homesick!

yes. i am back here in san diego. and true to the literal meaning of this entry's title, [homesick], yes. i am HOME and SICK. it was a terrible flight back here. i forgot my allergy meds in our bedroom and so i suffered a thirteen hour flight of clogged ears and stuffy nose. thank goodness i was seated right next to an old lady who happened to be a retired physician. she handed out a bagful of meds and nursed me during the entire trip. bless her heart!

my three-week vacation had been the best three weeks of my life (mushy but true). in the last nine years brian and i had been together, we've never really spent an entire length of time wherein we were together 24/7... it was awesome! some may find it too much. but honestly, there isn't anything too much for a couple who only gets to see each other when everything else in this whole wide world says "yes it's ok to see each other again". given the chance, i'd do it over and over again :).

there are so many things i wanted to write about, most specially about the wedding. we've accomplished so much in the span of three weeks... even less since some of our time were spent on other errands besides that. but before i give the blow by blow of wedding accomplishments, lemme send thanks to people that made my short stay worthwhile:

to mama and papa. for flying me for free the second time around! and for letting me and ian use lily on the days that we needed her.

to kuya ed. for driving us to divi last tuesday. and for teaching me how to bargain to the max!

to all my nephews. for all the sweet sms and concern that i was starting to get sick few days before i left.

to all the kids-- sam, ellaine, bullet, azzel, errold, iya and elijah. for making my weekends happy and letting me practice my "atig" skills.... wala pa rin kupas ang galing ko! hahaha!

to all new acquaintances, be it for the wedding or not, thanks!


to ninang tita celia. for ... being in love and happy (hehehe) and giving me that nice white gold necklace.


to Rosa whom i've seen the most. thanks for being just a phone call and text away and for zooming in the soonest whenever we need you; for the nice dinner at lasa with your cool friend vanessa; for taking me to gilbert so i can have a decent haircut again; for giving me tips on where to go in 168; for helping us with the last minute hotel accomodations.... and so many other little things!... one last thing, will you be my ninang for my confirmation next year??


to kit. for giving me my first pair of beautiful chandelier earrings. you still owe me my henlin siomai, tho. in exchange for that, will you be ian's ninong for next years' confirmation?


to good friends-- paul, liby and baya. it was good to see you guys again. congratulations!!



and to save the best for last... to my ever loving husband. thanks for making my stay a perfect one. for taking me to places i've never been; for driving me around at any given hour; for making the almost impossible, possible; for listening to me and snapping me back to reality most of the time; and for so many other things we've shared. love you so much hon, and i miss you terribly.

THANK YOU!!!
now wish me well so i can get my a*s back to work na.

^{next attraction: wedding updates!!}

embracing nature

brian and i are ecstatic as i write this!

last wednesday, nov. 9, we scheduled our pre-nup shoot with Paul Vincent. being a couple who loves being one with nature and who resides from down in laguna, we opted to have our pre-nup done at the Hidden Valley Springs in Alaminos. as planned, we left makati at eight in the morning right after Jasmine and i finished our make up session. traffic bound south during early morning is just perfect, so we reached the place about an hour and a half later. the day was perfect... sun was up, we were early enough to start the shoot and only a few people were checked in.

the place in itself is breathtaking! we all enjoyed the day, the place and the one kilometer hike to the hidden falls!

here are a few photos from Paul, and more here
(Travel arrangements care of AVL Travel Tours, Inc.)

meeting Jasmine

scouting for the right make up artist is a tough task. and finding the right one whom you can trust is even harder. being a member of w@w for quite sometime now, i have a good array of choices to choose from. i narrowed it down to two most popular ones that has good reviews and picked the very first one who responded promptly... and Jasmine Mendiola it is! unlike my other choice, Jasmine responded very well to my seemingly non-ending questions. our conversations were purely SMS based which started the week prior i left the states (Jas, if you're reading this, i really appreciate those international SMS you spent for me =p).

Jasmine and i hit it off right from the very start. She's professional at what she does, very punctual, and antoher "OC" (just like me) when it comes to details. i salute her patience with the so many last minute changes i've made during our pre-nup/trial HMU day. Call time was six in the morning, and sure enough Jasmine and Felicity (her pretty assistant hairstylist) was right there impunto, knocking at our room at The Great Eastern hotel. mind you, when i said last minute changes, i meant the late night prior to our meet up! there are just a few things that happened unexpectedly and only life-saver people like our cousin Rosa can mend (super thanks for the hotel tip!)

here are some photos of Jasmine and Felicity in action:


final make up results can be viewed on the next post (pre-nup)
just for point of comparison, here's a pic of plain jane me:


For inquiries, you may contact Jasmine at:
0926.7442778
jasmine.mendiola@gmail.com
visit her blog
*** w@w tag holder gets 10% discount right of the bat!

