just got (re)married! :D

after months of planning and waiting, our wedding finally arrived. it was a dream come true for me and gary. i have to say, if there's one experience every girl--or guy, for that matter--must have in their lifetime, it is to get married at church. not just for the glitz, but more importantly, for the blessing and that special bond. while it has always been undeniable that gary and i have been crazy for each other (too crazy at times), we look at each other now with even more love than ever before. our church wedding is something that no one can ever take away from us, and can i just say i was so so kilig all throughout! LOL :P

of course, as in any wedding, ang daming palpak. hehe the rings were accidentally left at the hotel (they made it on time, fortunately), the audio for the AVPs didn't play (don't ask why), some gifts were lost (again don't ask), some egos were bruised, but hey, try to imagine two clans, an entire office, and friends made in a span of a lifetime, all together in one place at the same time and tell me how we could possibly please everybody. in the end, it was really just me and gary that mattered.

who gets the best actress award? i was too giddy to keep track of the drama. but i must say it made me 10x more nervous when i saw gary so handsome, waiting for me at the altar, ready to cry in his military suit. the husband kept on whispering "you're so beautiful" to my ear throughout the ceremony, i almost melted. plus the heat. gosh, the heat inside the church made everyone melt. LOL

we decided to write our own vows, and gary made a really, really, romantic one. i pretty much messed up the first part of mine but the husband reassured me he got everything i wanted to say.

i now take the opportunity to thank all the people who made our wedding possible.

the magat/cativo and claravall/tungol families, for their presence and support. gary & i both wish we could've done more for all of you but we were both so busy with the preparations and the rush of the event. we are very grateful for your understanding and love.

fr.mario margallo, for making us feel the loveliness of our wedding so easily, and for the instant friendship he created with me and gary. many times during the ceremony, i saw him smiling whenever i was kilig, and i also saw him nodding at gary from time to time, as if to say he was just as happy for us.

my childhood friend rev./kuya noel nuguid for doing the sermon, assisting fr.mayong and leading the prayer at the reception. many years ago he promised he'll be the one to officiate my marriage, and as God so amazingly planned, he was ordained two days before my wedding.

the church secretary mel nuguid, and the children of mary immaculate for assisting me patiently.

our ninongs and ninangs who really went out of their way to attend our ceremony. it means so much to us.

our entourage, for the friendship, which, we have proven, can push you guys to wear suits on a hot summer day, and revealing tube dresses :P

team kiko for being a real family. mahal na mahal ko kayo.

georg and jayson for adding class to the programme.

my friends from kalayaan residence hall in UP. thank you for pausing your climb up the corporate ladder to see me walk down the aisle. i miss you all!

to wonderful events wedding coordination, for all the help.

to nice print photography for capturing our special day. i must say neither gary nor myself liked the posing part very much, but we're very excited to see the photos and videos nonetheless.

ms.virgie reyes and JS bridals for the gowns and suits. alvina for my make-up. mayo arellano for my entourage's make-up. my youngest flower girl annber asked me, "ina, are you a princess?" and thanks to the beautiful wedding gown and makeup on my wedding day, i really thought i was. :)

global ventures for my classy invites.

lilwhiskers for our cookies and cream giveaways.

crown royale's mark and lizel for all the assistance, attention, freebies, what-have-you.

kuya michael and ate jonalyn for the beautiful flower arrangements. i was expecting a plain aisle because the church didn't want flowers at church during the lent season, so i was pleasantly shocked to see the beauty of the st.peter parish church decked with flowers. galing ninyo, wala akong masabi!: D

st.peter parish choir and sandy and her band for the beautiful music in the church and at the reception. i always said maganda lang music sa kasal ko masaya na ako. thank you!

to those i failed to mention, we're sorry, and please remember that we're just as grateful for all your help.

as i mentioned, the official photos are not with us yet, but i stole some pictures online from friends. yes, i know, the fact that it was my wedding doesn't mean i own these pictures, pero pagbigyan nyo na ako. excited eh. hehe so thanks to yvette, tina, giselle, arlo, debra and all other unwitting people whose shots i stole. :P

if you wanna see a bigger slideshow, follow this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42425843@N07/sets/72157623739456716/show/

tantararannnn

the invitations finally arrived this afternoon! yay!


it's better than i expected. a big shoutout to global ventures for giving me the attention every bride wants to get, especially for going out of its way to get me the right shade of purple for my stationery! the embossed printing is great, and i love love love the scent :)

husband news. gary's still stuck in fob warrior, awaiting a flight to balad, iraq, before going to kuwait and finally to the philippines. it is insane that he's on his way here but not quite. i mean, can he just get here already???!!!

soooooo excited!

