I'm back! :)

we're finally back to civilization... not that im complaining ha... super ganda sa el nido. grabe... heaven on earth cya. my ideal honeymoon talaga. :) im sooo tanned now, para akong local ng palawan! hahaha

okay eto na... hihihi... i've been dying to blog about our wedding for the past few days (almost one week na pala kaming kasal! woohoo) but sadly, we didnt bring our laptops to el nido. (we had to make do with our psps to check mails and messages hahaha. hirap!)

before i begin, let me warn you that i have a VERY strong feeling that this blog will be super duper long. longest of all the long blogs i've written before! bwahaha :) dami ko gusto ikwento. sayang lang i dont have a lot of "behind the scene" pics :(

i'll start off with jan 26 - 10pm:

i had just arrived at the hotel. we were still doing a lot of last minute stuff that we (me and my sis) were only able to get to the hotel around that time. lui was there to check-in for us and to open our suite to Veluz' staff for them to setup my lovely gown. louise (MOH) also arrived around 10pm so si Lui lang tlaga tao sa hotel. hehehe kwawa naman si teddy.

ang bloopers pa talaga... kasi we said that we were not going to see each other the day before the wedding. e nung nasa lobby na kami ni sis paakyat sa room, nakita ko si lui! ahahaha syempre para akong spy na nagtago at tlagang tumakbo! bwahahaha nagulat nga yung bellboy e. all he could say was "ano nangyari?!" hahaha! syempre explain explain na lang kami afterwards ni sis. kakahiya! mukha akong addik! :)

albeit niko and bong's advice that i should hit the sack early and get some beauty rest, i still wasnt able to sleep. i hit the bed around 11pm... but my mind was wandering... plus the fact that i was feeling really sick. the stress and lack of sleep had already taken a toll on my health. i was having cough and cold the night before my wedding! oh no...

nyway, i think nakatulog ako around 2am na... since our call time was 7am, we had to wake up by 4am! anak ng tokwa naman tong si sis ko and si louise, tlagang ako pa ang pinagising ng 4am! hahaha. galit pa si sis dahil tumutunog yung alarm ko! sabi ko nga sa kanila nung breakfast "grabe kayong dalawa, di nyo man lang naisip na ako yung ikakasal. ako pa talga yung pinagising nyo ng una. kung alam ko lang, sana nagsolo na lang ako sa hotel! di ko pa kelangan gumising ng maaga!" bwahahah... they just realized that fact when i told them. hahah di daw nila naisip yun. mga lokaret tlaga! kainis! hmph :)

jan 27 - wedding day (this is it!!!)

eventhough i only had roughly 2 hours of sleep the night before, i dont feel tired. siguro ganun talaga kapag excited ka na :)

the first supplier to arrive was EDDIE BRUAN and his team. syempre mega setup na sila ng stuff nila! ang daming maleta!!! grabe... naglabas pa sila ng lamp /lighting which i dont have any idea for what. hehe di naman ata nagamit ni Tito Eddie :)

all in all, there were 3 of them who were doing the hair and makeup... Tito Eddie, Marina and one more lady. sobrang bilis nila gumawa! i think in a span of one hour, 3 na agad ang natapos nila (hair and makeup included!) we were able to get some shots of the different stages of the hair and makeup of the people in the suite. sobrang funny!!! hahaha will try to upload some pics!

the second team to arrive is Clarice and the An Event to Remember team. as soon as they arrived, they started working, getting all the stuff from me to hand over to them etc etc... sobrang professional nila. syempre si mommy Clarice, sobrang cutie. ang cute tlga nya magbuntis!!! by this time though, i dont know what else was going on coz Tito Eddie started doing my makeup na...

the first thing that stressed me out that day was my bouquet... during our mock, we had orange and red equador roses, plus yellow cymbidium and yellow calla lilies... we were supposed to change the yellow callas to mango callas but before the wedding, tisha already informed me that they were not able to get mango callas since malapit na daw ang valentines sa wedding ko and the importers do not allow imports in low quantities. dapat by bulk daw! but that was fine... the thing that really stressed me out was the orange equador roses... clarice showed me the orange roses that came in with the bouquet that day... hhhmmm how do i describe it? "lanta" yun lang... patay ang itsura as in di maganda... :( the choice that clarice gave me was either to stick with the orange lanta roses or go for the pink-orange carnations... e i dont like the orange roses tlaga so i asked clarice to find out if they can get carnations na mas orange pa ang color... sadly, wala na :( so eventhough i was really dubious that time, i told clarice to go with the carnations... (i couldnt imagine red equador roses, with yellow cymbidiums and calla lilies going well with pink-orange carnations... ) luckily, the bouquet looked nice naman... not as nice as the mock but okay na din. (lui kept saying mas maganda yung mock. he was so happy about the mock bouquet na sobrang nadisappoint sya sa actual bouquet ko. :( )

