Charley Braga's blog

Our day with Bob Nicolas

We're not huge fans of hiring a supplier without prior knowledge of his/her/their work, so we mainly relied on positive feedback from previous clients when it came time to choose our suppliers.  But at one wedding expo, Vinnie and I chanced upon a promotional CD of wedding videographer Bob Nicolas, whose wife Let (also his manager), was giving out.

After the expo we sat in my dad's den, comparing videographer to videographer's work (we wanted someone "different," who could deliver raw emotion in a cinematic, creative, non-overly dramatic style -- some wedding videos we saw were a tad too slow), and Bob's was the last one we saw.  After watching a few humdrum so-so videos from other videogs, we sat entranced as we fell into Bob's --sorry to sound cheesy-- cinematic spell.  It really was enchanting.  In other words, we were wowed by him!  The guy's (and later on we found out he was even younger than us -- he's 25 or 26 now, I believe) incredible.  Really very detailed, he captures the sentimentality of the event without going overboard.  And Vinnie liked that he made everyone in his videos look good; something about the lighting and the way the sky just glistened made people sparkle! (Turns out his dad was a videographer, so he grew up exposed to the stuff; it was only natural and in his blood that he get into the biz too.) 

So Vinnie and I actually moved around our wedding date just to accommodate the guy (and our photog, Pat Dy).  Originally intending our wedding date to be January 12 (whoa, we could've been married by now if we stuck to our Plan A!), we moved it to the 26th so that both Bob and Pat could make the trip up to Baguio.

Only later on did I find out that my cousin Jamie and his wife Iyay used him too for their February wedding, and were really happy with his work.  Six or seven months after their wedding Bob delivered their final DVD, in really nice black and white leather packaging.  (They were thrilled with his work, and with good reason; it was all very nicely presented and edited.) 

We learned from Jamie, and later on from Bob himself, that he even includes portions in the final DVD that were edited out of the on-site video and/or AVP, so that the couple has extra viewing material of the event.  So greetings to the couple and behind-the-scenes material come in another portion of the video.  Nice.

Bob Nicolas' finished video

 

Jamie and Iyay's wedding video

And Bob is really easy to talk to.  Very polite on our first meeting, accommodating, and all smiles, he was still the same when we met him today for our video shoot. 

Vinnie and I thought long and hard where to have our pre-nup video, and we decided that we're really not the "walking on the beach, laying under a tree, gazing into each other's eyes" type of couple (although we have nothing against people who decide to do so for their pre-nups) -- we prefer to have our quiet moments in private, without cameras following us around.  Instead, we decided to have our pre-nups at the Global Fun Carnival, by Mall of Asia.  There, we could be ourselves, have fun, and enjoy each other's company; having cameras shoot us in our element would be a bonus.  (Plus Vinnie's brother AJ is one of the organizers, so no need to acquire permits; shooting there was a breeze!  We even had a staffer to escort us from ride to ride.  Such V.I.P. treatment :)

And we did all of the above, and had the time of our lives!!  All with Bob and his crew capturing our every move.  (He said he had so much material to work with, now he has so much to choose from!)  For two hours they joined us on the carousel, shooting hoops, playing toss games (Vinnie won me a huge teddy bear, yaaaay!), jumping on and sliding down giant inflatables, on the bump cars, giant swing, rollercoaster, and finally the Giant Wheel, where they filmed us with the Manila Bay's glorious sunset as backdrop.

After catching our breaths we took off for my house, where my sisters Lori and Tricia, Vinnie's sister Virginia, maid-of-honor Kartini, bridesmaid Clara, groomsman Rod, and good pal Richie met us so Bob could interview them. 

We're happy that our fun-filled day was caught on tape, and even happier that some of our closest and dearest family and friends will be on our video as well.  Now it's just the music and personal pictures to follow.  We're soooo excited to see how it'll all turn out.

 

Our last trip to Baguio before W-Day!

12 more days till WEDDING DAY!

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Vinnie and I arrived early this morning (3 AM) after taking a bus back from Baguio for the weekend.  (We took a spontaneous trip to the Pine City for a last meeting with our suppliers, and to work on our missalette with our priest -- really all for our own peace of mind.)  It was an extremely productive trip, although we were both weary, sleepy, and lightheaded by the time we got off the bus -- we hit our beds as soon as we got home.

