Tom & Cathy - This is Our Day

Start of a New Chapter

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:27:00 +0000

~

This is just to formally announce that Tom and I will be starting a new chapter of our lives together soon enough.

:)

For more details and updates, please proceed and subscribe to my main blog
The Blue Speckled Diary.

On our 3rd Month

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:33:00 +0000

On our 3rd month-sary.. Kinda cheesy, but heck, who cares?

This time we went to Figaro, and instead of pizza, we ordered pasta! and Coffee Jelly... :)

Umm, yeah, it was this appetizing I didn't mind Tom taking my pic.

Note: This is a late post. Official month-sary is every 28th. lol!

New Bed?

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:57:00 +0000

Nie? I think we sort of need this... Maybe later? :)

hehehe.. :)

Our Wedding Video Teaser!

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:34:00 +0000

For those who missed the update, here it is:

Thanks guys!

One Month After

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:46:00 +0000

About one month from the wedding day...

Here are our pictures while celebrating over a box of pizza and some iced tea...

Just wanted to post something... Not feeling really nice today...
Boohoo..

Whereever You Gig is, Thanks!

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:06:00 +0000

For sure, busy ang life nitong make-up artist ko...

But of course, as promised!!!!

Here's my post para naman malaman ng lahat kung sino ang may kagagawan! lol!

[click image to enlarge]

To contact Ronnie Matudan, just drop him a line or call him at these numbers:

0918-5188292 or 0923-2184096...

:) tenchu!

ps: dapat may referral fee nako nito eh.... :)

Before & After - Hair, Make-Up, Gowns and Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:38:00 +0000

At last... Our fateful day went past without glitches, although of course there were very few minor events that may have brought us to tears, anger, irritation and even laughter, still - everything was as it should be.

Speaking of....

Here are the before's and after's of some of the ideas we previously had compared to the actual thing:

1. The Rings.

2. The Wedding Gown.

3. The Bouquets.

4. The Flower Girl Dresses.

5. Mommy's Dress.

6. Hair.

I'll post other updates as I finish them... lol!

:D

The 3-day Countdown

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Glancing at the countdown timer just a few lines below this post is a reminder of how many hours before I surrender my father's legacy - his last name. Although I would have wanted to keep it forever and make him proud of whatever it is that I have and will accomplish, I couldn't do anything to stop the alleged "big event".

So far within this week - this fast-paced, busy, irking, sweaty and nostalgic week, several things and mini-events have bothered, excited, blessed, and quaked my life for the time being:

We went to Chateau de Busay to take pictures to use during the ceremony practice, so nobody gets lost during the ceremony - including ourselves - it is our first time, you know. (I really would have wanted to post pictures, but the lack of connectivity is currently an issue.)
Several more invitations are being taken away from our hands going to several other people's hands, with the never-ending reminder of "Jehovah Jireh" {God our provider}. This almost always takes me to the brink of dark thoughts. Just don't ask me why and how.
At least 2 more people came to realize that responding to the "RSVP re-worded" note on our invitation is polite.
More people are being emotional over being invited verbally. They all want an invitation. If only they come cheap!
Lechon confirmations have come in.
"Red carpet" sponsorship set-up has been printed already. (Just think, what kind of wedding is this, really?!)
My maid of honor is flying in tomorrow early early morning.
Mom and dad are "floating" in on the 27th, early morning too.
The office has been a living hell for people on leave preparing for their wedding - like me - just because of an over-reacting person who wants "justice".
The office will be a living hell to those who wants to take a leave just to go away from the living hell it already is.
More people in the office will believe in hell after those meetings we were talking about over the phone a while ago.
Crap - I will contribute to making them believe in hell tomorrow - I'll take a time off from my leave meant for my wedding preparations just to attend the meetings we were talking about over the phone.
Crap again, because I really had to attend the meetings or else my two angels will be in hell during the meetings. Right, Matet and Maddy?
Jitters over matters that jitters are not needed for is currently coming up, and will probably continue coming up until the time every thing gets packed up after the entire reception thing.
Tom is practicing the wedding march with our good friend and musician-by-blood Dave Sibonga. {Dave! See you and I'm n ow confident over the march... lol!}

So that's it? Maybe I'll update more tomorrow when Timothy and Tom are, again, either fed up with playing counter strike or are busy with other things.

Mom, What are you Wearing?

