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)

semi-crunch time

since we'll be booking our venue soon that would mean i have to start to really get serious about:

-1. finishing the WYB (i got lazy)
-2. start buying materials for my bridesmaids' foot accesories
-3. start wedding invitation mock-up

i have all the materials i need for the WYBs minus the paper.... i'm still trying to look for the perfect paper for my theme..... i need the paper for both WYBs and invitations....... i do know what i'm looking for i just don't know where to get those paper i want....... i need to invade michael's or a.c. moore again to see if they have them.... my goal this week is to finish those WYBs so i could start with the invitation mock-ups..... the foot accesories can wait....... i can actually hold off doing those until after the holidays....

but i did accomplished something yesterday and today..... i have picked out the songs for the ceremony and reception.......... i finally decided on the foot accesories' design...... i also have decided on the invitation design and have listed down the steps and materials i need........  and! i have also decided on what to do with my hair! lol

i still have more stuff to think about like:

-1. how to decorate the isle for the ceremony
-2. whether or not i'll use pomanders
-3. if yes, should i buy those or make them myself
-4. should i just tie them on the side of the isle chairs or stick those on the sand...
-5. what color should i use, just white or tiffany blue or both
-6. if i should use sashes for the chairs or should i just save the sashes for the reception chairs
-7. should i use two arbors
-8. if i'm going to use two arbors where should i look for cheap white tulle or muslin or taffeta
-9. i still need to decide whether or not i need to look for someone to do my hair and makeup (preferably asian)
-10. or if i should just do my own hair and make-up
-11. where should i buy sashes for my bridesmaids
-12. should i use my DIY bouquet or use real flowers
-13. flowers for the bridesmaids or the "alternative"
-14. DIY butonniere or don't bother
-15. beach themed wedding favors



i also have some church wedding stuff to take care of:

-1. book wedding coordinator - the team im thinking of getting hasn't replied to my emails yet! bad sign....
-2. start scouting for couturier for church wedding bridesmaids

but again, those can wait...... the priorities now are:

-1. book venue (this saturday)
-2. book ceremony rentals (hopefully this saturday too)
-3. book photographer (next week)
-4. book musicians (next week)
-5. choose justice of peace (by end of november)
-6. do taste test  (saturday)
-7. apply for beach permit to have the ceremony by the beach
-8. buy jar and two sand colors for unity sand ceremony

then....

-1. WYBs - deadline this sunday
-2. pronovias trunk show (yes, that's part of my priority, lol)  - nov 5
-3. send out invitations for the engagement dinner - around 2nd week of november
-4. autumn engagement photo shoot (the trees at valley forge national park is almost at its peak and they look pretty!) - 1st week of november


still lots of things that needs to be done but i just try to look at the "smaller" picture..... one teeny weeny To Do item at a time so i won't get overwhelmed......

and so i changed my mind...again..

i finally mustered enough courage to ask two of my girl friends if they can accompany me to this premium outlet for maggie sotteros....... i'm not being uber dramatic, ok? when i say mustered i mean it..... i am one for not being comfortable asking favors, i just don't want to be a bother and before you jump to conclusion, no, that's not two way, in fact i'm flattered when friends asks for favors, that means they trust me.... but in my case i'm just shy to ask favors..... so anyway, finally i did.......

i changed my mind about choosing a gown from our top 5 finalist..... the top 5 that the h2b chose...... we got yelled at by friends and family that we shouldn't be doing what we're doing..... that it's bad luck if the groom sees the bride's dress before the wedding...... i really don't believe too much on superstitions but i do like the idea of surprising my h2b......the h2b on the other hand got a teeny bit paranoid that he's now encouraging me to ask some girl friends to help me out on choosing gowns....... so last thursday (i can do it on a saturday, but i figured weekend is something that everyone looks forward to and i don't want to steal my friend's weekend) J and J and i went to feasterville so i could try on new wedding gowns and i could show them our finalists.....

two of the finalists were kicked out.... one looks old fashioned and the other one looks like i have a buoy under my belly on certain angles.... but there's one finalist that made it though.... and then there's this one gown that's on sale that my friends think look absolutely gorgeous on me...... unfortunately, i didnt share their excitement about that dress because i somehow managed to have gown myopia, lol...... i like the other finalist better......

an hour and a half later what's left on the rack are the two gowns.....the gown on sale and the finalist from my previous fitting...... the lady who was waiting on me told me she could hold the gown on sale for a few days and after that she jokingly uttered SOL (sh*t out of luck), lol........... so i told the lady that i have to sleep on it and then i'll call her again to set up an appointment once i made my decision...

so i went home and watched all the videos my friend  took of me wearing different gowns, specially the "final" finalists ............. i also looked at all the pictures of the two gowns on all angles....... that's when i had a gown epiphany, lol........... there's one gown that i look nice on every angle..... on every single angle......  i knew then that that's the gown i'll be wearing for my civil wedding by the beach.....




to give you a clue i only have a few criterias when looking for a beach wedding gown.......... (1) flowy, (2) it has to be a "certain" neckline, (4) ruched/corset, (5) my bilbil isnt showing on whatever angle (front view, side view, sitting down, etc) ....... the gown i chose exactly has all those......