I just have to plug that this was the first time in the full year that we've been going up to Baguio for our wedding preps that we've gone by bus, so now we're all praises for Victory Liner, whose Express Deluxe Bus is THE ultimate in Philippine luxury transportation.  Just 29 seats aboard every bus, large leg room to comfortably stretch out your legs, water and snacks on board, a clean restroom (yup, if you can believe it), and a whizzing 5 hour, hassle-free, straight ride to Baguio.  (I hear that some trips take 4.5 or even just 4 hours, depending on the traffic.)  For our trip to Baguio we didn't feel the least bit tired, unlike when we'd take the car; there was no anxiety and watching the road for us on our trip, so we were refreshed and ready to face our busy Baguio schedule by the time we hopped off the bus.

We had a great roll-up-our-sleeves, get down 'n dirty, pow-wow discussion session with our suppliers on Saturday morning, with caterer Le Chef, venue CJH Golf Clubhouse, day coordinator Affairs et al., Baguio Reinforcement Crew for our lights and sounds, and Access Band and Melodia Chordi for our music.  While Vinnie mulled things over with our caterer, venue, and lights and sounds, I talked things out with our band and strings, and day coordinator.  Now there are just a few things that need ironing out -- like our program, sequencing, and song selection.  On Vinnie's end, he's concerned about the lighting of the garden, our beloved table runners and placemats, and his biggest concern of all, our flowers.  "Your mom loves flowers, Charley," he told me about his concerns. "They have to be perfect."  (Did I ever mention that my groom's a perfectionist??)

We met with our flower supplier Mom's the Flower Shoppe late Sunday afternoon, amidst rain and fog.  (We're praying for good weather on our wedding weekend!!)  We finally settled on our church flowers, and showed a photo of what we have in mind for our reception, based on the flowers grown from their King Louie flower farm.  Now we've decided to add herbs and extra foliage and twigs, to give an overall earthy, textured feel to our flower arrangements.  We'll be having another mock set-up here in Manila on Wednesday, and we can't wait for that. 

We also met with our priest, Fr. Fermin.  He's a pleasant, kind, yet very sharp man who read over our missalette word per word.  He gave pleasant anecdotes about each portion, and said it was a very good compilation and selection of readings.  He gave us a few bits of wedding trivia -- "Did you know that the veil ceremony has its roots in male chauvinism?  Did you ever wonder why the veil is only placed over the bride's head, and just on the shoulders of the groom?"  We shook our heads no.  "It's because it's to signify that the groom is the only head of the family."

Another tidbit: "What does the arrhae signify?"  Fr. Fermin asked us again.  "It's actually dowry; to signify the money that the groom gives to his bride, so in case anything happens to their marriage, the bride has money of her own to keep for herself."  Ooh, I like that one.  Haha.

Wish us luck as we finish the rest of our weekly duties.  By next week, it'll be spa pampering, cat naps, and some R 'n R for us before our wedding day.  Uh... we wish!!!

Our Provencal giveaways, my bridal hairpiece, dress fittings, and our wedding cake

Just 15 more days, folks!

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So much has happened this past week, as you can obviously see from the title of this post.

Last Saturday, Vinnie and I stumbled across something sooo fitting and in line with our Provencal / old world wedding theme: giveaways, made in Provence!  Don't ask us how, but we were able to score over a hundred and fifty of these sweet smelling favors, garnered from the fields of Provence.  They're really lovely, and my mom and sister were both in agreement that these make exquisite wedding give-aways, although just for the ladies at our wedding :)  A little background on them: these are really the wedding favors I've been secretly pining for from day one of our wedding preps, although they were a tad out of our budget.  But through the heavens above, my wedding favor wish was granted!  So now we've decided to give out these little goodies in lieu of cupcakes, like I'd earlier written; but more on that later in the post.

We also had a quick visit to Ciara M. Serumgard's Ciara Creates jewelry showroom.  She's friends with Vinnie and me (Vinnie and Ciara go way back from college days, and she was someone I instantly liked and hit it off with when Vinnie introduced us years ago), and showed us some sample headpieces that she's done.  She's a sweetheart, and she offered to gift me with my hairpiece for the wedding!  How generous, and I'm so excited to see what she'll whip up.  She'll make me a headpiece out of twisted silver wire, Swarovski crystals, and fresh water pearls, and also something to hold up my veil, a jeweled peineta.

Here's a sample taken from her website, courtesy of Fotogra Weddings:

Ciara Creates Peineta

Lovely, and the color of the beads and wire will match my wedding gown!  I'm so excited to see the finished products.