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:37:00 +0000

The other day, I browsed thru the net and decided to look for a dress that Mommy can wear to the wedding, and we both liked this one:

Hopefully, her seamstress can get the exact thing... :)

Also, we got to see all the gowns last night, I also tried on my wedding dress - which shall be the buzz of all my sectarian friends and acquaintances because most of them believe that superstition that the bride should not try on her wedding dress except when she finally should wear it on the wedding day. Well, for the record - I don't believe that. POint driven, case closed.

And! I really, really loved it! The dress was really lovely... although there were some final touches that needed to be done, still, it was good to go.

And just an update, Matet has tried her gown on, and she decided to officially go on diet until the wedding.

;)

To my Dear Guests

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:30:00 +0000

This post has been revised.

To all my dear guests, please go ahead and read below:

Please read through all the details on your invitation.
Kindly SMS or in other words, text Sam (her number is also on the invitation) if you are coming to the wedding.
Text Sam also if you are NOT coming. This is the idea behind the acronym RSVP, répondez, s'il vous plaît, meaning "please respond". If RSVP is written on an invitation it means the invited guest must tell the host whether or not they plan to attend the party. It does not mean to respond only if you're coming, and it does not mean respond only if you're not coming (the expression "regrets only" is reserved for that instance). It means the host needs a definite head count for the planned event, and needs it by the date specified on the invitation. (quoted from The Meaning of RSVP.)
Praise God we did not choose to just write RSVP, or else no one might actually decide to text us either way. BTW, thanks to Atty. Fer and Don S. for the prompt confirmation! Thumbs up to you guys for not waiting for the deadline!
Do not wait for the deadline. Just inform us immediately so we can invite others who really wants to come in your place. And so that we can update our reservations for the reception as early as possible.
As many of you have read in my previous posts, we have two (2) kinds of invitation, a white one and a blue one. There are actual and rational reasons for those two, but just leave those to us. If you received the white one, well and good - it doesn't necessarily mean that you are special. If you received the blue one, still good - it also does not necessarily mean that you are special.
All are invited guests are important and special to us, so there's no need to fret over which invite you received. And can I personally ask a favor? Please just don't tell us to our face that you wanted the blue one if you received the white invite. It kinda irks sometimes and a bit hurting, hearing that you were invited (it's already something to be thankful for!), and you still wanted to choose which invitation you should have received because you "like" it better than the other. Please, it's getting ridiculously annoying.
As I said in the first item of this list, please read the details on the invitation. We can answer questions with absurdly obvious answers (which were actually in the invite if you could have just read it) at the moment we handed the invite to you, but please, if you could just stop asking the same question again and again every time we see each other, it will be such a big help and we'd truly appreciate it!
Again, RSVP!

Thank you for taking the time to read these, I just had to post it.
{It's driving me crazy. (^_^) }

The Rings

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:41:00 +0000

Yes, I have seen the rings already and would like to thank the Pulmones Family for their help. It almost looked like this, but so much nicer!
Note: They are also missionaries of our church, so if anyone also wants to support them, you can contact them directly or via Bible Baptist Church in Katipunan, Cebu City or thru me. :)

By the way, in the photo is DD, one of our cute flower girls, the bestfriend of EJ, who's shown in the next photo with her Kuya Tom.

The Pulmones Family

kinda pangag, but still cute! she's talking to Barbie, so hush!

Anyway, other preparations are still ongoing, plus we've already started giving out the invitations and so far, only 2 or 3 people has responded to the most coherent, understandable and simple RSVP note ever invented. I was just wondering, what's so difficult about it? they can even SMS their confirmation, just P1.00 and yet...

Oh well.

Cheers.

PS: Please help us pray for the loveliest weather that anyone can have for a garden wedding - not too sunny, not too windy, not humid, and certainly no drizzles nor rain!

Thanks!

:)

Preparing the Pouches

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:25:00 +0000

Sam suggested we use pouches instead of the packaging material itself - and we all knew she had the nicest of ideas ever.

And so here we are, fumbling with the pouches, trying to change the string from gold to the navy blue ribbons that we were supposed to use for the formal invitations.

This is Sam (at least half of her..)

This is the ramble of the pouches, strings, and ribbons.

and this is Tom (look at his expression - seems seriously busy, right?)

Multi-tasker Sam. Watching tv as we work.

this will be the finished product. :)

And oh, in case you missed the updates, here are the links to the RSVP page and the online gift registry (if you opt not to give us cash - lol!).

- -

Invite me, Ok?

