Quote of the day

"It's really hard to idiot-proof wedding preps."

-- Jolly Picache
Marlon's high school friend
husband of Shar
Weddings@Work egroup-mate
and new Yahoo chat buddy

also known as: the story of the wedding invitations that were delivered thirty minutes ago, eagerly opened, and caused an otherwise calm and coasting bride a near heart attack.

next up on deepa and marlon's wedding blog!

Twenty-six days to go

we're getting married within the month.

within less than four weeks.

whoa.

i read all the rants of frazzled brides on the weddings at work yahoogroup and wonder if something is wrong with me. because oddly enough, i feel like i'm not doing anything anymore! i honestly know i can not lift a finger from this point on (except to give fr. nebres a map to the church and turn in our documents to chapel on the hill), and the wedding will still happen. tatakbo na siyang mag-isa!

it's almost like all i have to do is choose how o.c. i want to be from now on, and that will pretty much decide my stress level.

i swear, giving up the "perfect" wedding is awesome. :-)

besides, with marlon coming home in five days, wedding preps are going to be so much more fun when we do them as a team. we kind of know we can do everything we need or want to do in the remaining two weeks. as marlon said, just give us a couple of days with nothing else to do except wedding stuff -- and be amazed! we quite surprised ourselves out with the number of things we managed to accomplish the last time he was here.

like getting the marriage license from quezon city hall...

and getting interviewed by the bishop at canyon woods...

and checking up on marlon's barong...

and picking out the wedding rings...

and fitting our lovely bridesmaids...

and cooking up a battle plan with kaye at balay, plus choosing songs for the reception (and a lovers' quarrel thrown in for good measure).

so. twenty-six days to go. bring it on!

Back to Balay

when marlon and i chose balay indang as our reception venue last december, it was mostly marlon's call. balay, a bed and breakfast in indang, cavite (about 15 to 20 minutes from aguinaldo highway in tagaytay) was the last place we visited after a long day sussing out possible reception venues in tagaytay.

i was tired, feverish, and barely remembered the place. the drive seemed overlong and the pictures (taken at night) were not too great. but marlon really liked it, and didn't seem too bothered about the drive. plus, marge tan, who owned and operated the place, was a total sweetheart. so we took it.

almost a year later, we went back to balay for an ocular inspection of the venue with our caterer, kaye. marlon was actually a little anxious about it. "what if we go back there in the daytime and realize na pangit pala siya?" he fretted.

thank goodness, it turned out to be even better than he or i remembered.

the main house, where cocktails will be held

the cocktail area (for hot tsokolate and kapeng barako! yum!)

the poolside pavilion where the reception will be held

main reception area (love the vigan tiles)

where marlon and i will be seated (totally hate the couples-table-with-backdrop idea)

more balay details

we had fun planning the reception floor layouts with kaye, who's great to work with and full of ideas. more than that, we fell in love with balay all over again and were reminded of why it stood out from the other venues in the first place.

it really is a homey, eclectic and warm place -- somewhere where our guests can really kick back and enjoy an intimate evening with friends and family. as you can probably tell, "grand", "opulent", or "formal" are not among our key words.

it was great to be back at balay. and the next time i'll be back, it'll be to get married! yahoo!

The canonical (non-) interview

one of the requirements to be able to marry at our church, chapel on the hill, is a canonical interview with msgr. arturo boonggaling, bishop of lipa. thankfully, he holds office on saturdays, so marlon and i decided to show up at his doorshep -- or viewdeck, since he holds office at the viewdeck of canyon woods in tagaytay. the "appointment" marlon made was for 9:00 a.m. sharp. we couldn't be late, warned the bishop, because he had to say mass at 11:00 a.m.

but really, what else can you expect from the infamous "bara-bara couple"? if you sit me down for coffee, i can tell you about all the plan-less vacations, expired passports, wrong-date-booked tickets, barely-made it boat rides, and missed flights that have characterized our relationship.

