Look what came in the mail this week!!! I just cannot contain my happiness. I love love love our invitations! More details to follow once I have the final print :)
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It’s no surprise if I tell you that E and I did a run-through of our wedding during our trip back to Manila over the holiday. I guess both of us are a little OC like that. Now before you churn out any idea of what we did, I’ll explain. We did a run through in terms of driving to the church, studying the different routes; speaking with the guards and asking traffic details and protocols of the church when they have weddings. Once we got to the church, the offices were closed and the church itself was empty. The doors were open, so we managed to sneak in a bit. It was E’s first time to visit the church, ever. In my case, this is where our family go to church every Sunday. Visiting St. Ignatius with E felt different—like it was my first time there too! And as I was walking through the aisles, explaining to E what we needed for the setup, running through some of the suppliers helping us out, my heart was actually racing. By the time I got to the altar and looked around the empty church, my heart dropped. I already imagined all the guests, our families and friends, what they were wearing, the choir singing at the balcony, the lights and sounds setup. E was at the middle of the aisle, and apparently, having a breathless moment himself. I approached him, smiled widely and giggled, held his hand, and his sweaty palms explained it all. We both had THAT moment. We then proceeded to Elements, our reception venue, and timed ourselves. How long should the drive be coming from the church, considering Saturday traffic? We got to Elements pretty quickly so it should be okay come the actual wedding day. It was our first time to see Elements and we were quite pleased. We were greeted by some personnel onsite who gave us a tour of the venue. We took photos of the facility: (Photos: Full façade of Elements, Kitchen where caterers will set up, Entrance of Prosperity hall)
Since I posted a photo of the main hall already, I just didn’t bother taking any more. After that run through, a wave of relief and excitement swept over me. 5 months. A little less than 5 months. And as of writing, barely 4. According to the ever so reliable Wikipedia (insert sarcasm here): With regards to the engagement and pre-marriage stages, Filipino tradition dictates that the man and his parents perform the pamamanhikan or pamanhikan (literally, a Tagalog word that means "to go up the stairs of the house" of the girlfriend and her parent. This is where and when the man and his parent's formally ask the lady's hand and blessings from her parents in order to marry. This is when the formal introduction of the man's parents and woman's parents happens. I want to be upfront about it, E and I are not exactly overly traditional but of course, we’d like to imbue our marriage with blessings from our parents (again, not that we need to). Plus, it would be nice if our parents met and knew each other prior to our actual wedding. It removes a lot of awkwardness later on. And again, as I always tell my friends—you know when they say that you only marry the person, not their family or their parents? That is not true at all! You will, for the rest of your lives be in constant communication and interaction with them. So ladies, listen. You don’t just marry the person—you marry their entirety—the good, the bad, their families, their parents, everything. Sorry for preaching there. :) Going back, so the pamamanhikan was really just a venue to introduce our families to each other. Of course prior to this, E has met my family; I have met his; but both families have never met before. We set it at Victorino’s, a nice Ilocano-themed restaurant in Timog area. We chose the place for its good food and traditional pieces reminiscent of old Ilocano homes, complete with capiz-tiled windows. E had with him his mom, his sister (with her kids), two of his aunties and one of the auntie’s husband. With them was one of his cousins and her boyfriend. From our side, it was just me and my immediate family. It was a nice, pleasant dinner talking about the upcoming wedding plus our plans right after. Both sets of parents made efforts to get to know the other, what they do, and find some common ground to dwell on. We had sumptuous dessert from Heny Sison’s creations and some brewed coffee and tea. At the end of the night, my mom gave E a watch, as keepsakes and a symbol of acceptance to our family. After the dinner and everyone went home to their respective homes, I felt a huge lump was taken out of me. THIS IS IT. I felt like we are so married to each other now. It’s weird I know but something about their blessing made me feel so relieved, calm and at peace. We are each other’s. He will be my husband, and I, his wife—and this tonight, will be our entire family. (Obviously, this was the day we had our family photo shoot—hence the same clothes!)
E and my mom accompanied me to food tasting with Red Chef last 17 December. It was not hard to schedule this with them despite the holidays because they were pretty open to me and considerate that I was only going to be available for a short time.
