It's a Wrap!

Exactly one week to go. We are down to the few small details on our checklist. Here are some of the behind-the-scene snaps on what's going on in the HQ as we pack things up prior to the big day.

nagamit pa yung stamps LOL

This box goes to Moki.

this box goes to the church

 Thanks to St. Paul (the store) for these.

this box goes to the hotel room

That's it for now. Back to ticking more stuff on the checklist!

Enter the Last Month

It's November already. The last 30+ days to finalize the wedding details! With it, halos weekly na kaming may lakad at ambilis na ng pacing ng mga wedding progress. Here's what happened during the past couple of weeks since we've posted our last update.

D.I.Y Crafts

We are pretty much done with everything. Ang natitira na lang ay yung mga kelangan ng finishing touches at yung mga kailangan talagang gawin nearer the wedding date.

Done projects:

• Magnetized the boutonnieres and crafted the metallic plates where the magnets will be attached on. (We decided to keep the magnets for the gents since their fragile barong needs extra care. For the ladies, it will be pinned the usual way.)
• Painted some binder clips bronze, for that vintage look. This will be the table card holders.
• Added a stand on our ornamental board with monogram. 
• Wrapped the gifts for the sponsors.
• Created our own cake topper! (It's made out of corrugated cardboard!)

panay pagmumuka namin

meet mini-us

In progress:

• Layout for the photo booth prints.
• Wishing tree (We found a wooden vase for it, for cheaps!)

Invitations

Lord, sana magkasya pa ang susuotin namin sa kasal. Amen.

After a crazy meal at Zark's - Taft, we went to WINK (Makati) and claimed our invitations. With one month and a couple of days to go before the big day, in addition to the other tasks that needs to be done, we are now officially cramming to distribute them.

Thank God for LBC!

As much as we want to personally deliver all of the invitations, we are pressed to have it mailed instead as the wedding preps steadily eats up much of what spare time we have left. 

many are invited but few are chosen

Wedding Animation

Aina, Obi's ever-bibo cousin, created a very cute animation based on a poem Obi wrote for Kat. The short clip will be played on our wedding.

All drawings are done by Aina while the catchy background music, entitled "Not Evident", is by the Narcoleptic Dancers.

Online Invitation
Aside from the printed invitations, Kat also designed an online invitation using Weebly. The artwork is based from the wedding animation created for us by Obi's cousin (see entry above).

See image below. Sa dulo niyan makikita yung layout ng invitation details. Yung layout na yun (na gawa ni Kat using her new-found Photoshop skills) ay galing sa naunang design na gagamitin dapat namin for our printed invites pero hindi natuloy since we opted to choose a pre-existing layout made by WINK.

the upper portion of our e-invite
it scrolls down to more artworks and the wedding details

We made the e-invite for those who are not going to receive the printed invitations since we limited its distribution to our relatives and principal sponsors only.

Marriage License

walang pila sa umaga

We applied for our marriage license at the Las Pinas City Hall. We've been expecting long queues, it being a public office, but it's surprising that the entire process only took us less than an hour (although a notice on their wall advertised that it should only take 5 minutes... typical government B.S.). It also helped that we prepared the requirements ahead of time. Here have a look at their website for the steps for application and the requirements.

legalizing our love for each other

Pag dating doon, panay fill-out of forms and processing of papers na lang ang ginawa namin. Pinabalik na lang ulit kami after a week and voila, may lisensya na kaming maging Mister and Misis Parcon! 

public office selfie

We asked Kat's dad to get it for us since it's a weekday at ubos na ang aming vacation leaves. Pwede naman. Kailangan lang magpadala ng authorization letter na siya ang kukuha in behalf of us.

Wedding Banns

We had our wedding banns posted on our respective parishes: Kat at the Pilar Church, while Obi at the Our Lady of Loreto in Villamor Air Base.

Medyo nagka-problema lang yung kay Obi dahil humingi ng full body photo ang church admin ng Loreto... na dapat magkahawak ang kamay sa litrato! May ganung choreography pa? Wow ha.

Anyway, it should be posted for three Sundays. We are heading for our third Sunday as of this writing.

Attire

A trip to 168 Mall in Divisoria punctuated our long wait for the designer gowns that we commissioned from Lilia Bonaobra. It's for Kat and Obi's moms and for one of the principal sponsors (Tita Grace). It ended up looking elegant and classy. Something unexpected for their really affordable price tag.

for Obi's mom

There were last-minute adjustments required after the ladies did a fitting and Miss Lilia, herself, see to it that they are done. 

By the way, we also had them custom-made a pinya jusi barong for Obi's brother. We claimed it that day as well. It's decent work, needless to say. Kaso naka-box ang mga gowns pero ang barong ay naka plastic lang. So it's a bit meh on that part. They should have those barong/suit plastic cases already at this point of their business.

cheap but quality barong for Sponklong

Sa Divisoria na din kami nakabili ng camisa (undershirt) for the gents. Andami naming pinuntahan para maghanap ng colored na ganyan. Panay puti kasi yung common na binebenta. Nakabili kami ng kulay cream. Sakto lang ang kulay sa barong.

Barong Tagalog

On the same day we claimed our moms' gowns, we also went to Tabora and scour the labyrinthine passages of Divine Mart to buy pinya jusi mini-barongs for our cute little bearers.

Nagtanong kami sa iba't-ibang stalls hanggang sa makakita kami ng pinaka-mura ang offer amongst them all. Average price is P650 to P700. We got our barong (three in all) for about P550 to P600 only. Bargain!

For Kat's dad, we had Mang Rey Casedo custom-tailor a pinya cocoon barong, including the matching suit pants. Sikat na sikat si Mang Rey sa forums ng Weddings at Work at halos lahat ng reviews about him doon ay positive. Pinuntahan niya personally ang bahay nila Kat (all the way from Lumban, Laguna) para kuhaan ng sukat  si Tito Ben and did the same travel again after a couple of weeks to deliver the finished product.

It's nice work and the artistry behind the embroidery is very apparent. Napaka intricate ng mga burda at angat tignan ang magsusuot. Worthy of every peso we've spent.

Good job, Mang Rey!

We also did a short stop in Baclaran to buy a pinya jusi barong for Jal (Kat's cousin), who's going to be one of the entourage. Sunod sunod ang barong stalls sa likod ng simbahan ng Redemptorist kaya hindi kami nahirapan makapamili. Ingat lang sa mga snatcher!

barong ni Jal, not bad

they have a wide selection, for cheaps

*****
Updated the "Wedding Updates" page with recent information about the wedding.