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:18:00 +0000

Can someone be so imposing it irritates you?

Seems like one person directly assumed that he/she shall be invited and that he/she is allowed to bring a mandatory companion. How convenient. I haven't even finalized my decision to invite him/her!

Oh anyway, was so happy yesterday because we already have the formal invitations! And they are lovely lovely lovely...

All we need now are the RSVP cards. :)

Cramming... And sometimes, Work is a Burden

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:17:00 +0000

So far, so good...

At least that's what I think...

We're a bit busy cramming for the wedding preparations and what's a bit annoying is that the nearer the wedding date is, the more "office-related" things kind of appear out of nowhere and then voila! It already has a deadline and I'm told that I have been told about it before and that I'm the one slacking. Hmmm... Kinda fishy... But I'm too pumped up to care.

I'm more concerned about other things - like our health and our appearance when THE day comes. Darn it, we're so pre-occupied nowadays and we're becoming to super stingy that we imagine that we can't even afford one full hour of decent body massage. Not even a hot oil treatment! (But that's ok, I have such long hair that even a hot oil treatment would be so damn expensive! Ugh!)

So things to do for the next 2 days:

2 reports from the office
1 audit program/schedule
SOPs for my department
meetings, meetings, meetings

And for my wedding:

proof read the invitation from Paperworks (SM Cebu Branch)
contract for the invitation printing
purchase the frames (what the heck they're for? hahaha! it's a surprise!)
find me a makeup artist (I think I'm going for Bobbi Albert. Whatya think?)
follow-up the gowns
convince Tom to stop overthinking everything and to chill 'coz I think he's gonna break down sooner or later if he doesn't relax
Downsize my guestlist, and
Check my checklist!

That's pretty much it! Goodluck to me..... Oh crap...

Run Florist Run

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:37:00 +0000

Just joking....!

After having a blast testing out our food for the reception and also to sign the contract, we went directly to our church to talk to our pastor's wife for the pre-marriage counselling...

We even thought our appointment was cancelled because the signage said "closed".

Guess we were wrong.

It was a lovely session, with lots of valuable input. I thought we needed more time and more points to consider. Maybe we'll have it continued it Mrs. J had more time in her hands. What was a bit amusing was that I always thought she was a "small but terrible" type of person. Turns out she was just as normal as normal could be. And quite lovely too. Very pretty for a 74-year-old lady whose height cannot begin to represent her hugely timid, soft-spoken and yet impressive personality.

After the said "talk", we went to karbon to meet with our florist for the first time. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jun Cañete of http://juncanete.multiply.com. He promised to make my wedding "the bomb"! (So here's his photo...just in case.. lol!)

;)

ps: updated the mini-invite already..

Contract Signing for the Venue

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:21:00 +0000

Last Friday, we went to Chateau de Busay for our food tasting and contract signing. Victor, the owner/manager entertained us during the said event.

Here are some shots I took while we were trying to figure out where to put the platform for the ceremony:

There was something set-up already because they had a booking for a birthday. Lol!

Tom also took part in the "negotiations"...

And here's a shot at the delicious food! Promise! No biases, it was just yummy!

We later went to our florist...

:)

Mini-Invites

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:10:00 +0000

Hey ho... I have mini-invites.

I think you know what I mean for mini-invites... Because of the financial recession and everything, part of our budgeting plan was to print out mini-invites because this seems more cost effective and also maintains a certain level of "us" in it... Formal invitations seem to not embody the personality of the couple too much so we, well I, designed these mini-invites... (have to blur some parts because we haven't actually had them printed yet.

Lol.. excuse the watermark.

Updated pic:

:)

New Links Available

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:46:00 +0000

For everybody who receives an invite to our big day, please RSVP here:

RSVP Form

While for those beloved generous souls who are willing and will be giving us gifts, please go here (our gift registry online):

Gift Registry

Thanks everyone!

Food Tasting

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:13:00 +0000

Our contact person usually says "food testing".

We have scheduled our food tasting on July 3, that's Friday. We're in a bit of a rush, and so far, Tom has been cramming. I mean cramming. He's getting queasy and weird.

Anyway, so we've scheduled the food thing, we've also finalized, well sort of, the guest list, together with the entourage and the sponsors (yipee!). Think I'm going to add up some sections to this blog to accommodate guest RSVPs and the gift registry. I really don't think it's too late, do you?

Gtg. Have to contact Sam now. Ciao!

Invitations - again!