and so, after vowing to wake up at five and be off to tagaytay at six (after picking up marlon's baptismal and confirmation certificates at his house in qc), what did we do? wake up at seven! yay! that was a record drive to tagaytay, i must say. less than two and a half hours, with a two-way trip to quezon city squelched in for good measure!

we made it to canyon woods, breathless and sheepish, at around 10:30 a.m.

breathless and sheepish

fortunately, what we thought was an appointment at 9:00 a.m. was actually just the start of the bishop's office hours. so we queued up with other couples who were getting interviewed, enjoyed the breeze and the sunshine at the viewdeck, and filled up a couple of forms while waiting.

now, the interview... was kind of a non-interview. we were all ready to chat up a storm with the bishop about how we met, why we decided to get married, and all the other sundry questions we thought a bishop might like to know about two people getting hitched.

but he barely asked us anything about ourselves! he went over the questionnaire we filled up about marriage impediments -- no, i am not being kidnapped or coerced; no, we have not been married to other people; no, we are not related even if we kind of look alike.

then he filled out a couple of forms to give our parishes -- wedding banns, which notify people in our parish of our intent to marry and allow them to bring up impediments they might know of, and a request letter for my parish to let us marry at chapel on the hill.

the bishop meticulously addressed and folded each of these forms by hand, handed them over to us, murmured about a donation for his parish church. that was that.

we felt both strangely let down and hugely relieved -- nothing that cinnamon rolls (for me) and an extra-large omelette (for marlon) couldn't fix though. and with that, we were off to a late brunch at one of our favorite tagaytay roadside stops: bag of beans!

but that's another story. ;-)

Flower power

call me an an anti-flower bride.

at the beginning of the year, i professed my utter detest (and i kind of still do) for the idea of spending gajillions of money on things that will just wilt and die at the end of the day. i skulked around the weddings at work yahoogroup, incredulous at brides who blew as much as a hundred thousand pesos on flowers for the church, entourage and reception. a hundred grand!!! on flowers!!!! (then, of course, i vowed i would never do something so ridiculous.)

i scoffed at "event stylists" who were really just florists in disguise. and i toyed with the tempting idea of eschewing flowers altogether, except for the bride's bouquet.

maybe i was different. or maybe i was just cheap. after all, i did get a handful of quotations that, while not as outre as a hundred grand, were whoppers in their own right. and so i hemmed, i hawed, i avoided, i footdragged my way to booking a florist.

until my partner at work recommended his florist, mr. hardinero, to me. a guy raving about a florist pointed to a florist worth checking out, i reasoned. plus, the package rates on their website were just about as much as i was willing to spend on things that were doomed to be forgotten, stolen, or tossed out the next day. so, having done a little homework (pegs from brides.com and martha stewart weddings), i stole away from the office one afternoono to meet pam of mr. hardinero at starbucks tomas morato.

pam is such a sweetheart. her simple and straightforward attitude, heaps of patience, huge portfolio of sample bouquets, never-ending list of suggestions and willingness to customize totally won this anti-flower bride over. so much so, in fact, that i actually found myself getting excited about the flowers for my wedding... and kilig at the thought of my all-purple, all-orchid bridal bouquet.

never underestimate the power of flowers.

the peg for my bouquet: an assortment of purple orchids...

the entourage bouquets will be mostly made up of hydrangeas...

agapanthus or african lilies...

two-tone carnations (the edges are a deep mauve, not red like in this photo)...

and sea lavender for fillers.

our mothers will be special! they get lovely white casablanca (or stargazer) lilies in their bouquets...

and the ninangs get these big-ass cabbage roses!


i asked pam to do away with the traditional church arrangements, which are flowers in stands at each pew. choosing an arrangement like this helped me get more bang for my buck.

and she agreed to do them with these button mums in purple.

i'm actually excited to see what the mockup arrangements look like. i guess i'm an anti-flower bride no longer!

