so orange

SO... i just realized that westin's exterior color is orange. oooh, coincidence? or not?

psh! hehehe...

reception at westin

one thing that you will definitely notice about us: mike and i are super blessed with friends who have talents and gift in different areas of interest. we have a friend who is an exquisite baker and cake decorator; at least a couple of friends who are creative and fresh graphic artists; a friend who is an eloquent witty writer (and she's a biochemist in profession); a friend who mixes and deejays both for high-profile filipino artists' concerts and family parties who, by the way, happens to have a remarkably suave singing voice as well; lotsa friends who are oozing with genuine musical talents (vocal and instrumental); and last but not the least, a (highly-eligible bachelor) friend who is a trendy and superb interior designer (he is currently working as part of wynn development team with his major project on wynn's sister property, the under-construction Encore), who has generously and willingly offered his assistance and expertise for our wedding ;) =)

kuya evan and i were emailing each other back and forth at work today (i know, bad!!!) about the wedding's setup and decors, especially at the reception site, and i promised him i would give him more details about where exactly i'm at in my concept and planning.

so i am, and here it goes...

okay, the reception. i'm sure i have previously mentioned about westin several times. see, i've noticed that majority of the wedding banquet facilities here in town are in a golf country club. (and i'm not talking about the cheesy vegas-style weddings on las vegas blvd little chapels) the only thing though is i've noticed that the highlight of holding a wedding event in country club is holding the ceremony outdoors. like i said in my previous post, i'm not exactly the garden-wedding type of bride - nope, not the castle-wedding type neither. i believe "urban modern chic" is my kind of thang, so my if-i-had-all-the-money-in-the-world type of dream wedding would be either at a sugary-white sand beach paradise or at a loft-style penthouse with towering ceilings. however, since i would have to be filthy rich to have those types of wedding especially here in las vegas, i opted for a venue where the chic-ness can still be reflected in its modern decor. mandalay bay would be my first pick here in town, but since i can't afford to pay $200 per person, the more humble yet still classy comtempo westin casuarina is just the perfect fit for me. (right, and mike.)


anyway, so far, i do not feel any regrets with picking westin even as i see or discover other venues here in town. i love how it's in the midst of bustles of the strip (it's on flamingo road but only like a hundred yards away from las vegas blvd) and yet, the environment inside the property gives you a "near yet so far" feeling from the typical boisterous vegas ambiance. well, mainly because, westin's clientele are primarily business travelers. and of course, i love the clean contemporary decor. as their website head-on described, "In a city known for glitz and glamour, our 826 guest rooms and suites offer understated style and the utmost elegance. Muted tones, soft lighting, and simple contemporary decor create an environment where you can't help but feel at ease." on top of these, their price tag, although not inexpensive, is fair and reasonable; everything needed to hold an event is pretty much included; no stupid "add-on" fees for things that you'd think are standard. plus, their event/catering sales manager is very accomodating and flexible - sweet lady, too.

the reception is going to be a sit-down plated dinner. i am so against having your guests in a "formal" once-in-a-lifetime event needing to get up from their seats to form buffet lines. i don't like the picture in my head of guests getting up and down from their seats, walking back and forth, loitering around unless, of course, they are heading to the dance floor to get their groove on. it's almost, for lack of a better word, ghetto.

acacia C & D ballroom is over 5000 sq. ft. westin's standard linens are these:

i know! isn't it great how they don't have the ever-common white/ivory linens that are usually the standard in other venues? theirs are low-toned gold with patterns in a high-quality fabric, so i am not even thinking twice about not upgrading the linens coz i won't. the matching chair covers are going to be provided as well. (99% of the venues i looked into charge $5-7 per chair for these things! like, seriously!) they even have complimentary centerpieces i.e. similar to the ones in the picture or little/simpler versions of the centerpieces i have in mind, but i'd really hate to be that stingy on decors, so we are creating our own. they are also providing a 30x30 wooden dance floor, which is, again, usually an "add-on" at other venues. chinas and flatware are going to be provided, as well as votive candles. tables can be set for 8 to 10 persons per. my current best estimate is, there will be more or less 110 guests: minimum 100/maximum 130. westin can set up a long "presidential" table (for the sponsors) and/or an elevated sweethearts table (for the bride-and-groom obviously), depending on our preference, and i honestly have not really thought about it yet.