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:37:00 +0000

lol!

Guess, we really haven't decided yet...

Found a few more ideas from the net today:

Really at a loss... grrr!

Help!

Flowers, flowers and more Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:21:00 +0000

I wanted to cry.

Not because of the flowers, but because yesterday, I watched my aviator shades go under the tire of a taxi. Darn it! {yes, I did cry yesterday.. buhuhuhu!}

Anyway... Back to the topic - Flowers!

Went over to the church to meet up with Sam, our "wedding coordinator". She handed over the materials from the potential flower person (I mean the Florist). Good thing he has a website so I went over to it and took a peak at the photos he has posted.

Let me just say I had several thoughts popping out of my nutty brain so I went back to google some wedding bouquets that I, for the time being, enjoyed looking at...

I'm thinking I like this one for my bridesmaids:

And these, I think maybe I'll choose the most cost-effective and relatively unique and cool-looking bouquet from these:

But I'm leaning toward this one - might look great with my gown:

Wadja think?!

Need to Lose some Flabs!

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:53:00 +0000

Heck yeah. Definitely need to. For the gown. Ugh!

We went to Ade's yesterday (Ade's is the name of the boutique) to try out the lining of the gown. It was a very thin layer of cotton fabric, I think - but I might be wrong! - but it definitely has the main shape of the gown already.

Didn't take pictures, if you're looking for them because aside from the fact that I totally forgot, mercy me, I really don't think flaunting my flabby tummy in a sheer fabric will do me some good. Besides, I'd really love for the gown to be seen when it's finished already.

Anyway, we also decided which fabrics to use for the bridesmaids gowns and for our cute flower girls. So attention to my maid of honor and my obnoxious and kinda lazy bridesmaid, please get your measurements asap! Grrrh!

Hmmm.. By Saturday we might already have the final list of the entourage members and maybe final - and I mean final - design for our invitation. We're kinda leaning towards simplicity and cost effectiveness right now. God knows how that will look like.

BTW, got to go. Still in the office. ;)

Gown Lining Not Yet Ready!

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:30:00 +0000

Back in Cebu City since Saturday evening... Had a good flight and safe arrival. It's good to be back! I've missed my Tom and he's so excited I'm back - now he can have decent meals again... ;)

Anyway, I was told I was supposed to be fitting the gown lining (the inner fabric layer) of my gown this afternoon, but somehow, early this morning, Cheryl (the boutique owner) sent us an SMS asking if we could move it tomorrow afternoon. Another alibi was given, but Tom and I both think that it's because it's not done yet... No problem though. Quite alright. Lol!

So far, everything's fine.. Just have to finalize the members of the entourage, particularly the secondary sponsors so we can go ahead with our invitations - like 67 days to go?! Eeeek!

Got to go... :)

Barely 70+ days to the Big Day

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:16:00 +0000

Crap. It's soooo near!

Barely 75 or so more days and I'm finally be a missus. *Giddy*

Anyway, I'm in Davao City right now, in an unconnected business trip to audit one of our auditables. You raising your eyebrow yet? Lol!

Okay, without too much beating around the bush, here are some updates to my wedding preparations. We have chosen the shop that'll do my dress and all the lady entourage's dresses. And the boutique owner has also given us with a fabulous discount! Yey!

To refresh everybody, here's an image of my planned wedding dress:

Apologies, for I forgot to take a snap at the image we tore out of a magazine for the other ladies' dresses. But one thing's for sure, it's in midnight blue!

Hmm, for the guys, well they already have their Barongs on hand for quite a while already. No fuss. The kids, our cute little girls may be wearing this one, but in midnight blue linings also instead of the gray and red in the photo:

So far, we haven't met a snag - God forbid it! All our papers are on the way, the ceremony and reception venue just lack our final approvals and the contract of course. Flowers?

The flowers?! Oh my, got to contact my trusty ally, Sam, for that.
Got to go, I'm still in the office. Lol!

The Invitation Dry-Run

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Laine) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:57:00 +0000

Tom printed out a sample of our invitation. The colors look good, but I just can't pinpoint what exactly it was that I was finding to be lacking.

Hmm, maybe the silver? I dunno. It looks a bit like a concert ticket though. It's a bit dressy casual - just the way we would have liked it, still, I'm looking for something I don't know. Maybe I'll look around the net for some inspiration.

I also have a homework, I should be drafting the initial guest list from my end of the table, I guess I'll do that after lunch.