Sneak peek

a snip of our entourage insert for the invitation... with almost all the wrong middle initials! haha! but at least you can check out the colors, fonts and passport stamp watermarks.

trivia: the date on the "india" stamp is the date we fly off for our honeymoon.

The first fitting

top: beads for mom's gown; justine's dress; pia's dress and lining

second: ruffle details and the gold fabric for the tops, up close

third: the motif colors all together; mom and tria at work

bottom: mom thinks; the gold fabric that made her think twice

i was so excited for the first entourage fitting -- i would finally get to see if the colors we chose would work together off the color board, and see tria's creations on some of my dearest friends. i was ready to go with my camera and take snaps of everyone and everything! so why are there no bridesmaids in the photos?

two words: manila traffic! after sitting in a cab with my mom for over three hours, how many bridesmaids and secondary sponsors do you think i caught up with? zero! actually, most of the girls had backed out earlier due to schedule conflicts -- all except my high school best friend, hershel. unfortunately, she had come and gone before i arrived.

so tria just showed me some of the unfinished dresses, and kindly put one on a kiddie mannequin so i could get an idea of the whole look. i loved it! the colors don't quite come through in the pictures (is it the lighting? the camera?), but they were lovely and striking all together. big sigh of relief.

tria also sat down with my mom to create her mother-of-the-bride gown. and my mom, someone who has opinions coming out of her ears, just clammed up! tameme ito! fortunately, she warmed up to some of the fabrics, like a pretty deep purple silk and burnished gold chiffon. she had two designs made (decisions, decisions!) -- nothing less to be expected from a mother who is wondering why i'm not changing into another gown for the reception!

AAAAAAARGGGGGH

less than three full months to go! and still so much to do!

marlon's flying in for the weekend. gone (for now) are the days of our lazy mall-hopping, canoodling and snacking. here's what our weekend is looking like.

friday

• download music options for avps
• choose music for avps
• choose prayers and readings
• finish laying out misalette (in preparation for our meeting with fr. nebres on tuesday)
• second fitting of gown lining at kate's
• withdraw money for wedding rings
• get marlon's ring size
• get wedding rings at glorietta
• finalize departure time with kaye (for ocular inspection of balay on saturday)
• get marlon's approval on invitations mock-up
• pay deposit to printer for invitations

saturday

• canonical interview with monsignor alberto buongaling at canyon woods (good luck!)
• get marriage banns from the bishop
• ocular inspection of balay indang with kaye
• figure out where to put directional tarps leading to balay
• figure out floor plan
• relax... or catch up with all the things we didn't do the day before

sunday

• head back to manila
• have lunch at tita pearlie and tito carlos's house in merville (if time)
• pick up therese for entourage fitting
• entourage fitting at tria's
• get ID pictures taken
• check that all requirements are complete for our marriage license application on monday

monday

• apply for marriage license at qc city hall in the morning
• find some place nearby to have lunch while waiting
• attend family planning seminar at city hall in the afternoon
• inspect marlon's custom-woven barong fabric at angelo's barong on kamuning
• (hopefully, crossing fingers big-time here) finalize names for the invitations

i had a mini-meltdown two weeks ago when i updated our wedding plans on excel (a brilliant template courtesy of super-oc tria). actually, to marlon, it probably was anything but mini. but he got the magnitude of my overwhelmed-ness a few days later when i sent him the excel sheet. (i also think he was overwhelmed by the fact that i actually put all so much information together on excel, considering how allergic i am to it.)

then he said, "i'm glad all this is in your able hands, sweetie."

half-jokingly, of course.

i think.

The K chronicles

considering that she is the supplier i am the most deliriously happy about (kate and tria a very close second), i am surprised i haven't blogged about my caterer, kaye cunanan, yet. an atenean who's just a couple of batches above mine, kaye runs k by cunanan, a hip-ified update of her family's decades-old catering business.

then i figured it out. i've written so many blissful rhapsodies about kaye on the weddings@work yahoogroup that i don't feel the need to write about her here! so i went and dug up all my kaye-related letters to various w@w brides and am reposting bits and pieces here. you'll get to see what a great start we got off to, just what it is i love about her, and sneak peeks of our menu.

