I Didn't Realize Grey Shoes Were So Difficult to Find

Grey dress shoes, specifically wing tip oxfords, are like the proverbial needle in a hay stack. I didn't find any in any shop in Metro Manila. Not Bally, Zara, Cole Haan, nor Florsheim. Alberto and Pedro were of no use either.

But here in Doha, in a country were 99.9% of men preferred sandals over shoes, I found a pair exactly my size at Zara.  It was actually Yeng who found it oline and told me about it. So finally, just a little more than a month before the wedding...

Probably the fact that men here prefer not to wear shoes helped. I guess grey sandals would be impossible to find here though.

Wedding Preparation Signal No. 1

My two week break was a flurry of out of town visits and wedding related activities.

Of course I already wrote about our trip to Davao, but I have not yet mentioned that we also went to Bohol to attend the wedding of a couple who we count as very good friends. This probably deserves a post on its own, so Ill come back to that later.

Now, as for wedding preparations, it was a flurry of activities! In less than two weeks we managed to do the following activities.

• I met up with Aquatico owner, Monet Gusi, and make the down payment for the venue and advance payment for the rooms.
• We met up with Yeng's gown designer Martin Bautista for Yeng's initial measurements. Payment was made too
• We met up with Salsa trends designer and discuss the designs for the female entourage
• I  went to QC city hall to get the wedding license requirements and certification for the family planning/marriage counseling seminars
• I went to two churches in Laguna, one in Bay and another one in Los Banos to get a copy of my confirmation certificate. Turns out I'm not yet confirmed, so I got a copy of my baptismal certificate instead.
• Made the payment to Chiro and Bizu

Hmm now that I'm writing it the list doesn't seem that long, but it did seem like a lot of work was done and a lot of bills were paid too! Ok maybe it was not a full blown storm, but it was a signal number 1 typhoon. Next time I'm home, I think it's going to be signa number two!

Groom Must Do #1 - Losing Weight

There are two things that Yeng has asked me to do ASAP.

1. Lose weight
2. Get a haircut

I stand a few mils below 5'6" and according to this morning's weigh in, I'm currently at 144.2lbs. Based on healthchecksystems weight/height charts, I'm already nearing overweight territory (I used medium frame 5'5" height).

Overweight. Damn, that's harsh.

When I met Yeng back in 2005, I was probably weighing around 138lbs. I was a regular at the gym then and because my salary limited my choices, I was subsisting on a regular dose of fast food. Not what you would call healthy.

Then I met Yeng and moved to Shell. With a steady dose of dates and an improved salary enough to finance more calories, I ballooned to 154lbs.

At around this time, we scheduled a trip to Palawan where I would need to be half-naked (top half, mind you) in beaches more than 50% off the time. I went back to the gym and tried out the south beach diet. I lost 20lbs and weighed in at a low of 134lbs. Ive borrowed some picture's from Yeng's multiply site and here are two pictures when I was at 154 and when I was 134lbs. Now I look more like the 154lb version, only with longer hair.



I've lost my way since then and weighed 140lbs two weeks ago. Then the holy week came and I went home to enjoy some good old home cooking and treats like scramble. I weighed myself last Easter, and voila! 147.8lbs! Overweight again!

I just started my gym routine again yesterday and I haven't had rice since Easter. So even if I'm still overweight at 144.2lbs, its actually a big improvment from 147.8. My goal is to be at 135 on our wedding day and with exactly 9 months to go, I think this is very much doable.

San Juan Nepomuceno Church

Yeng's 2 must haves for the church where we will be wed.

1. must be airconditioned
2. must have a wooden door from where she can make a grand entrance.

My condition was that it should not be too big, as I didn't want it to look empty with our modest guest list.

Other nice-to-have's were:

1. looks rustic
2. lenient in terms of song selection for the bridal march

We actually spent one day driving around Manila to look at the available options and we even wandered into a couple of weddings. Some of the churches were nice. Others were so-so. Some had a very short distance from entrance to altar (sabi namin ni Yeng no chance to emote going to the altar), while some had glass doors (walang dramtic entrance). Some had strange requirements (reservations accepted only when the requirements are complete) while others had stranger terms and conditions (church has the right to unplug the music at any time during the march/ceremony). Some were farely priced while others were skyhigh (like wedding reception venue budget plus plus high)

To make the long story short, we will not be wed in Manila but in San Juan Batangas where there is only one Catholic church where weddings can be held: San Juan Nepomuceno Church.

Wooden door - check
A/C - not a chance
Size - big enough to be the only Church in San Juan Batangas.

One out of three is not really what we were hoping for, but you've got to take the good with the rest of it. Besides do we get props for getting wed in the church people remember more as the Juday-Ryan Church? Lol!