**kuya evan, i will e-mail you two sample diagrams of the reception set-up sent to me by westin. sorry, i blabbed on and on in the beginning of this post. hehehe...

hey, guys, any input is totally welcome and appreciated!

EDIT: our actual reception at westin...

three (3) months countdown

we finally found a church... THE church! super yay for us! i almost thought that day would never come! on thursday, 8.23 ( exactly three months away from our wedding anniversary), pastora fegie (our church wedding officiant=) and i met with the senior pastor of first presbyterian church of las vegas. of course, it is very important for me and mike to have a fully Christ-centered, purely yet as non-denominational as possible Christian wedding ceremony, but at the same time, i'd still really love a traditional church setting with the "wedding march" aisle and everything. (i don't know. i was never really into the whole outdoor wedding venues, unless it is a beach setting which is my dream wedding.) however, especially here in town, there isn't any non-denominational churches with the kind of church building that fit our - well, my requirements. so we had to resort to denominational Christian churches (mainly Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist). mike and i even took a whole day off from work just to visit at least 7 churches all over las vegas and henderson. however, either they are not booking any weddings on that date (due to thanksgiving/start of Christmas season events), or they are very strict about allowing our own pastor to officiate the wedding, and i don't know: pastora fegie is just way too cool to not officiate our wedding. we were on the verge of giving up that mike and i already had a plan B: set up the ceremony site at westin as well.

i know, right?! it's fascinating how our "church wedding" did not have a church venue within three months from the wedding day while we managed to book everything else well enough in advance (i.e. photographer LOL). well, not anymore co'z pastor jim of first presby church said, "we believe that our church facility was merely entrusted to us by God, so it is our obligation to share it to the community, especially for sacred life-long events, even if they are not members of our church." wow, i especially loved the "obligation" part of that sentence. on 8/23, we were officially pencilled in their church calendar for november 24, 2007. =)

although there are still countless details to implement, mike and i feel soooo relieved to have the following major details booked or, at least, in the process:

• church venue: first presbyterian church of las vegas
• reception venue: the westin casuarina las vegas hotel, casino, & spa
• bridal dress: demetrios bridal [my actual dress came in! 'had my first fitting last thursday, but still need major alterations to be done because i'm ridiculously tiny. urgh. seamstress appointment on 9/24, which will give me another month to put on healthier weight. *fingers crossed*)
• groom's tux: after hours formalwear [ordered and paid]
• bride's maids dresses: david's bridal [for the girls who have yet to order their dresses, you know who you are =)]
• groom's men tuxes: after hours formalwear [gentlemen, please go to any of their store locations before september ends; mention the wedding date and the groom's name. 50% deposit is required at the time of the order.]
• flower girl's dress: demetrios bridal [ordered and paid]
• senior photograper and associate photographer: rene gaviola and marco ingco [plane tickets booked and paid]
• floral and decor supplies: flowerbud.com, save-on-crafts.com, efavormart.com
• music/dj: jans sounds courtesy of mr. jon regala and cong lito nuqui ;)
• photo/video montage: ezra and cyrus - the H2O siblings =)
• save-the-date/wedding invites/stationery: james m.
• wedding cake: the pabulous tarush miss valerie castaneda <333

whew, there are still so much to be crammed in the next three months. still on the look for a videographer. we are not planning to allocate so much on this (photography is our priority!=), so it's tricky for us. errr...

approximately twelve weekends away. shucks! to our friends, who have offered and assured their availability to be of assistance to me and mike if and whenever needed, words are not enough for me to express my appreciation just for your thoughts alone. you know who you are! <3

Conserve Eleven Twenty Four 2007

designed and created by redchapz
(r.g. on save-the-date)

special note: due to the observance of thanksgiving day and for the greater convenience of the guests, we have decided, as you can see, to move our wedding date from november 23, 2007, friday - our exact 1st wedding anniversary - to november 24, 2007, saturday.

