Tag Archives: church

a chance meet-up with kindreds

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Today was our Church’s Coffee Social for the month. Mass finished at 10:30, our practice for the Nine Lessons at The Christ Church (Anglican) is at 11; but I queued for coffee and cakes so Yui could have a couple of cakes and have some snacks to fuel her up while waiting for me finish our choir practice.

I ended up eating 90% of the cakes (my planned diet tossed over the bin again) as little girl was having fun running around.

But I didn’t mind, because I was inspired while eating the cakes. I happened to share the table with a visiting couple from the US – a Filipina wife and a Japanese husband. The wife introduced herself and held out her hand to me first. I liked her even before she extended her hand (because of a sugar episode earlier while queueing).

We’ve talked for but 15 minutes. But I already loved the wife’s humour and nonchalance and elegance. The husband; he has twinkling eyes, a distinguished gentleman. A happy and contented face. They called each other “Hon”. And they already have grandchildren.

Our conversation was only 15 minutes. But it was more than enough for them to inspire me. To be infected with their positive aura. Certainly more than enough time for me to wish that I hope, someday, I’ll inspire in the same way, a young couple.

life with a toddler: Church and Hara donuts

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Over breakfast this Sunday morning:

Me: oh ざんねん,too bad Yui, we didn’t wake up in time for Church. 🙁

Yui: Ne….さみしい (it literally means “lonesome, lonely” or “missing somebody” but I guess she meant “sad”)

Me: why are you sad baby? (I was thinking she missed her favourite parts of the Mass)

Yui: no donuts….

Me: ~forcing a grin on my face~

And so it seems se has her Hara Donuts tradition jut like I had my Puto Maya tradition when I was a kid; we usually buy Puto maya after Church which makes me really look forward to when the mass is finished hehe. I wish Yui also gets to taste Puto maya. 

Supplier review: Flowers of May

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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.

6th month

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We’ve been married for six months now, and living together for 2.5 weeks in our apato. In exactly 38 days, we’ll have our Church wedding. Although it’s becoming quite a trend lately (and it’s also quite the norm here in Japan), still, I find that it’s quite unconventional, living together and prepping up your new home and at the same time preparing for your wedding. But I ain’t complaining. In fact, I love the novelty of it.

I miss my work, terribly. But I love keeping home and arranging home as well. I love cooking for Atsushi, although it’s just in the evenings. I am ashamed to admit that I still am asleep when Atsushi goes out to work.

But I love how he wakes me up to kiss and hug me goodbye and wish me  a good day, as I in turn wish him the same thing. And I love how he allows me to go back to sleep. And I love how he puts the blanket back on me, in the middle of the night. Those, and other things besides.

There are a lot of adjustments to be made, that’s for sure, especially since we both have different nationalities; grew up in different cultures and backgrounds. But considering all the good things we have and are experiencing, getting married is indeed the best decision I ever made.

And of course, this comes with a prayer: That I hope we continue to be the loving couple that we are now, even after 50 years.

Haha, call it fate, but Journey’s “Faithfully” is playing in Accuradio as I wrote this blog.

Yep, Atsushi, i’m forever yours, faithfully and i’m sure you’re mine as well. And I can’t wait for us to finally make our vows this time, in the Church.

Chancery and Canonical Interviews

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Timing was the key for these series of interviews for us. The Pre-Cana and wedding banns are requisites for the interviews hence we attended the Pre-Cana during our Christmas vacation in Tagum and announced our wedding banns from end of November and well into December. We were just in time then to visit the churches for our interviews come early January, just right before Hubbie flies back to Japan.

And what a roadtrip it was. Chancery interview was to be in Lipa Cathedral (or in the seminary of the Chancery Lawyer Fr. Dong Rosales). Canonical interview was to be in St. Francis Xavier Church, Nasugbu Batangas. Both Lipa and Nasugbu are on the edges of Batangas battery limits and would take you some 2 to 3 hours to travel from one to the other. Whew! We actually had to have the Chancery interview on Jan 4 and have the Canonical interview the following day. In between, we visited Caleruega and Ville Sommet and Yellow Coco for Hubbie to see the sites personally. And of course we just have to stay at Sonya’s to check on the place before actually booking our guests.

Chancery interview was so fruitful in that we also found the priest we’ve been looking for to officiate our wedding. I’ve no priest friend and although Mama has a couple or so, flying him to Tagaytay is so out of the question. But both Hubbie and I liked Fr. Dong when we had our interview and he was most kind to show us around Lipa in that we decided to have Fr. Dong for our wedding.

