Bridesmaids' Dresses: Almost There

Finally, the bridesmaids' dresses are almost done (read: ALMOST). My girls were able to do their fitting last  Sunday, and I must admit, the delay that I mentioned some time ago turned out to be kind of a good thing--2 of my BM's gained a few inches, and one of them needed some reduction around the waistline. 

Look at those waistlines!  My waist is obviously the biggest among the bunch. pfft.:S

The dresses look pretty normal here because they're still in the works, but wait 'til you see them with petticoats underneath-- the ballooned skirts are gonna look super cute!:) The MOH dress (middle) is my favorite though. I chose a peplum for her so our skirts won't be bumping against each other. Besides, my goal was to make her look like a very sophisticated assistant to me and I think I'm on the right track. LOL.

Can't wait until I post about the actual look of the dresses! But that won't be until after the big day. hehe.

Tip:
If you don't want your girls to wear something that's unflattering and will emphasize their bodies in all the wrong places, stick to a really good designer that can give you outputs that would fit like a glove.

The dresses will be a bit  expensive though, so make sure they're willing to pay for it (which I'm glad my girls are), or you can give them a reasonable share to cut their cost. Also, think of a design that they would love--not just what YOU love--and a style that they can wear in another occasion so they would gladly spend on it. :) In my case, I showed them lots of dress pegs and made them vote which style they like best. :)


Bridesmaids dresses by:

Kimi Go

685 Unit 1 Royal Parthenon Square Tandang Sora Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines
Telephone Numbers: (02) 565-64-65, (02) 794-11-22, (02) 343 27 65
Mobile Number: (+63) 917 866 04 06 | (+63) 922 854 25 21

PM me for my supplier review.:)

Our Do-It-Ourselves Post-Singlehood / Pre-Wedding Photo Shoot. :D

Disclaimer: If you're expecting a photo set full of gigglings and balloons and cotton candies, you may be disappointed. Also, this is just a preview.

Even before we hired a photographer, the fiance and I are pretty much decided that we didn't want to have a pre-nup photo shoot done by a pro. Besides wanting to lessen our wedding expenses, we were too shy to act like a cute, happy couple in front of a stranger, so we opted on doing the photos on our own. 

We don't want to call this pre-nuptial photos, because the term is too cheesy for our personality; we want to refer to this as the last set of decent photos of us as boyfriend and girlfriend. Kinda like a post-singlehood photoshoot? LOL. :))

So with the help of a tripod, we served as each other's photographers. We explored every corner of the  fiance's grandma's basement (yes, even the restroom) in the hopes of getting a good shot.  Luckily, we were able to come up with photos that are really personal, true to ourselves, and best of all, FREE. 

Now who says you can't DIY a pre-wedding photo shoot? :)

Dressing Up the Groom

Because there's no pamahiin against the bride seeing the groom in his suit before the wedding, I helped the fiance shop for his attire. The fun part was I got to be his personal stylist. Hehe. We usually just mind our own business when it comes to dressing up, so me helping him choose what he's going to wear for our wedding was a huge deal. I was pretty much hands-on with everything--from the fabric of his custom suit, to his shoes, down to his necktie--so I was kinilig when I saw him try out the whole ensemble inside the fitting room (ang arte ko lang?). 

Luckily, after scouring department stores and men's boutiques, we were finally able to complete his whole look. But again, as much as I want to post his dress rehearsal, I need to keep his look a secret until our wedding. Hehe.

In the meantime, here's to give you an idea of the pieces that I chose for him:

image credit: Bing.com (because Google sucks sometimes)

The shopping has been quite a confusing process because he kept on changing his mind about which piece will go well with which (side story: he bought a pair of blue suede desert boots which unfortunately didn't match his tailor-made suit, so he bought a new pair of khaki pants which he thought would go well with the shoes but didn't, which is why he's about to buy another pair of shoes that would go well with his new pants) until all the little expenses piled up to one big dent in his wallet. If I'm going to sum up all his wardrobe expense, it would more or less cost about Php 15,000. LOL. Poor him, that's the price he needs to pay just to look stunning. Hahaha. Howell, at least it's worth it.

