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: