O.M.G.!!!

i had, lately, only very few streaks of flair. today, however, is a day of brilliance; and oh my gosh, am i excited!

a corregidor wedding. yeah? yeah!

okay, so gary and i were talking last night about our plans. he's most likely to get deployed to iraq by november, and we were discussing about saving up, or buying a house, or investing in the philippines, or maybe all. for a year, we will be apart, and we will both be busy with nothing but working, and earning.

then the husband tells me, 'hey what about the wedding?' the plan really was to have another wedding officiated by a catholic priest in my parish in hermosa where i grew up. we also wanted to have it this december, which, looking at our circumstances, is almost impossible.

so gary aims for a post-deployment wedding. it'll be perfect timing: he'll be out of the service and we'll have plenty of time to save and do the preparations.

and then this morning. i was doing my usual online surfing, researching about wedding planners in manila, and wedding packages that we can afford. one of the websites outlined possible venues in metro manila, luzon, visayas and mindanao. then
it hit me: corregidor is the place! i suddenly remembered that the last time i toured my college friends from UP in corregidor, the management was renovating the island hotel. now, judging by the photos online, it is ready to go.

think about it: corregidor is bataan (well yeah, it is under the supervision of cavite, but won't you agree if i say that world war II, the last stand, mt. samat, corregidor, all ring truer with bataan rather than cavite?), and bataan is my home. plus gary has somewhat of a link to this historical place too, being a member of the united states armed forces. i think it will mean more to both of us to have it as the wedding venue. also, guests coming from manila will find it convenient to board the ferry that travels to corregidor, because the terminal is located near the senate.

i stumbled upon the blog of the now-famous tour guide carlos celdran, the 'man who is trying to change the way you look at manila one step at a time.' he had about three posts about a trip to corregidor a few years back, and even he thought a corregidor wedding would be 'very edgy.' he's nice enough to allow me to use his photos on his blog, and even told me to drop his name to the lady in the agency that runs tours in corregidor. below are photos from his blog, walk this way:


i did not know that there was a chapel beside the hotel. it's small, and it's quiet. perfect for a simple, classic ceremony.

here's the inside, which he describes as 'a cute little chapel with cool retro/modernist hardwood confession booths.'

another shot of the hotel facade

the restaurant. i don't know if this is really where the wedding reception happens--it looks a bit crowded to me--but there is always hope.

the cozy room...which may look a tad too eerie to some

so yes, a wedding at the historic corregidor. this would normally spell a filipiniana wedding but i promised myself to not go that path. maybe an old world meets modern kind of theme. hmmm...

i know it's a little too early to get all worked up, but hey, our civil wedding was done in haste and gary and i just want to make this one THE wedding. i hope we can pull this off, transporting people (including a priest--which reminds me, my buddy noel might be a bona fide priest by that time)to the island, making a wedding work from a location an hour and forty-five minutes away from civilization and stuff. i can hear my mom now, 'hay, wag ka na magpakapagod sa ganyan,' or something like that.

well we got time. let's see what happens... :P