after clarice and her team, niko and her (hihi) team arrived naman around 9:30am. all dressed in pink (except for niko ha) they proceeded to the bedroom and started with last minute pressing of the gowns etc. :) sobrang love ko tong si niko. aside from the fact na batchmate ko sya sa la salle ang ganda ng ginawa nya shoes and bag for me. sobrang swak na swak sa oriental theme namin! he also did our pillows for the rings and the coins. sobrang ganda!!! with red brocade pa ha!! basta ganda...

the next team that arrived was threelogy. i think around 9:30 to 10am sila dumating. im not sure really coz i didnt have a watch with me that day! hahaha... as soon as they arrived, they started shooting. as in di man lang sila nagpahinga... the first person to approach me was cj. he just started shooting. sabi ko nga sa kanya "grabe di man lang kayo nagpahinga. diretso work agad."

threelogy's style was subtle. you wont feel that they're shooting you. except i think me, coz they were shooting right in front of me while i was sitting having my makeup done. hehe but aside from that, i didnt feel them at all. galing nga e! they captured a lot of moments that i thought was insignificant but when included in the onsite, sobrang nice pala :) galing galing talga...

the second stress factor i had that day was when my dad arrived in our suite. grabe nerbyos to the max ako. just hearing his voice made me want to stand up and run. hahaha... as most of you know, my mom and dad are separated. they havent seen each other for over 15 years. so tlagang lahat kami kabado on what will happen! actually the day before, i had lunch with my dad... he asked me what he would say to mom when he sees her. anu vah!!! tama bang ako ang tanungin nya!!! hahahaha kakaloka tlaga!

but i think everything went well... clarice and my sis were able to handle them well. nag practice march pa nga daw sila sa lobby. how clarice was able to pull that off, i dont know. galing tlaga nya. hahaha!

the next team to arrive was mimi and karl. si karl lang nakita ko kasi i think mimi started shooting the details na. hinahanap ko nga si mimi kay karl sabi ba naman "ako lang magisa today e" hahaha sira tlaga. kinabahan ako dun in fairness. hahaha :)

after that, everything just went in a blur na... ntandaan ko lang kumain kami ng kfc. hahaha... di ko pa nga makain kasi ninenerbyos na ako... some suppliers (like karl and mimi) sobrang cowboy, as in sa sahig na sila kumakain! sobrang nakakahiya nga e. tapos ako nakaplato pa with matching silver spoon and fork (care of AETR). feeling ko tuloy sobrang donya ako... hahaha. kahiya. :p

i also remember getting dressed... nandun si niko and mitch (i am mitch :)) to help me out. medyo naimbyerna ata si niko dear kasi yung suot ko, pababa ang hila hahaha. walang zippers. :) sabi nya lang "mental note. next time bawal ang hinihila pababa" hehehe. :) pinansin pa nila yung polka dots kong undies hehehe :)

by the time na sinusuot na nila veluz yung veil ko, iba na nararamdaman ko... i was feeling reaaallly nervous na... medyo tinatago ko na lang nga pero grabe nanlalambot na ako sa loob... it's really good that all the suppliers with me that day were all very kalog. it helped me feel less nervous :)

we had some pictures taken at the suite na din... bong said na kamukha ko daw si jody sta maria, sabay hirit ako kay karl "karl, jody na daw ako! upgraded na ako!!" (m&k said i looked like ara mina during our prenups hehe) sobrang hilarious din yung pictorials with bong and cj showing off their dimples and niko, wishing he has dimples.

bsta sobrang laugh trip talga!!! ang saya saya sobra :) it really pays that your suppliers are close na with each other sobrang gamay na gamay na nila ang kilos ng isa't isa :)

after pictorials at the suite, (ganda ng pics nila m&k!) we started to head out to the hotel! ako naman, pala-wiwi, i told mitch that i needed to go to the john ata... waaaaahhh! anak ng! ang hirap pala mag wiwi!!!! hahahaha!!! as in woman on top of the toilet bowl ang dating! anu ba yun!!! kahiya pa kasi mitch and the 2 veluz staff were assisting me. wwaaaahh dyahe tlaga :(

