From 150 to 50

(Habang nakahiga at nagpapahangin sa picnic grounds dito sa east coast park naisip kong magblog dahil may libre namang internet. Why not?)

Dala ng mga pangyayari nitong April, naisip namin ni Joy na kailangan namin ng matinding budget cut s aming wedding. Nung venue sana yun papalitan namin. Pero emote naman ako dahil love ko na nga ang Josephines. Na-imagine ko na ang sarili kong nagpapapicture na ang background ay yun Taal Lake. Dahil maintindihin naman si Joy sige go Tagaytay pa rin kami.

Naisip na lang naman magcut sa guest list. From 150, 50 na lang ang guest namin. Stirctly family and close friends. Sniff. Sniff.

Accomplishments and Action Plans

Suppliers Booked:

1) Reception Venue - Josephine Restaurant, Tagaytay
2) OTD Wedding Coordinator - DNDC
3) Onsite Video - Jezreel
4) Photographer - Redefine Weddings (Jayson Arquiza)

Things to Do:

1) Guest List
2) Principal Sponsors
3) Entourage
4) We need to finalize the theme!

Priority Suppliers to be Booked:

1) Emcee - to finalize booking with Missy (reservation fee to be paid end of the month?)
2) HMUA - still scouting.. I was hoping to have a trial session when I go home in May
3) Rings - there's this design I like in Lee Hwa. I couldn't find a picture online :( I want a yellow gold or two-tone ring. We might have it made by a friend of Joy's mom since it's cheaper
4) Gown - not really a priority in terms of budget. when I go home in May we will visit the Divi supplier who made the gown for the wedding of Joy's relatives

Wedding Photographer - Check!

Paul Vincent
Nelwin Uy
Jeff and Lisa
Jayson Arquiza

These are just some of the wedding photographers we shortlisted. We spent hours and hours looking at their websites, scouting their works, identifying their techniques. I would have booked them all. Cause they were all great! But of course, we needed to get someone with good quality work and is within our budget.

Guess who we got? :) Our wedding will be photographed by none other than-- Jayson Arquiza! Transacting with him was mainly done through emails. He replies within a reasonable time and he's a very nice and humble guy. Judging by email anyway. Hehe. I was so happy when he told me he's available for our wedding date. Once we had the money, I immediately asked Joy to make the deposit. Hehe. Atat! We even got a discount because of our W@W tag.

OTD Wedding Coordinator - Check! (Plus On-site Video Pa!)

On that same vacation to Manila, we scheduled a meeting with Dindi of DNDC. I prepared myself by going over the package she sent me and listing down some questions.

Dindi is a nice person. She's young but upon talking to her, you'll know that she's not lacking experience in the wedding industry. She was able to answer my inquiries and she made helpful suggestions. Take note hindi pa namin siya na-book nito ah?! ;P On that same meeting, Jezreel, who was with Dindi, showed us some of his works. He clicked instantly with Joy. Plus points na agad to ;p We ended the meeting telling Dindi that Joy and I will discuss things first. But deep in my heart, I knew I wanted to get her services.

When we went home, I was pleased that Joy gave me the go signal to get them. Yehey! We're on a roll ;p

Fast Forward - The Wedding Preparations

Setting the date was easy enough for us. We wanted the wedding to be on our anniversary, on his birthday or my birthday.

Fast forward to the wedding preparations. I joined the W@W yahoogroups and I learned that the next step after setting the date is to decide on the wedding venue. Joy and I visited possible wedding venues in Makati, Manila and Intramuros. We couldn't find the perfect place for us. It's either too plain, too old, too expensive, too big, too far, etc.

While surfing the internet, I encountered Josephine Restaurant in Tagaytay. I requested for a list of their packages. Lo and behold, Joy liked the place! Who wouldn't want to get married in Tagaytay? It's such a beautiful place. The venue is beautiful in itself. We wouldn't have to spend too much on styling it. We also felt that the package they offered is value for money.

During one of my vacations in the Philippines, we visited the place and conducted an ocular inspection. We also tried the food. We found both things up to our standards and so we paid the reservation fee already. Yehey!

After booking the venue, that was when I felt that this is it! I'm really getting married. It was a good start to our wedding preparations :)

The view deck has stunning view of the Taal Lake

Nice setup for a garden wedding

The Parasol Garden where the reception will be held

The Proposal

I guess it's just appropriate to start the blog by posting how Joy proposed to me :)

Even before he proposed, we already knew that we are indeed getting married and that we will be getting married on Dec 8, 2009. Just like any girl, I would have wanted a proposal and an engagement ring. But I said to myself, what matters is that we have made the decision to get married. And so I had no idea that he was going to propose when we went on a trip to Pagudpud.

On that particular day, he told me he wants to go swimming in the beach in the afternoon. When we were going to the beach I noticed he brought his bag, which was not small by the way. When I asked him about it, he said he just wanted to secure our things. Okay. While swimming, I noticed he kept glancing at the bag, which was lying at the shore. When we got tired of swimming I told him I wanted to go back to the place we're staying because I wanted to take a shower and clean up. I felt uncomfortable with the sand and the salty water. He told me, we can just go sit somewhere and watch the sunset. Awww. How sweet. So I said okay.

And so we sat on top of a huge rock, watching the waves and chatting. After some time, I told him I wanted to shower cause I was getting really uncomfortable. He told me to wait for a short while. After a few minutes, his tone got serious:

Joy: Natatandaan mo nung first time ka sumama sa dgroup? Sabi ko nun kay Lord, kung pwede akin ka na lang (taking out something from his bag)

Faye: Uhuh

Joy: Natatandaan mo yun plans natin for Dec 8, 2009?

Faye: Uhuh (getting nervous)

Joy: (getting my hands and putting the ring on my finger) Tuloy natin yun ha?

That was it. Simple but really heartfelt. My heart was beating so fast and I was crying.

Later on, we decided to take some pictures. Pardon the quality of the shot and the way we looked (I didn't know he was going to propose that time and so I didn't make any effort on improving my looks ;p)

The beautiful horizon when Joy proposed to me

We took our pics. I was trying to show off my ring ;p