Mission Accomplished

To start our day, we checked out from our hotel at 6am. Although the hotel is just behind Jollibee, I asked boyfie if we could have our breakfast in McDonalds instead (araw-araw ako sa Jollibee eh).  We got the happy meals para pasalubong sa kids next time we will visit them.  Toys that they have are ninja turtles for boys and strawberry shortcake digital watches for girls.

We started our journey at 6:30am, we thought we were already near the church but St Francis Xavier parish in Nasugbo Batangas is 42KM away from our starting point.  We arrived at 7:30am and although the schedule of interview is at 8am, we were already 6th from the queue.  Few minutes after, another couple arrived, and we were surprised to see an old friend from college Markus and his girlfriend Maureen also there to submit their requirements and have their canonical interview for their December 5 wedding in Caleruega.  Afterwards, we both went to Caleruega to settle the payment for the church in full.

We bade goodbye to the other couple since they still want to explore Caleruega and my boyfie and I want to already submit our wedding banns to our respective churches, mine in Paco and boyfie in Antipolo.  But before we went down from the highland, we grabbed our lunch in Rowena's Cafe.

We normally buy pasalubong from Rowena's but it was our first time to dine in their restaurant which is located behind their store.  Surprisingly, the cafe has a very good ambiance.  There's swimming pool and mini chapel at the back and the very elegant house of the owner is also beside the restaurant.  

We chose to sit at the garden area and enjoyed the overlooking view.  We chose beef steak tagalog, mixed vegetables, 2 garlic rice and ripe mango shake, all for P670 only.  

We also bought some pasalubong for our families.

Finally, we were able to submit the marriage banns to our respective churches... It was mission accomplished!

Food trip and joy ride

In a catholic wedding, there are pre-requirements that we need to fulfill and one of those is the marriage banns.  Marriage banns is the announcement of the couple's wedding date in their respective churches for 3 consecutive Sundays.    In order to proceed with the other requirements, we need to undergo canonical interview before we can get the marriage banns.  Tomorrow, we are scheduled for our canonical interview in St. Francis Xavier parish in Anilao Batangas, this church is the main church that supervises Caleruega.

We searched the location of the church and it is located before you go uphill going to the Tali beach or Club Punta Fuego.  The only schedule is at 8am, so it will be very far if we will both come from Antipolo .  Imagine how early we need to wake up just to be there at 8am.  That is why we decided to spend the night in Tagaytay.

After office today, boyfie picked me up in the office.  Since we will be travelling, we grabbed our merienda in Wicked Waffle.  It is the newly opened stall in Mckinley Hill, located in the stairs of 3 World Square building.  There's a long queue of customers curious to taste their waffles.  We got the usual flavors (P60 each) like what we are buying in The Original Belgian Waffle: banana chocolate and banana hazelnut.  Verdict, I still prefer The Original belgian Waffle in the malls. 

In Slex, we stopped over to access their restroom.  We saw the Kiss - King of Balls stall that offers fish balls, kikiam and other street foods.  It is our favorite stall inside our campus when we were still in college.  We ordered 2 sets of Kikiam for P25 each and every bite is like reliving our younger days.

Upon reaching Tagaytay, we grabbed our dinner in Tootsie's.  I saw this posted by Michi before and for a change, we tried it.  We ordered the Tinoyong Bangus and hubad na lumpia, 1 small and 1 big sago't gulaman for P685 only.  Sulit sa price and we loved the food.

With bulging tummies, we drove ourselves to Tagaytay Haven Hotel to spend the night in preparation for our activity tomorrow.  Will give more details of the hotel on my next post.  For now, my eyes are already dropping and is telling me sign off.  Goodnight everyone!

Officially Engaged

I know that you know my boyfie and I are getting married this December but there was no wedding proposal like those we see in the movies,  I didn't even got an engagement ring but I am still happy because for the longest time, we are finally getting married. We are just 2 months away from our big day but i am still hoping to receive a wedding proposal... I thought this will never happen as I don't even see a sign from him.  

