2013 Year In Review

2013 Year In Review #flipagram made with @flipagram Music: American Authors - Best Day Of My Life http://flipagram.com/f/0zvMRaNHs0

It's Impossible to be Both Selfish & Happy

As much as I'd like to be more selfish & "happier,"  happy won't really be such a true word when it's pertaining to only me.

Sometimes in life,  we have to learn to let go in order to free someone from more hurt than necessary.  That although we would love to keep them in our arms,  we're really only doing more harm to them.

So that saying "It is impossible to be both selfish & happy" really applies here.  Even if you think you're happy to have that person around,  its a selfish act knowing the other is just hurting.

Although in the end it'll hurt; from experience,  sometimes letting go is the best thing in the end.  Let go of selfishness & happiness will ensue.  Hurt will always be a part of life,  but so will understanding if you try.

Childhood Friends From Across the Ocean...

Last night, I had a mini reunion with old classmates I've known since Kindergarten/Elementary. It may not sound as anything profound, but my husband thinks it's always amazing to still have some kind of connection with friends from almost 30 years ago that started across the ocean.

I was born in Olongapo City, Philippines and moved here when I was 10. I still speak my native language and kept in touch with friends for a couple of years via airmail that took at least a week or so to obtain. Of course through the years, it was harder to keep in touch as I got more acclimated to my new home, but it wasn't until the internet got popular and social networking sites started to pop  up that I was able to get re-connected with old friends.

By then, most have migrated to other countries and also across the U.S. It wasn't until years later though that we all actually got to somehow reconnect and finally have a mini reunion with whoever can make it. We've only had about two of these said reunions, but last night, it grew a little more when some friends who are traveling nurses moved about 1.5 hours away for work and children being added to the fun. It was a really nice celebration that was filled with laughs as always, good food and great company.

What I think makes us a little more special as far as bonding's concerned is the way we grew up. Our school at the time was fairly new and had instilled in us not only great academics, but also incorporated different types of agendas where everyone can possibly excel in. They always had contests that helped give us the healthy competitive edge. I wasn't the greatest when it came to the contests in academics, but I did had a niche in the creative department esp. in singing competitions. This have always helped built my confidence in being in front of folks which transferred greatly into my adulthood.

Since we all pretty much grew up with each other from kindergarten transitioning to elementary and from one grade to the next with the advantage of being able to skip a grade, we were all able to somehow become a family unit. We are held together by the memories & experiences we have individually at the school, with others and with each other. We can laugh at certain stories, events and recollections of what we remember back then which bonds us together. Somehow, in one way or another, our bond is there even with friends whom we haven't seen in years. It may be the culmination of all our memories, but overall, it was a childhood we would never forget that helped built the foundation of our being. Someday, I hope to have a bigger gathering with more stories to be told :)

 

Home Reception Thank Yous

I wanted to give THANKS to those who were able to make our reception back home that much more memorable! We were truly truly fortunate to have been able to work with great and wonderful vendors overall! And so, I would like to highlight them here.

So for the sweets, I wanted to be greedy and utilize and share the talents of my friends who are creative in their own rights to be showcased in our wedding. So, here's the following salivating sweets to knock your socks off! haha.

My friend Ria of JUST CAKE ME created the beautiful cupcake tower for us!

 

 

 

The penguin cake topper was from an Etsy seller Kikuike. Since I lost my phone, I don't have a closer picture of the topper, but it looks something like this:

 

We chose this design since penguins are an inside joke for us since the hubby thinks he walks like one. Hah! And we wanted it to match with our guestbook fingerprint signage.

My friend Linell of Serenade Sweets made the Star Wars cookie pops that was a part of our candy buffet and also helped me surprise the hubby with the Death Star groom's cake in which he was blown away with. The cake was Ube flavored which is his favorite!

 

 

 

 

My friend Kat of Pretty-Kitty-Cupcakes made these delicious cupcakes that we also must have!  hahah. Yes, we were def. greedy.

 

 

 

We provided the lanterns, but the room décor was helped put together by San Diego Party Rentals 

 

 

The food was catered by the Abbey Catering and Events. We worked with Robert & Megan and we couldn't have been more pleased with the food served!

 

Last, but not the least, definitely couldn't have done it without the coordination of Kadesha with Charisma Events & Consulting. She listened to our ideas and made sure we were on point with everything. I may have won a free day of coordination from her, but her help made everything run very smoothly.

 

Here's some photos of how our reception looked through family & friend's photos:

 

Your picture will be taken in placement of your escort card. This photo will be added to the mad-lib guest book that my cousin made for us. The escort cards were from another Etsy seller Recycled Ideas. According to her site, "each plantable lock and key is embedded with a carefully selected mix of annual and perennial flower seeds. Used as place cards, they make a charming wedding addition that keeps on giving" So this also served as part of our giveaways.