excuse me

eventhough i had promised to make this blog exclusively for our wedding notes, i just can't help but write down random stuff that has been annoyingly sitting in my head. i cannot contain this any longer. besides, our main blog (where i usually write stuff like this) is down. and it's not going back to regular programming anytime soon since both brian and i are busy. crazy busy.


pardon me, but me and packing just don't get along very well. i have been sorting my stuff to pack and now i'm sitting here with my head ready to pop. i wish i can just skip this whole ordeal of packing my stuff and just get up, get ready and go on vacation. it's almost midnight and i'm not even halfway done. i still have to work eight more hours tomorrow. arrgh! the pain!!!


i hate packing. i hate it to the bones.

good news

this is not so wedding related but is equally deserving to be shared (i don't have anyone to share it with here. so, just let me). we're just officially worry-free now that honey had passed one of the biggest hurdles in finishing school. compre results came out today and, sure enough, his name is one among the long list plastered in campus released early morning (manila time). ha! see! i kept saying he'd make it. but stress somehow got him and started to worry.

so, now that compre's out of our hair, we can concentrate more on graduation stuff and lots more of wedding preps (and some pasyal on the side). i feel it coming... wheee!


***wedding updates***
on the roll:
:: fernwood garden - dp paid
:: juan carlo - dp paid
:: njork - half-way paid.
:: paul vincent - reservation paid

to do:
:: obtain freedom to marry from St. Pius (Fr. Pat)
:: keep working on guestlists
:: nov 4-first fitting at njork, meet/talk to p1
:: nov 5-meet p2, ella, lala
:: full coordination vs. OTD ?
:: come up with at least 3 outfits for pre-nup shoot
:: finalize locations for pre-nup shoot
:: choose HMUa for pre-nup shoot -Jasmine Mendiola, Madge Lejano ??
:: finalize menu
:: do food tasting now vs. month prior the wedding ?
:: scout for confectioner - Judy Uson, Alex Franco, ???
:: chocolate fountain?
:: invites
:: favors - guests

ahh... who am i kidding. i can't do this without my notebook in front of me!

fickle, fickle

this month's issue of bridal mags came in my mailbox today. you guessed it right. i now have my eyes on these: (lol)

_{*images borrowed from jimhjelm.com*}

cute hues:


and pretty, pretty styles:

timeline fuss

shouldn't setting up an appointment be as easy as 1-2-3? i'm a bit confused with the responses we get from some of the vendors/suppliers we've chosen.

after numerous of times na kinulit-kulit ko si brian to get us an appointment with the vendors and suppliers, he was given one similar answer: "tawagan mo na lang kami one week before sya dumating".

SAY WHAT!!?
instead of getting the actual date and time for an appointment, they give us an "appointment" to set up an appointment? wtf?!

you see, eventhough this trip is totally unplanned for (budget and time wise), i am goin back to PI for a lot of reasons: a) to attend my husband's second graduation-- which is mainly why doods (my dad in-law) offered to fly me for free again, b) to accomplish as many wedding preps as possible, and c) misc reasons like to see so and so & go to such and such, to do this and that.

my time frame: leave san diego nov 2 and fly back on nov 26. since i am flying out of LAX at 2045, i am goin to lose 2 calendar days. so technically, my vacation calendar starts on nov 4 when i arrive manila at four in the morning to be exact.

yeah, yeah. A for anna & A for anal.

i am leaving in 18 days (my time) from today. this impromptu vacation is, by far, the shortest one i'll ever have, since normally, i go away for a minimum of six weeks in majority of the time. hence, the reason why i am so anal about plotting my schedule waaay ahead of time than i would normally do. yes. feel free to call me a plan-freak because i am a self-confessed one.

but hear my point first: i plan ahead of time for just-in-case instances. that way, i'll have an ample of time to fix things up when situation calls for it. right? right. also, i am a visual person. and for plans as special as our wedding, i'd like to view my calender with the scheduled turn of events and mapped out plans. doing so will give me a picture of what else i can squeeze-in to maximize my time. now tell me if that's reasonable or not.

now, as to why i am irritated and find these vendors'/suppliers' (i won't name names yet, di pa naman ako ganun ka-upset) mode of scheduling clients weird: i'm just concerned na what if on the day that we intend to go eh wala na silang slot for us? that would mean major adjustments on my part just to accomodate the changes. that's a very classic hassle! haaay.

so far, the only thing i have for sure, aside from the trips brian and i had scheduled for, is my first fitting with Njork. i will arrive at 4am and will have my first fitting at 9am that very same day. (now, talk about excitement!-- oo, atat na bride ako! hahaha!.) they even pre-booked me for my second fitting already! now that's what you call service. they understood my time-frame and accomodated my needs. now i only wish the other ones would do just the same or would even go an extra mile just to show you that your time and their time are valuable.

people who work for people, like me, would understand my point. you might think i'm losing my gray areas or that i don't have one. maybe so. because this is me under pressure.

so, this is me

ha!
i finally had the chance to steal this quiz from nikki. thanks, niks!