Yesterday I took a trip to Mang Ben's shop with my sister Lori, her daughter Boo, and my mom.  I was thrilled to see Vinnie's sister and cousins there too, going for their fittings.  The dresses look lovely!  And seeing all the entourage colors side by side, was breathtaking.  I told my mom how ethereal they seem to be, very dainty and lady-like.  "It fits your personality," she commented.  (We realized that when Mang Ben did the gowns of my sisters, he got the designs for them down pat too, according to our tastes: Lori's entourage dresses came in emerald green, very strong and edgey-looking, Tricia's colorful entourage dresses were vibrant and whimsical, and mine are different too.)  So Mang Ben hit my entourage dresses to a T; they're classy and very tastefully done, like how I'd envisioned them to be.

It was also my turn to try on my wedding gown, to see the beading accents he'd done and the minor dress alterations. My mom and sister sighed when they saw me in it, and my mom even got teary-eyed!  Mang Ben placed the veil on me, and my mom choked up.  I was really touched to see her get a little emotional before the big day.  "You're lovely, ang ganda," she kept saying, and referred to my dad, "Papa will cry when he sees you."  Awww.  That's enough to choke me up too.  I guess things are a bit more emotional now that I'm the last in the family to be off and married.

Our last stop yesterday was with Sonja of Cupcakes by Sonja, our cake maker.  We finally settled on a final cake design, after mulling over three or four initial cake ideas.  I kept going back to one design idea, and Vinnie okayed it.  It's a tweaked design from Martha Stewart Weddings, and it'll have our wedding logo on it.  "It'll make a statement," Sonja said.  "It's different, but goes in line with your theme; I've seen a lot of wedding cakes that don't fit a couple's theme, but yours does," she reassured us.  We also decided that our cake will have five different flavors.  (Yup, you read that right -- five flavors of cake!)  And since our cake will be enough to feed our guests, (no styrofoam cake layers for us!) we've decided to serve our guests the cake rather than have them take home boxed cupcakes. 

So everything is working out!  Piece by piece, slowly but surely, things are coming together. 

A heart-warming moment happened this morning: I asked Vinnie why he was so particular with details (because seriously, I questioned, "Do we really need to have tassles at the ends of our table runners?  Will people even notice them?" -- something we were debating about this morning) and his reply was, "Charley, I'm so detail-oriented because I want to give you the wedding of your dreams.  It's as simple as that.  When you look back at our wedding later on, you won't care if people don't notice that there are tassles, or that the candles are specially made; the important thing is you know that they're there because we chose them.  That's how I want you to remember things." 

My heart just melted right then and there.  He's such a sweetie, my sweetie.  Awww.

 

 

 

My hands-on groom, exhaustion, a kitchen bridal shower, and a honeymoon update

As I write, my groom is wandering about Divisoria with his family friend and our wedding stylist, Jaime.  They're scouting around for table runner and placemat material, for candles, and glass candle holders all for our reception.  Vinnie's even looking for material to re-upholster our couch and to use for our curtains.

To say I have a very hands-on groom, is an understatement.  To his cousins and relatives, he's already a groomzilla. Although I just like to say, he's very "particular" with details -- just like me, so we make the perfect pair!

I'm pretty lucky that Vinnie's so involved, and he decided to trek out to Divisoria from his own initiative.  He wants our candles to be just perfect (white, with a large wick, and long-lasting so that it'll last throughout the evening), and leave nothing to chance -- for me, candles are candles.  Usually it's the florist that takes care of the extra accessories (candles, table and arrangement accents), but no -- Vinnie's even decided to be hands-on with that.  "We can minus the candles and accessories from our overall payment for the flowers," Vinnie's said.   

Also we decided against using any table covers / linens, so we're now on the look out for table runners and Damask placemats (because you just can't lay a bare plate on a wooden tabletop), and the white linens of Le Chef just won't work with the wooden tables of the Camp John Hay Golf Clubhouse. 

The reason why I'm not with them is simple: pure exhaustion.  After shuttling about from supplier to supplier, and back again, the harriedness of the holiday season, my mind racing a million miles a minute, and restless nights of sleeplessness, I'm wiped out.  Pooped, is the word, actually.  My scoliosis-prone back gave way last night, so I had a pretty terrible sleep, and now I'm confined to my bed.  Not good, for a soon-to-be bride who should be relaxed, refreshed, and radiant on her wedding day.

