updates

first and foremost...

me and Mike's joint birthdays celebration was a blast! it was on monday night at our teeny weeny home, and everything and everyone was just awesome. food were homecooked by my mommy and mama mila and with a big help from auntie mel and sis. ann g =) sis. ann also brought me her infamous homemade crema de fruta! omg, succulent. 'could eat that everyday of my life and never get tired of it. beyb was mainly in charge of the grilling, but cherry, my FRIEND (inside joke) from work, stepped up to the plate to be a bbq girl as well on top of bringing her homecooked spaghetti (with chicken!). jon and mon brought their very remarkable and noticeable (inside joke again) tiramisu, me and mon's favorite during our college years. and of course, how can i forget valerie's fully customized and painstakingly-and-exclusively-baked-for-us birthday cakeS? mike and i each had our own cake =) then karaoke (and dancing) until midnight! again, thank you so much, everyone! mike and i were so overjoyed because i think it is the first time in a loooong while we've gathered all our real friends at one place at one time... and i noticed that everyone who were there are also the same ones who are going to be invited to our wedding. 'made me even more excited.

so that was on monday... tuesday, i had an extended day off from work (yes, it was nice!), so took advantage of that to run lotsa overdue errands with cj. i finally had my hollow-to-hem measurements done for my dress, the one with my actual bridal shoes on. also, that morning, i finally heard from kuya rene gaviola, and he suggested that we could do our first engagement/bridal session on that night. he's been in the country since almost two weeks ago to cover a wedding in anaheim, ca, last weekend, and it so happened that he had a detour to las vegas for another business trip, so we figuredthat we could do some photo sessions in between. he flew in vegas on late monday night, and since we figured that it'd be crowded on the strip on weekends, we really pushed to have the night shoot on the strip on a weeknight in the middle of the week (despite of kuya rene's low energy charge due to his back-to-back sched). so we did! omg, it was so much fun. exhausting but FUN!

so far, we've done a shoot at the venetian and then on las vegas blvd sidewalk, the front area of paris/bally's/planet hollywood/across bellagio. we started at 8:30 in the evening and got done at two in the morning, but we didn't get home until almost four a.m. because of our late night dinner at downtown. (and i had to show up at work that morning! ) so far, kuya rene has shown me one teaser (his favorite one that didn't need "enhancement" ;), and it turned out AWESOME that i cannot wait to see the rest! (by the way , i'll wait til i have at least three images to post online all at once before i show them. hehe!) we are planning to do at least one more extension of our session since kuya rene will be in town for another week. i'm sure there will be one this weekend. ;) ahh, mike and i are ecstatic! oh, and kuya rene is absolutely highly recommended. aside from the fun we had with the ever-humble-down-to-earth him, he was excellent to spot my fabulous "angles."

oh, and of course, how can i forget? MAD PROPS TO CJ... for being my stylist, personal assistant (haha!), assistant lightwoman, critic, my-wide-smile-trigger, STEPDAUGHTER (inside joke), and everything in between! aylabyu, CJ!

ok, to be continued tomorrow... i still haven't fully recuperated from my 3-hour sleep the other night.