Congratulations! You are a traditional bride!


What Kind of Bride Will You Be?
brought to you by Quizilla

the motif

ahh.. colors.

choosing the motif has seem to be a none ending task for me. when Migs asked what color/s i have in mind, i honestly went blank. not that i have no idea. it's actually the opposite. i have so many color combinations in mind that it came to a point where choosing which would really best fit our wedding, i suddenly went scatter brain.

our very first choice was apple red. it was nice when we were flipping through david's bridal website. but then we did our ocular at fernwood and saw it, it didn't blend very well with the garden set up. nasty combination. so scratch apple red. then on that same day, there was a wedding goin on and we stayed and peeked through. we liked their motif of ecru/gold and fell for it. then as i go online and do my wedding research and all, more bold, lively, beautiful color combos are flipping in front of me.... so yeah, go figure.

brian and i came to an agreement: no blue nor too pink. it has to be even. but i told him i cannot not have pink! although i don't claim pink to be my most favorite color, i like it so much to make it a part of my happiest day. and brian being the most loving, kindest hubby in the whole-wide world that he is, compromised! teeehee!

so today, i decided to make swatches to narrow my choices down:
^{trust me, these had been narrowed down already, heheh.}

two tones



three tones




but i think i'm seriously leaning towards these (though, not final since i have to show them to brian for comments) two sets of color combo for motif:



^{first set: secodary BM & JM, second set: matron & maid OH. all with silver embellishments}


ah, but god knows what martha stewart will come up with for 2006 hip colors. argh! there's a reason why God made me a woman, let me put it to use here. so don't quote me on this until the garments are cut, hehe.

bibles for brides

_{*warning: this is a shameless yet worthwhile plug*}

stressed out searching? try this.

today i got my w@w's Bride's Yellow Pages (2005-2006 ed.) and the Wedding Primer (3rd ed.). these two are publications that are exclusively designed to cater for brides-to-be/couples in helping from engagement preps to the wedding minute details itself. consider these as pinay bride's bibles. if you're interested, these books are available at major local bookstores in the Philippines and, as far as i know, are distributed here in the US by w@w brides that are based here (depends on which state you're at). i got my books through the kindness of edrei, a fellow bride who resides here in california (hayward) as well. i say if you're a pinay bride, getting married in the philippines or abroad, grab these two as these books are concise, will provide you the complete contact details, even discounts at participating vendors and will direct you to suppliers that are from around the metro manila area who are more than capable of catering to brides abroad. i felt my full year subscription to Bride's magazine (and the like) is not enough. trust me, these books will get you the real meat of it all.


happy hunting everyone!

choco-loco

_{photo credit: belgianfonduetower.com}

Brian and i were talking about wanting to have this chocolate fondue at the reception. Knowing the chocoholics in us, we'd pretty much sit our table right next to this heavenly treat, hehe! The only thing is, brian have been trying to get a hold of them but their phone's been busy for the longest time now. Everytime he'd call, it's busy... Hmm, business must be good. I sure do hope we can afford to have this one. I've been browsing the W@W yahoo group for prices and found a couple of suppliers that offer good prices but the tallest they have is an 18". We just think it'd be more fun if it's tall and flowy, hehehe. Yeah. Listen to the kid in me talking. Next thing you'll see is me and brian running around like big kids at the reception. Hyper with all the sugar boost this humongous fondue could bring, hahahha! Oh but who cares, you can never go wrong with chocolates. I'm sure our guests will feast on this one, as well. In that case, i'm sure they will go home all "sugar happy".


Also, i think this would be the best place to put the personalized napkins we're trying to get. Hmmm... ideas after ideas! I'm on the roll here, baby! Weee!

the dress

After blatantly telling Migs that i am very overwhelmed and are now clueless as to what i exactly want for my dress, he then asked me to send him a picture of me and ian through email and said he'd take care of it for me. these all happened prior to meeting him in person.


a day or so had passed and he emailed me back with these:

design no. 1


design no. 2


design no. 3

*all embellishments are in silver

Amazing isn't it!? I've looked thru them in person when he flew in to meet me and Migs explained to me that these sketches are modular, meaning, the designs can be interchanged by putting the sheets one on top of the other to capture the look of a different combination. the bodice and the bottom of the front and back are all interchangable. did it make sense? i wish i could show it here how it's done. anyways, i've chosen a combination of these: the bodice of gown no. 1-- has symmetrical satin sheets that criss-crosses just right under the bustline and a satin sheet that runs across the chest to hide some of my upper bulges (heee!) and as for the back part of the dress, i'm deciding between design no. 1 or no. 2. i told him that i'll toy around with the idea once the gown is partially made. i can't wait 'til i get back to manila again and start this whole dress making process!


