The Bridal Shower

Oh Yeah!! My beautiful girlfriends do love me a lot!!  As I am already on the stage where stress is in high levels, they organized a surprised bridal shower for me!!

I won't give to much details about what happened here. HAHA! I just want to thank all that has been part of this very memorable party. I never new that I am this special for you, gals. I love you all <3

Souvenirs

Since our reception venue is outdoor (thus, non air-conditioned), my sister thought of giving away fans as a souvenir. We simply have a hundred fans embroidered with our names. Half of it is purple and the other half is black. I really really loved the way it looks. We only got the embroidered fans for php 45 each. Then we just bought special abaca bag for each fan. Each of it costs only php10. I just designed the bag to make it look special. 

This is just a simple souvenir but I hope this will be useful for the guests.

The Marriage License

One of the most important requirement in getting married is of course the marriage license. Each municipality have different requirements in applying for this. Definitely, you would need CENOMAR for this. I got mine online using e-census which is every convenient for me.

Another requirement is the Family Planning Seminar. Fortunately, a certificate was issued by the church for us to use for this purpose.

We went to apply for the marriage license at Mandaluyong City hall. The application process did not take long, just around 30 minutes. We are asked to go back after a few days to get the actual license. After having the license, we then submitted these documents to the Parish Office.

Invitations

After finalizing the whole entourage, it's now time to work on the invitation. the whole process of working on the invitation, from the design layout to the printing is really fast. just a few days after I approved the layout, Suzette already texted me that the invitations are ready for pick up. We went to their office to pick up the invitations (and pay for the half of the remaining balance). I was really amazed with how the invitation looked like. For me, it is just perfect! I loved it a lot!

The Prenup Session

We are now 3months down before the big day. Our agenda now is the Prenup Session. The place where we had the photo shoot was at Pan de Amerikana in Marikina City. I called them and set a schedule for the shoot. They do not allow any photo shoot on weekends. Thus, we scheduled ours on a Monday. They will only charge php500 for the use of the dressing room and will require your whole team to dine in their restaurant.

After having the schedule set with the placed, we then coordinated with Awesome Events Ph for the photographer's schedule. Also, requested to have a hair & makeup artist which is not a part of the package we availed.

The morning of the prenup day, I was both excited and nervous. We arrived early in the venue. We stayed at the dressing room as we wait for the artist and the photographer. The makeup artist, Ms. Azhyl Gobe is very amazing. She was able to finish my hair and make up in just around 15 minutes. I loved how she made me look. Our photographer, Sir Leo Pacalda, is also good and very easy to work with. He guides us well on what to do and how to pose. We finished everything in less than 2 hours. This includes to outfits with different hair & makeup.

After the shoot, we dined at Pan de Amerikana. The food is good and relatively affordable. I was a good lunch indeed. We then went to Awesome Event's office. We need to pay the next 10,000 and an additional php 2500 for the hair and makeup. On this same day, we are already given a copy of all the prenup pictures on our flash drive.

As we go home and check the pictures, we are so amazed! I really loved how the pictures look. I also love what was done on my hair and make up. If I will rate Azhyl and Leo for this day, it will definitely be 5 stars!!!

Here are some of the really great photos.

The Dresses

I definitely want to skip the step of gathering my bridesmaids and secondary sponsors for body measurements for their dresses. Thus, I chose to buy the dresses over the shelf. My sister and my niece went with me to Divisoria to score some great dresses for a good price.


Before we actually started hunting down some dresses, we first bought the neckties for the groomsmen and bow ties for the little boys.

Then, we started exploring the stores in 168. There are tons of dresses there. The bridal sections are B1, 4th flr and 6th flr. We got the dresses for the secondary sponsors and for the maid of honor on the 6th flr. Afterwards, we headed to Tutuban Mall. We got the dresses for the bridesmaids there.

Here are the photos for the 3 different designs of the dresses.

for the Maid of Honor

For the Bridesmaids

For the secondary sponsors

I was really happy, I spent less than php6000 for all the dresses. :) :) :)

Seminars

Since we are to be married in a Catholic Church, one of the requirements is to attend seminars. There are 3 seminars in total. Each are to be taken on separate days. Here's a brief description of each:

NFP - Natural Family Planning

Of course we all know that the Catholic Church is no in favor of the artificial ones. Thus, they do give a seminar on the natural way. We had this seminar together with other couples who are also about to be married. It was interesting indeed. They will also educate you on how to have a baby girl or baby boy. The method that was discussed to us is known as BOM or Billings Ovulation Method.

MEI - Marriage Expectation Inventory

For this one, it will be just the two of you together with the one who presides. Both of you will be asked to answer a questionnaire. Most of the questions are about your expectations after the wedding. Both your answers will then be discussed to you. This will help you compromise if there are items that you might disagree about in the future. This will also prepare you on a lot of things that you might face in the future as married couple. (ex. living with relative/parents).

Pre-Cana

This is a longer seminar. We had it from 8am to 5pm. There are quite a few other couples aside from us. This seminar will remind you of your Catholic faith. At the same time, this will prepare you as you enter married life more in a spiritual aspect. This is named after Jesus' first miracle in the wedding in Cana. 

There you have it. Aside from this 3, we will be having Canonical interview with the Priest when the wedding date is already close.