second and last anniversary before the knot

a few days ago was our second and last anniversary as an unmarried couple...... yes, the h2b proposed just after a year which was a shocker for me because i'm used to a very long dating period in the philippines (i have friends who've been dating for 7 - 10 years before they decided to tie the knot)  but i guess that's western culture for you..... i'm not complaining, it just greatly amuses me and in fact, i'm greatly flattered about the early proposal because it gives me the impression that he knew right away i am the one.......... it's just too sweet beyond words..... i digress, pardon my being melodramatic, lol


anyway, enough of that......  it has been a busy october and it would be a busy november too...... here are some updates for the civil wedding preps, so far.....


1. on wedding gown (oct 22, sat) - as i have mentioned in my previous blog, i have already purchased my civil wedding gown and i'm officially a maggie sottero bride! i know, i know, i mentioned in my past blogs that i won't be like any other brides who would go over the top with their wedding gowns but again my gown is a phased out gown, which is on sale plus i got 20% off..... so it's still cheaper than getting a not-so-famous couturier (think jose abad, mark rancy, etc)  in the philippines.... i'm pretty pleased about that because i almost bought that other $1,300 gown....

2. wedding venue (oct 29, sat) - we finally went to our venue in cape may  which we have been putting off...... we decided against getting the
cheaper alternative because we went for our guests' convenience..... the cheaper one is 10-15 minutes walk from the beach and the parking is bad plus we might need to hand out quarters for our guests parking because parking is all metered....... we went for the slightly pricey one because it's closer to the beach, in fact, its super close to the beach, you just need to cross the street and you're there..... and there are ample parking spaces and most importantly it's free! 

so we went there last saturday and talked to the wedding coordinator and right then and there we made arrangements....... we told them what the date would be, May 19..... first they checked if its still available and it is but the problem is there are no rooms available for the night before and the night during the wedding........... we want the ceremony, reception and our hotel preps in one place for our wedding party's convenience  so we have to move our wedding date a week early to be able to reserve 4 rooms and have that included in the contract....... we also decided to have dinner there so we could try their food...... the food is delicious, well, they are zagat rated so that's kinda expected  but the best part is our dinner is free! our $120 dinner was complimentary because we're booking our wedding with them......

3. WYB (oct 31, mon & nov 2, wed) - the will-you-be's! i've been slacking off with this DIY project..... i stopped doing it because i want to finish it only if we already know what our wedding date would be..... and since we are pencil booked already (they just need to send us the actual contract with the breakdown of all costs) our wedding date is as good as booked...... so i finally started doing them again..... it wasn't that hard really since i've already done the prelimanary assembly and its just the actual "wordings" that's missing...... i bought paper from michael's only to realize it doesn't go well with the rest of the WYB so i decided to use the other paper i've ordered online 6 months ago....... and now, i'm proud to say they are on their way to their recipients...... i hope they all say yes! although two of them have prematurely found out about it already and had already said yes but i still decided to give them the formal WYB request......... i'll post here what my final WYB looked like once all my recipients received it......

*recipients = the female wedding party....





4. engagement photoshoot (nov 2, wed)  -  we had our first engagement photoshoot yesterday and i said first because i want a four-season themed engagement photos and yesterday was the autumn session...... so very happy with the photographer we got....... he is very pleasant, he has "an eye", and most importantly he's very affordable..... i mean, $85 for the first 2 hours? that is cheap, man!  i inquired with some other photographer including  filipino photographers my friends recommended and the cheapest i found was $300 for first 2 hours plus travel fee..... our photographer is from new jersey but he didn't ask for travel fee....and wait, there's more (lol), for wedding, it's only $85/hour..... how awesome is that?! and he's willing to go to cape may......... we just love our photographer so much we just give him bigger tip to cover the gas and to give him something extra because we're feeling guilty he's too cheap we feel like we're robbing him, lol...... oh and no, he's not some cheap photographer hobbyist, he actually is a graduate of Film & Media Arts from Temple University...... i'm really glad i have found him amidst the overwhelming google results when i searched for Cape May wedding photographers...... oh, and yes, he doesn't charge for out of town fees too, unlike those other photographer's i have inquired to who asks for a hotel accomodation and/or gas allowance per N number of miles they travel from where they live...... 

so anyway, yeah, we had our autumn engagement photoshoot at valley forge national park and we brought with us 2 sets of clothes because we're aiming for a casual autumn look and a formal sophisticated look (see pic above)...... and boy, it was a lot of fun and to top that the weather was nice and we had blue skies (well atleast for the first 1.5 hours)....... i forget how nice it feels to be on the other side of the lens, lol......  we picked a week day so we can have the place all to ourselves...no tourist, no joggers, no dog walkers....and we chose morning because i want some blue skies (atleast 1 hour before and 2 hours after nooon gives you blue skies)...... we started shooting from 10:30am til 1:30pm....its a good thing we have flexi hours at work so that's not a problem.....

i took them to places around valley forge national park that both h2b and our photographer aren't aware existed and it's so entertaining to watch the look on their faces when i showed them my "location finds", lol........ i drove to valley forge a few times both with the h2b and by myself not only to check if the trees have changed color already but also to look for other interesting locations.......... i mean, i shoot engagement photos too for my friends so i am always on the lookout for good locations........ i also have brought a lot of props and some "cheat sheets" for concept/creative shots and we had our photos taken on 11 plus locations around valley forge national park so now  i am really excited to see all of them....... currently we only got to see 5 and it might take 1-2 weeks before we get the thumbdrive of all the pix in the mail.....

5. wedding venue contract (nov 3, thurs) - we received it in the mail today! so it's going to be 5 hors d'oeuvres, 3 entrees, 1 appetizer (but we're thinking of getting the soup instead), bar service and 4 rooms...... we're thinking of getting an extra stations/enhancers, choices are sushi bar, fruit medley, mini cakes, i forgot the rest but were thinking of getting the mini cakes since theres no dessert in their menu but the coordinator told us she could throw that in for us for free which is awesome! i just hope she will remember that and she'll include that on our revised contract..... anyway, so this weekend we're going back to cape may to personally hand them the signed contract and to give them our deposit.....

6. tiffany blue sash (nov 2, wed) - i finally found a supplier for my tiffany blue sash  but i ordered just one piece first to see if it's really tiffany blue and i received it yesterday and today i ordered 6 pcs...... 4 for my female wedding party and the rest is extra should i decide to add another bridesmaid or if one of the bridesmaids lost their sash..... it's $14.99 each so hopefully nobody loses their sash, lol...

so far so good! not stressed out yet (pwera gaba)