i rode the bmw to the church with my mom (si mom nga ba kasama ko? parang di ko na matandaan!!! hahaha) but before we got to the beemer (c/o ninong yupiton) i remember our shot sa elevator. hahaha. kala nyo ang dali lang nun?! kung alam nyo lang!!! it was one of the moments that i really regretted not having my camera with me :( kung nakita nyo lang si niko! parang ballerina ang dating! bwahaha :) imagine the small lift, with me on one side and bong, niko, cj, jenn and somebody else on the other side (i cant remember who else was there... i think veluz and m&k was there also)... jenn was at niko's right side and cj naman sa left. ang itsura ni niko? parang naging S shape yung body nya! hahaha.... kawawa naman cya :) pero sobrang funny tlaga nun! :)

at the church, iniwan nila akong lahat sa car... i had a good view of the people around me, yung mga late, mga nagmamadali, mga pretty and sobrang poised pa din kahit in a hurry na. heheh :) i even saw my baby Gabby sa may labas... di ko talga natiis and i called our yaya to bring her near the car's door. (thanks mimi for that wonderful shot)... veluz knocked on my door and asked me how i was doing... gusto kong sumigaw "naiihi na naman ako!!!" bwahahaha.. ewan ko ba. sobrang excited na ata ako. pero cyemrpe i said, im okay... haha pa demure kunwari... pero grabe... that time, my insides were a mess na talaga... as in naiiyak na ako na nanlalambot na di mo malaman!

and then the moment of truth na. as ms. v likes to call it "that moment". they came (ms v and niko) to get me ready in front of the church door. eto lang masasabi ko... wala na akong matandaan kung ano man ang mga napagusapan dun!!! all i can remember is crying... bakit ako umiyak? naisip ko si gabby ko!!! hahaha babaw. but really, naisip ko doggie ko, and the fact that i wont be living at the house na... and hearing strings minstrel playing canon in D made me really really cry. as in hagulgol ako. kakahiya nga kasi bong was taking shots of it!!! yikes!!! and i kept saying before the wedding pa naman na i dont want to cry. pero yun na. di ko na tlaga mapigilan... then string minstrels began playing "panunumpa" ms v asked kung yun na ba ang bridal march ko. i said yes. and then blank. haha... i dont remember na... i just remember the church door opening slowly.

as soon as the church door opened, i wanted to start walking na. buti na lang ms. v was there. as in sigaw cya "not yet!!!" so tayo lang ako dun... i heard ms v saying "clarice, yan na. after 1 and half years" hahaha then i remember clarice saying "ay pucha, almost two years po yan. march nagbook yan e!" hahaha... all i can tell them was "thank you!" yes, i shouted thank you. but i dont know if they heard me or not. e wla na ako masabing iba e.

when the church door opened, i could hear the oohhhss and aaahhs of the crowd (that's the reason i got SOJ... because of their beautiful door!!! hahaha babaw ko tlaga!), when i heard that, i felt more composed. show time! this is it... then i started walking. as soon as i started walking, everybody (suppliers) began shouting "slower" "walk slowly"... ang bilis ko pala!!! the word "slow" registered in my mind... pero my body cant seem to follow!!! ewan ko baaaaa!!!!! kahit anong gawin ko, i cant seem to control my pace. i was looking for lui but i cant seem to find him!!! asan asawa ko?! :)

then, i saw my mom, she was crying... i asked her why she was crying (duh) and i began crying again!!! siguro mahirap tlaga for us... it had been the three of us for so long (me, my mom and my sis) that it's really hard to finally let go. :'(

then we were there. lui was there... my mom and dad handed me over to lui... (with clarice shouting directions hahaha) then we were on our way up to the altar. shet! may stairs nga pala yung SOJ. i nearly tripped. wahhh! i was holding my bouquet in one hand and the other hand was holding on to lui... i didnt have an extra hand to hold my skirt! buti na lang di ako nadapa. if not, 2 na bloopers ko!!! hahah...

the ceremony started... lui didnt say anything so i had to ask him "ganda ko no?" dun lang nya sinabi na oo. sira tlaga yun!!! hahaha :) sobrang nagpapak- serious... hahaha.

