backblogging: the video

Jason Magbanua was my dream. But his HD rate was Anthony's nightmare.

See, I've followed Jason's blog since the beginning of this engagement, more than a year ago, and I've imagined how my video would rock it, the JMag way. But the fiance doesn't get the Jason Magbanua dream, and believes that there are less expensive packages out there that are as good as Jason's. Of course, we brides know in our guts that no one else comes close to JMag's level of epicness. But I also knew I wasn't going to win this argument, so I looked away, and bid a painful goodbye to the god of all wedding greatness.

So with the JM standards that I had, finding someone else was next to impossible. Others are just not creative enough, or too corny, or too scripted, or too old-school, or had a jologs approach on video that made me cringe, or are still too expensive. I was beginning to lose hope that I'd find anyone that I actually like because we were running out of time. I was worried that I'd end up playing a random game of eenie-meenie-meini-moe, and settling on whoever my pointer finger's soulmate was.

And then this appeared right on my Facebook feed. Excited, I googled Treehouse Story, landed on their website, and fell inlove with the cute little birds on their page. Yes, I do judge the book by its webpage. Eeeeeeeh kasi feeling ko cute ung website, so cute din ung videos 'cause both came from the same source of creativity and ingenuity. Naks! :p I remember tweeting this after THS forwarded their rates to my email.

(referring to THS and Rock Paper Scissors)

Treehouse Story is pretty new to the Philippine wedding scene, but they totally rock. Their works are tasteful, and it's the first thing had me sold. Oh, and yeah, according to the majority of our female guests, I had the "coolest photographers, and the hottest videographers" Sabeeeeeeeh???? Haha!
Here's the video.

Anthony & Mitch 07.06.11 from Treehouse Story on Vimeo.

I love Alesi for including a part of the song n the video. (You can read about how the song was born here) And to share with you the rest of my vows, here's the complete lyrics.


TODAY I GIVE YOU ME

Today I give you my eyes
They will look at you
With love so true
Today I give you my hands
They will hold you dear
Assure that I’m near

my eyes will sparkle with your image
and stare at you through thick and thin
my hands will lift up and encourage
touch the very soul you thrive within

TODAY I GIVE YOU ME
I WILL BE WITH YOU FOREVER
FROM THIS MOMENT EVER AFTER
TODAY I GIVE YOU ME
FOR WORSE OR FOR BETTER
LOVE YOU MORE THAN LIFE CAN OFFER
FROM NOW ON
MY LIFE, MY ALL
AS GOD IS MY WITNESS
I PROMISE YOU TODAY I GIVE YOU ME

Today I become your half
And yet I’ve never felt this whole
Today I give you my heart
It will beat completely
For you only

my soul is quenched by all the love you give
and praises Him, our Lord and King
my heart will keep the vow I now commit
have and hold from this day on I bring

…my love… today I give you me…
TODAY I GIVE YOU ME

lyrics by: Mitch (concept&cues) / Jungee Marcelo (paraphrased)
music by: Jungee Marcelo ©june2011

backblogging: finding the secret garden

Look who got us a wedding gift.

The conya lola, who owns the beautiful Sonya's Garden. She had this sent to our villa, the morning after the wedding.

We went to check the place out early last year, with my entire family. We all fell in love with it and its huge, old-fashioned cottages, but my wedding didn't at first. I mean, it was lovely and serene, but it didn't have grass. It had cute brick paths, and I was kind of fixated on grass during the early stage of our planning. Plus, I had doubts about the food because I've only heard about their vegetarian menu, and I DON'T EAT THAT. So I looked at a hundred more garden venues. Nothing felt right. You know how it is when you're a bride, and you're looking for that perfect place for your wedding. It has to be calling out to you the minute you set foot on its ground. Unfortunately, the perfect grass is worth two hundred grand, and my girlfriends were so close to smuggling weed for me, so I decided I didn't want that anymore, and went back for a second (and third, and fourth...) visit to Sonya's. Been there so many times in a span of two months that I'll find my way there blindfolded. I grew more and more in love with it with every visit, and after the food tasting, oh my gulay, I realized their other dishes are not getting fair treatment! I'm sure bitter sila sa exposure ni lettuce, et al. We had a Filipino menu, and it was just heavenly.

The villas didn't have much appliances in them, you won't find a flat screen in your room, not even an A/C (not that you'd need it in Tagaytay) but there's lots of books lying around, and the beds, there's like a dozen in one room! There's even day beds in the bathroom! Well, the bathrooms looked like bedrooms, so you can actually lie in bed while watching someone poop. There goes your television ;p

Here's our cottage. The whole upstairs was mine and Apple's, while Elo and Mara had downstairs all to themselves.

Photos by Elo Cruz

P.S.

Tita Sonya's gift is a beautiful fushia pink, silk robe, and I love it! Went to say thanks. Look at her, gardening in pink boots, and look at our bagong-gising selves, with the dog she calls Bruno. Or was it Brutus? Shucks, I forget!

this is why i love my wedding photographers

1. They're genius

2. And so much fun! :)

i am now officially a mrs. dela paz

But I refuse to be called "misis". I made my new hubby promise never to introduce me to his friends as "misis ko". It sounds so losyang! In return, I promised him I would never smell like garlic and onion (that's because he'll be the one doing the cooking!) Hey, it's win-win, no?

So anyway, the Tagaytay garden wedding that I've always wanted finally happened. And I've learned a few important things that I wish I knew back when I was planning the whole thing.

Lesson no. 1: The most important lesson I've learned, which is pretty much useless now, since I won't be needing wedding 101 anytime soon, or ever again. But if you’re getting married, and you love yourself, and if your mind is of any importance to you, GET A WEDDING PLANNER! Otherwise, you're just gonna lose it at some point. I thought it would be fun to do it all myself. I’m a control freak, and I thought hiring a professional wedding specialist would be unnecessary. Plus, they don’t come cheap. But now I fully understand why. It’s because when you’re planning a wedding, you eat stress for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! And sometimes, you’ll have it for dessert too. Sa sobrang busog mo sa stress, yun na din ang ipoopoops mo. I’m not kidding! I enjoyed my wedding, but I admit, I would’ve had smaller eye bags if I got us a planner.

Lesson no. 2: Takes lots of vitamins. In fact, overdose on vitamin C. If you’re exhausted, and stressed, and sleep-deprived, your immune system is most likely to get back at you during that final week. Two days before the big day, I was burning up with fever, and I had cough and cold, and asthma. I lost my voice, which sucked because I was supposed to sing and record my vow. Vitamins could’ve been my best friend. But if it’s all too late for that, and you desperately want your voice back instantly, read

Lesson no. 3: Two words. Watermelon Frost. It’s magic! I love my sister for searching the whole of metro manila for this, the night before the wedding. And I love our pastor for letting me know such thing exists. You see our officiating pastor is also a Papuri! Singer, and when I told him I lost my voice, he told me to buy Watermelon Frost from Chinese Drugstores. He guaranteed it works. And it did. What he missed telling me was how disgusting it tasted. It was revolting! But really, I still believe the prayers worked more than the watermelon spray. Funny, I was ready to read the original vow that I wrote, because by lunch time, I still haven’t got my voice back. And then on the way to ceremony, I couldn’t find my vow. What was there was the lyrics of the song version. So I tried to sing it because it would sound weird to read the lyrics aloud. And voila, there my voice was. I was still a little hoarse, but it was enough to pull off a short song.

Lesson no. 4: Stock up on food for after the wedding because you’ll never have the appetite to eat the food that you paid for at the reception. I’d been so excited about the food because we loved every single dish during the food tasting, but we barely touched anything at the reception. So by midnight, our stomachs were grumbling, and all we had in our villa was a huge bottle of water.

I won’t be getting married again, so I’m not sure how these lessons could be of any use to me. But maybe you are, so goodluck!

the bridal shower

I deleted my original bridal shower post simply because it was a mess. And I doubt I'll be able to write anything that's not humiliatingly crappy within the next two weeks, so maybe I could retell this story some other time when my relationship with words is not taking the backseat to my engagement. But I'm sharing pictures to show you how awesome my bridal shower was, and how diabetically sweet my girlfriends are. (Oh shut up, auto correct program! "Diabetically" is acceptable, leave me alone!)

For now, here are the pictures. I have to do the party justice, so I'd wait until my writing juju is finally accessible. Enjoy the visuals, and I mean really enjoy the visuals ;p

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What they were doing behind my back:

Discovering their event styling talents for the first time.

Aly handpenteled each of those those zebra prints.

And Yayi made use of what we've recently learned from YouTube.

How to make flower pompoms.

They got me a cake, look! Oh, on second thought, don't.

There's knickers and err-- candies for everyone

Yayi prepared a slideshow presentation for me, which I thought was very sweet of her...

Until slide 8. And now you all know my bra size.

And this, all of this, is what makes a bride, a very happy one, despite all the stress and the constant panic attacks :)

Thank you girlies! Love you! :)

we’re getting an original song as wedding gift!

You see, my fiancé have more than my mom to ask permission to marry me from. He had to ask my other set of parents, Jungee Marcelo and his beautiful wife, my mamu Anna. I really can’t wait to get to the best part, but let me tell you a little bit about my dada first. If you know the songs “Hataw na”, “SaYahweh” and the most recent one from MYMP “Opposites Attract” his name must be familiar to you. He wrote those among others. He’s a music producer/songwriter/composer/arranger/dance director and head coach to the Philippine All Stars. Yes, I’m a proud daughter.

So anyway, we went on a double brunch date to talk about the wedding. And here’s the best part. I was about to shove that spoonful of langonisa rice in my mouth, when he asked “Do you want an original song?” I mean, hello????? Was he kidding? The heck, I do! I got so excited , I lost my appetite and the langonisa suddenly tasted like paper. It takes a big deal of emotions for me to lose my appetite, you know.

So there. I’ll be singing my vows. Just like Lea Salonga. Chos! Ambishosa! :p

My assignment: To start working on my vows immediately after that two-hour brunch, so he could turn it into a song. Unlike other brides, who get to write their vows the same day as their wedding when all their emotions have already perfectly kicked in, I had to weave words that are song worthy, a month sooner. And I had a deadline. Not that I’m complaining :p

Now here's our family picture =)

Thank you dada, you couldn't have given us a more perfect wedding gift. You made me a very happy bride =)

*Wrote the text above a week ago. Only had time to post it now. Good news is, I’m actually done writing. Finished everything last week. Hurray!

one divi trip is enough to last me a lifetime

Who knew that buying parchment paper takes forever? I was excited about this Divi trip, because I've never really been there, except for that one time in college, when I was practically dragged, kicking and screaming, to purchase props and costumes for a theater production project. My friend and I never got farther than Tutuban mall. But now I realize that if you're trying to impress people with your Divisoria experience, Tutuban does not give you actual bragging rights. Tutuban is merely the lobby of the whole of Divi! And i wouldn't mind if Divisoria and I never see each other again. DUSAAAAAA!

Imagine the back-to-school, last-minute shopping. Mothers and their kids buying two dozens of notebooks, boxes of pencils, intermediate pads, etcetera, and somewhere in the middle of that was me, begging for the ate to please sell me ten rolls of parchment paper. Shempre, papansinin ba ko? Hindeeeeee!!!!! And somebody tell me, why was the picture frame store a hit? Why???? Who buys thirty, assorted picture frames? I mean other than me. I was there to buy a couple, to hold the table numbers, I have a valid reason for being there.

And what's the point of Divisoria if you can't even haggle? I always thought it's synonymous to tawad. But the only discount that we got the entire day was for a toy bird that my mom got for Stephie. And then it rained. Paid 350 pesos for a cab. Ay ayun, nakatawad pala ko sa taxi driver, kasi gusto nya 400. Ayaw ko nga! Haha, if you think about it, hindi din ako nakatipid, napagoda tragedy pa 'ko.

Oh well. At least I can wear a shirt that says "I survived Divi." Too bad they don't sell any.