our two thousand one hundred ninety-first day

about three weeks ago, in honor of our two thousand one hundred ninety-first day together, mike took me out for a fancy dinner date at craftsteak in the mgm grand. craftsteak was fabulous, especially the restaurant's decor. food was delicious; i could not stop eating their delectable corn kernels, and that was only their side dish. i gotta admit, however, that my experience at fleur de lys remains number one; their customer service made you feel like you're in a movie. 'then again, i have only been to three (3) fine dining restaurants my whole life, so who am i to say? good thing, mike promised me that from now on, he'll take me out to a fancy restaurant in town at least once a year. hehe... it's quite a humble promise, so i'm pretty confident about him keeping it =)

first course

main coursedesert

nope, this isn't part of the desert anymore.

on top of the fancy dinner, my husband wrote me a love letter inserted in a hallmark musical card (the tune was "truly"). it's ridiculously corny that it is SO cute! as a matter of fact, even without the fancy dinner, the love letter alone was well over enough to make the day. <3

mike had already asked me where i'd like to go next time. it's too early to tell, but i think it's pretty safe to say i'm leaning towards this one. =)

less than four months countdown

that's right. less than four months away. yet, i feel like i have not done any major progress in my wedding preps. i feel horrible! i feel like everything is currently a mess. this is probably why i have not even bothered to take the time to do some blogging. what else am i going to blog about other than whining about how i have not done any major progress in my wedding preps? and how many times do i have to repeat that i have not done any major progress in wedding preps within the same paragraph? grrrr!!!

not trying to make excuses, but really... unfortunately, my world does not solely revolve around the wedding preparations. there's always one thing after the other that keeps me from focusing on the wedding... i mean, there's work, church, family, and my ongoing marriage itself - all simultaneously! cuhrayzay!

i am starting to really panic. i am such a worrywart, and mike claims i have ADD, which is why it is hard for me to focus on one thing at a time, so i never finish anything. i used to deny it, but i am starting to believe it now. anyway, this whole wedding thing is starting to eat me up alive. i keep having this imaginations of our wedding day turning into a wedding fiasco. at work today, i couldn't even get myself to focus because the wedding would always be in the back of my brain. my gahrs!

... which reminds me, special thanks to sheryll for the words of encouragement in the midst of my panic attacks.

save-the-date cards

first of all, i don't think i have ever mentioned this on here before, so i will take this opportunity now to officially announce that my beri cool, creative, contempo-inspired graphic artist friend james is designing and creating my invites. yay!

there, james. since it was "officially" announced, there's no backing out now. hehe!

anyhoo, so, james and i finally met up this afternoon to specifically talk about the wedding invites. he showed me some "samples," including those that he did for kuya evan's portfolio/exhibit that he did for school before his graduation. (kuya evan is another friend of ours who finished a degree in interior design/architecture less than a year ago and now works for the wynn.) i must say i was so impressed with what they created... the business cards, the resume printed in like an invite format, and other "homemade" promotional materials like the kitkat bars wrapped in wrappers with kuya evan's contact info (like what you'd see in a business card) that they just made themselves. everything was just sooo cool and clever, and james kept saying, they were even cramming when they did all of those. minadali pa yun sa lagay na yun ha?! well, let's just say, with kuya evan's portfolio and self-promo materials, no wonder kuya evan got an interview and hired by the wynn. ;)

aside from michaels, we also went to barnes and noble, so james could show me some books about graphic arts for brochures and invites just for additional "inspiration." that helped out alot coz we saw some neat ideas that we are definitely planning to incorporate somehow. it's pretty exciting!

what's really cool with james is we both have the same taste (minimalistic, contemporary, sharp and clean, non-traditional yet sophisticated), so it's not hard at all for me to explain to him what i want coz he actually gets it. even if i probably don't even explain to him anything, he could still create something that i would absolutely love. that's how much i trust this guy's creative instinct! (nakanangtipaklong! hehe)

since we are planning to invite some guest from the philippines and from out-of-state, i made a special request that we create some save-the-date cards since our timeline to get the actual invites done won't be until end of august - early september-ish. so we are! james's estimate is we will get this done by next weekend (the 14th). i will let you guys know if we will need help to put them together, althoughi don't exactly know how coz james warned me he has his oc attacks, especially when it comes to cutting. hehe...

anyway, that's it for now since i'm exhausted! mike and i helped out at our church's fireworks booth, and it was like hell out there today!!! man, frrreakin' vegas weather for you! then, we also did our own mini-fireworks show at home with the kids and arleen. =)

and oh yeah, happy fourth of july, everyone!

p.s. doesn't it suck that fourth of july this year was just right smack in the middle of the week? back to work tomorrow.