Although my cousin Tracy and her Canadian-Italian boyfriend Mike arrived from Canada on Saturday evening, which made me so happy, and it was so much fun staying up talking to them!  Hanging out with her is like hanging out with my own sisters, and it was great to see that they hit it off with Vinnie too.  (I love it that my relatives are slowly trickling in from abroad for the wedding; it amuses me to no end that they're here for the wedding, our wedding.) 

And I did have a lot of fun yesterday -- my Ninang Cons and Tita Yollie threw me a "Kitchen, Recipe, and Advice" shower, with a big buffet spread to boot.  (My maid of honor Kartini says that I should hold the record of most showers given to any bride - I'll have five by the time my wedding hits.)  It was different from my first shower, where we played games and the aunts gave me kinky advice.  This time, they gave me heart-to-heart words of wisdom; some of them being:

• Marriage is a lifetime commitment that affects so many people, not just the couple.  With a good spouse, your life will be fruitful, and with a bad one, it'll be like creating your own hell (something my mom's told me many times).
• Declare your independence early on!  Have your own money, and use your own talents; don't lose your identity to your husband's. 
• Keep God in the center of your relationship.  Pray together!
• If he's a good man, and not a babaero (womanizer) --as some men are perpetually prone to that-- and really loves you, then you'll have a strong marriage.
• Don't give up when things get rough, keep working on your relationship.  Try to discover more and learn more from each other, keep discovering new aspects about each other to keep things interesting.
• Patience!  Choose your battles, don't nit pick if it's not worth it.

Plus so much more.  It's nice that all 14 titas wrote their words of wisdom on cards, for me to put in an album, pull out and read anytime. 

They also kept complimenting me about our wedding invites, with my mom beaming proudly beside them, as any proud mother-of-the-bride would be.  I mentioned this to Vinnie, and he reiterated what we already knew. "See, look what happens when you put a lot of detail into things?  It all pays off."

Although there was a round table discussion yesterday about how "kids these days like weddings that are far," either out of town, or with wedding receptions at a distance from the wedding ceremony.  Haaay naku.  (Of course I was at the table while they were all discussing this.)  I decided to turn a deaf ear on that conversation. 

A wedding is, after all, a personal choice of the couple.  And as a friend told me earlier in the year, "If they complain after the distance or any other thing about your wedding, it's just not worth stressing about."  Truth is, everyone always finds something to complain about, or find fault in, so I like to think that their complaints just were a topic of conversation yesterday.

I just learned too that my Ninang Corito is planning for Vinnie and me a Bangkok and Phuket, Thailand get-away (Honeymoon Part I) after the wedding -- she's gifting us with plane tickets and a four nights stay at the JW Marriott Resort and Spa, Phuket, in a private villa all our own!!!  Isn't that nice, and so opulent!!  Vinnie and I are sublimely excited at the prospect of hitting the beach after bundling up in chilly Baguio.

Anyway, enough typing... I should rest again.  Till next time!

Our first few days of 2008...

Is it January 4, 2008 already?  I completely missed out on a new year's greeting to everyone -- belated happy new year!!  I trust that everyone had a safe and joyous new year's celebration :)

So how has our 2008 been thus far? 

Our thoughts have been running a million miles a minute with last minute To-Dos, following up on RSVPs, giving out additional invites to a new batch of invitees, answering queries from our guests, entourage members, family members, etc.  Oh, and don't forget there's the missalette that needs to be printed, the flowers need to be worked out, the despedida de soltera needs to be planned, and the thank you cards need to start coming out!  

Ho hum... just the usual regularities of wedding planning.  But ohhh, how I wish we'd hired a full-time or even semi coordinator!!  (Hit me over the head someone, for agreeing to handle all of the RSVPS by myself!!!) 

Now it's all the nitty gritties that need attending to... I feel like we need to catch a few breaths just to make it through a day.  And we've had visible signs of stress too: Vinnie's suddenly caught a case of overactive pores, while I caught the flu a few days back and seriously could not even move.  Tsk tsk, we really need to sit back and listen to our bodies' signals.

And no one told us about couple stress... you know, the bickering that comes with the rest of wedding planning territory.  None of us are ready yet to throw in the towel and elope, but there have been moments of awkwardness and eery silence as Vinnie and I have stared at each other in disagreement, bewilderment, and (mostly from me) hotheadedness -- tell me ladies, is it just a girl/bride thing to get more riled up than our men/grooms??  Sigh. 

Can't you tell we've had a tough first few days of the year?