Here's what the facade of the San-Juan Nepomuceno Church looks like. The facade actually has a nice look to it, very rustic and old-world looking. If you look closer, you'll see Yeng in white waving her hands at me to hurry in.

Where's Yeng?

You'll probably notice that for the past couple of days all the posts have been made by me. Well apart from what Yeng calls as my being a "groomzilla" which I still am contesting, the main reason why Yeng has been missing is because she has to do 15hrs additional OT this week. She also did 12hrs last week.

Even though she hasn't been posting, she accompanied me last weekend to meet up with a potential designer for my suit. We also went to a bridal fair last Saturday where we managed to book our Discovery Weekend. This week we haven't really done anything yet, though I'm meeting up with another designer this evening. This coming weekend were meeting up with Yeng's designers naman.

So yun, while she's working hard (and tweeting away - see far right), I've been grromzilla-ing for the past couple of days. Woot woot.

Mood Boards and Sunsets

One of the earliest decision that has to be made in preparing for a wedding is the theme. It helps the couple choose the motif, the design of the dresses, the lay out of the wedding reception, the food, etc etc.

Yeng and I initially thought of having a white beach wedding. White always looks so simple yet beautiful, and its understated elegance is just stunning. But alas, Juday and Ryan beat us to using the theme, and pursuing so would just add to the similarities. Well yung church lang naman ang parehas, but I'd like to keep it that way as much as possible. Oh of course there's one more, Ryan and I are both good looking bespectacled gentlemen. Woot woot.

So Yeng and I decided to look for something else that was at the same time beautiful and simple. Eventually we decided on something that we both liked and thought would be an apt theme for our wedding.

Sunsets are beautiful if one but pauses to appreciate them. Just like how a wedding announces the journey of two people that have decided to navigate life together as one, the sunset is also a short and beautiful event that starts the journey of the moon and the stars through the landscape of night.

I once read this poem by David Harris...

...Just beyond the sunset
Someone waits for me
Just beyond the sunset
Lies my destiny...

...There I'll find the treasure
Of love eternally

On January 8, 2011, the sunset brings me to my destiny.

(Then we can start making those cute little baby stars...)

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As we didn't want to be overwhelmed by bright hues of orange and blue (remember the undertstated part?), we chose a particular sunset that we thought would be nice for a beach wedding. We wanted a theme where elements of white provide a nice clean palette for the strong colors of blue and orange. And where else in the world would you see white, blue and orange mixed seamlessly? Santorini and Mykonos of course!

Over the weekend we tried to cram in one A3 size sheet all the ideas, colors and elements we thought represented what we wanted during our special day. And here is how it turns out:



Now that I'm armed with a mood board, I think I'm a little bit more comfortable facing suppliers and their thousand and one questions. With a mood board, I don't have to talk that much. You know what they say, a picture paints a thousand words and having 24 images in one A3 sheet should say a lot.

My First Wedding Expo - Groom's POV

We just spent the whole weekend attending wedding expos. We went to the Weddings and Beyond expo at the NBC Tent last Saturday and the Island Exhibits wedding expo at SM Megamall yesterday (Sunday).

As it was my first time to visit such events, I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't even know that there was free lunch care of the caterers if you cared enough to listen to their sales pitch. Unfortunately, Yeng and I only found out after eating lunch at Gourdo's, where we ordered three (3) whole pizzas. Their pizza was great, though it gets to you after the 3rd day of eating it.

Going back to the wedding fair, the event at the NBC was packed. They had everything from invites to aircon rentals. There was even this exhibitor that specialized in preserving gowns! I thought you just had to put it inside a box with moth balls then stick it inside your cabinet. Then add a little bit more of moth balls. Hehehe.

One thing I realized was the reason why some photography and videography studios can offer (relatively) cheap packages is because they have multiple teams that can cover multiple weddings at the same day. So you're not really sure who and what you'll get during your wedding day, though I'm pretty sure that all their photographers are trained sufficiently and experienced. The difference though in getting the Lito Sys, Pat Dys, Pilar Tuasons, etc. of the industry, is that with these guys you know who you're getting and what skills they bring to the table. Of course they come with a higher price tag.

The Sunday event at Megamall was smaller. Most of the photog and videog vendors at the Fort were also at Megamall. We got a couple of vouchers from some of the hair and make up exhibitors as well as some from event stylists. Yeng actually had a free trial make up done which i found to be so-so. I think the make up put on her nose was quite over the top. She thinks so too.

At the end of two days, we didn't book any supplier but at least we had a ball park estimate of how much each supplier would cost. We also found some invitation ideas that we might try DIY. Anyway were thinking of having a relatively small wedding so we might be able to do it.

There will be two (2) more wedding expos on February, and hopefully by then we should have already booked a couple of suppliers and if not, at the least we should know which ones are worth booking and which ones are just good enough to get a free lunch from.