!!important reminder: bride's maids dresses!!

girls, please don't forget to drop by at david's bridal to finalize and order your dresses. deadline is this weekend since it may take up to 20 weeks to make the dresses and have them shipped back.

please refer to a previous post to see the variation of dress styles to choose from. also, the sales consultant will normally ask you for the name of the bride, so that they can pull up the file to make sure you are ordering the right style, color, etc., but just in case you don't get asked, bring it to their attention.

if you have any questions, please let me know either though this blog or by phone.

Thank you all so very much! <333

oh, and girls, we have passed the five-month mark. frrreakin' crap!

"leap of faith"

rene gaviola's newly-updated portfolio

kuya rene's fine suprise for us

flying to hawaii

... the husband, that is.

we dropped off mike at the airport two hours ago. i believe his plane took off about half an hour ago and will be landing in honolulu, hawaii, at 8 in the morning for a half-hour stop-over, and he's off to the island of kauai.

ok, so i know he will be gone for only six days, which is why i am hesitant to admit this (i got a rep' to protect, you know), but this being away from each other thing is kind of a big deal for me. (yeah, yeah... "awww...") this is going to be the first time since we got married that we will be away from each other for that long. not to be mushy, but after seven months of being married (ok, so seven months is not very long, psh!), i still really do love waking up with him every morning (uh, yes, even after a big unresolved fight from the night before) and falling asleep in his arms every night... so yes, i will miss my husband so very much. there!

no, he's not going to hawaii for a vacation and to have fun without me... well, uhm, at least, i think not. hmm... but he's going to hawaii to visit his ill uncle eddie (papa nathan's brother), and i really hope this will be a great experience for both of them since they haven't seen each other in ages. mike really wanted to take me with him since uncle eddie and i have yet to meet, and it would be both our first time to go to hawaii, but aside from bad timing at work (my boss is leaving in three weeks, so lots of pending stuff that need to get done before she transfers the department to the new boss), a plane ticket to hawaii is currently soaring up in the sky since it's the summer season.

oh, well. it's kinda nice, i guess. mike and i both realized that this will be good for us, being away from each other for a few days. it's a nice break for us to just miss each other and appreciate each other's presence. in these past weeks - actually, make that months, not only have we been frequently getting on each other's nerves, we have also been working through some pretty major issues in our relationship... i know, right?! only seven months of marriage, and the reality of marriage has already started to mess with us. some friends have said, "shouldn't you still be in the 'honeymoon stage'?" well, apparently, not.

i'm not shocked, though. first of all, it's not like we haven't been through worse before we got married. we have so many witnesses to our "worse," too! second, the moment we agreed to get married, i never expected our marriage to be a pure bliss. i was never oblivious to our differences. well, mike and i are too different, even exact opposites in many aspects of our characters and our lives; i think it would be quite hard to be oblivious to begin with. nonetheless, it was not our differences that became the basis of our desicion to vow to spend the rest of our lives with each other. rather, it was our "time-proven" constant devotion and commitment to work through those countless differences on top of the hardships that our imperfect lives regularly throw our way. i guess, one of the best things that i am proud of about our relationship is we actually do talk. err, fine, sometimes, i do most of the talking, but that's only because i have to keep repeating what i say coz he's not very good at listening! but i digress... like i said, we do talk. even when we are fighting... we may shrug it off our shoulders the first couple of times something comes up because we're about to catch the sunrise and have to be at work in a couple of hours, but we normally never stop discussing until we get to the bottom of it all, even if it takes days or months (or even years). oh, those sleepless-nights, ceaseless fights. but hey, don't those phd experts say healthy relationships have regular conflicts and fights? you know why? i know why. the kiss-and-make-up part.