Migs is just brilliant. I get all giddy with all these anticipation of how my dress is gonna be like in real life =)


Here are the rest of the dresses for the girls:
^{*these are tentative til i get the final quote, if they're too pricey i'd shop around again}
for Adet (my sis in-law), Matron of Honor


for Teng (my bestfriend), Maid of Honor
(this design will be changed into a halter top neckline)


for Leah (my niece), Bridesmaid


for Rosa, Cyrene and Aureen (cousins and niece), Secondary sponsors

meeting Miguel

I have to admit, after Brian and i had settled with Fernwood as our venue, i started to become clueless and felt so helpless as to what to do next. The decision to choose the venue came long before the wedding plans even officially started. I'd say, must be way back since year 2001 when i saw it in tfc, shown in one of the dramas i used to watch back then. We both surfed and searched online, browsed through it, and fell in love instantly with the place. It was that simple and easy.


Now on what to wear, it wasn't the same case. It took me a good amount of time searching online and a couple of store visits to David's bridal and Demetrio's just to try on what style fits my body type best. There were so many to choose from! I got easily overwhelmed since i was doing this on my own. I thought, had i wanted to finish this wedding dress ordeal, i could've just grabbed a dress from the store and viola! Done! But no. Not in a once in a lifetime ocassion like my wedding. I've decided i wanted something custom made for me. No no to an american size, ready-to-wear wedding gown that would require tremendous amount of alterations and cash just to make it fit me. And so the search continued. This time for a designer.


To suit our budget, i've drawn out criterias in searching for a good designer: 1) young flipino designer with beautiful and fresh creations/ideas to give me 2) would make both ends meet to achieve our desired budget 3) can do the job even if i'm from here in san diego 4) has to be kind and approachable and most importantly, 5) has an imaginative and an open mind to absorb MY OWN ideas and plans.


And i found him them. Yes, them! As in, i have two fabulous designers. They are Miguel and Francis of Njork by MiguelFrancisco. I have only met one of the tandem though, Miguel, whom by some good fate, now resides in San Francisco. Is that luck or what! After a couple or so of exchanging emails and phonecalls, Migs flew in and finally met me. I felt a bit anxious meeting him in person because i'm afraid that he maybe a bit eccentric and a snotty designer. To my amazement, the guy isn't any of what i was presumming he might be. He's totally nice and sooo fun to be with! He instantly made it to my gay guy friends list. He showed me the sketches (which deserves a separate blog entry), took my measurement and my parents' as well. What made me love Migs even more was his genuine kindness in accommodating dad's needs. Knowing my dad's medical condition, wheelchair bound and limited in mobility, Mig's suggested a special barong and pants for him. Thinking about my dad's comfort, he instantly thought of making him clothes that would have snaps on both sides for easy dressing/undressing. I called his ideas to be my dad's "bionic" outfit, hehehe. My parents were both happy with Migs and his brilliant ideas.


happy loved ones = happy anna. I can't ask for more.

and so it began

At the beginning of this year, though it started with my vacation, plans for next year's wedding have been talked about. We started formally telling some of our family and friends about the date, few of the entourage details and little this and that about the wedding per se.


We've divided the task into these:
Me- 90% online search + 10% legwork. Brian- 90% legwork + 10% rest (hehe). And our coordinator/friend/classmate/critic/referee - PAUL. Hehe!


We've both dreamt of a garden wedding. So here, first to get ticked off on our checklist.


The Venue

We chose Fernwood Gardens. We did ocular inspection back in January and was lucky enough to have observed an actual wedding happening. They allowed us to have the "feel" of the reception area while it was all "dressed up" for the night's event. There were four gardens to choose from and we ended up reserving Fernwood 1 last June. For the convenience of the majority, since we will be expecting guests from both north and south of Luzon and from out the country as well, the place fits perfect since we wouldn't have to worry about crossing traffic in between the church and reception because St. Francis of Assisi Chapel is right inside the vicinity. Merely few steps from the reception area itself. There's an ample space for parking and even provide for shuttles/vans from and to the parking area.


I'm happy =)
That's one less task to think about.

getting to know you

this will be the official wedding blog for me and brian. i just thought that it would really be neat to collate everything wedding related some place else (which is here), so as not to bombard main blog with all the plans and details. i have been thinking about doing this for the longest time. and now, i finally found time to create one where everything about the wedding will sit and develop as we go through the whole fun, excitement and ordeal of the whole preparation.


me and blogger are still on the "getting-to-know-each-other" mode. so sit back and read on. it's still a long way to go.