your not-so-usual bridal shoes

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I have this thing for pretty, sexy, strappy shoes. But I gotta admit: I’m not gifted with such dainty feet. And I have such sensitive feet – sensitive in the sense that they get unbearably painful if I stand for an hour straight. With these considerations in mind on top of looking for orange-4in-wedge shoes for my bridal shoes, it does seem quite like a tall order.

It has to be orange so that I can wear something that has at least one of our wedding colors. It had to be 4in to add me some height. It had to be a wedge considering the long hours of standing, considering Ville Sommet’s cobbled steps and considering how my feet tire easily.

Hence I was really happy when I saw this one in ATC. It fit the bill perfectly – orange, 4in heels, wedge. Only that it’s too plain and casual for bridal shoes. 

I hope I won’t regret this but I’m having this as my bridal shoes. Hubbie likes it a lot (I think because it’s orange haha). Couturier Richie says it can be bridal shoes albeit it may be on the casual side but then again it’s wedge so go! MOH Kat says yes it’s on the casual side but I can buy it now and if I change my mind, I can always buy a new one that’s more fitting. And I say I might not be able to have the customary photo/video shots of the wedding shoes if I have this.  BUT I need to think about my comfort, else I might just be wincing the whole duration of my wedding. And well, the shoes will really be out of view what with my chapel train-wedding gown.

Conclusion: let’s have this for the wedding.

progress, progress!

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Yikes! It’s almost mid-Feb! Don’t you just think how fast time flies nowadays? On the other hand though, the 2 weeks spent waiting for my visa seems like eternity for me and Hubbie. It seems that eight Japan visas (with two under COE), a Schengen visa and other countries’ stamps on my passports are not enough for the powers that be to grant me my visa right away. Some scrutinity still needs to be done. Please, powers that be, a husband and his wife has just got to be together….

Anyways, it’s roughly 11 weeks till our wedding! And I do believe we’re making some good progress.

  • our invites are currently with the printers. Per Erika’s advice, we’d probably have it by Tuesday next week, the latest. Hope we can have it earlier though since we’re still to DIY some parts.
  • booked our emcee at last! after a loooong search, we’ll be having Issa Litton (yes, the one with the Star Wars wedding theme and pulled it off successfully at that). There’s a catch though. There’s some possibility she’ll be overseas for a new show she’s doing at the time of our wedding. So let’s cross our fingers, shall we?
  • booked Jamsy for our lights and sounds, yey! I looked up W@W reviews on Jamsy and they have good reviews (no bad reviews whatsoever) albeit reviews were dated more than a year ago or older. But I’m satisfied with their quotation (asked for bubble and fog machine to be freebies and they obliged, yey! —yes, there’ll be bubbles and fog on the wedding hehe. Yes, even hubbie was surprised. Oh I’m loving this) and our coordinator recommends them so I’m at peace. 🙂
  • sent our spec sheet to K by Cunanan through Macy for detailing. Now waiting for her feedback
  • booked Yellow Coco for my family to stay in during their visit here
  • booked 7 rooms in Sonya’s Garden for Hubbie’s family and other Japanese guests. I wanted 8 Suites but they’re more than 10k pricier than Sonya’s!! To think Sonya’s is already pricey. I am yet to pay Sonya’s though for the booking
  • settled the Church flowers. Will make a detailed post about that soon
  • booked Mang Rey Casedo for the entourage barong. He gave me a pinya fan as freebie 🙂

Next in line are the designs for our wedding favors and the misalette. And oh yeah the list of songs for MPO. And the guest list. Let’s get down to work, shall we?

a purpose driven life

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Just finished packing the first dhl box that will ship my stuff to Japan. How many boxes it will take, I’ve no idea yet. A European porcelain doll is in it (i wonder how we can display my doll collection in our apartment), DVDs/CDs, books, photo albums, gym clothes (yoga mat would have to be in the next batch), swimsuits, cocktail dresses.

Was about to close the box when I saw that the book The Purpose Driven Life was left on the paperbag where I kept some of my books. I bought this Rick Warren book during my long stint in Singapore some five years ago. I leafed through the pages until I came across my scribble on one of the reflections:
“made a life changing decision today – I accepted the 7 months assignment to Japan.”