yesterday, gary left patrol base doria to go to his mother base, fob warrior in kirkuk. he'll be there until the 7th, where he'll be having some briefing sessions before finally flying home. we weren't expecting him to leave this early, since he was initially told his schedule at warrior was thursday. but who are we to complain about him getting here earlier than expected right?:P

i just realized i haven't blogged about the actual wedding venue. i got the blue horizon ballrooom at the crown royale hotel like i wanted...by moving our wedding on a monday! the church agreed to marry us on a weekday, in the afternoon, so it's all good. like hitting two birds with one stone: i got my preferred wedding venue and i get to have a dinner reception instead of lunch :)

i'm still awaiting the arrival of our invites but here's the final layout. you don't actually get to see the actual design of it, but this is basically the look and feel of the invites. :)



this saturday i'll have my gown fitting (yes, i'm fitting my gown, it's the year 2010 guys!) and i'll try to finalize all the entourage wardrobe. all the details must be ready when gary gets here. they have to be. as my mom knowingly predicts, "may sarili na kayong mundo ni gary nyan pagdating nya dito." LOL that's what the wedding planner's for mommmmmmmm! :P

a vow is a vow is a vow

by now, anyone who's been reading this blog is definitely tired of hearing me talk about gary and the wedding. well lucky you, i'm not done yet!

we're already halfway through the wedding preparations. all the suppliers have been booked, and most have been paid half their fees too. all the trinkets have been purchased, and this week, i'm having my trial make up done.

with all these details going through my head, i almost put on the back burner a very important thing: my wedding vows. good thing, it turns out, gary has been thinking about his the whole time. and since i need to have both our vows approved by the parish priest prior to the ceremony, i get to know what he has to say too. haha well he's not done with his vows yet but from what he shared to me, i am officially warning each and every person attending my wedding that it's gonna be a cry fest. :)

so. my wedding vows. i'm really excited about writing it. but see i have this attitude when it comes to important things i have to write. i tend to get intimidated by them. the more important something is, the harder it is for me to start writing. because i want it to be perfect. because i want it to be something worth remembering. because i want to be able to say everything i want to say. because i only get one shot at this. ok, now i'm even more overwhelmed!

the first thing i'll do with gary when he gets here...

besides that, is to watch dear john, a romantic drama based on the nicholas sparks novel about a soldier who falls in love with a college girl while he's on leave. the movie features channing tatum and amanda seyfried. it started showing last week here in the philippines...hope we can still catch it when gary comes home. happy valentine's day! :D

kinarir ko na 'to!

i'm a geek bride. i actually went to a bridal fair! LOL i dutifully traversed the aisles of sm mega trade hall with assistant bride (read:my mom) in tow. LOL

yes, see, this whole wedding thing is serious business i tell you. there's a great deal of difference between unity candles and secondary candles. an embossed monogram on the cover of an invitation and a flat print. a wooden photo album and a magnetic storybook. fondant and royal icing.

ok, so i'm a dweeb, but hey, i finished all i needed to do in one day! i (finally!) found me an invitation maker. nothing drop-your-mouth-open-it's-so-fierce, but i like the look and feel of it nonetheless. simple but elegant. so cliché but i mean it :)

i also bought a guestbook since the photo/video won't make me one. as we all know, gary's coming here only a few days before the wedding and with all the pre-cana requirements, we can't have a pre-nuptial shoot, which means nice print has no material to use for a guestbook. the guestbook i got is too generic. i'm thinking i'll vamp it up if i still got time.

we also got this pair of humongous secondary candles. and another pair of party poppers. we have a bunch for the reception already but ritchelle says we need two more for when we get out of church after the ceremony. i was gonna buy my wedding shoes but there is nothing magical at nine west or celine or vnc. maybe another mall some other time.

there weren't too many people at the fair. well actually i don't know. maybe i was expecting a noel bazaar kind of crowd, but hey, it's a bridal fair. how many brides can you gather at one place right? my brother jay met up with us for lunch. we told him to find us inside the bridal fair. he was sticking out there like a sore thumb. LOL he left right after eating, while my mom and i stayed on to check out every corner of sm megamall.

bad!

i'm bad.

with only nearly a month away from THE DAY, i still didn't have final suppliers for my photo and video, my invitations and my giveaways. ritchelle, my new best friend a.k.a. the wedding coordinator, said we should step on it and try to finalize these three by this week and i totally agree. so yes, i've been on the edge.

the husband's been really patient; i hate myself for being such a pain. we were online chatting and i've been throwing him super tantrums. blame it on the wait. i mean i hate, hate waiting and not knowing if i'm getting something done or not. i bet he was biting his lip trying to be nice to me when i was complaining like a three-year-old.