I hate that I was not able to take photos during our food tasting with Chef Mike of The Red Chef. Aphat was not able to make the meeting as he had to attend to an event but he carefully selected the food to be served to us. In my previous post about them, these items were part of the proposed menu for us: Potato-Broccoli Soup Green Arugula Salad with Mango Vinaigrette, Raspberry-Strawberry and Caesar's Dressings Pot Roast Beef with mashed potato Iberian Chicken Hickory BBQ Ribs OR Baked Salmon with Four Cheeses The FT (food tasting) itself was unlike any group FT that is so popular with a lot of caterers now, where they serve a lot of couples, even families. For us, it was just the three of us, plus Chef Mike. This way, he is able to explain all the dishes, answer our queries and address all our concerns. You will really feel the “alaga” and personalized service this way. We discussed specifics of the wedding—like how we planned to have cocktails prior to actual dinner, and the kind of service we expected from their waiters. In hindsight, I think the bridezilla in me was showing as I was really drilling down to details on the kind of plates, utensils and chargers to use, to the number of waiters and staff, to the crew meals, etc. HAHAHA. I should have not gone there yet, as this was only the first food tasting. This wasn’t the detailing by any means. We started with the DIP TRIO, as appetizer. Three kinds of dip were served, together with toasted garlic bruschetta. One is chicken liver pate, second is the three-cheese dip and the last was tomato salsa. Can I just say that I love pate, dips and nibbles and theirs is my favorite since time immemorial? I’d like to say I’m a little snobbish about that, but hell yeah. They make the best dips ever! Moving on, we went straight to soup, which was served in soup shot cups (or bowls?). We were asking why it was small. To this, Chef Mike was explaining, the soup was meant to be an appetizer only, not something to fill them up. We had a full course of main entrees that will satisfy their appetites. To be honest, I was not really looking forward to tasting the soup—Potato Broccoli—how can this WOW us? It was just soup. But I was wrong. It was quite tasty, I wanted more once when I finished mine! The creamy soup base had the thick consistency from the potatoes and the infusion of broccoli (and I think a hint of cheese) was just perfect. You can really feel the broccoli bits against your tongue. It adds a nice texture and flavor to the otherwise plain and creamy soup. The main courses served to us were Pot Roast Beef with Mashed Potato, Baked Fish with Four Cheeses and Baked Herbed Chicken (in place of Iberian Chicken). I am not a food blogger—so I cannot ever describe nor will I even try to give a mouthful of how good everything was. It wasn’t too much flavor nor was anything bland. Everything was cooked perfectly. I remember E loving the chicken a lot, I was really into the fish and my mom was raving about the beef. All in all, they all fit together. After the main courses, we moved on to dessert, which were just as superb—not the usual panacotta or cake. It’s like they take these usual food items and take it to another level or give it a flavor you will not think over and yet, they just send your taste buds to an adventure you will not forget in a while. Upon finishing up, Chef Mike showed us photos of the latest events they had, mostly corporate in nature. Then, he showed us photos of some weddings they catered to and as always, their setup is beautiful! I was asking him why they don’t promote themselves more or attend wedding fairs, he was saying, the word of mouth itself is huge enough for them to cater to a lot of events. He says the money spent in marketing automatically shifts up the pricing of their food and services—which they did not want. We will have our final food tasting sometime April or early May so that we get to finalize all the food choices, and dig down to more details than I have already mentioned earlier. I know in my heart our guests will enjoy the dinner Red Chef will be preparing for them. UPDATE: In case you want JJ's contact information, please email me here. She does not have an actual shop / store in Metro Manila but you can drop by her home for a more private meeting. --------------------- One of the first things we were able to do on our trip back to Manila was finalize our wedding rings. Now, I know we said, we’d have it done at Golden Hills Jewelry but we went to another jeweler family friend to help us out. We went to her house to pick out rings and have our fingers sized. It was such an experience as we sat at their family dining room, appreciating the cozy, laid back interiors of their sprawling bungalow house. JJ, my tita Donna’s daughter (who took over the jewelry business), came to show us rings she designed for previous couples. She laid out a bunch of wedding and engagement rings for our perusal. They were such eye-candies: After trying them on, I chose this style for myself: I cannot help but gush over this wedding ring. It’s sooo beautiful in person. It fits perfectly for me. It was the right weight and has that brilliant sparkle! Best of all, I felt it complemented my engagement ring. So I had the option to wear them together or on its own. JJ explained to us the pros and cons of choosing rings, such as, why a half eternity over an eternity ring. Why to choose 14K or 18K gold? How to match the engagement ring to the wedding ring? How thick should the bands be? I learned a lot and felt service was really personalized. E did not have a lot of choices but nevertheless, we found a perfect one for him—one that is suited for his eccentric style, at the same time, match the lifestyle and job he has. We picked this out for him: We cannot have chosen a better one for E—I think this brush finish on top and slanted shiny finish on the side is really “him”. Stylish and still manly at the same time.
After the meeting, I felt a sudden surge of excitement! I am baaaaackkk!!
Gawd I miss lightning fast internet, LTE everywhere and anywhere, predictable bus and train times and efficient SG transactions! We were back in Manila for about 3 weeks and in that span of time, we have accomplished a lot in terms of wedding preps and planning. I’m so happy! I’m so proud of myself too! Ha ha ha! I will do a blog post for each of our activities done but so far, these were the things ticked off our list: 1. Finalize our wedding rings (yay for this!) 2. Do a food tasting with caterer 3. Do an ocular for both the church (St. Ignatius Camp Aguinaldo) and the reception venue (Elements at Eton Centris)—and map out the directions through a short dry run (more about this later on) 4. Meet with the entourage and our principal sponsors 5. Buy tela (cloth) to be used for our entourage and principal sponsors AND distribute them 6. Distribute gifts to our principal sponsors 7. Pamamanhikan (check check check!) 8. Meet each other’s super extended families (It’s quite a different experience as when we just met them when we were “just dating” and now, formally engaged couple) 9. Gather church and legal documents 10. Meet with other potential suppliers For now, I am easing my way back into reality that HOLIDAY IS OVER. As much as I enjoyed Christmas and New Year’s in Manila, I’m so glad to be back in Singapore. |
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29 year old newly-wed wife. Born and raised in Manila. Used to work and live in Singapore, now in Australia. Archives
December 2015
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