One thing though: he doesn’t allow the Unity Candle on the ceremony. But he allows personal vows so I can settle with that. 😀

Chancery interview certificate! I had to brushout some names though, for privacy and security purposes

Canonical interview was suprisingly really fast! We had to make a queue with the other couples who got there ahead of us (we arrived in St Francis at 8am, left Sonya’s at a quarter to 6 but we were already couple number 11!) but the interview itself was only 2 minutes max each for me and Hubbie. Too bad though I wasn’t able to take a picture of the canonical interview certificate.

Anyways, that’s it, Church documents preps are done! We’re all set for our Church wedding! 😀

PS: Chancery interview is only required for couples where one of the marrying party is non-Catholic, non-Filipino.

Rings!

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The search for our wedding rings started as early as June. Like my usual SOP and probably like most brides, I always go for my first loves. Hence when I came across MokumeGaneya I just couldn’t stop daydreaming about it until we could get to meet with their jeweller. Their rings are just so pretty!! I can’t stop gushing about it.

Mind you, it’s only the mokume gane rings of Mokumeganeya that I love because I find the mokume gane make of other jewellers a tad scary. The jeweller in Mokumeganeya said that this is because of the silver component of the ring which is the main reason for the “black streak” on the ring. Even from before, I don’t want silver wedding rings and having known this new piece of info from the jeweller, I told him I don’t want silver in our wedding ring.

Oh yes, you couldn’t go as customized as you could get with Mokume gane rings. With this kind of ring, couples can choose what metals they’d like to have their rings be composed of. These metals are then melded together and pounded into one sheet about 8 inches length, cut into two (one for the guy, the other for the lady – this fact is quite romantic don’t you think?) and then made into a ring. Since it originally is a sheet of alloy, naturally there is an obvious line on your ring where the two ends met.

This was the main reason why I decided not to go for mokume gane. I would like our ring to be a seamless and continuous one, endless, without beginning and end.

One other reason though was that our rings would cost around 550,000yen. Gulp. Because I didn’t want the silver component (silver is usually the base material) in our rings, the jeweller said the other alternative for base material is white gold. To achieve the colors, pink, green and yellow gold will then be tossed in. Platinum is added on the inlay of our rings and diamonds added to my ring. Hence, 550k yen.

I was floored with the amount. Although I know Hubbie thinks it’s expensive, he gave me the choice whether to go for the ring or not because he knew how I wanted mokume gane for our wedding ring.

Boy was it difficult! I know that we have major expenses our way, what with the wedding and starting our new home hence splurging is impractical. I asked myself if I can wear that expensive a ring knowing there are other important things to attend to. Of course the answer was NO. And mainly, there was this breakline that I don’t want to see in our wedding ring.

Problem was that I didn’t see a ring that I fell for. We looked at Mikimoto, Michel Klein, 4C (I don’t know how to add the degree sign haha) shops but no “it” factor for me. I browsed Tiffany website but I wasn’t enamored with it. Probably because it seems I am just considering Tiffany because of its name/brand and not because of its designs. So I decided to visit the Tiffany store in Minato Mirai.

But I got intercepted in the way by Lazare Diamond in Motomachi. And there, I fell for our wedding rings. They beckoed towards me and sparkled before me way more brilliantly than Mikimoto did. This is it.

Originally though, I opted for the leaf design of the diamond inlay. But I decided against it because it looked like the shape of a wound. The Virtue wedding band was another choice but I didn’t like the grooves. Ultimately I decided to go for a continuous Pt1000 platinum ring wherein diamonds were simply yet seamlessly inserted that it almost looked as if it was molded together with the platinum band. Of course Hubbie opted for my ring’s partner, a Pt1000 platinum ring without the diamonds. We both agree that diamonds are for women haha.

I don’t think I was able to get a good picture of our rings to give it some justice but for now, this’ll do. Rings, please wait for Dino Lara okay? Then, you’ll have the pictures you deserve.

By the way, since we already had our civil wedding and our church wedding is still months away, we exchanged our rings on Christmas Eve in the old Christ the King Cathedral Church in my hometown in Tagum were I had fond memories of my childhood. Our little private ceremony was so sweet and special that I wouldn’t do our “exchange rings” any other way.