fathers and daughters

henry and i came home from a most wonderful engaged encounter retreat weekend and we were just on such a high, feeling such incredible love and closeness for each other and looking forward to our future together. but in the midst of all the togetherness and new life, there's also something else going on...

my mom told me that my dad wants to bbq for my bday on saturday. nice to hear, especially cuz i kinda forgot my bday is this week just because we've been so involved with the wedding planning. my mom mentioned to me that it's cuz it'll be my last bday before i get married. i just got all awwwwwww. it completely surprises me when men express their sentimentality. you see, i really didn't want to focus on the "leaving home" part of the wedding. in fact, i'm taking deliberate strides not to do the whole getting ready at home because i don't want it to feel like i'm leaving home. i don't want to focus on that fact at all because i don't want to be sad about it (aka, bawling the night before because i'm an emotional wreck!). i don't want to remember the day of my wedding to be the day i leave home... as if i'll never come back, gone forever and ever in married never-neverland. but i understand that it is one of life's milestones and it has an effect on everyone in my family. i just want the day to be a happy one, starting a new life with my husband, not of leaving an old life behind.

for those who have lived at home for a while... and even for those who don't, how have your parents dealt with you "leaving the nest?" and will you get ready at home? for sentimental or practical reasons?

on the home stretch!

6 weeks, 180 invitations, and 2 post offices later... we are finally on the home stretch!!! this morning, my mother and i went to the lovely la mirada post office and that visit was a flop. when i handed the lady one of my boxed invitations, she weighed it again and told me the postage would be about $3! ummm, no. i already checked how much postage would be at the pasadena post office last week and was quoted $1.64, exactly 4 $0.41-cent stamps. and then she proceeds to tell me, it's because it wouldn't fit in the official slot on a card that she produced from underneath the counter. "see, it has to fit here," she says, as she pretends to shove my 1-inch high box inside the quarter-inch wide slot. and i just smiled sweetly and told her, it's okay, i'll just take it to another post office. somehow, i half expected the failure anyway.



so off i went to the pasadena post office near my work. i love that post office because it's in an old building and the fixtures look like the old post offices with wrought iron gates and that old architecture. and i love them even more because they're always very courteous and nice there. very un-postal service-like. so i got up to the window with my big box of 60-some little boxes, and i asked the lady to double check my postage. i held my breath as she says, "$1.64". whew! and i asked about the hand-cancelling of the postage and she said that they don't do that there. but they'll have to be hand cancelled anyway because they're boxes. they won't fit through the machine. score!!! i had her double check the boxes that were going to canada and the philippines. the one for canada actually cost less than the ones staying in the u.s., but the ones for the philippines were short from what the 1st post office told us. so i just added a few more stamps to the invites for the philippines and handed them to the lady. and off i went to work, with a much lighter load, both physically and emotionally.



i gotta say, it certainly could have been worse eh? any horrid post office experiences out there?

parental involvement

it's so cute how my parents have been excited about my wedding details. my dad came with us to the tasting last weekend and at that time, i asked him to make the wooden frames that the drapery and hanging orchids will hang from as well as the trellis for our favors to hang from. he's very handy, having built many extensions of our house, as well as an elaborate tree house for my brothers, a gazebo for a spa and a fountain for the corner of our backyard. so of course, his role would involve building something for our wedding. we're having these little chimes made of bamboo that we purchased from the philippines as our wedding favors. and they will double as our escort cards with a hanging tag, so we need to devise a way for guests to be able to find their chime in an organized manner. my dad's engineering mind started cooking lately at how he will create this display and he just called me to tell me how much the large bamboo was (toooo costly!) and how he can make something similar and nice with regular 2x4 frames, and just adding the smaller pieces of bamboo. i can't wait to see how it turns out. but most of all, i love that my dad is involved and excited about my wedding! we didn't have a very good relationship in the past, but it's slowly but surely improved over the years, so i'm really glad that he's more incorporated in the planning now.

how are you parents involved in your wedding plans?

ah progress

making the invitations has been a long arduous process for me. i know it's partially my fault because i totally burned myself out too much in the beginning and then i just didn't want to look at the darn things for at least 3 weeks. of course, that put us totally behind schedule and now, we're scrambling. we wanted to get these babies out before this weekend so that we can hand deliver them to our friends and families during the showers. i must say, they did turn out really nice. i'm very happy with the new paper, and the redesign of the pages. what i loved most, was that i was able to print everything myself and it all looks just beautiful. my parents thought they were very professional looking and my dad looked shocked that i printed it all on my color laser printer.

so without further adieu, i'd like to present, my invitation booklet:







i'll be showing the whole package soon as well as how my fiance and i did the japanese binding.

little angels

i'm lucky to have relatives able to sew things for me. uncle dags' mommy is sewing the sashes for our little angels and look how great they turned out!

here's drexel, our little rosary angel:

okay, pa-cute, pa-cute (translation: make a cute face):

and here she is with her wings:

and here we are trying on their wings:

hehe! we'll have 2 flower angels who will distribute little bunches of mini roses to the guests as they walk down the aisle. a bible angel, who will carry the bible, a rosary angel, who will carry the rosary, and our ring and coin angel, carrying the all important rings and coins. total of 5 adorable little girls!

the best part to their outfits: $14.99 each at downtown LA. $7.99 each for the wings that include little fuzzy halos too (but they won't wear the halos for the wedding). and the sashes are being made from the material that i've purchased from the philippines. same material that the bridesmaids' dresses are made of, so it'll match perfectly!

what are you kids wearing at your wedding?