colette mare

I realized that I am starting to panic because of many apparent pending items for our wedding preps. And since we still haven’t done our grocery shopping, I can’t course all excess energies through cooking. I found myself eating sinful food though – french fries, salty snacks, carbonated drinks – food that I have carefully avoided, so that I can fit my wedding gown. Blame it on stress.

In any case, today was one productive day. Finally found the perfect gift for the principal sponsors in Colette Mare, yey! I just hope they’ll like it though and not be too concerned on the radiation bluff. Come on….

Also, was able to order our Unity Coins/Arrhae via W@W. yey!

And and, we stayed almost an hour in Watanabe Furniture Shop, our friendly neighborhood furniture shop, to order two more bookshelves (even Watanabe-san himself was very surprised that we’re ordering two more since he knows we already have three bookshelves in our library. and to think he still haven’t seen our other two bookshelves in the dining area hehehe) and our bed. yey!

So having had all those accomplishments, we gifted ourselves with movie tickets to Tangled 3D in Colette Mare (definitely the most expensive movie tix i’ve had at 2000yen). Man that mall has a really good cinema place! Really really nice. I think everyone who watched Tangled were on a date. It was in Japanese by the way, even the songs. Yet that didn’t stop me from crying. hehehe.

Anyways, another long day tomorrow! More to do. And I hope I can take rein on this almost-panicky-feeling.

28 days to go

Last 28 day-stretch till our big day! Let’s see what I still haven’t fixed:

Wedding favors:

  • guests – amount due paid for, prototype checked, under production
  • entourage – contract drafted and amount due paid for; i’m yet to see the designs though
  • principal sponsors – Hubby and I will go on a hunt today and tomorrow. We still have nada idea. Help!

Misalette: yet to be finalized. Please Fr. Dong….

Additional barong requests – Rey Casedo already informed, yet to finalize 1 order

Music: started practicing on one. Zilch on the other

Miscellaneous stationery: designs already received from Lene Dee-Dragon, under production via Erika

Cake: design inspirations sent; yet to wait for our custom-design

Arrhae: order from W@W. i’m yet to make my email though.

Bible: we still don’t have something old and something borrowed. I’m thinking of having the Bible for our “something old, something borrowed”. Or is that sacrilegious?

Beauty regimen: under processing. Hubby and I have had no facials though. Will try to look for one this weekend.

Transportation: yet to finalize with Erika

Jewelry: will try to look for this weekend

Vows: i’m 1/3 done; Hubby’s yet to get started with his.

Hotel booking: under discussion

What else? What else?

And oh yes, the Reception Program sequence, wedding datasheet for Erika (who’s who in our wedding, including suppliers), table seating arrangement <– very time consuming lists, but it has to be done.

1 month!!

Was jolted to being fully awake (even after reading more than 10 wedding-related emails and replying to a number or so) when I saw the date on my computer screen – March 30!!

Alarm bells went screeching in my head. We’ve only one month to go!!! Ahhhh!!!!!!!! I should calm down, i should calm down. Ugh, if only our choice priest is not being difficult on us, I wouldn’t panic like this. 🙁  

In any case, I had to wait for another bookshelf delivery hopefully this morning (yes, another bookshelf! hopefully the last one. Two were delivered yesterday) and then i’ll be off on an adventure to find the Foreign Ministry Office somewhere in Shin-Sugita for my re-entry permit. I probably wouldn’t rest until I have that on my passport. Should have went there yesterday right after I claimed my alien card (i deem it’s required when i apply for re-entry) but Hubby and I doesn’t want to risk me going farther than Maita since I have just only recovered from a very very bad sinusitis (cigarette smoke thank you very much).

Lots to do today. Hope I can manage to tick eveything off on my to-do list.

white day

March 14, Japan’s supposed White Day**, found me and Hubbie apprehensive. He has to go to the office and considering the tremors over the weekend and the ensuing  radiation scare, we were both apprehensive to be apart from each other. Still though, he has to go, especially that there really is no visible major effect the quake had in Yokohama except for the fact that there were shelves in the groceries with missing supplies (probably because of panic buying by people and most probably by gaijins, sorry to say this) and of course our nerves in jangles what with one tremor after another and what with keeping ourselves posted, with bated breath, on the latest updates on the nuclear plants.

I keep myself posted mostly by reading updates on Kyodo News Network. It’s so Japanese, balanced, reporting what needs to be reported, without too much flair. CNN is just too filled with drama for me. Not-so Japanese. I do try to venture other news networks every now and then but mostly, i’m for Kyodo News. As Hubbie pointed out, media has the tendency to over-commercialize what is happening, because indeed, they earn out of the news they share. I do hope media will do their own share as well in keeping people at bay and to not cause more people to panic.

So okay, I digress. Jagged nerves in place, receiving a package first thing in the morning with a cheerful “yubin desu!!” (you have a package!) in the intercom was certainly heartwarming. I had to pool in some of my EQ to wait for Hubbie before opening our package.

Dhonna addressed it to both me and Hubbie hence it was just but right to wait for Atsushi. And am glad I did. It felt good opening our package together.

It contained our cord and it’s container and a hardbound book about marriage and a heartwarming card. Certainly a good thing to receive at a time when we are most fearful.

We just love the cord. Workmanship is really good!! And the materials used was certainly of good quality.

We just love the container. It’s so cute! See the size of the container in comparison to Hubbie’s thumb?

We just love the detail that Ghepoi and Dhonna put into packaging our cord. They put a cute-designed crepe paper to lay the cord on on the container. They also put a sticker of our logo on the inside of the container cover – I think they got it from the save-the-date envelope that I gave them before.

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Thank you Dhonna and Ghepoi!! 🙂

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**White Day is the equivalent of Valentines Day that’s designated for women. See, on the Japanese Valentines Day, the women give their husbands/lovers/boyfriends/crushes/officemates chocolates,cakes, etc etc. White Day is in turn the day when the men reciprocate the women’s initiative. For this year’s White Day though, there were no extravagant and elegant displays of gifts as there were in the previous years.

cartoons!

Erika set the end of February as the latest that we should submit our designs for our wedding favors. Friday, Feb 25 rolled by and I still have no design at hand. I sure am in a fix. Hence, Anna’s (nutatafish) post in W@W saying she can do cartoons for some co-w@wies was really an answered prayer.

An answered prayer that’s so pretty and creative and very much in line with our theme that I can’t stop feeling hoity-toity when I look at it. There was some crazy point during the weekend wherein Hubbie and I can’t agree yet where to use it in that Anna made a couple other designs so that we won’t have any difficulty matching the cartoons on wherever we plan to use it on our other wedding details.

Anna barely knew me. But she has been most generous with sharing her talent and design inputs. Anna, thank you so much! You’ll be blessed even more. 🙂 Thankful for W@W as well for being the venue of such love sharing. 🙂

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going the extra mile

Was really happy when Dhonna told me of the happy news that she and her husband Ghepoi will be doing our wedding cord. Was even happier when Dhonna told me our cord was already finished. So imagine my happiness when Dhonna told me that they went the extra mile – they are making us a container for our cord! 🙂

This was the first take.

But after talking it out with Dhonna about the pearls being avoided if at all possible on weddings, they revised it to this one. Tada!

Thank you much talaga, Dhonna and Ghepoi! You’ll be blessed, even more so. 🙂 Am thankful of the gift of friendship that even distance and time can’t overcome.

Container and cord will be making their journey from US to Japan then to Manila. Buti pa sya. 😀