we were supposed to get father erick, but days before the wedding, we found out that he cant officiate our wedding na because of his expired license... we only found our priest on Wednesday! his name is Father Manny, and he's so funny :p ang bilis bilis bilis nya! can you imagine a 5 mins homily?! and i thought that it will be longer than that!!! tapos may bloopers pa kami... i cant keep pace with him that i wasnt able to read the misalette saying "join your right hands" and i heard was "right hands" so i automatically assumed that we had to "raise our right hands" aaarrrgghhh!!! kaloka! hyang hiya ako. buti na lang cute ko dun sa shot nila threelogy. bwahahaha!!! after that, Father Manny made sure to tell us exactly what to do before we did anything. as in coaching to the max na cya!!! hahaha :)

after that, contract signing and marching out as mr. & mrs. everyone was smile expectantly to us... ang daming sasalubong sa amin. then clarice started counting 1, 2 3, and then pop, cheers and thud. pop for the poppers... thud for the mentos hitting us HARD. i dont know whose idea was it to put candies in the confettis! ang sakit ah!!! hahaha :) but it was nice... sayang lang it was windy kaya di bumagsak lahat ng poppers, yung iba linipad. plus yung iba matigas, nd nila naputok sabay sabay. so we had three consecutive pops. by the third one, nagtinginan na lang kami ni clarice ang taas ng kilay nya. hahaha :)

after that, clarice ushered us to the side of the church. baka dumugin na daw kami ng guest. there, our pictorials started... with the balloons :) if you look at threelogy's video carefully, there was one shot where the balloons were behind us... if you dont know, jenn was there behind us. hahaha. she was the one holding the balloons. napagtripan ata ng threelogy and m&k hahaha! :)

cj also did this very funny antic of being carried away by the balloons, ala na, lui liked the idea so much na talon na talon na sya during the pictorials (pano ka di pagpapawisan nyan ha?!) hehehe...

afterwards, they were talking about different locations for the shoot and someone came up with the idea of the talahiban (i think it was mimi)... so we went into the car and was surprised to see mimi, cj and bong walking all the way to the talahiban. (di po cya malapit pramis. it was past the bus terminal beside soj) it was super windy that i can imagine mimi having a hard time with the balloons talaga! hehehe :)

there, mimi came up with the idea of separating the balloons for the pictorials (individual flying balloons rather than one bunch of balloons - which was my original idea by the way) but from there, the idea of balloons being flown away came up. i dont know how it happened basta one idea came after the other. at the end, it was really a great great shot. :) another moment that i really regret not having my camera. sobrang cute nila tingnan... m&k and threelogy all lined up squatting, each holding a balloon or two... planning when to release the balloons, checking if the wind is okay... ang galing :) conspiracy tlaga :) i couldnt see what was happening because they told us to kiss na... i just remember hearing all of them shouting "1, 2, 3 *pause* 4, 5 ang galing!"and the end result? great great great shot... :) hahaha... before the release, meron pa nagsabi, one take lang to. do or die... kung hindi nakuha. kelangan habuli ang mga balloons hahaha :) sobrang saya saya :) i way dying to see the shots of mimi pero of cors.... bawal ulit :) hahaha.

after that, i asked them if we could go to 1Esplanade because i really had to go to the bathroom again! by this time, it was lucre who was 'assigned' to me. so she was with us whereever we go. wawa nga cya e. pero she's so patient. kakahya lang sa kanya kasi sya napapagod.

the first glimpse i got of balay kandila's setup, i was delighted. ang ganda!!! :) wahahaha. di pa daw tapos yun sabi ni clarice. gusto ko nga sabihin, pwede na po yun... :)

ayyyyy... i forgot to mention, eddie bruan was there with me all the way.... he was there to retouch me before i entered the church, during the pictorials in the church and during the pictorials outside the church. he was also there in 1Esplanade to retouch my makeup. sabi nga ni clarice super lakas ko daw kay tito eddie kasi usually hanggang hotel lang cya. it was somebody else who does the retouch. i asked tito eddie to join the reception, pero ayaw nya e... but he was there before we started with the program. super thankful ako sa kanya. as in :)

ano pa ba kwekwento ko? actually dami pa!!! ahhh!!! TIP!!! please rehearse your dance with your gown in your venue before the program starts... grabe buti na lang we did, kung hindi disaster tlaga kalalabasan nun! i couldnt turn with my train in the way. so i had to hold the train every time i turn... buti na lang we practiced tlaaga. jenn was there to take shots of the rehearsal. jenn, wag mo na sasama yun ha... medyo nakasimangot ako nun e. stressed kasi bwahaha :)

the program was delayed a bit... because of the heavy traffic due to closure of roxas blvd. sighs... but at least we served cocktails and we had the clique booth outside!!! the clique booth was a mighty success... as in a lot of people were lining up for it... it was a hit!!!! we got so many good feedbacks from our guest. kakaiba daw and one of a kind (buti na lang pumayag si lui. haha nahirapan pa ako convince cya at the beginning. :))