Thank you to our dear friends and family members who've singled us out and offered such loving and supportive words of advice, encouragement, and affection.  We're thankful too to the other brides-to-be and newlywedded brides who can relate to what we're going through and who've either texted, called, or e-mailed me this past week (thank you Cath, Karts, Joanna, and Trish!).  Like what I wrote before, there's power in shared experiences!!!

I hope to the high heavens that Vinnie and I make it to the next three weeks without losing our sanity.  The clock's ticking as we count down 22 more days.  Pray for us, please :) 

A wedding, our wedding invites, and our wedding bands

Vinnie and I got back from Calatagan, Batangas early yesterday morning from the wedding of our friends Kai and Raj.  It's our last wedding of the year, and boy, was it memorable!  Picture a lovely garden wedding with an immaculate view of the sea, a sprawling mansion as backdrop, candle-lit tables, an orchestra and singers serenading the guests the entire evening, a five-minute fireworks display, and an all-you-can-eat gourmet spread that would put even a five-star restaurant's buffet to shame (there were three carvings, plus unlimited Chilean sea bass, paella, an assortment of cheeses, oysters and caviar!!).  I know I'm sounding like I'm gushing and very wide-eyed, but it truly was a feast for all senses.  (Vinnie and I realized that preparing for our own wedding has made us even more aware of the details of the other weddings we've been to; a couple of years ago, we barely would've even noticed the color schemes!)

And what they say about the bride just glowing on her wedding day is sooo true.  Kai was the epitome of a radiant bride.  A few months ago she showed me a picture of herself in her wedding dress, taken during a fitting, and although she already looked good, seeing her dress in person was ten times more lovely.  And seeing four brides in a span of five weeks has confirmed what all the wedding photogs I know have said: "The camera doesn't need to do much in order to capture the naturally glowing radiance of a blushing bride."  (OK, OK, so I made that exact quote up.  But I swear I heard my photog friends say something of the sort!)

Another thing I realized after attending four almost consecutive weddings, was that each wedding has its own charm, and the charm displayed is largely dependent on the couple's tastes.  So whether it's a hotel wedding, an intimate garden wedding, a Pine City wedding, or a sprawling outdoor wedding, each one has its own memorable attributes and can't really be compared to the other. 

Speaking of memorable attributes, Vinnie and I and our respective parents have been distributing our wedding invites.  And we're really touched by people's reactions, that they're already just taken by our envelopes without even seeing the actual invite (lined inside with matte gold paper, with a matching matte gold seal stamped with a B, for "Bautista" and "Braga" -- nice that our surnames begin with the same letter!).  Other people have gotten our wedding theme from the invite right away; they say it's very "vintage" and "old world" -- just what we were going for!  (And we really didn't want our invites to scream our color theme... so there's nary a dash of light purple, green, and beige on our invites -- which is what our entourage will be wearing.) 

Many people have asked if we printed our invitations abroad, and no, we say that they're proudly Philippine made and letterpressed by my cousin's printing press.  (Yaay to that!)  We're definitely more than pleased by our invitees reactions; all our hard work and manual labor has paid off!  (Vinnie and I assembled each and every one of our over 250 invites by hand, staying up round the clock from 10pm till 10am in one day just getting them together.  So all our agonizing over printing, design, and paper was all worth it! :) 

Our wedding invitation

Another memorable part of our wedding that's a new addition is our wedding bands.  They're THE knock-your-socks-off, fall-off-your-chair wedding rings of our dreams.  Vinnie's mommy-mom has gifted us with a matching pair, which turned out to be the perfect wedding present, as Vinnie mentioned that his grandparents gifted his parents with their own wedding rings.  So this gift-giving wedding tradition has been passed down to Vinnie and me.  We're so thankful and touched, they're really the rings we've dreamt about (no joke).  Although mine has a slight variation to Vinnie's (it's slimmer, with a slight twist to the design so it's the more feminine version of Vinnie's).  They're both absolutely gorgeous.  For purposes of security I won't post any pictures of them here (I'm paranoid about posting our actual jewelry pics over the net!).  Even now we're still recovering from the awe we felt after receiving them.  They even came in beautiful dark blue boxes, tied with a satin white ribbon, and with a gift card, so Vinnie and I have decided we'll sign each other's gift cards and open them on wedding day as we're getting ready for the ceremony.  What a lovely touch.

We both can't wait to wear our rings already, and in less than four weeks, we will!  Thank you so much, Mommy-mom.

Back from Baguio

Wedding counter: 28 days.  The wedding's exactly 4 weeks away, wow!!!