That made me smile because that decision to go back to japan,straight from a Singapore assignment certainly was a life changing decision. That 7-month assignment lengthened to a 2.5 years assignment that totalled around 6 extensions. On my last extension, I was only asked about it less than a week before my flight back to Manila. So you see, my daily farewell parties were in full swing already.

But you know what? It was there in that last two months of my extended assignment when our (atsushi’s and mine) dream-turned-reality started to unfold. Totally unexpected, totally serendipitous.

So yes, accepting another Japan assignment was a life changing decision. Had I turned it down, I wouldn’t have known happiness as I have with Atsushi now.

But then again knowing how hubbie and I are soulmates, we would still have had found each other, albeit at a later time. I think and believe, that our fairy tale would still come to pass, even then.

Beloved

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Eating alone during weekends can be quite lonely sometimes; making me terribly miss Hubbie even more so. Had a late lunch at Cafe Mary Grace earlier and the table I chose had this as a centerpiece:

This made me smile. And it certainly eased up the feeling of being alone, because I know, somewhere in Japan, my beloved is also thinking of me….

Okay, back to detailing conceptualization!

Entourage flowers by Dylan Gozum of Vatel Manila

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As with all our other suppliers, I fell in love at first sight with Dylan’s flower arrangements. Almost always, his bouquets are a cluster of two or more different types of flowers and greens that’s prettily arranged and at the same time so out of the box in its creativeness. There are some bouquets though that’re composed of just one type of flower, which most probably has been the bride’s preference. And why I say so? Well that’s one really good thing with Dylan. He sends you his spec sheet to ask you all of your preferences and details about your wedding and he’ll work his art and magic from there.

Communication with Dylan regarding our flowers started way back in September. And I almost didn’t have him for our flowers. When I inquired, he told me that i’d be his 3rd bride for April 30, 2011 if in case I book. I was devastated by this because I thought it was his polite way of saying that he can’t accommodate me anymore much as he’d like to, i thought that he only caters to one bride at a time per day. A couple of weeks after though, something nagged at the back of my mind to go and clarify with Dylan if my understanding was correct. And boy was I soooo thankful I emailed him for clarification. Because yes, he can still accommodate me! Yey! Just recently, I heard that he can do 5 weddings a day! whoa! Yes, that’s how GOOD he is. Not to mention that his rate is really very  reasonable.

Now why is it that I was only able to finalize our contract only recently? On this matter, I really do commend Dylan’s patience and creativity. I wasn’t really particular in the type of arrangement. That’s more Dylan’s forte and I think it’ll be wise to leave him be on that. But as he had pointed out, I’m one unusual bride in the sense that I am very particular in the types of flowers he’ll use for our wedding because of the certain symbol/meaning that that flower may portray.

I really can’t help it. I am most sensitive with it. And so in the process I am giving him a difficult time because of the very small leeway that i’m giving him. He would include a certain flower in my entourage bouquet and if it’s not on my initial list, I’d research that flower’s meaning and then i’d revert back to him if I’m okay with it or if he has to look for another flower. And I assure you there was quite a lot of email exchange because I didn’t like the meaning of some flowers he suggested although really at some point, I was tempted to give in because the flowers he’s suggesting is really beautiful! I was really afraid that at some point he might be exasperated on me already but thankfully he persisted on and kept on suggesting another type one after the other after my feedback.

Dylan really is admirable. Even with my very stringent requirements (imagine, I told him not to use any yellow flowers because it means jealousy even if yellow is such a happy color and even if yellow would complement our orange-lime green wedding colors), he was still able to come up in mind an arrangement that I can’t help but gush over.  He’ll most probably be using below flowers for our entourage. Really, who wouldn’t be gushing over on these? ^_^  Yes, yet again, I’m all hoity-toity because of these.

Dylan warned me though that the flowers that will be used are subject to change depending on availability at the time of wedding. Given that and if in case it happens, I hope he’ll remember that I’m his uber picky bride and that he’ll ask for the meaning first before making a go on the bouquets. Hehe.

Here are some of Dylan’s creations that I so love! Believe me though there’s lots more!

my bouquet would probably look like this except that Dylan used snapdragons on this one. The name alone is a hint on the flower's meaning. 😀

the bride's bouquet is my favorite! favorite!!! mine has to be tulips though. Hubbie's fave flower. Mine as well.

And oh, you know what? Dylan is really such a nice person, even when our contact is only through email