... if you know what i mean. *wink*

hey! don't assume you know what i mean.

Pre-Wedding Bridal Party Photo Session - Part 3

photographer: rene gaviola
location: the forum shops at caesars palace & the venetian grand canal shoppes
date: 06062007

{click on the image to view full album; all images in the album can be enlarged by clicking "full size"}

blossoms & branches

from confetticakes.com

cute and simple, yes? except make the blossoms orange.

[expect a nitpicking, scrutinizing comment from valerie. totally. haha! :]

just for val's reference =)

val, this is what i was kinda referring to: it has the "native" feel but still contemporary enough... although it doesn't really matter now ;)

[product shown is of pacific industries.]

a feather thing

the cheapest decent-looking feather bridal hair clip i could find online: $30.00

from rushcreations.com

wot'cha think?

if you, girls, can find something better at a better value, please let me know. thank you!

flowerssssss

i just discovered this online flower market, flowerbud.com, and they have these awesome packages for specially for weddings. they also look very reliable and dependable. it's just hard to order from a random online bulk flower stores and risk getting crappy flowers and/or not getting them on time because of late shipments.

this "grand box" of tulips cost $169.00 and contains 120 stems. that is approximately $1.41 per stem. not bad, huh?

they also offer mini calla lilies and grand calla lilies, although they are a bit pricey. a single stem of grand calla lily can go as much as $4. yikes.

however, i also discovered that white irises - with gold - can be incorporated in my flower theme since it's so simple and minimalist but can give that touch of delicateness and intricacy. now, i'm thinking for my bouquet: orange tulips with white irises. i know i wanted a full white bouquet before, but i read once in an article that full white bouquet does not do very good in photos. plus, i love orange. we'll see though.

and of course, cymbidium orchids... oh my gah, they just look so divine and elegant. but of course, the price tag is also elegant: $17 per stem. if i can't fill all the tables with orchids, i want them, at least, in me and mike's table. although, i haven't fully decided on the seating arrangements yet: whether i want the two of us isolated in a "sweetheart table" or in a "presidential table" with our parents and other very special people, for example.

Pre-Wedding Photo Session - Part 2

photographer: rene gaviola
location: red rock canyon, las vegas, nv
date: 06022007

{click on the image to view full album; all images in the album can be enlarged by clicking "full size"}

Pre-Wedding Photo Session - Part 1

photographer: rene gaviola
location: the venetian; ballys-paris-planethollywood-bellagio frontage
date: 05292007

{click on the image to view full album; all images in the album can be enlarged by clicking "full size"}

SESSIONS 2 & 3 YET TO BE POSTED...

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.

six months

okay, yeah, so i just realized that we just recently hit the 6 months countdown.

girls, first things first... (1) we need to meet up soon and delegate the tasks, (2) we need to set up a day for all of us to go back to david's bridal - no later than next weekend ideally - to finalize your dresses.

*hyperventilates* everything's gonna be okay. everything's gonna be okay.

p.s. monday, 5/28... come to our house for a little get-together in the evening. call me to confirm!

Meet...

... our very special flower girl and bride's maid: mikayla and cj

so i decided to move the wedding blog here on blogger. blogger's interface is much more simpler; i started feeling like multiply has too much things going on in it... that, and they didn't have a template with brown motif. hehe! and at least on here, i can choose some of my bridal party to be added as authors. well, let's just hope that they'd actually take advantage of their "posting powers," as i'd really this to be like a memento for everyone who's involved in the wedding preps.

so yeah, yeah, i haven't blogged for the longest time. mainly because there really isn't much progress with this whole wedding "thing." psh. but another big reason is our girls came back two weeks ago after spending a year in the pilipinas. it's weird because i never truly realized how much i missed them until they came back and i saw them again. :) pretty girls, aren't they? thanks to their daddy's ultra-strong genetic powers.

i swear. like when i'm out somewhere i.e. work, driving, church, restaurant, overwhelming ideas and thoughts about the wedding would be lingering in my mind, and i'd be like, "oh, this is gonna be so on the blog tonight." but once i get home and actually have the opportunity to write, i would just blank out and end up not blogging anything.

it's okay. i'll get better at this...