(marlon? more than convinced. he keeps bugging me to ask kaye for a second taste test!)

--

Hey Celina!

Side kwento lang, how I discovered Kaye was when my fiance and I checked out Balay for the first time. Sila yung caterer sa wedding that was ongoing at that time. Marge of Balay said, o yan kunin n'yo, I've been observing them, ok yung setup nila at maayos silang magtrabaho. So I googled Kaye after and now I'm so glad I did.

Deepa

--

Hey Trina,

I'm a K bride and would definitely recommend her. In terms of freebies, it's hard to say really, until you sit down with Kaye and tell her what you really want. During our first meeting, I literally threw my wish list at her, haha. At in fairness ang dami kong gusto na binigay niya for free. 3-layer cake by Judy Uson (although I'm considering an upgrade now), cocktails (hot choco and coffee with cookies), setups for both dinner and cocktail areas, wish cards and jar, luminaries etc.

For me mas naging sulit siya kasi ang dami kong kalandian na gusto sa place cards, wish cards and table numbers -- she just said sure, give me your desired fonts/layout and I'll print and assemble those for you.

Your budget of P700/head is definitely workable. Dami mo nang makukuha niya. Ako nga, my budget was P700/head. Laking gulat ko na lang nung final quotation sa akin ni Kaye, with all the requests we made, was just P530/head.

The key with Kaye is to tell her your wants and budget right off the bat. And prepare to be amazed :-)

Deepa

--

Hi guys!

Omigosh I am so happy with K by Cunanan too! My fiance and I had our food tasting with Kaye just the other day (without having chosen a menu yet), and we were pleasantly surprised. Not just surprised actually, floored is more like it. Meeting Kaye just made me so much more excited about how our wedding day will turn out. Share ko lang my experience with her.

First of all, the food was great and beautifully presented. I'm not a fan of red meat, but she served this tenderloin pepper-crusted steak that even I had to say should be a must-have on our menu. (My carnivorous fiance was only too happy to agree.)

Second, I love how she asked for our budget and listened to our ideas first instead of just handing me a prepared package or menu. That will really help us stick to the budget. Given the budget and our inputs, saka siya gagawa ng customized menu. Can't wait to see that :-)

Third, and most important for me, ang gaganda ng kanyang mga setups. Kakaiba yung level of customization. When she showed me photos, they all looked so different from each other, full of personality talaga.

Nung tinanong ko, "So are those setups upgrades or kasama na yan sa basic catering service mo?" and she answered, "Ah that's included sa basic, no added fee yun" muntik na akong maluha sa tuwa, haha. I am officially crossing off "event stylist" from my supplier shortlist (and budget!) kasi sa ganda ng setups ni Kaye, I can see na hindi na kailangan. (Yay tipid!)

She took notes on all my ideas for the reception setup, asked for my pegs and set schedules na for the ocular, floor plan presentation, and table setting mockup. The control freak in me was fainting from happiness. OC brides will love her. Marami ring personal touches sa setups niya that kikay brides will love.

Deepa

--

Hi Charisse,

I booked Kaye without having a taste test first. We basically just showed up and let her serve stuff that she wanted to serve. We actually didn't end up getting any of the stuff she served us, but we were suitably impressed by the quality of the food.

Before she proposed anything to us, we told her we had a lot of Indian and vegetarian guests; we wanted hot chocolate and kapeng barako; and that we generally like Mediterranean food and lemon- and chocolate-based desserts. The dishes she came up with for our menu were just that. Ayan tuloy ang saya-saya namin sa menu.