in case he reads this, as he sometimes does, this is a shoutout to you baby: i'm sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy for the S, and i'm trying to pull it together. there's no excuse for behaving that way. :(

anyway, bridezilla was able to deposit the 50% for nice print photography today, so that basically seals the deal, except for the formal contract signing. see nice print's blog on my blogroll, it's pretty cool :)

my brand-spanking new passport

my passport finally arrived in the mail today. i went through teleserv, the online service of dfa for renewing my passport. :D i paid extra for this service, but it was well worth it. no lines, and i didn't worry about the requirements much. gone is the green worn-out passport i had for years. the maroon passport i got carries the name ina magat :)

the old and the new

awww...all those travelling

i start writing a blog entry title first, usually knowing what i wanna say and the stories i wanna tell. but as i type this, soooo many things are going through my mind i can't even come up with a title. i'll just put down anything and everything.
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i hate it when brides say they're busy and stressed out. i really do. it gives me the perception of self-importance, complaining about seemingly frivolous matters that they should be keeping to themselves. but now that i'm in their place, i can't stop myself from declaring how busy and utterly stressed out i am. can't sleep, can't eat (okay, that's a lie. LOL) can't sleep, can't sleep. the funny thing is, the hubby's going through the same thing. :D

me: why do you sound so tired?
him: i didn't sleep enough.
me: how can you not sleep enough, we ended talking at 2am, you only woke up now, it's lunchtime.
him: well it's like i didn't sleep at all. i'm in bed, my eyes are shut, but my mind's awake, thinking about the wedding and going home.

cute no? :D
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my little chokchok is sick. he has mild fever and a really bad cough. since i came home, i've been so attached to my 8 month-old nephew. he's super fat...10.8 kilos at 8 months, and really funny-smart. he copies what he sees, and he makes these weird sounds. :D it breaks my heart to see him sad and quiet and sick :(



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important times like these when i miss my dad. the wedding coordinator asked me what song i want for the father-daughter dance...i simply had to say there won't be one.

i must admit i should remember my dad more than i do. i'm a daddy's girl and after his sudden death, i always thought it's impossible to live without him. the heart really does have a way of moving on. i think i'll go visit his grave this weekend.

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the entourage and the guestlist are getting out of hand...and i'm entirely to blame for it. gary's side's presence in this wedding is like not even 5% but the husband is just charming about it. he gives me a freehand on this and that makes everything a bit easier.

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i have a good team for the wedding. i know i did all the work at the start but i can see that the remaining weeks will be easier for me thanks to my coordinator, and the people at crown royale are just so cooperative and accomodating i'm really feeling good about my choice.

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this wedding will be so surreal. it'll be like a montage of my life. gradeschool friends. high school friends. college buddies. team kiko. friends from various points of my existence. gary's relatives. my relatives. all in one place at the same time. how weird is that???

bride wars

today i went to bataan's capital balanga city with my mom to check out crown royale, the only respectable hotel in town. i have envisioned a wedding in corregidor not long ago, but now that i'm here in the philippines, it just seems too taxing to stage a celebration there. besides, with our situation (gary arriving only 4 days before the ceremony) we have no choice really but to stick to my hometown, where i could (and was able to) use my life-long connections to make the wedding happen in such short notice. also, it just feels right to be married in a church where i spent almost all of my sundays hearing mass.

now that i've finished all the arrangements for the church requirements, the next target is to find the venue for our wedding. these days, my mom and i have been having our annabelle-ruffa moments more than usual. she insists i should have the reception in subic, which she says is a mere 10, 15 minutes away from hermosa via sctex. i'm more inclined to have it here in bataan, in balanga specifically, because...well, i just want to.

i've already given up the idea of a garden wedding because there's just too many risk factors that come with it: rain, too much sunshine, sound system quality, humidity, AVP equipment readiness, etc.

so yeah. today, we went to crown royale. it was surprisingly okay for a provincial hotel. it's new, it's clean and it's well-lit. the rates are okay, and we are sure to get the best suite if we book there. when the manager toured us around, i was a little disappointed with the first function room because while it was spacious, the really low ceiling gave me the feeling of suffocation.

then we saw the blue horizon area, which was really, really nice. it was a ballroom. like a ballroom. i wanted it right away, while my mom was exercising her haggling techniques. she was pretending it was ok--not good, not bad, and she was saying, yeah, well, we'll think about it.

minutes later when we went back to the management office, we were informed that another bride just confirmed her reservation for the blue horizon for the same day, at the same time (lunch). i was heart-broken. i had the gall to name-drop (one of the owners of the hotel was a contemporary in UP)and that got the manager pacifying me with a silly promise that we'll be notified should the other bride change her mind. actually, i'm the fifth bride to book one of their ballrooms for the same schedule. imagine that: five weddings at the same time in the same hotel!

now i have a lot of thinking to do, as if i'm not doing enough. how will i get the church to let me get married in the afternoon, so we can have the blue horizon area for dinner? the priest's rule is to not have weddings on saturday afternoons because they interfere with the anticipated mass at 5pm. do i just go for subic? do i plot against the person who stole my venue?!

my mom gave me a piece of advice: you can't get everything you want. i simply said, "watch me". i told you, bridezilla is in the house! :P