WEDDING FILE 4: "PREPPING UP"

On our 4th file, my wife decided to write me the dates and the details of our preparation. Maybe I'm missing a few important details of the events? Perhaps... But I'm the one typing the keyboards so what the hell! hehehe! I feel so powerful today!

In preparing for a wedding, you need to do a lot of travelling, shopping and a lot of cash on hand. These are the 3 important things that I learned. If you are up to a bling-bling kind of wedding you really have to be prepared. Mental, emotional and spiritual preparation is easy...trust me! Travelling for us has been made easy thanks to Daddy Tony and his new love...Crosswind. Probably without his help we wouldn't be able to finish our requirements on time. I admire his willingness to help us get through this thing. And I thank you very much dad!

After securing the 2 important elements of the ceremony (the church and the reception), we were up to shop for a few things. Floral arrangement, shoes, arrhae, candles, the cake etc. You know, those little things that for you bacholors and bachelorettes doesnt look so unimportant. Well think again! When you single people get married you would swear you wanted to do another year of ROTC training.

First stop on our list was to go to Greenbelt to look for a suitable barong, shoes and a unity coin holder for the ceremony. When we were in Bahrain we asked Mama Mila to get us those nice looking coins in Ortigas. Its composed of 13 gold with silver coins, each of them have an inscription which stands for the basic elements in life...and I only manage to remember 3 of them. Love, peace and prosperity. They look really cool! I tell you, whoever invented them is cool. Its a replacement for the traditional arrhae. But they are so pretty that they needed a fancy jewelry box to match it.

We wondered around the mall for hours looking for shoes. Even if they were on sale, its hard to find what we like. The ones on display doesn't really suite our taste. I dont know if weve been out of the country too long, thats why we dont jive with the current fashion or are we just too damn picky? I on the otherhand have to admit that I'm very particular with the shoes that I have to wear. It doesnt have to mean that it has to be over the top expensive, but they have to look expensive and snazy at least. My wife gets furious about this. She is willing to pay a lot just to get me the right one. She knows that mens shoes are expensive. Her shoes wont be as expensive but classy. She wants it that way. She needed a plain white pair for her because her designer made her a pattern to put on her shoes to match the dress.

We went to King Philip for the perfect barong. Since it was on sale, we figured that they may have the one I'm looking for. But it came as a surprise for me that the cheapest fabric itself was already worth P.7,000.00. Whoa! No, its not made of gold. And we don't know why it is so expensive either. But while we were there, I recieved a phone call from Chito Vecina the photojournalist. He wanted to set a meeting for us the next day to talk about our prenup shoot (now this is an intersting blog! watch out for it!). When I stepped outside to pick up a signal on my phone, I got a glimpse of Charles! What a surprise! I heard of the term "its a small world" but this is a cool coinsidence.This guy is also on vacation, and works with us here in Bahrain. He invited us to dinner just in case we would still be in the area for a couple of hours. How can we resist? It would be our first time to have dinner with our friend from abroad, right here in Makati! How exciting!

For a few minutes, our mind had a quick break from shopping. We called Mae (Lany's friend) and my cousin Ria to come with us, since they are just working around the corner. We met up with them and they showed us the Makati area labrinth. Its amazing how these malls all come together to form a chain in the Greenbelt and Glorietta area. We went up and down the escalators and through the buildings. Man! I feel like Super Mario entering a warp zone. Totally amazing!

We found ourselves at the Greenbelt area. And God it changed so much in a year since we were gone. Restaurants everywhere! And there are so much people wearing fancy clothes everywhere you go. Its like New York or something. Its really a surprise because on the news that we get from abroad, the country is suppose to be poverty striken. This aint a third world?! Well, at least not it Makati!

Charles had been so generous that night, that we could guess that he is not coming to our wedding. Can't blame the guy. We only get this once in a year. And he wants to go to Singapore. The only thing that a good friend can do in this situation is to put a litttle understanding to his comrade. Since he's insistant to pick up the tab (although my pocket was loaded that time.) we looked for nice resto to feast on. At this time my belly is not yet fed up from Pinoy food, Chinese food or the like. "Red Crab" was first on our list. But the line was too long! 30 minutes of standing was a torture to our burning stomachs. We settled for Bubba Gump instead.

The resto was inspired by the movie Forest Gump. The serve New Orleans style dishes. Everything is inspired by Forest Gump! The place looks like a fishermans warf. There are nets, wood and F. G. pictures all over. Its an interesting place to go to. Try it! The atmospehere would be most enjoyable if our eyes weren't bloodshut at that time. Lany and I were really tired. Stress had overtaken us. Imagine me for example. I have to take a ride so early in the morning from Navotas, to our meeting place, around the metropolis, to Fairview then back to where I started again. I felt like a migrating bird! Well, imagine my apetite! Poor Charles...He must have paid a huge bill. => He said it was a wedding gift...Thanks Charles! But we still prefer if you were there on our wedding day. No gift can replace a friends presence on that special day.

We had a lot of food that night. My cousin Ria went home early. Afraid that she would take the public transpo instead of the FX service that she would comfortably ridding home that night. I cant blame her...she lives in Navotas for Christ's sake! And its also dangerous for women to roam the streets at that time.

We had a good time with them. The topics where a bit shallow, but fun. All that I was thinking the whole time was our wedding. I wonder how it will end up? We wanted it to be successfull. We wanted our guests to enjoy as much as possible. But at that time we didn't really know what will please them. We had an idea of a showbiz wedding and a simple one. We wanted a mix of both. A wedding that we can afford but something to be proud of.

The night ended with a simple goodnight kiss from my wife. I silently travelled from her place to mine by jeepney. And my mind started to wonder how life would be with her. And what our future would give us. We both have our own ideas. We have our parents to tell us about it. But will all fairness, I think that our future will be bright. And we need shades just to look at it. IN SHALA!