                                                        It looks something like this

Once you go upstairs, this is what you were welcomed with:

 

Sample of one of the table settings:

 

 

 

 

Wedding Run Down

I can't believe that a week ago, we had our reception here back home. Everything still feels surreal, but we really wouldn't change anything because everything turned out more beautifully than we could've imagined. All the hard work, procrastination and anxiety were all worth it because we finally did it and all our loves were there to celebrate with us. 

For our ceremony, there were 51 of us that went on a cruise to the eastern Caribbean and got married in St. Thomas on the 19th of March. I lost my cellphone in Puerto Rico in which I'm still kind of bummed about since all my wedding projects that I haven't posted were on there :( But, as the mantra I've learned to say through the wedding planning goes, "It is, what it is." The pictures may not be captured again, but the memories will be embedded in our hearts and mind.

We worked with Island Bliss Weddings and our coordinator, Janelle Scott, really listened to what we wanted and worked to make it happen. We were able to get our circular chair so that we were surrounded by our loves.

Our photographer, Elisha Orin, did an amazing job and you can see our wedding photo preview HERE! <3. She was fun and if we had more time on the island, we would've run around town just to be captured by her amazing work!

Our videographer, Chris Angeles, flew in to St. Thomas with his wife to capture our union. He truly immortalized our memories and here's the preview below in which he included parts of our reception back home as well. It still makes me cry every time I watch it. hahah. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have! This really has been one of the amazing moments in our lives & we couldn't have been any more fortunate to have worked with very talented folks to capture everything for us and make it all happen. <3<3<3


My Love Will Never Fail You "A Wedding in Virgin Islands" from Chris Angeles Films on Vimeo.

 

Little Reminders

Now that the wedding is getting down the wire with about 1.5 months left to go, I'm feeling more anxious and a bit stressed with the things I still have to do. In the end though, I just need to get through it one day at a time and do as much as I can from here on out.  Little reminders and positive thinking helps along the way too!

Remind yourself as to why you're getting married in the first place and why you're doing what you're doing. My answer?...

I want to spend the rest of my life with this man and have our own little family someday. I want to celebrate every success no matter how big or small it may be with him and also go through the motions of life together for support and to also help make our relationship stronger. I want to help bring more positive people in the world with him in hopes in making the world a better place too.

Why a destination wedding? It's a vacation with the WHOLE family. We have celebrations at home, but it's still different to actually experience a relaxing, joyous and also momentous moments together no matter the age. The last time my family did this was when we all went to Italy as my cousin got married at the beautiful Vatican. It was a memory to remember.

With ours, I would like my and his family to also meld and come together in a fun and relaxing way. With the day almost here, we just have to remind ourselves that it's about US. And that we're doing this because we want everyone we love to be a part of our union. That no matter how rocky and wavy things may get leading up to our special day, in the end, everyone we care about will be there to witness our love and support our union. One day and one step at a time. In the end, we'll all be relaxing away in paradise.

Passport Invitations

We finally got our passport invites out!!!! :)  My fiance and I have been working with my cousin who has a small letter press business with his wife and it was fantastic working with them. We came out with about 8 drafts in the end because not only can I be a perfectionist sometimes, but also, towards the end, when I shared what I thought was a final draft to my parents, my dad who's also an artist gave some good criticisms. Lol.

 I was a little annoyed at the idea of having to bug my cousin again since we've done so much changes and revisions, but I thought that my dad sees through an artist lense and I appreciated that he wanted to help. I obviously care about my parent's opinions hence I showed them the last drafts lol. And I felt like that was one of his ways of at least contributing his part for the wedding in which I was grateful for. In the end, the invitations came out beautifully.

We started assembling them with my bridesmaids on Thursday night at one of my bridesmaid's home. We brought pizza, breadsticks and chicken wings for everyone to show our appreciation lol. That night, we got majority of them assembled until we ran out of the red ribbons. hah. Then the rest of the shorter ribbons were just placed on heads or hair to tie.

On Friday night, the FI and I stayed up really late placing the map envelope liners and getting some of the labels put together. Hah. It worked out since we also got all the liners glued in place.

 It was A LOT of work, but we got through it! And I'm so lucky to have a partner that's there to help me out even if it felt like a second "job" to him. hahah

This is him taking a break at 1 am. Kawawa pants. lol.

This morning, Saturday, we woke up really early to place labels, assemble, seal and place the seal wax on the invites that needed to be shipped out. We were informed that postage is going up as of Monday and wanted to at least get out  the ones that needed to be shipped to save hehe :)  We finished it all with 30 minutes to spare and headed out to the post office that closed at 1pm. hah.

We celebrated our success by going to a near by Mediterranean restaurant called Petra Restaurant.  We were going to the Italian restaurant we usually go to, but didn't realize they were only open for dinner. It was a really great find for us though since we love Greek food and it was a family owned restaurant that's really good too! Small place, but the owner/chef who also served us made our overall celebration wonderful with in house humms and baklava! Yum!