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We're back from our ninth Baguio trip of the year!!  Crazy that it's our ninth trip, but wonderful!!  (I think after the wedding Vinnie and I will really miss our almost monthly trips to the Pine City.  We really put our place there to good use!) 

Although I wrote that we wouldn't be touching any wedding preps, we of course ultimately found ourselves doing the following:

• Submitting our remaining church requirements, and setting dates for our parish priest's interview and confession.  We also got a headstart by working on our dispensation to the bishop, so no need for us to go back to Baguio by mid-January.  Baguio Cathedral is really quite efficient, as they'll work on the dispensation themselves.  St. Joseph's along Pacdal however, asked us to work on it ourselves.
• Buying wines!  Now our place is stacked with boxes and boxes of reds and whites -- all for the wedding.  It turns out that the commissary by Camp John Hay has pretty good deals on wine, "The prices are very reasonable," said my dad, the wine connoisseur.  He added some more boxes of reds to the stack that Vinnie and I had earlier brought up a month ago.
• Fixing our guests' room arrangements at The Manor and at the Baguio Country Club, and my and Vinnie's room accommodations for the wedding -- it's settled, I'll be changing at the Country Club.  The executive suite at the Club is more spacious than the typical one bedroom room that The Manor offers to its bride's, and I'll need more space with my family changing with me, the photogs, the videog, the hair and make-up artists, and the coordinator.
• Making reservations for our rehearsal dinner at the Country Club.  We're thinking of the Hamada Japanese Restaurant, named one of the Philippine Tatler's Best Restaurants of 2007.  We think it'll be a nice departure from our French-Continental food we'll be serving at the wedding.
• Meeting again with our newest supplier addition, the Maryknoll Sanctuary Choir.  They had a performance while we were there, so Vinnie and I, along with my parents, and nephew Josh, watched them at the Ridgewood Hotel near Pacdal.  My parents were as blown away as we first were!  My dad had them sing a finale, the Our Father, and he was mesmerized.  We can't wait to hear them again at our wedding. 

All in all, it made for a relaxing, productive week.  We even got to run on the Teacher's Camp Oval a couple of times!  So all that gorging on ensaymada, ham, and queso de bola didn't make me feel too guilty, I hope I burned some of it off :)

Advanced HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!! 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

To our dear family members, friends, and faithful blog readers, we'd like to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Our Christmas wish for all of you: joyfulness, peace of mind, comfort, and love from all those special to you.   

In a few hours, Vinnie and I will be trekking back to the Pine City of Baguio to spend Christmas amidst pines, pine cones, and chilly weather -- a natural Christmas backdrop for the holiday season :)  For this trip, we'll be going for some quality family bonding time and for pure R 'n R.  (Very rare for us on a Baguio trip!  So there'll be hardly any wedding planning for us on this trip -- even we need a break from wedding preps for just a bit).

And I think this text message I received some years back is appropriate for this time of the year:  "A prayer can go where no one else goes, near or far, and to those we love who are living and who have passed.  Prayer can heal, touch lives, bring assurance, and love when most needed and least expected."  

So our prayers and happy thoughts go out to all of you!  Have a blessed and merry, merry Christmas :)

 

Trip #8 to the City of Pines: a Baguio wedding, our stylist Jaime, and new musical discoveries

On Friday afternoon, Vinnie and I trooped back to our beloved City of Pines for our alleged last trip before our wedding weekend.  I wrote "alleged," because it looks like we have two more reasons to head back there before our wedding day: 1) my family's decision to spend Christmas up in the cool mountain city, and 2) in early January, Vinnie and I have to meet with Baguio City's Archbishop, to request for dispensation of marriage (Vinnie's Protestant, and I'm Catholic, and we'll be wed in a Catholic church).  So that'll be a total of 10 visits to Baguio before wedding day!    

We arrived in Baguio past 10 pm on Friday evening, and managed to see our friends Irma and Jed, who had just gotten married that afternoon at The Manor, followed by a reception at the 19th Tee of the Camp John Hay Suites.  By the time we got there, the Le Chef staff was packing up, their three-tiered wedding cake had been completely demolished, their lovely calla lilies were off the tables, but the glowing couple Irma and Jed were still all smiles as they entertained their last remaining guests.  Irma had on a beautifully beaded dress and bolero top, and didn't even need another cover up as the Baguio weather was perfectly cool, and not chilly.  How lucky for them that the weather cooperated perfectly for their wedding.

