on cake toppers and kokeshi dolls

Our wedding cake toppers weren’t really the type that could last a long-distance flight, much less last months after the wedding. Yet hubs was so patient in putting the pieces back together, thinking of a better glue that would last longer than the last one he used. And every time he fixes the cake dolls, something in my chest twitches, my eyes burn a bit, and I am reminded of the many reasons why I married this man.

Hence when I saw Jen’s post in w@w about her kokeshi dolls, I didn’t hesitate to contact Khristine, the kokeshi dolls designer, to have our personalized kokeshi dolls, as my anniversary gift to hubby. By personalized, we mean the dolls will be designed to look like us, wearing clothes that looked like the gown and barong we wore during the wedding.

Turned out it was a great decision. For at least two major reasons. One, I didn’t just get to know a great supplier, I also earned a new friend who’s so amazingly creative. Secondly, I made hubby emotional with the surprise I had for him; he was full of questions on how I made it possible, especially since his doll look a lot like him. Happy me.

Couldn’t count anymore the number of email exchanges Khristine and I had. Being an OC myself, I appreciated her being a stickler for detail as I sent her a number of pictures of me and atsushi and of what we wore during the wedding. Seeing her creations, you’ll understand why. Such detail! Ours were no less different.

Khristine is also one really thoughtful person. A colleague of mine has been very nice to carry the dolls from Manila to Japan. Khristine was so thoughtful in that she left my colleague a note of thanks for carrying the dolls and gave Kristine (my colleague) a cute pair of guy and girl earrings. 🙂

Since the dolls are due to travel some long distance, Khristine promised she’ll pack the dolls in such a way that they’ll still be intact even after a long flight and that Kristine,my colleague, will not have difficulty in carrying the dolls. True to her promise, the dolls were well packed indeed.

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The dolls’ bed. And yes, I also have my cute boy and girl earrings. 🙂

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The bride aka Marj.

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The groom aka atsushi.

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I giggle whenever I look at the doll. He looks so very atsushi!

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Told Khristine as well about our passions – music and books. She then thoughtfully included it in her package for us. The guitar has real strings!

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And the books has both front and back covers.

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Khristine also added in the speaker hubs always carry with him whenever he travels.

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Dolls are now happily tucked in one of the shelves in the dining room.

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Khristine promised she’ll give us something extra special as well. And indeed she gave us something really special. Bookmarks. With our dolls in it. Mind you the photography was really good! We almost hesitated to use them lest we loose them. But then that would defeat the purpose of Khristine giving us the bookmark and so use them, we did.

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Thank you SO MUCH Khristine! 🙂 I think you’ll be hearing more from me. 🙂

Do visit her site.

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wedding principal sponsor gift giveaway idea

If I’d only seen these cuties back when I was still searching for our giveaways for our principal sponsors, I probably would have bought these. Perfect for doll collectors like me :).

Matryoshka salt and pepper shaker. The head of the bigger matryoshka is for the salt while the baby one is for the pepper.

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Or you can opt for the measuring cup matryoshka.

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Love it! 🙂

Supplier review: Flowers of May

We already had Vatel Manila for my bridal bouquet and entourage flowers. But we still need a florist to prettify Caleruega some more.

I inquired on some other florists but, creative as they are, we just can’t afford them anymore as we’ve already splurged in a lot of stuff and we were already running out of budget.

Then I came across Flowers of May.

Liza was really nice to talk to. The packages they offer doesn’t include the red carpet but she agreed with my request to include it in our package in exchange for the flower arch at the entrance. She also was very nice in accepting my very risky requirement: to use only certain kinds of flowers that I’ve chosen for their symbology and that if she’s gonna use one that isn’t on my list, to check if it has a good meaning. This requirement is VERY RISKY as I run the danger of limiting the creativity of the florist as well as not having certain beautiful flowers on our wedding because of their not so nice symbology. But good vibes is what I really want hence with every difficult request to our florists, I also pray that they receive it positively and without much complaint. And Liza certainly didn’t complain.

What also made the deal just perfect was that the quotation Liza gave me was just right within the total cost we had budgeted for our flowers, for both entourage and Church. With Liza being very accommodating, I followed my instincts. We had Flowers of May for our wedding.

And certainly, I wasn’t disappointed.

I was nice to see these gerberas as I walked down the aisle.

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Happy colors!

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The altar was so abundant with flowers, our sponsor candles seemed like they were set in a garden.

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Thank you so much Liza!! 🙂

Supplier: Flowers of May
Rating: 5/5
Contact info: +639189369438, +639189366750, liza_n_legaspi@yahoo.com

All photos by Dino Lara; purely unedited save for the text to show our wedsite.

a Demel wedding cake

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Ahhhh….to have a Demel wedding cake for your wedding…slurp.

It’s not just the taste; they probably are the original in confectionery art.

And sure do. Love the cake at the top left, for obvious reasons. 🙂

Soon-to-weds can even hold their reception in Demel’s lovely and historic baroque salon in Kohlmarkt which had been Demel’s abode ever since it’s founding in 1786.

Viennese soon-to-weds sure are lucky.

giveaway packing ideas

There’s nothing quite like the excitement you get when you’re opening a gift. For me, it’s half of the gift already!

If you’re one who have good hands for doing handicrafts, it may be worth to consider wrapping your giveaways in a way that would really delight your guests, even with just the packaging per se.

Saw these in a rack in Family Mart. Okay okay I admit I got attracted at first because it has our wedding colors lol. 🙂 But the gift wrap ideas are really lovely, aren’t they? If I’d receive something akin to these as a wedding giveaway, it’d probably take days before I’d open it and that I’d probably make sure I had already taken pictures of ALL the angles before I’ve opened it up. 🙂

Pretty aren’t they? Especially the orange one.

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Lupicia’s Kotobuki

Finally had the time to drop by Lupicia in Kamiooka to cater to a w@wie friend’s request to canvass for particular flavors. One of her recommended flavors was Kotobuki and goodness, the smell was just so good I ended up buying five packs haha. Four of them are gifts by the way. Loved Lupicia’s packaging for our principal sponsors giveaways. But I love this new packaging as well, which can be a nice giveaway for secondary sponsors.

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As I have a cat’s tongue (Japanese idiom for a person who cannot drink nor eat anything hot), I had to let my cup of tea go cold before I can take a sip. I don’t mind really, since I can take my sweet time smelling the tea. A sensual experience, especially if the smell is as good as the kotobuki.

By the way, kotobuki 寿 means long life or congratulations. Fitting for weddings I might say.