One and a half months to go!!!

Wedding Dress in Progress

I had my first fitting yesterday and so far, I'm impressed with the output. I thought I was gonna get teary-eyed once I slip the dress on, but it wasn't finished yet so I couldn't really savor the moment. HAHA. 

Look, there's my dress!

Loved the smell of the fabric when I opened the bag!

He' hasn't had a good sleep that's why he looks like that. Also, there was a division curtain so he didn't see me wearing the dress. :p

 The dress was pretty much just the lining and the length wasn't final yet, but I can already tell that the fit will be perfect (assuming I don't gain weight for the next 1 and a half months)! Not sure though if they intentionally reduced my size because I lost a few pounds since they got my measurements and the dress still fitted like glove. Ate Vicky, the seamstress, was suggesting to loosen it up because she probably wanted to give me space to breathe, but Ms. Marianne, the designer, didn't want to make any more adjustments, even telling Ate Vicky na kaya ko pa raw magpapayat (pressure? LOL).  But yeah, even I don\t want them to resize it either because I'm still trying to lose some more weight. hehe.

I want to post the dress inspiration but I also want things to be a surprise and so I won't jinx the final outcome so I'm controlling myself right now. GAH. 

some made-to-order and ready-to-wear dresses

more dresses

Second fitting will be on Dec. 5, afterwhich, they're going to put the rest of the lace details. I'm probably getting the whole dress by the second week of December. Can't wait!:)

Special thanks to my fiance's supportive parents for going there with us to see me fit the dress. It's nice to have people around to help me with in this situation.:)

Nouvelle Haute Couture by Marianne

1148 E. Rodriguez Sr. Ave QC

mobile: 09178221577

tel. 706 7695

nouvellehautecouture@yahoo.com

Canonical Interview: DONE!

The fiance and I drove to Batangas early this morning to have our canonical interview and get my parish permit and our wedding banns. Since our ceremony will be at Chapel on the Hill, we had to do the all the paper works for COH's parish, Our Lady of All Nations, located at the View Deck of Canyon Woods.

Answer sheet used for the interview

I thought we'll only be spending 30 minutes at the office of the Parish so I looked forward to going ukay-shopping, but unfortunately, we had to wait for more than 2 hours (we got there 11:30am, got interviewed around 2pm) because Fr. Milo Malabuyoc went out to hold a mass somewhere. Worst part, it was lunch time and there wasn't any  food store nearby. The fiance almost died. LOL.

What to bring:

Original Copy:

- Baptismal Certificate (for marriage purposes)

-Confirmation Certificate (for marriage purposes)

-Marriage License

-Certificate of Attendance 2 day Pre-CANA Seminar

Photocopy:

- Certificate of No Marriage

- Birth Certificate

- list of names of principal sponsors

- name, license number, expiration date of license of officiating priest

Finally another major to-do is done! We'll head to our respective parishes tomorrow for the submission of our wedding banns. Few more weeks on the wedding clock!

Few tips:

- Bring some snacks or make sure you've eaten before you go there in case it's a bad timing.
- Proofread all the papers. Your marriage certificate / contract details will be based on the documents you submit. It's best to check errors now than to deal with NSO  in the future for corrections.

Total ATM damage: Php 9,150

- Php 5,000 Parish fee (this is what Chapel on the Hill required us to pay, not sure about the other churches)

- Php 2,150 Marriage certificate processing fee (whatta surprise expense!)

- Php 2,000 (we already paid our balance with COH because it's due on the 5th of Dec. anyway. We didn't want to go back there again soon just to settle that)

Dear Wedding Suppliers,

A shout out to the supplier who’s in charge of my bridesmaids’ dresses:

Just because the bride is getting married next year, doesn’t mean you have all the liberty to delay her order so you can accommodate other clients who need their dresses done by the end of this year, especially if you have already stated in your contract that you will deliver your service by the 3^rd week of October. It is not for you to decide how much extension you’re going to give yourself, because 1) the bride must have booked you early because she didn’t want to be cramming 1 month before her big day; 2) it’s not the bride’s fault if your other clients booked you at a later date for a rush order,  so you technically don’t have the sole discretion whether or not you should put her needs at the bottom of your to-do list and; 3) the bride signed up for your service because she counts on your fixed due date of delivery, and not a due date that comes with an extend-all-you-can feature.