and the nicest part? i can wear a maggie sottero without breaking the bank.........i will be wearing a maggie sottero gown with a divisoria tag price! how awesome is that!  that's because that gown's design is 2 years old and have been phased out so it's on sale plus i got 20% off...... oh, and did i mention the h2b hasn't seen that gown yet? so it's like 4, not 2, but 4 birds in one stone! -- it's cheap, has all the elements i want in a gown, the h2b hasn't seen it and it's a maggie sottero...... so very glad i asked for J and J to come with me because i almost dismissed that gown (it looked too simple for my taste when i first saw it, lol)........

i went to the shop yesterday and bought the gown........ i just have some changes on the gown so i could put my "stamp" on it and had to adjust some other stuff........... so excited to see the finished product!  my first fitting is going to be on march next year, 2 months before the civil wedding..........

next stop would be a pronovias trunk show at paoli......... that is for the church wedding gown hunting..... the h2b and i went there a week ago and we love their gowns.......... i have enough money for the church wedding gown now that i bought my beach wedding gown cheap so i think i can afford a pronovias gown without hurting my budget..... plus on trunk shows, you get a discount if you buy your gown from those kind of events so i'm crossing my fingers!

p.s.
no, that gown on the photo is not the gown i'll be wearing...
that's a vera wang gown from davids bridal

wedding gown shopping with the h2b? why not chocnut!

i can see eyes as big as saucers right now, lol........ i know what you're thinking, that there should be an element of surprise........ or that it's bad luck.... or that i just used that title to catch your attention......

welllllllll, yes, the subject is there to catch your attention but its the truth too....

remember what we did with the second engagement ring? the h2b wants me to choose my own ring because he wants to make sure i like and that i'm happy with my engagement ring..... so we shopped together, chose the finalists and then i made the h2b choose from the finalists  and told him not to tell me until he's ready to give the second ring to me (ofcourse i still want to be surprised!).

anyway, so i thought of doing the same thing for my wedding gown..... i figured since he's the primary person i want to impress i want to make sure he'll like how i look when i walk down the aisle.....

we went to two bridal shops, coronet (a maggie sottero premium outlet) and david's bridal (because i want to try on all the gowns in my favorites list even if i know i can't wear some of them anymore)..... i want him to decide too which silhouette looks good on me..... actually it was still kinda early to shop for a wedding gown, early for our church wedding atleast but i want to see how i look like now in a wedding gown so i'll get inspired to lose weight (ie: now i know i need to make my arms to look thinner, masculado eh!)

so far i have tried on 8 maggie sottero, 1 allure and 12 from davids bridal (2 of which is from vera wang & 1 olleg cassini)...... and since i have tried on 21 gowns total on that single day (october 1, 2011) and plus because i tend to try on the same gowns 2-3 more times before we leave the shop, it overwhelms the h2b and he tends to forget which is which and i could use that to my advantage......i'm counting on him to forget what the gowns looked like and i just make sure i ask him right away if the gown i currently have on is something that he would want to see me wearing and if he said yes i include that in the "finalists"......... we still have 3 bridal shops to go to.....

he's a very good shopping buddy........... he's very patient and he actually enjoys shopping with me, (which is really a rare thing to happen to me, lol)............ he's a very good, in-your-face-no-sugar-coating critic and boy, you should hear him say stuff like "you look like a sack of potato there" or "that's an awful design" or "you can throw that out", lol ....... and mind you, some of those gowns he didn't like, i actually like so im really glad i took him with me.........  so far we have 5 finalists and the pictures below aren't one of them...... i displayed only those gowns that i'm 100% sure i won't be wearing because it would be inappropriate (there's 3 of them here & i'm sure some of you knows what i'm talking about) or simply because it just doesn't look good on me.........



anyway, come decision time, i'm hoping to find some girl friends who'll be willing to come with me and help me decide...... yes, that's when, ofcourse, i should have the h2b out of the loop......

on wedding gown hunting

i'm still scouring the world wide web for wedding gowns.... and since i need to look for two wedding gowns, one for the beach wedding and one for the church wedding it's twice as difficult...... well, it shouldn't really be difficult but i just can't make up my mind...... but i know what i want.....when i look for designs the first thing i look for is that it has to be one-shoulder.

one shoulder.


yep, i love anything one shoulder....my closet is full of those...... if it's asymmetric the better..... i've seen  tons of one-shoulder wedding gowns from different designers and the three that i've been lusting over are rosa clara, pronovias and maggie sottero....now whether or not i am actually buying from these suppliers is a big question mark.....i really don't want to spend too much on something i would only wear once so i just keep looking until i find a gown that i like and something that my conscience agrees to, lol.....

the beach wedding gown hunting.....

so you already know i want a one-shoulder gown.....

the other thing i need to consider is the type of fabric.......... like for the beach wedding i'm looking for something "flowy".......no layered fabric, no heavy drape-like or comforter-pretending-to-be-a-wedding-gown fabric........ i want to feel my gown flowing freely with the wind..... i want to feel like a grecian princess, lol....... anyway, with that being said layered and comforter-like gowns are out...... atleast for the beach wedding gown......