Today, we went to the jewelry store to buy our wedding rings.  We got the latest design, a two tone (white gold and gold) with 5 diamonds for P48K.  We got a big discount and only paid P38K.  We both loved our chosen design and we felt they are really meant for us to wear.  After paying, we went back to the car.  He said he wants to pee so he told me to wait in the car for a while.  It took him several minutes before he was able to come back.  

Then, he handed me a box and said to try it on.  I said, we already tried them in the store so why would I try it again? To cut the story short, I found an engagement ring inside the box.  He said, he really wanted to give me an engagement ring, it's just that he didn't know my size.  For 12 years, we never had a couple's ring because I am not fond of wearing jewelries.

And today, I can say I am officially engaged.... Yehey! ^_^ #sohappy

Wedding Souvenirs

Is it a must to still give souvenir to your guests? Many suggests that since I already have a photobooth in my wedding reception, that can already serve as our suovenir.  But for us couple, we still want to give something our guests can bring home.  But of course, we want something that they can appreciate or consume, not like the usual souvenirs that everyone is giving like the figurines, display items, ref magnets (with the couple's picture?!!!... no way!) that we know the guest will just dispose afterwards.

We decided to give something edible as our give away so we considered several:

(1) French Macaroons - we love french macaroon but the cheapest that we know already costs P45 per piece.  We can't just give 1 piece per guest because it is too small.  3 pieces is the minimum that we can give.  Imagine P27,000 just for souvenirs?  (P45 x 3 =  P135 x 200 guest = P27,000)... So we scrapped the idea.

(2) Cupcakes - the cheapest that we can get for a personalized cupcake is P75 each.  This costs lower than the french macaroons and will cost us only P15,000 (P75 x 200 = P15,000).  We already wanted to settle for this but the cupcakes need to be stored in a chiller to preserve the frostings.  Since I have a destination wedding, the cupcakes should be picked up a day before so we can already bring them to the venue.  Without the chiller, the frostings will melt... Scrap!

(3) The Lollicake Factory - this store is owned by the actress LJ Moreno, she personally creates the items by herself and one of her bestsellers is the lollicake, a lollipop cake.  Who will not love this very unique idea? Plus, she can customize to your preferred design too, just perfect for souvenir, right?  I grabbed some of her creations in her facebook page: The Lollicake Factory

The Lollicake Factory is located in Unit 103 Westdale Residences Bgry. Kapitolyo, Pasig.  Store opens Mondays (2pm to 8pm), Tuesday (10am-8pm), Saturday (10am-8pm) and Sunday (11am-5pm).  I believe the cost of the basic lollicake is at P40 each and P55 for characters.  A great saving for us:  P55 x 200 = P11000 only.  We had few attempts but we failed to visit the store since everytime we want to go there, we were always stuck in heavy traffic on Mondays and my car is on coding scheme on Tuesdays and the store is already closed when we arrived.  As you know, almost all our weekends are already booked so we decided to make time to visit the store come November.  We still need to get a quote and know the logistics and storage requirements.

Funny though, after our appointments yesterday from the florist and my designer, it was almost 12MN and we still have had not taken our dinner... We were looking for a place to eat and we happen to pass by Banchetto in BGC.  While roaming around the food shops, we happen to passby 1 stall for desserts.  A lightbulb popped out and we thought that we can make them as our souvenirs.  We inquired and it was a coincidence that  Chef Rene, the one who's making those delightful desserts came from Cavite which is way nearer in Tagaytay. They can also deliver so we will have no worries for storage.  I got the contact number and gave it to my wedding coordinator this morning so she could visit and huggle for the price. 

We really liked the lollicakes so we think that we can get them for the baptism or the birthdays of our future babies.  But for now, we will settle for Chef Rene's delightful desserts.  It has already a good packaging so an additional ribbon, a tag or sticker will already make them a great souvenir.  Surely, the guests will like them too. ^_^

Tick tock....tick tock

Time flies really fast.  Now, we are down to more or less 10 weeks before our big day.  Every weekend we are out for different appointments and I think this will go on until end of this year.  Whew! I know it is a bit tiring but every accomplishment means a fraction of our dream becoming a reality.

