I just wanted to say thank you to several people who have gone out of their way to make me feel so blessed and thankful.

Ms Mhel of ICC. Always so accomodating and reassuring. Except for some lapses that weren’t really big deals. We completed the church requirements today and all engines are go! She has always been so patient with all the questions, clarifications and requirements that dealing with the Cathedral has always been headache-free! (Unlike with someone from the other church who has caused me and other people around me so much grief.)

Ms Baby, Ms Mercy and Ms Lucy from Jorge. Another hassle-free vendor! All the transactions are always quick, to the point and goes along smoothly! Again no headaches and I’m always assured that the requirements will be delivered as discussed.

Sir Danny, Ms Guy and Nestor from Swan Catering. A lot of gratitude from us for being so patient and helpful! I trust that you’ll be able to make into reality our vision that started small but you’ve expanded into something grand.

Tita Didi of Midi Bridals and Formals. All the pieces are so beautiful! So much more than I have imagined. My thanks to you for your vision and craftsmanship.

Our other suppliers have also been very helpful but I just needed to say my advanced thanks to the people above for making our preparations a little less stressful.

Most of the things that we need to prepare are in place. I’ve started wrapping the bridal party gifts and except for the female principal sponsors, everything else is set.

The only major thing that we haven’t completed are the flowers for the entourage. All that is left are really the DIYs for the wedding favors and we’re most likely good to go. Oh, yeah, we still need to get the bills taken cared of.

So here are the lyrics that made my heart a-flutter many, many moons ago!

I wanna make you smile whenever you’re sad
Carry you around when your arthritis is bad
All I wanna do is grow old with you

I’ll get your medicine when your tummy aches
Build you a fire if the furnace breaks
Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you

I’ll miss you
Kiss you
Give you my coat when you are cold

Need you
Feed you
Even let ya hold the remote control

So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink
Put you to bed if you’ve had too much to drink
I could be the man who grows old with you
I wanna grow old with you

This means so much more to me now. Positively gushing about it!

These are the things ticked off from the checklist:

• Photo/Video – downpayments made, prenup to be completed
• Catering – reservation paid, starting installment payments
• Church – reservation paid, seminars a month before the date
• Reception – downpayment paid
• Couture – measurements ongoing
• Music – reservation paid
• Invites – downpayment paid, started the drafting

Things still hanging in the balance:

• Flowers
• HMUA
• Giveaways

I don’t remember what else is missing. I’ve got a list around here someplace.

Less than four months to go!

• Iya for helping us secure the reception venue, I haven’t contacted you yet ulit kasi maraming diskusyon ang nangyayari;
• Karina for reminding me about the bridal fair plus giving the recommendation on the invitation supplier as well as offering to be an extra helping hand;
• Mommy Hermie for tolerating our kakulitan in looking for an alternative reception venue and offering to take us around Camp Aguinaldo;
• Levi and Bogs for the photo and video recommendations, mga bagong kasal din kaya maraming inputs! Sobrang mga hands-on grooms pala kayo in your respective weddings! ;
• Josh for agreeing to be an emcee despite the fact na magulo kang kausap nung mga panahong iyon, I’m going to hold you to that commitment;
• Clare and Paolo for offering to get in touch with another reception venue;
• Kumareng Thea for committing the chocolate fountain! Sabi na nga ba good choice na pastry bar na lang yung libre from the caterer dahil uulan ng chocolate fountain sa amin ;
• Eleo para sa walang sawang pag-oo tuwing naiisipan naming magpasama papuntang Quinta Market na hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa rin natutuloy. Balang-araw makakarating din tayo ng Quiapo; at si
• Mygold na todo-todong suporta mula’t sapul, buti na lang pumayag ka agad maging maid of honor at hindi mo ako binitin katulad nung iba nating kakilala! hahaha

So many people to be thankful for pa rin, sorry for those I haven’t mentioned above I’ll be sure to thank you as the wedding gets nearer.

God is so good for giving us friends like you!

Now that we have, it’s now time for us to put our noses to the grindstone and really be serious about the preparations. With less than 8 months to go, our checklist is still a mile-long but we are slowly getting there.

So far, we have accomplished the following:

• Reserved with our caterer
• Reserved the venue
• Pencil-booked with the Church (long story for another post)
• Shortlisted our P/V vendor

As you can see, there still is a lot to do which basically is setting my internal alarms off. Panic mode!!!

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Now since we are trying to keep the budget low on this thing, I floated the idea of having it on September 9, a Wednesday. Venue rates are cheaper on weekdays plus some vendors are giving more freebies on weekday bookings. And it being 2009, it has a nice 09.09.09 = once in a lifetime feel to it.

When MIL got wind of the dates we are considering, she put forth the idea of having it on September 8, Mama Mary’s birthday. My concern with this date is that the parish we’re eying has special masses for the schools in the vicinity and might not agree to the time that we want for the ceremony.

Mark is not much help since his reply is always, “Kahit ano, ok lang.

So, instead of the firm answer of September 5 that we used to give, we now have to check with the church what their availability is.

Now, Mark dislikes going to Quiapo and Divisoria when the throng is already there. So we prefer to leave QC for Recto by 8am. But on Sunday, we both overslept and by the time Mark got to QC it was past 10am. So change of plans.

We decided to visit Casa Camba in New Manila and Mark was insistent to go to Oasis afterwards. When we got to Casa Camba, the Robert Camba venue in New Manila, the only staff there was a guy cleaning and waxing the Mercedes Benz cars. But we got a good idea of the capacity of the place although we swore that we’ll go back the next time there is an event.

Oasis was our next stop on our venue tour and we were lucky enough to see Hizon’s setting up for a wedding reception later that afternoon. (I still have beef against them that I’ve already told our Hizon’s AE Camille to stop bugging me about their events after that Gazebo Royale fiasco. But that’s another story.) Despite any ill feelings I have about Hizon’s, their set up gave us a wonderful image of what it could be like for our wedding reception. Mark was very enamored of the place that I can tell that Oasis was bumping of some of our other options from the shortlist that wouldn’t stay short.

Ms Maan of Oasis was very helpful and she sent me an email of their packages already. I was already mentally crossing off Oasis from my list because of previous perceptions and I’m glad we made this trip.

From Oasis, we took another ride to Gateway to run an errand for Mark’s friend who’s also getting married to his long-time sweetheart who is currently based in South Korea. He’s planing in from Saudi Arabia then he’ll be off to Seoul to get civilly married. The PH wedding will be next year, if I remember right.

So from talking to the travel agencies, ideas for the honeymoon got stuck in my head. Thanks to Ms. Arlene of Roundtrip Travels who was very patient through all our inquiries.

We decided to drop by Suarez Wedding Rings again to look at the available designs. We found another possible design, similar to what we asked about earlier although it’s for a higher price. We’ll see if we’re finally going to commit to a Suarez wedding ring after that oft-postponed trip to Quiapo gets underway.

Overall, we were able to accomplish much from our weekend jaunts. We have a clearer picture of what we want to happen on the big day as well as what is available out there for couples on our budget.