Deepa

--

Ey Rhona,

Kaye quoted me P530/head for the following: cocktails of spanish hot chocolate, batangas kapeng barako, assorted cookies; dinner of assorted bread, 1 soup, 1 salad, 4 main dishes (we chose beef, chicken, fish and pasta), steamed rice and carrot rice, dinner rolls, raspberry or vanilla iced tea, brewed coffee and tarragon tea, and 3 desserts.

Deepa

--

all photos from kaye's pbase account.

Over the moon

i recently blogged about the honeymoon plans over at my regular blog, so i thought i'd repost them here.

with me in charge (more or less) of the wedding, marlon has been tasked with planning the honeymoon. it took us the greater part of a year to decide, but we finally set our sights on a couple of days in boracay, a short visit to the family in kolkata, and a week-plus roaming the wonders of rajasthan and agra. (palace of the winds! taj mahal! amber fort! gorgeousness!)

yesterday, marlon forwarded me a lengthy missive from a mr. tapas banerjee of trinetra tours in delhi. and by lengthy, i mean three pages when cut-and-pasted into a word document! within seconds i knew this was going to be interesting.

'Namaste' & Greetings Mr. Plazo !!Good Morning !!Many thanks for your mail. We take this opportunity to confirm our best intentions and knowledge to the cause of your trip. It is a pleasure to welcome you & your traveling partner to our country.

Before I serve my verbal barrage on to you, I just wish to inform you that I would be delighted to offer you references from All Over The World including Singapore too.

kapow! you've got me mr. banerjee! something about the self-deprecating, candid and enthusiastic tone just got me. and so i read on.

more choice excerpts:

For your entire journey, we are upgrading your transport to a fine Toyota MUV (Innova). This car will substantially add to your traveling comfort, especially on some bumpy roads where the top quality suspension would not let you feel any discomfort. However, the biggest and the single most achievement of this car is its Air-conditioning, [natawa talaga ako dito! omigosh! this is so true! especially in india!] which ensures that you are cool and fresh even if you are traveling under the mid day sun in warm country.

Besides the car, your driver would be special. He would be your 'Man Friday'. You would of course have local guides conducting your city tours in each city, but, besides that, your driver would be your most invaluable friend. He would not only be knowledgeable about places of interest in between journeys as also in cities, but, he would be a very nice human being with a pleasing personality for whom nothing would be trouble.

pero dito talaga nahulog yung loob ko sa kanya:

I apologise for my unending chin wagging, Mr. Plazo. I love the business and the gossip opportunities that come with it. Actually, the home dinner that I am proposing is in my house. Both me and my wife, Krishna love meeting people and making friends. I got into the business primarily because I could travel with tour groups making friends and sharing experiences. However, with the business expanding in the last 7-8 years, I am more or less now confined to my office ensuring standards that we are so paranoid about. Hence, whenever possible, I invite clients to our home for a meal with myself and my wife, Krishna. Home dinners are my major personal interaction with clients and I look forward to this eagerly. Little do the visitors realise that they would be subjected to my verbal diarrhea!!

ang sweet diba? anyway, i checked out a couple of the hotels and sites on his itinerary. and. oh. my. gawd.

behold rohet garh, a gorgeous 17th century home-turned-heritage hotel in jodhpur. swoon.

i may have died and gone into a taschen book.

and check out the luxe desert camping digs in manvar.

and one of the client references describes their driver as "a prince among drivers."

i do believe we have a winner.

i can't wait to go shopping for block-printed bedsheets in those rajasthani markets.