There’s nothing wrong with prioritizing things. But the fact that the bride entrusted you with that certain task months before her wedding and you’re not respecting her timeline means that you’re recklessly and inconsiderately putting aside one of her top priorities. And it’s not fair.

It would’ve been forgivable if you didn’t settle on a delivery date and signed a contract; problem is you did, and you have no choice but to perform and deliver what’s expected of you.

Unless you highly look forward to becoming another pain in a bride’s ass... 

A Little Something for His Boys and My Girls

Finally done preparing our entourage's gifts *slash* wedding survival kits. The fiance and I made sure that we include a little token of appreciation for our sponsors in our to-do list because they deserve it.

Making 8 pairs of gifts is exhausting!

A very cute accessory to cover the essentials.

Men's basics.

My sister and I literally walked to a faraway rice field to get that rice plant accent. LOL.

What we included in the package:

For the ladies:
- hair pins
- safety pins
- sanitary napkin (just in case)
- pocket tissue
- band aids
- razor (they'll never know when they can use one)
- meds (loperamide and paracetamol)
- needle and thread (these duo will just save any day)
- vintage-y detachable collar

For the gents:
- A dose of alcohol (in case they're too shy to give a speech)
- fatherly comb
- old school razor
- cigar (for that manly kick)
- mint gum (to save them from the consequences of cigar breath)

Despite having to go through a number of malls and tiagges to complete the to-include list, I really enjoyed this part of the wedding prep. We're so excited to give this to our groomsmen and bridesmaids. These are gonna help them survive our big day. I just hope they don't see this spoiler blog post.:))

An Early Bridal Sparty

I would like to thank my bridesmaids for throwing a super fun and relaxing surprise bridal sparty for me. And to my fiancé, for conniving with my girls and fabricating stories just to bring me here. HAHA.

I didn’t expect them to pull off a bridal shower for me this early, but I’m so happy they did it before everyone gets too busy for the holidays.

Thank you girls for not making me sit on a chair and let a macho dancer take me over. :D

You are the best bridesmaids ever. :))

Now I'm really starting to feel our big day's just around the corner. :S

Location: 24h Apartment Hotel

Spa service provider:  Spa on Wheels

Reservation Phone no.: (02)560-7183 / 0915-804-5418 (globe) / 0929-388-1079 (smart) / 0933-619- 2819 (sun)

To Gift or Not to Gift: My Thoughts on Specifying A Wedding Gift Preference

One of the biggest dilemmas that we’ve encountered in this entire process was whether or not we would have a bridal registry. We already started giving out invitations but when guests would ask me what to give us on our wedding, I can’t say anything yet. And this could be because 1) we’re not expecting any gifts especially from our friends; 2) although we assume that at least some of them plan to give us something, we don’t want to tell them what our preference is because no matter how we tell them, it will sound tacky; 3) it’s really not a big deal if they go there empty-handed since it’s not our reason for throwing a big wedding party, so we don’t see the point of giving an answer when we’re asked what we like, or where we registered.

But I realized the need to get a bridal registry and discreetly tell our gift preference to people when 4 people told me (though jokingly) that they’re going to get us a rice cooker for our wedding. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with getting a rice cooker---but what are we supposed to do with 3 more? I can just imagine piles of duplicate appliances collecting dust in our house if we didn’t sign up for a registry. But just in case there are duplicates, it would be nice if the gifts would still have their price tags on, so just in case it happens, we can sell the items right away. Heh.