the program started at around 7pm... one hour later than planned. we entered, we danced, we cut the cake (argghhh i should have taken that one slice of cake with us to our table), we toasted, speech and toast were given by the MOHs, and prayer was said by Vincent. afterwhich, we had the photo buffet. everything went by smoothly... mabilis yung photo buffet :) magaling si mallory... and eventhough di ko masyado napansin, i think string minstrels did a wonderful job! :)

we didnt get to eat much (correction, we didnt eat at all!!!) ... kasi by the time the photo buffet and vip table hopping was done... most of the people were in their dessert na... clarice and mitch were worried that the guests might start leaving soon so they asked us if it was okay to proceed with the program. it was fine with us so that's what we did.

after the table hopping, i think m&k showed their onsite slideshow... ang ganda. i was teary-eyed by the end of the presentation... sobrang captured ang moments. galing talga nila m&k. walang kupas. kaya nga supplier of the year e!!! :)

after that, bachelor and bachelorette games... coincidentally, it was my bestfriend dave and my sister catherine who won the games :) hehehe.... ang saya saya nun. i slid the garter as high as i could in my sister legs. tili ba naman ng tili. but she said she knew it was me because the hands were soft and cold :) me! :) hahaha...

then afterwards, i think onsite video na ng threelogy... grabeeeeee hagulgol na naman ako to the max. at first i was okay. but when i saw that my sister cried during the wedding, hala iyak na naman ako!!! wah.... sobrang ganda ng video namin. wala ako masabi... some shots were captured by cj just before we started with the reception... sobrang galing at nahabol pa nla. then some shots naman first dance namin... ang galing. di ko lam kung pano nila isiningit yun ng ganun kabilis!!! wahhh!! our song was "man & wife" it was suggested by bong a day before our wedding. i havent heard the song before but i said okay to bong :) hehehe... i trust him naman e :) bsta ganda ng video... you have to see it to believe how great it is :) i love it!!!! (at time of bloggin, ive watched the video at least 15 time... mimi, hingi ako ng copy ng onsite!!! para iba naman panuorin namin hahaha!)

kainis lang, the couple's speech came right after the video! e humahagulgol pa ako at tumutulo pa ata uhog ko nun!!! i was crying so hard that i couldnt say a thing! ironically, we practiced our speech before the reception!!! but i couldnt say a word na... so i just dictated my speech to lui (i was standing behind him hahaha) and when i tried to say something, i couldnt. i just cried all over again. i even forgot to thank my friend abigael enriquez for the wonderful clique envelopes that she did for us! i also wanted to thank the suppliers one by one... but i couldnt say anything else except "thank you to all our wonderful suppliers" or something like that :) hahaha :)

sabi nila mimi and bong, naiyak daw sila cj and karl. hahaha :) pati daw si mama benz naluluha. hahaha nahawa sa akin.

after that, the reception ended and we were saying our adoos. picture taking din with friends and family. grabe! touched ako with my male barkada!!! lahat sila naka suits! ang gwagwapo!!! kakatawa nga e. nagsolo solo pic pa sila with me! o diva celebrity ako nun!

after almost everybody left na... we had our picture taking outside 1Esplanade with the fireworks (c/o melbrian). staged fireworks yun :) kasi it's not enough for an entire show... so we just lighted the fireworks for pictorials lang talga :) di ko lang makita masyado kasi si mama benz e!!! she kept shouting "bawal tumingin!!" uwaaahhh hahaha :) pero ganda nga :) sabi nga ni ms clarice mas okay daw pala pag staged fireworks kasi controlled yung shots :) hihihi...

after the reception, we had a final meeting with clarice. then we headed back to the hotel. grabeee sobrang gutom na kami ni lui. we were having fun in the suite with lui carrying me around the room but bloopers as it can be, kumulo tyan ko. hahaha talk about destroying the mood! hahaha :) buti na lang josiah's set aside food for us. dun lang namin natikman ang pagkain!!!

ayun lang... wala na ako masabi hahaha! (haba na nito ah!) sabi sa inyo magiging super haba nito e. gusto ko lang isulat lahat para meron akong babalik-balikan :)

another bloopers lang... pagkagising namin ni lui the next morning, umiyak lang naman ako.... hahaha sabi ko miss ko na si mama and si gabby. hahaha. bloopers tlaga!!! :D natakot nga si lui kung ano na nangyayari sa akin. hahaha.. dyahe. :)

supplier ratings to follow!!! :D