THE SCENT OF SUMMER

It took hours of debates (one-sided monologues actually) a couple of aspirins and several drops of eye-mo before we finally settled on a theme ;-) Being two highly polarized individuals, the hours we spent "communing with our inner child" yielded only a general ambience rather than a specific theme like modern filipiniana, chocolates, travel, beach, etc.

As mentioned in an earlier post, we fell in love with the vibrant hues of coral pink, amber and apricot yellow and settled on a summer garden atmosphere. Come rain or shine, we want our reception styling to capture the light, cheerful and carefree feelings evoked by a clear summer day, and based on the sneak peak our stylist Teddy provided , I think we're almost there :-) You can almost smell the citrus fruits, apples and roses ...

HAVIN' YOUR CAKE & EATIN' IT TOO!

Having overspent (he said) on some elements of our wedding - which is actually money well-spent (she said) - I had to restrain myself from going overboard on the others just to keep the peace :-)

So the gameplan was: go for simple AND delish. However, having "simple" doesn't mean we have to settle for those pretty but barely edible fondant concoctions so popular for weddings. And since going for all-edible cakes from wickedly hedonistic pastry shops will simply bankrupt us, we opted to settle for just small portions of our tried-and-tested favorites.

In the end, we got an unassuming satellite cake from Bizu composed of 3 different flavors, which we know we'll love. Fortunately, Audrey and team Bizu were creative and flexible enough to agree to incorporate the above design in our wedding cake. Can't wait to see (and taste!) the end product :-)

OUR SPLENDID NEW VENUE

Finally conceding defeat to the unpredictable Tagaytay weather, we decided early on to start looking for a covered reception venue, for our own peace of mind, and for the convenience of our guests .... our options were sadly limited - we wanted a spacious covered venue, with ample parking and which is, at the most, only 15 minutes away from Caleruega

Fortunately, the newly-constructed Splendido Taal Country Club was already open, albeit still a few weddings shy of gaining the "experience" we wanted in terms of handling such events. Still, it had all the elements that we wanted, plus a bonus: a view of the majestic taal volcano.

The place was very homey and relaxing, fitting the casual and intimate ambiance we wanted for our wedding.

The main entrance hall

Parking lot

Cocktail area

Bell

Tower

Fountain at the courtyard

Ladera Golfer's Lounge (interior)



Veranda

View from the top

Taal view

Spectacular greens

CAKE TOPPER CRAZY

I'm pretty sure all brides feel an instinctive need to add a personal touch, a unique stamp to their wedding which will differentiate it from all WGB (weddings gone before).

Obssessive-compulsive bridezillas would want to personalize EVERY little detail. More rational ones would settle for a few tastefully chosen elements. On my good days, I'd like to think I belong to the latter category :-)

Of all the items in my "nice-to-have" list, a customized cake topper is among the few that I'm trying valiantly to fit inside our budget. After seeing and falling in love with Karla Magbanua's sugar creations and Charity Rue's clay couples, who can fault me?



Those cute, cartoony sugary creations from Claycakes are guaranteed to melt hearts left and right. I'm just not sure if Karla will consent to create just the toppers or if those sugar-based confections can be preserved at all.

Fortunately, happy raves from w@wies Berna and Leslie brought Angelkind Creations to my attention. Just look at the level of detail in each topper - my mind is positively spinning with possibilities! :-)


Obvously, I'm not a fan of life-like caricutures, though Angelkind offers that as well :-) Aside from these adorable "smilies," there are also "doll" and "cupcake" styles which simply cannot fail to illicit smiles even from the most jaded wedding guest :-)


Her prices are actually not that steep compared to other similar manufacturers and if you have a friend in the US, you can save on shipping costs. If ever we decide to have one of Charity's unique creations, our klutzy black lab Ginny will definitely be a main fixture :-)

OUR ALTERNATIVE STRINGS

Wedding music was previously a big dilemma of ours - though we both appreciate and sometimes crave for the usual sentimental love songs, we are, at heart, more of the alternative_rock kind of people. (One of us is just pretending though, guess who, haha)

Obviously, the songs we wanted were not in the standard repertoire of popular musicians and choirs - and having specially arranged pieces would seriously deplete our budget.

Fotunately, a former officemate (my eternal gratitude to you Fritz!) introduced me to vitamin record's string quartet albums ... and several p2p downloads later, we had our ideal playlist! (hey, to be fair, I bought some of the hard-to-find ones in the US)

If you want to hear samples, please visit my multiply account :-)

ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL ...

I love my engagement ring - as all b2bs do. It symbolizes the exceptional courage and sheer chutzpah that males of our species manifest by willingly ending their bachelorhood and irrevocably binding (or promising to bind, rather) themselves to us worthy females for the remainder of their lives.

Size, carat, weight and brilliance are secondary to what it represents: a choice, wisely made ... a tantalizing promise, freely-given. It is the embodiment of commitment ... and of pride in us, their partners-to-be-for-life.

Of course, the fact that the itsy-bitsy flash of brilliance is now proudly and prominently displayed on our ring fingers denotes a corresponding promise on our parts as well. Sigh. It signals the end of our carefree days of being a "prime catch," in our own respective ways. Yep, we've been caught and taken off the market ... and are most probably utterly reveling in our new status as wedding planners! :-)

I just hope I can manage to squeeze in my dream wedding band in our budget :-)

PRE-WEDDING JITTERS (of another kind)

An Apple A Day ...

I've always taken my relative good health for granted - my annual "ailments" can be counted on one hand - seasonal cold being the most frequent and perennial baby fat (wink!wink!) being the most persistent :-) 3 years ago, at the young, giddy age of 25, I'd never been hospitalized, never been operated upon and never had to curb my sinfully eclectic diet and similarly sinful lifestyle ... (hey, consecutive years spent doing overtime in audit, sales finance and planning equate to an equally driving need to compensate through food and gimmicks!) ...

And then the bomb fell on my head, literally. Late in 2004, I started experiencing polyuria - excessive urination and polydipsia - excessive thirst (Don't be impressed, it was necessity that drove me to brush up on my medical vocabulary!) At first I ignored these symptoms and tried to cope with the long commute to my office in Laguna by taking frequent "pit stops" to "unload" and "refuel" :-)

By 2005 it had become too inconvenient and I subjected myself to medical examination. Diagnosis: Diabetes Insipidus. Yup, there is another kind of diabetes ... one that occurs in a measly 0.01% of the world's population ... instead of the hormone Insulin, I lack Desmopressin - the dictator that commands our kidneys to concentrate urine so that the bladder can, metaphorically, "hold the fort."

Next ensued the search for the culprit: Kidneys - fine, Blood - normal - nothing left to check, really, except for (drumrolls please...) my brain. I'd suspected it for years ... now I know for sure I had a screw loose ... :-) Morbid humor aside, my neurosurgeon was impressed - he wanted to take a picture of the teeny weeny mass nestled cosily beween my hypothalamus and pituitary glands (it was quite rare for a "baby tumor" to be photographed in full glory - I'd had to autograph my MRI for him). Anyway, surgery and blasting it to bits with laser were not safe options (given the size and the location) so I had to periodically ingest hormone supplements to restore my urine function to normalcy (yey, no more broken sleep and embarassing outdoor accidents!).

More than a year passed by without any further incident and I reverted to my relatively normal lifestyle, subconsciously forgetting about my achilles heel - until another symptom arose - highly irregular periods. Having to undergo another round of tedious tests did a thorough job of sobering up my usually effervescent psyche.

I am about to be married. I want to have kids immediately after. Now I might have to choose between postponing the wedding or walking down the aisle going skinhead with a face bloated from surgery ... and there was also a question mark on the baby production line inside my body...

I was kinda depressed for a while ... wedding preps ground to a standstill ... my work productivity suffered a bit ... but then I realized, despite everything, I was not alone and won't ever be so. I was surrounded by people who love me no matter what. I only had to look around to be reminded of my many blessings. And I started to fight back, adopting a healthier lifestyle in preparation for any future battle with sensitive surgical procedures. I started reading up too - knowledge is indeed a great fear-extinguisher.

Call it divine intervention, renewal of faith, or whatever, things started to fall into place again ... so far, my test results are encouraging - so no need to postpone tightening the noose on my h2b (harhar) :-)

But my unsolicited advice to everyone reading my monologue is: don't ever take your health for granted! Prioritize getting or staying fit. It's the best gift you can ever give yourself and your loved ones. So take that first step - if an apple a day is what it takes ... life is too short for regrets :-)