There are few flaws however, but we are glad it happened earlier at least we can fix them instantly. Like for the case of my invitations.  We rushed making the invites since we needed to send them to our relatives in the other parts of the world.  Almost all of the stores that we inquired, the minimum order quantity is 50 pcs.  We initially needed 10 -15 pcs only but decided to get the full quantity and made it 75 pcs to save us time. I just wanted a simple invitation but also wanted it to have a glam so we chose an envelop type that is gold with silver lining (gold and silver are our color motifs, weird? I know).  The process of validating the wordings and the spelling took us more than a month before they got it all right (almost, I still found one error on the finished product.. Grrr! ). Then, we finally got the 75 pcs last month but they were not enough to cover the guests as there are more names coming up our list along the way.  So, we ended up getting another 50 pcs more.  

Last Saturday, since my car was on repair and we don't want to make plans that will involve travelling and a need to gas up, we decided to finish naming the invitations.  During the process, the first set that we ordered were all broken and peeled off, the adhesives no longer hold the cards in place, so we really had no choice but to repair them.  We already spent almost P13K for the invitation and spending for even another cent is not in our option.

I honestly have no passion for art but in times like this, i have no choice but to help.  Using the 3M double sided tissue tape, this made our life more easier rather than using glue guns. Our art attack project lasted until 3AM.  Imagine the back pain and the eyebags...waaah! #pandaEyes

After the tiring evening, we finally finished repairing the invites.  Thankful that there were no traces of damage, they are as if they are freshly out from the store.  We are really so proud of ourselves... Our job for this week and the succeeding weeks is mainly for the distribution and a door to door delivery for our sponsors.  

This is it for now, my schedule is getting tighter and tighter but hopefully I can still update you and give you some glimpse on some my wedding preparations...  ^_^

Eat Street in the Philippines... For real?

Are you a fan of the Eat Street show in Nat Geo Adventure HD Channel?  Well, we are.  Boyfie and I love watching this show as this showcases different food trailers in the US.  Yes, you read it right... food trailers are trailer trucks that are converted into mini stalls and for some are mini fast food stores.  We really love the concept and we're thinking one time to bring the concept here in the Philippines as there is no one doing this kind of business yet here except for the jolly jeeps in Makati.

On our way to boyfie's home while we were avoiding the heavy traffic in C5 and in Edsa, we passed by Capitol Commons in Pasig (near Ynares Coliseum).  We saw a caravan as we were nearing the area.  We then saw a couple of food trailers and a video camera (just like the one that is being used in filming movies) covering the happenings in the area.  We thought they are just made just for filming or commercials, but when we saw some cars are parking on the sides, we did not hesitate finding a parking slot too.  There are over 10 food trailers offering different menu selection.  Their individual food trailers were designed with a colorful and artistic concepts to attract the customers.  

Boyfie was craving for a Philly cheese steak since last week and when he spotted the 'The Cheese Steak Shop', I already know that was the one that we will try.  This food trailer as stated in their logo offers Original Philadelphia Steak Sandwiches since 1982, really? I'm not sure if they are a franchise from the US, but I haven't seen them featured in the show yet... Or maybe i missed it.

We ordered the 7" Philly Cheese Steak for P280.  We chose beef over chicken and a Jalapeno as an additional topping. Jalapeno is like chilly pickles (i really don't know how to describe it) and has a strong flavor that will really make your meals to have a twist.  The food is great, i'm just looking for more cheese. :)

We also had gelato for dessert.  I normally order pistachio for gelato but this time I chose the Ferrero flavor for P100 as I will be sharing it with boyfie and there was no regret...  Sarap!

If you want to experience the food trail caravan, catch them at:

Capitol Common Ground

Kapitolyo, Pasig City

Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays (4PM - 10PM)

Fridays and Saturdays (4PM -12MN)

Coming soon!

Loyola Marikina

Sundays (morning)