goodbye 2004!

the year has literally whizzed by - it almost feels like i fell asleep and woke up to december 30, 2004. in the past year alone, so many things have happened - a lot of blessings to be thankful for, and still many more to look forward to. a few things that made 2004 a special year:

- being a Thailand survivor
- finding real friends in bangkok, and keeping them despite the distance
- planning, researching, and implementing plans for our pamamanhikan and civil wedding
- aldo finding work that he truly deserves, and moving into his own place
- finding, building, and scrimping for wedding funds
- travelling between bangkok, vancouver, and manila
- discovering bikram yoga and the other crazy things i was able to try
- nurture spa (if only for the ifugao huts) and sonya's bed & breakfast
- taking steps towards being permanently together
- being back in Manila and knowing what Go Nuts Donuts and Ice MOnster mean - not to mention reconnecting with Jollibee and Hen Lin
- weddings, engagements, bridal registries, and baptisms - this time with friends instead of vicariously being there thru pictures

here's to a longer list of things to look forward to!

goodbye 2004, it was a G-R-E-A-T year!!!

weathering another storm

While a storm threatened to wreak havoc on EDSA's numerous billboards, Aldo and I were on our way to Tagaytay. For reasons still unknown to us, every trip we have made together has been with rain/storm/ice/snow by our side... so it wasn't out of the ordinary to make another one while a storm was making its way to Manila.

We got to Nurture Spa at 9am - 2 hours too early for our appointment.. but since we were the only crazy people around, we were able to get our massages and facials earlier. I had high expectations of Nurture Spa, moreso because a lot of people have been raving about it. I figured that if a lot of people went home happy, then it must be worth the trip. Sadly, in a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, it only hits 6 in my book.

The treatment hut itself wasn't impressive - you hear the next room's door opening and closing, and people walking in and out. The sheets are also not crisp, and they're printed with an Indonesian mahlong-like design. There isn't any lingering scent in the room too - except maybe for the smell of rain on a thatched roof. On the brighter side though, the massage was good and relaxing, not at all rough.

And as part of our package, we had a 4-hour stay in an ifugao hut. Those things are optical illusions - they look really small but they're pretty much like igloos - spacious and airy. At first, Aldo was doubting if he could fit into the door since you have to pretty much crawl into it... but he did, and it was a perfect afternoon nap after a massage. After 4 hours, we woke up to a deserted place.. even the reception area was covered with sheets of plastic - talk about not knowing where everyone is. The lone soul in sight was the guard who told us that everyone had been sent home because of the coming storm. Hehehe.

Unfazed by that, we still went to Sonya's Bed & Breakfast... if we were going to be stranded anyway, it might as well be in Sonya's! After literally driving through patches of fog, we found the place and drove right into the cottages (which, we later learned, was not a parking spot but a walking path). Of course we were the only ones there so the staff gave us the biggest room - which fits 4-6 people, and had 3 huge beds. See, being stranded was a good thing.



The place was awesome... it seemed like Martha Stewart had secretly stayed there for a few days and fixed up the rooms. Talk about details - from the ribbons on the towels, to the books on the coffee table - it felt like a real bed & breakfast. This is definitely worth the price, and is a must-try for couples or even barkadas and big families. Of course it goes without saying that the food was perfect. The only downside is that after meals, there isn't much to do except talk, talk, and talk... or in our case, play scrabble.

The next day, we went back to reality amidst a still beautiful garden despite the uprooted plants... there's nothing like walking around with the smell of wet grass around you. We had a big breakfast with matching authentic hot chocolate - after another round of Scrabble and some pictures, we were off to Manila.

So who says the weather can dampen a holiday?

NSO shortcut

i went to the makati city hall today to check on our marriage certificate. i was ready to expedite the process of getting an NSO-authenticated copy by bringing the local civil registry's copy to the NSO - but fortunately, all i had to do was make a request and pay for it... so voila - i can pick it up on the 28th of december!

it's nice to know that the government has made improvements when it comes to paperwork!

"yes, your honor"

November 23 was a normal day - the sun was out, traffic was bad, and the Philippine legal system was at its slowest. I was with my parents, and Aldo was with his, as we met at the parking lot of the Makati City Hall at 8am... only to be told that our little ceremony had to be moved to 10am because the judge had a few matters to take care of.

Instead of melting in the heat while waiting for 10am, our parents decided to have breakfast at the Mandarin Oriental's Paseo Uno... what would have been our small civil wedding celebration was 3 hours early.. but that was definitely THE best way to start a special day! Although a bit pricey, everything in the buffet line was yummy. Paseo Uno wasn't a full house as well, so it was pretty cozy despited the fact that our schedule was going haywire. During breakfast, my future MIL pulled out a gift - a set of earrings that once belonged to her and a jewelry pot. I was touched and surprised that she had a gift for me, and a lovely one at that.