Irma gave me a big hug when I arrived, and exclaimed, "I'm so happy!  Being married is the most wonderful feeling!"  I couldn't help but feel her joy too.  We've been friends this past year after meeting on an online egroup, Weddings at Work, sharing pre-wedding stories and getting to know each other via e-mail and over the occasional coffee and dessert meetings.  She's a fellow Baguio bride who can relate to my love for Baguio, and I was thrilled to see her on her wedding day in Baguio no less, the day we've been talking about anxiously for months.  Jed was actually a former officemate of mine, so I didn't realize that I'd actually met Irma three years ago when she had visited the office before.  Manila really is such a small, small place. 

Vinnie finally got to meet Jed, and the four of us shared an engaged/newly married couples moment, where they reassured us about our common suppliers: florist Nikki Chatto, on-the-day coordinator Affairs et al., and caterer Le Chef.  "They all delivered well," they kept repeating, saying how all three exceeded their expectations.  That's great news for us!

The verandah of our reception venue

 

View of the golf course from our reception venue

The following morning the newlyweds also met up with us at our reception venue, the Camp John Hay Golf Clubhouse, before heading back to Manila.  Vinnie and I invited them to see our flowers, and they were the first people we showed the mock up of our invitation to; they easily shared in our excitement and offered comments of their own (so nice to have supportive friends with us!).  Of course our florist, Nikki Chatto was there, as well as our stylist and Vinnie's family friend Jaime Santiago.  (Vinnie and I can't believe we actually have a stylist working with us!)  Nikki arrived carrying two batches of lush, colorful flowers, all grown in her Baguio flower farm.  Vinnie and I watched as the two flower pros discussed which flowers to use.

The flower pros Nikki and Jaime trading ideas

Jaime even pulled out one of his thick, coffeetable flower books and showed us a picture of something he had in mind for our whole Provencal / garden look.  Luckily for us, our reception venue already has its own natural beauty, so no need to embellish it and overclutter it with tons of flowers and decors.  We'll also be using rattan and wooden tables and chairs, similar to the ones pictured below, to add to our whole look.  It's so refreshing!

Sample set-up from one of Jaime's books

I loved how everything jelled together with Jaime there, it was great to have a fresh pair of eyes with us who could tweak on our existing ideas.  Since he's not emotionally invested in the event as Vinnie and I, he was able to give us a different, objective perspective of our whole shebang.  

A little background on Jaime: he's a modern renaissance man who's mainly a production designer but who dabbles in flowers, food styling and events.  We were so happy to have him there!  He assisted with our choice of flowers, our place settings and table decors, the banquet chairs and tables, gave venue design suggestions, set our reception's mood lighting, helped with the lay-out, and was our right wing person when we later met with Le Chef's banquet manager.  I was impressed by what he knew, he really is a pro (he actually does Rockwell Power Plant's decors every Christmas -- check out this season's mall trimmings to see some of his handywork).  Now we can rest easy that our wedding won't turn out to be a hodgepodge of different ideas, but will all come together nicely.

We encountered a couple of musical surprises while we were there too.  On Saturday afternoon just as Vinnie and I were about to submit our church requirements, we noticed a wedding that was just about to start and decided to take a peek.  While showing Jaime our church's backdrop and aisle, we couldn't help but be taken by the sweet singing flowing from the church's choir balcony -- they sounded so heavenly!  We immediately inquired who they were, and turns out they're the Maryknoll Sanctuary Choir, a group of grad students being led by their Choir Master Joey Soliman, who have had the privilege of being trained under the Philippine Madrigals and join them for concerts and singing engagements at CCP when invited.  (They're part of the choir association MADZ et al., a group of choirs who sing in the same form and style of the Philippine Madrigals.)  Vinnie and I booked them on the spot, and stayed on to hear them till they played their last song; they were really that good.

The Maryknoll Sanctuary Choir

Vinnie and I realized how having a choir really makes a difference to a wedding ceremony's ambience, especially if the church venue is as big as the Baguio Cathedral.  Music really does set the mood and tone to the whole event. 

While we were at the Camp John Hay Golf Clubhouse, we chanced upon a pianist playing on their grand piano -- the music was so lovely we just had to ask who was playing.  Turns out David (we didn't catch his last name) has been playing at The Manor and the Clubhouse the past four years, and due to a disability, has grown partially blind.  Although his eyesight doesn't seem to have affected his piano playing, because his fingers were moving at warp speed over the piano keys.  He's one of those special people with an inborn, wonderful gift.  So Vinnie and I booked him too, to play at the start of our reception as the guests begin to arrive. 

