unfortunately, Ms. Ging, the super kind lady who’s assigned to wedding inquiries wasn’t there, so we had to leave the copy to someone else. I am still keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the missalette gets approved right away, so we can go ahead and make copies already.

I just can't stop taking pictures of SJB's lovely altar! :D

Parking ;) 

Afterwards, we went to SM Sucat to request copies of Cenomar. Fortunately, there was a season sale in SM, so we were able to buy cocktail dresses for our Secondary Sponsors! I’ll share the pictures once uploaded. :D 

DIY: Our wedding missalette

Yesterday, I started doing the layout for our missalette since h2b and I are going to Don Bosco tomorrow morning to check if the revised wordings would be approved. Doing the layout is not an easy task and it surely needs a lot of patience. I didn’t know that printing papers back to back can be very tricky, most especially that you need to figure out which page comes first. You're lucky if you have a supplier who's going to do the layout for you, but at times like this (now that we're crunching our budget for the wedding. hehe) I'd rather spend hours bugging myself than to pay 70.00 per set of missalette. Knowing that after the ceremony, guests wouldn’t even keep this “script” after the wedding. Little did I know that doing the layout shouldn’t be arranged in order, but rather, how the pages would turn out once you open and flip every pages of the missalette. 

So, after this super dreary task, I am happy and satisfied with the results! Once our church approves our missalette (readings, sayings and the like), I’d immediately reproduce these copies inexpensively. Once approved, all I have to do is to instruct the Xerox Company to photocopy the respective pages back to back and provide them the ordering of the pages. We are only going to spend 15 pesos per set of missalette and that's a great way to save on our printing costs. I can even produce many missalettes or even provide 1 copy per guests if I want to. hehe (which I wouldn't do anyway since I am only planning to print 30 of these)

 One of my wedding coordinators told me that I can just provide her the materials and she’d print these for free; but I am quite shy to do this, since printing this for free would mean restrictions. I couldn’t demand the missalette to be printed at an earlier time; most especially that she’s doing this for me as a favor. I wanted to finish things way ahead of time, and I don’t want to pressure her just because of this missalette. Besides, she has done a lot of things and favors for Mark and I already. =) I just couldn’t thank her enough for being so nice and being so considerate every time I ask her numerous questions about some of our wedding suppliers.  

For those who are still not aware what missalette is, this is the wedding program or rather what I consider the script that the priest, couple, commentator and the guests would read during the wedding ceremony. This may be arranged as a booklet or can even be produced as a leaflet. =) So if you’re still clueless if this is a must for a wedding ceremony, the answer would be a BIG YES! Without this, the readers, couple, guests, and even the priest wouldn't know when it’s their turn to speak already. (Unless they really do pay attention the entire wedding ceremony) So as early as now, it’s much better to prepare and do the lay out way ahead of time. Doing this task is way too tiresome.  (Take it from a bride to be DIY princess wanna-be) ☻

Here are some sample pictures I've grabbed online. Credits also posted below. ♥ I'll share ours once our church approves it ♥

http://simplymaan.blogspot.com/2010/10/missalette-template.html

If you need a copy of our missalette, please check this post. I've shared the download links: http://bloggingb2b.blogspot.com/2015/02/download-link-for-wedding-missalette.html