On the way back to the munisipyo, our moms had ample time to recap pamanhikan details (pamanhikan was scheduled the following day) and even talk about what dress they would wear to the wedding. After going through a maze of photocopiers, stacked papers, and weaving through people in the building, we finally reached the judge's sala. Being in the sala with Aldo and our parents felt surreal - probably a mix of relief that this was indeed happening, and of being nervous at jumping to the next step upon signing the marriage contract.

Aldo and I were asked to sit together on the pew with a Bible, closest to the judge. A few minutes later, a bunch of papers were brought to us for signing, which we did. Our moms happily played photographer and videographer, since we had to have wedding photos for our sponsorship application. A few heartbeats later, the judge came out of her small room and started leafing through a folder where the marriage rites were written. Before we knew it, we were asked to swear on the Bible and were reciting what I now call legal vows... using our full names - that's why I was stifling my giggles. To top it off, instead of "I do"s, we exchanged "Yes your honor"s. After several "yes your honor"s, we were pronounced "legally bound to each other", and were asked by the relatively cool judge to kiss... after which she said "yun lang?".

In hindsight, saying our vows (albeit using our whole names) to each other was a goosebump moment. It wasn't one of those dreamy fairy tale moments, but rather a real defining occasion that caps our long list of real moments - like when Aldo told me he was moving, crying together over the phone when something goes wrong, and being in that final hug before one of us enters the Passengers Only area in the airport.

That day, there were no flowers, no dreamy white gown, no flowergirls, and no choir or string quartet... but it will always be special because it was the day we took a big step towards being together, and shared it with the people who have literally been with us through our challenges.

in the limelight

terry and i started exchanging emails about our prenup photos around september. since i'm used to creative briefs used in advertising, i gave him a comprehensive description of what i wanted. to make things clearer, i sent him comps that i downloaded from different online stock photo sites. when we discussed possible locations based on my comps, his first option was edsa shangri-la plus another condo we could think of. i had not realized that edsa shang was a good choice - was imagining the usual garden and hallway shots normally used during weddings - but i trusted him anyway.

when aldo and i met him for the first time, we immediately felt at ease because he was funny and he seemed to connect with us at different levels. of course, it didn't hurt that he and aldo would sporadically talk about cameras.

so we agreed to meet at the lobby of edsa shang at 7:30 am on a holiday so that there would be less people walking around. the only glitch that day: of all days in the month of november,it had to rain on nov. 29. on our way to edsa shang, all i could do was stare at the sky and say "oh no"... but true to form, aldo remained upbeat and optimistic that it was not that big a deal. we got to shang, met terry at the lobby lounge, and sat down on the couch. apparently, terry wasted no time and started shooting. he would occasionally suggest poses and let aldo know his shutter speed and flash reading (which, of course, did not help me in any way). after a few clicks, we went to the garden and tried traditional photos - which, we found out soon enough, did not work for us because we looked too stiff and uncomfortable. it started drizzling so we had to find another spot - this time at one of the floors. at this point, terry felt that traditional pre-nup poses were not for us so he just let us move freely and do whatever we wanted.

by the time we transferred to rockwell, we were already used to the photographer-paparazzi feel so it was much easier for me (aldo had no problem whatsoever during this whole time) to warm up to the camera. our payong shots were purely accidental - terry just saw us crossing from the foyer to the posts using a payong so he started taking pictures. after a while, terry could already tell if i had a fake or a genuine smile on my face - if i had the fake kind, he'd tell aldo to do something about it so in the process, he was able to observe how aldo and i naturally interact with each other.

our shoot was a fun morning - we were done in 4 hours. it gave us a feel of how it is to work with terry, and we are glad to have found a friend, and not just a supplier, in him. moreso, he was able to make me comfortable in front of a camera, which is a big plus for me since i have always been used to being behind the scenes... of course aldo is a different story altogether - terry called him a ham because he was so game to do kenkoy and ultra-baduy shots, which made things even more fun.

if this is how it is to be in the spotlight come our wedding day, then i have a lot to look forward to. thank God for good suppliers!

cramming

the past 2 weeks has been a fastforward spin of wedding preps. since december, i've been surfing like mad for wedding info, but the past 10 days alone, we got married, went through the traditional pamanhikan, had our prenuptial photoshoot, met our photographers, met with our reception AE, and made deposits on some suppliers. whew! so this is how it feels to fix a wedding when you're in the same country! hehehe.

more snippets of our fastforward preps:





- terry uy and john ong proved to be great people. we met them separately and fortunately, we both feel at ease with them. our prenup shoot with terry was fun and not overly-mushy, just the way i wanted it to be. although aldo had some comments on the technical aspects of the shoot, i was happy with it. terry really works well with candid shots, and i am confident that we'll have great wedding photos with him. for more of our prenups, go here.





- i never knew getting married civilly would be that fast. i think it took the judge a max of 5 minutes to finish the rites. we had a pretty cool judge - thank God it wasn't some old bespectacled man behind the table, but a relatively young lady that wanted a big you-may-now-kiss-your-wife kiss.


- aldo now has a clearer picture of what he wants to do for our wedding. he's designing the main layout of our gallery, and a few other details. seems like we're both getting into the thick of things!