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???