A highlight during our trip was Vinnie's and my attempt to make breakfast for Jaime on Sunday morning (because our cook Manang Edna was back in Manila with my mom, helping with a party).  We made a mushroom and cheese omelette, a stack of pancakes with its accompanying bacon and ham, and prepared a batch of strawberries and cream - a real breakfast of champions!  Vinnie discovered that he'd like to take cooking lessons with me next year, as he has a lot of fun in the kitchen.  Well I have so much fun with him, and what a tandem we made: a cooking fiance and fiancee.  In our case, two cooks in the kitchen didn't spoil the broth.  On the contrary, it turned out pretty well.

So many discoveries this past weekend :)

 

 

 

 

Vintage letterpressed invitations

Vinnie and I were smiling from ear to ear after our meeting last night with my cousin Jamie from LSA Printing.  We saw a sample of our letterpressed wedding invitations, and wow, we couldn't help but beam!  It came out even nicer and prettier than we expected.  We're excited, and sublimely ecstatic about its turn out!!!

My Tita Ita, who runs the printing press, told us when she saw our invitation, she didn't even realize it was letterpressed until she saw the small shadow that the letters created on the paper, and later felt the indentation from behind.  She commented, "It's a wow!  And isn't that how marriages, like wedding invitations, should be -- a 'wow'?"  Hmm... I like that, there's truth behind that statement.

She also told us, "Our worker who runs the machines said that in his 29 years of working in the press, he has yet to make anything like this.  People think they need to have letterpress invitations made abroad, but really, it can be done here."  With all smiles she added, "Now I know that we can make this, I'll copy it!"

Jamie described the letterpress process, "It's time consuming, so other printers may be wary about using the process because creating the metal plates for it is very costly.  Each page needs a new plate, and is done one by one.  It's cheaper in the U.S. where they have the technology to do this, while we still use old machines for this."  How nice, our invitations don't just look vintage, they genuinely went through a very vintagey process to get that way!

Here's just one word from our invitation, on our nicely textured paper:

Letterpress sample

As I wrote in an earlier post, letterpress printing is the oldest form of printing, and thus we decided to use that method when producing our invitations -- it really meshes with our whole vintage-Provencal theme.  Early on when deciding how our invites would look, I already decided that I could not live with myself if we had a plain invitation in white paper and black font (OK, OK, I know I'm being overly dramatic); it just wasn't me. 

Being very meticulous about paper and all its forms (cards, notepads, stationary, journals, etc.) is something of a hobby of mine.  I love the smell of paper, and I delight myself in visiting The Wrap Shop in the malls, being surrounded by paper of all sorts and its trimmings.  And conceptualizing invitations, direct mailers, brochures, posters, and other print material is what I used to do on a daily basis all throughout grad school and at a very hip and funky network that I used to be connected to, so I knew I'd be very disappointed in myself if I didn't produce something that was creatively in line with my theme.

I was actually in quite a paper frenzy a few weeks ago.  After planning out our invitation design in late September and scouting around for paper suppliers, we delighted in the discovery of a little known store in Negros which could produce our order to our specifications.  When our paper arrived, it disappointingly wasn't to our specs -- after we had waited nearly a month for it.  By that time we had already lost out on weeks of invitation-making lead time.  Other handmade paper suppliers couldn't produce our order in time, and contacting the big local paper distributors left us at a standstill.  So Vinnie and I fretted and bemoaned the fact that we'd probably use regular board paper to produce our invitations... we just didn't have the luxury of time to wait for a special paper order if we needed our invitations out six weeks before our wedding. 

We poured through some paper samples in an art store and found what best resembled thick, textured paper -- 100% cotton watercolor paper from Saunders, in Somerset, U.K.  Its Philippine importer, Veco Paper came to our rescue!  We discovered that our Saunders paper was even nicer than our original plan of using handmade, dyed paper - it was in a crisp off-white shade, lightly textured, and very, very thick.  Ordering 425 sheets of paper in 300 gsm weight was no sweat to them -- they had our order ready and waiting for us the next day.  Amazing.  (Really, there was a lesson learned in all of this: when hitting a road block, there's always something better waiting just around the corner.)  

Saunders Waterford Classic Watercolor Paper

So wadddya know -- voila!  It actually happened -- our invitations are a few days away to being distributed to our guests, and just like how we wanted.  Letterpress printing, textured 100% cotton paper, and a bit of design ingenuity makes for a really lovely invitation combination, we think.