see that gown on the right....that's my kind of flowy gown.... chiffon or lace would be very ideal.......








church wedding gown

now, for the church wedding gown, i'm fine with something heavy........ in fact the more puffy it is the better....... it should be A-line though or something resembling an A-line....... i mean, i would looooove to wear a trumpet gown but man, i really don't think i can pull that off...... i don't have the right abs for

that, lol..... i need something that would hide my bulging muffin top and not flaunt it......... and i also don't want to look like an oversized tadpole....... so, no.....

ofcourse i still want it to be one-shoulder but i'm considering something that would hide my arms too..... i mean, i'm lucky to have thin legs but i wasn't as lucky in the arms department......i've seen some pretty off-shoulders and stunning 3/4 sleeves from allure, pronovias and rosa clara.........

the other thing i'm considering is the halter top....... i've learned that when i show my neck and shoulders and cleavage (haha, as if i have one) it draws attention to that part of my body and my arms wouldn't look as big anymore...... so i don't know..... we'll see...... who knows i might lose weight by then and would be able to pull off a trumpet gown...... so help me batman, lol



photo credits: pronovias.com and designerplanet.org

checklist added

site update:

added the CheckList page ... you can see the physical link on top, right next to "Who is TwoSqrtOfThree?"

when is too early too early?

when i got proposed at (which is January 1, 2011, for those who just recently found this site), we immediately started researching for venues, suppliers, etc.... well, not really "immediately" as in immediately but sort of 2 weeks after the proposal....

since our wedding is not until 2 years at that time when we started inquiring (january 2011)  the most common reply was that we were too early....... i remember this one couturier who was so tactless and said something like "wow! aren't you excited. why are you starting sooo early?"(hmpf!)..... but there are some suppliers who were really honest and told us upfront that due to economic reasons they can't open their calendar for us until late this year or early next year........ you know what that means, right? they're planning to increase their rates some time between now and next year and they don't want to give me their current rates when they can ask for more money later...... i understand that ofcourse, business is business...... in fact i'd prefer that answer anytime than that snotty answer from that snotty couturier........ there are a few other suppliers, however, who weren't as surprised and who sounded like they're used to my kind of situation on a daily basis..... they weren't bullying me, they didnt sound condescending and with that im truly thankful to have found them...... who are they? they're our church, reception venue, videographer, photographer and HMUA....... we booked them right away (between jan - feb 2011)

so why did we start too early?

(1) because we want to get the suppliers we want and we don't want anyone to beat us into booking them.....case in point, our reception venue is sort of in demand and we want a saturday wedding so we really have to book fast if we want that to happen....

(2) we want to lock the rates... if we decide to book late this year or early next year i bet you, they have all increased their rates atleast once by then.....

(3) because we're planning two weddings (civil in the U.S. and church in the Philippines) and the sooner we got done booking the suppliers for one of the weddings the better
(4) because december-january is peak season for weddings so its advisable to book 1-2 years in advance.

and now for the million dollar question....why wait that long?

(1) no, it's not because im pregnant and have to wait til i give birth first
(2) it's so that we'll have enough time to save and we can have the kind of wedding we want....to quote my h2b :
           "you're already 34, you've waited long enough...you deserve your dream wedding"
            (original post here: "On Being a Budget-zilla" )
(3) due to some apartment/living logistics....my apartment rent ends december this year (i live alone) and when the h2b proposed i have just renewed my contract and pre-terminating it would mean i have to pay for the remaining months in the contract lease agreement......that's a lot of money..that's $950 x 11 months....
(4) because i want a beach wedding and we have to do it either spring or summer and doing it this year is just too soon.... we need longer preparation time.... and again, we would waste a lot of money because of my apartment lease if we get married this year
(5) i need to switch jobs first (why? cant explain it here..PM me if you really want to know)

and why wait til january 19 2013 for the church wedding?

(1) we want to get married civilly here first so it would be less paper work..
(2) we're looking for a date closest to a US holiday in january (which is martin luther king) so it would be easier for our U.S. guests to take vacation leaves.....
(3) we want it in january so it would be a little colder....

i know i've been sounding like a broken record and as entertaining as it is to hear people's assumptions, i'd rather explain this over and over before the assumptions reached my parents ears and get them upset....

anyway, for the fellow bride-to-bes who are just starting their preps and who's wedding is still 2 or 3 years in the future don't be intimidated by those other suppliers who tells you you're planning way too early...... if a supplier tells you that scratch them off your list.....you wouldn't want an unfriendly supplier who might just be a cause of stress for you, right? you have nothing to lose if you book/inquire early, you do however have a lot of discounts and savings to lose if you book later....... just go ahead and inquire..... "excel sheet" the suppliers.....it would help you and your h2b to decide which supplier to get if you have them all laid out in "columns" and "rows"..... and most importantly have fun while doing the preps......  you would learn a lot of things about yourself and your significant other while you're doing your wedding plan/preps......