Word up

one fun thing marlon and i did together during my recent visit to singapore was put together the wording for our wedding invitations. it took us just about fifteen minutes, including picking out the fonts we would use.

what made it so easy? marlon was definite about creating wording that was simple and straightforward -- nothing gimmicky, cutesy or mushy. and i was definite about using what i had learned on the knot about wording etiquette!

we nicked the knot's handy fill-in-the-blanks guide:

__________________ [proper names of those hosting]
request the honor of your presence [request line]
at the marriage of their _________ [relationship of bride to host]__________________ [bride's first, middle names]
to__________________ [groom's full name]
_________, the __ of ________ [day of the week, date of wedding]
at ____ o'clock [time] in the _________ [time of day]
___________________ [location of wedding]_________,
____________ [city and state where wedding will take place]
Reception to follow

we made a few changes, like using just our nicknames, not our full names, for a more casual feel and adding our parents' names to honor their participation in our wedding. marlon also added the whole "year of our lord" bit, no doubt something his memory retained from prom and graduation ball invites of yesteryear.

we also had fun tweaking the request line ("request the honor of your presence at their marriage"). some phrases we came up with, and why we discarded them after much chortling:

"invite you to witness their union" = watch them do the nasty?
"invite you to join their union" = come to an orgy?

until we got to this!

Deepa and Marlon

together with their parents

Rodolfo F. Plazo

Ma. Gracia R. Plazo

and Imelda A. Paul

invite you to share in their joy

as they are joined in holy matrimony

Saturday, the twenty-ninth of December

in the year of our Lord two thousand and seven

two o'clock in the afternoon,

Chapel on the Hill

Batulao, Nasugbu, Batangas

there's another reason we love our wording -- but that's an inside joke for a silly engaged couple. ;-)

First things first

ironically, our first big decisions for the wedding -- the date and church -- weren't actually our first choices for them.

deciding on december. initially, we thought of getting hitched in early january 2008 (the better to spend that christmas bonus, eh?). plus, january held two significant dates for me: my dad's death anniversary (on the third) and birthday (on the 30th). and january weather in the philippines is just absolutely beautiful.

then the pinoy superstition of sukob reared its head in the form of my sister. for the uninitiated, sukob dictates that it is unlucky for siblings to marry within the same calendar year. my (currently unattached) older sis reasoned: "but what if i meet the man of my dreams in 2008? i don't want to have to wait another year to marry him!" uh, okay ate.

and so we chose the last saturday of december: well after the christmas rush and before our overseas friends and relatives have to fly back post-holidays. plus, it's a long weekend for new year's. hurray!

choosing a church. i liked caleruega ever since i sang there with a group of glee club friends for a wedding: the red brick, the floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows, but most of all the brilliant acoustics. i remember staying there with my friends to sing a few more songs after the wedding was done, simply because it sounded so beautiful in there.

however, since caleruega is now THE church for tagaytay weddings, it was booked for every single date marlon and i considered, a full year ahead! hanging up the phone after my fruitless inquiry, i had a sudden mental picture of a mad, stampeding horde of brides, all rushing to get the same church, the same dates, the same suppliers in december. (apparently, december is the new june.)

it's a good thing we went to charlie and gerwin's wedding.

else we wouldn't have even thought of chapel on the hill -- a charming, rustic, circular chapel that was, yes, on a hill, but also just a short drive from caleruega.

photos from gerwin and charlie's wedding by guido jacinto

when we called, the date we wanted was wide open! success!

and there it was: december 29, 2007 at the chapel on the hill, batulao, batangas. once we put a date and a place to it, suddenly, from something we only occasionally thought of, or dreamed about, our wedding became real.

Welcome!

after a few distractions, several aborted attempts, and way too much procrastinating, the wedding blog is finally up! this is where i blog, on behalf of marlon and myself, about our trip to the altar -- which is in itself the jump-off point to... the journey of a lifetime. (this is once in a lifetime, so we're entitled to more than a little cheese here.)

if you're a guest, here's what to expect from the blog: expect way too much information about the wedding! the good thing, though, is that it will at the very least contain the information you really need about the wedding... and, if i have anything to say about it, be fun to read.

here's a disclaimer i often read on wedding blogs, and i'm including it here because it works: this blog is a work in progress, so please come back and check for updates! now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to get started playing catch-up... more than half a year's wedding preps are waiting to be documented!