I’ve seen some wedding invitations that say, “Your presence is enough, but just in case, we prefer cash”. Yes, it’s a very convenient way to spare ourselves from getting flooded by unnecessary home products but we didn’t include any hint of that in our invites because besides the fact that my dad didn’t want us to, the whole point of the celebration can get somewhat lost in translation; like it’s technically an exclusive event that offers free beer in exchange of a cover charge, and we don’t want that.

So how do we tell our guests what we like as gifts without including it in our invites and posting it to our wedsite and Facebook group? I guess the most ethical thing to do is to not say anything unless asked, or let our family and closest friends do the announcement, so we can keep ourselves from shouting to the world that we prefer ‘this kind of gift’ on the assumption that our guests would be generous and thoughtful enough to give us that.

~~It’s 2 months and 2 weeks to go. On days that I realize how near it is, I feel like I’m about to throw up. Gah. *more jitters by the day*

Licensed to Marry*: Applying for Marriage License in Quezon City

We've finally filed for our marriage license, which makes this whole wedding process official. *jitters again* This was how we applied for a marriage license in Quezon City:

• REQUIREMENTS and other details can be found here

Please note that at least one of the couple should be residing in QC to be able to apply for a marriage license there

ü  Original and Photocopy of NSO certified Birth Certificate or Baptismal Certificate of both applicants

We ordered ours from NSO Online. Be patient when ordering your certificates online, their system can has the tendency to fail especially during the part where you need to chat with a customer representative for verification. If you notice nothing’s happening, try refreshing your browser once in a while.

ü  Community Tax Certificate/Cedula of both applicants

Since I’m from Valenzuela and the fiancé is from QC, I got my cedula from our barangay, and he got his from QC City Hall. Not sure if a non-QC resident would be allowed to get his/her cedula from QC city hall in case he/she doesn't have one from her municipality so better to clarify this one.

ü  1 ID photo (colored or black and white) of each applicant

We gave 1x1 colored photos

ü  Certificate of Family Planning (given on day of seminar (1pm-4pm)

Since we were given a free Family Planning and Billings Method Seminar during our Pre-CANA session at CEFAM, we didn’t have to attend the family planning lecture provided by the city hall’s health department. I’ve read from some blogs that there are couples who are not sure if the certificate given by CEFAM is a valid requirement, but in our case, it is. Check it with health department just to be extra sure.

ü  CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage)

The QC page does not include this in their list of marriage license requirements but apparently, they need this one too. Make sure to have this photocopied as this will be needed during the canonical interview. We also got this from NSO online. 

• PROCESS

The fiancé spared me from all these troubles by doing the honors of filing for our marriage license. Heh. The application can be done by one person, but make sure that the forms have been signed by the couple.

1. Go to Counter 11 of Civil Registry (the website says Counter 10 but the fiance says 11), where you will be given a referral note that says “For filing and application form”, which will direct you to the Treasury. But before heading straight to the Treasury to pay the fees, check with the Health Department first the Family Planning Seminar schedule. You can have the seminar scheduled on the same day but in our case, we just had our CEFAM certificates checked and approved by the Health Department
2. Pay all the necessary fees at the Treasury
3. Go back to Counter 11 to submit the application forms and the rest of the requirements , and pay the notarization fee of Php 50 at Counter 11 (which the website didn’t tell us about)
4. Go back after 11 days and pay the marriage license fee of Php 100 upon claiming

Total expense:

Birth Certificates: Php330 x 2
CeNoMar: Php430 x2

TOTAL: Php 1,520 
We obviously double the expense here since we opted to order the certificates online. But if you have the luxury to queue up inside NSO, you can save up a few cash. Prices of the BC and Cenomar are Php 140 and Php 195 respectively, but that is if you're willing to take a leave from work and manually file for the documents.

---I’ll update this post once we get the license. WEEE :)--

EDIT OCT 31:

Finally, our license!

The fiance didn't have a hard time picking this one up, he just had to present the claim form to Counter 11 of the Civil Registry, pay Php100, and wait for a few minutes. That's it. We're officially licensed to marry!

The big day's really drawing nearrrrr OMG!