Filene's Basement “Running of the Brides”

Filene's Basement world famous bridal event is here! The Running of the Brides will be held in different locations. Find more than a thousand famous designer gowns priced at $249, $499 and $699.

>> Altanta, GA - Mar 19
>> Chicago, IL  - Jul 23
>> Washington, DC - Jul 30
>> Boston, MA - Aug 20
>> Cleveland, OH - Aug 27

For more information, check Filene's Basement.

I'll definitely check this out! Anyone who wants to come with me?

a bride... again

Yes, I'm a bride again. And yes, we are getting married again! (insert BIG smile here) I actually revived this blog for the purpose of writing and expressing rants, thoughts, ideas and feeling with the preparations. I had a glimpse experience of the love-hate feeling of wedding preparations when we had our civil wedding last June 09, 2008. This time I know that the wedding preparations will be more extensive, crucial, exciting, nerve-wracking and gratifying. It's a huge project that I know most women love to take on.

When the topic of wedding preparations came, we started with the basics. When and Where. When. We have both agreed on that it will be sometime next year (2011) since we still have to save for it and at the same time, he would still need to finish his doctorate degree this year. If it would be up to me, I'd like to have it on our anniversary as bf/gf which luckily falls on a weekend! However, that date is on a rainy month of August. And being in the place that we've chosen, I'm not sure if it will be advisable. So we opted for the next best. The month of our civil wedding. Since our civil wedding date falls on a weekday, we chose the nearest weekend to it. Wedding date will be June 11, 2011. Where. It was like a non-verbal agreement that we will be having it on Tagaytay. Since we are both from Cavite, Tagaytay is the nearest venue and the place has sentimental value for us.

Picking the church is not as hard as I though it would be. After reading forums and groups, I've learned that there are more or less 5 churches to choose from. They are:

1. The Transfiguration Chapel in Caleruega
2. Our Lady of Lourdes
3. Chapel on the Hill
4. Ina ng Laging Saklolo
5. San Antonio de Padua

Although the Transiguration Chapel in Caleruega is technically in Batangas (Batulao, to be exact), we still opted for that church. It was very serene and tranquil. We both feel that it was a great place to re-declare our love for one another with Christ as our main witness.

We have already booked the church as it is one of the sought-after churches for couples who wants to get married. Booking early means that I was able to get the date and time that we wanted. After church comes the reception. Several options are available for the reception It can be done on restaurants overlooking the Taal like: Josephine's, Sonya's, Antonio's, Max's, Leslie's, RSM, Taalena etc. Another option is to look for a venue and then hire a caterer. I have my heart set on getting K by Cunanan as our caterer. Although their rates may fall on the mid-upper rates, I love their style and I've read raves about their food. Getting them as caterer means that I won't have to spend on styling the place.

 

 

(Photos grabbed from KbyCunanan)

As for the venue, I would loved to get somewhere overlooking Taal but I know that it does not come cheap. I'm thinking that since most of our guests will be coming from Cavite, a view of Taal is not a requirement. At the moment, I have 3 venues in mind. Plaza de Aza, Balay Indang and Moon Garden.

Plaza de Aza

(photos grabbed from d-cat-dat-got-d-mouse)

Balay Indang aka Red Ginger Farm

(photos grabbed from Andi's Mommy)

Moon Garden Tagaytay

(photos grabbed from 80 breakfast)

From the 3 venues, I would want to have the reception in Balay Indang. I've seen photographs of weddings that were set there and it was truly beautiful. Although I haven't been there yet, it seems like the place was magical. I've asked my parents to visit the place and they said they would this weekend. I'm anxiously waiting for their feedback.

So far, we have only accomplished booking the church. I'll be booking KbyCunanan on the PICC wedding expo on March 13-14. I'll be asking my sister to drop by to make the booking for me. We still have to find a photo/video supplier before the wedding expo. It's best to book suppliers on expos since they can provide the best price possible and gives freebies. I want to finish the major suppliers as early as possible to lock the price and make sure that they will be available on our date. Happy preps to me!

bitten

What's up with the vampire mania? It is all just a hype or it is something better? I guess we can blame it on Edward. The same Edward that everyone fell in love with in Twilight. But why the hype and all the attention? My guess is, Edward embodies all the qualities that we would want in a guy (drop DEAD gorgeous and all). Pun intended.

Now let me share my fanaticism with the vamps. I frequent NBS all the time. It always makes me happy to be around books. As far as I can remember, I love them. Their smell and the way it takes you to a different place and time. It's a sweet escape. Anyway, that time (early 2008) Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse were in heavy rotation in every entrance of NBS in preparation of Breaking Dawn's release in August 2008. They immediate captured my attention since I've heard a few good feedback about it, not to mention that they look so good. As I've mentioned on an earlier post, black and red is a great-looking and startling combination. I have some money with me, so I bought all 3 books. I haven't had the time to read them yet since I was hooked with chic lits then and I was saving the series for our long flight here in US. The paperback version of Breaking Dawn was not yet released here in the US (is still currently unreleased) so I had to ask my Nanay to send one to me so that all 4 books are in paperback. The OC-ness strikes again.

Of all 4 books, I have to say that I love Eclipse the most. Then Twilight, Breaking Dawn and New Moon. I hated don't like Bella in New Moon. The only saving grace on the book was when she "rescued" Edward in Italy. I also felt like the ending of the series was pilitIt was a good ending but it seemed like everything was forced to have a happy ending. No one even died! :p

I am fond of reading forums and it was a good thing that there are many bookworms who loves vamps as well. There was this thread under Books in Girltalk, where they recommend good vamp books. This was where I get my recos of what vamp book to read next. I found the following series almost as good as Twilight if not better:

Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris. Dead in the Family is the 10th book on the Sookie Stackhouse series. It will be released on May 4, 2010. And this is the same series where True Blood (of HBO)was based. I love that all of the books' title has the word DEAD in it. As always, the books are much much better, although I must admit that Alan Ball (of the 6 Feet Under fame) did a great job of writing the screenplay. There are many differences between the book and the TV series and I must say I look forward on how they will show the war scenes in the TV series.

 

Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward. Lover Mine is the 8th book in the series and this one is about JM (John Matthew aka reincarnated Darius). The book will be released in April 27, 2010 and I am excited! This series is not for Young Adults and not for the faint of heart. It's an erotic paranormal romance series where swearing, booze, drugs, S&M are covered. The series is basically about the brotherhood of warriors and their shellan (lady love) on how they protect the vampire world. Among all the brothers, I love Zhadist and Bella (again?)'s story. The love-hate relationship that they have for one another is something else.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. Spirit Bound is the 5th installment in this series and it's in the league of Twilight in terms of audience (YA) and content. SB will be released in May 18, 2010 and I will definitely buy this! The premise of the series is that there are 2 types of vampires, the Moroi and the Strigoi. Moroi are the good vamps who have affinity to the 5 elements (earth, fire, wind, water and spirit) while Strigoi are the bad vamps. Dhampir are offsprings of Moroi and humans, often acts as guardians of the Moroi. Vampire Academy is where the Moroi and Dhampir learns on how to use their powers and learns to guard Moroi and kill Strigoi, respectively. The story is focused on Rose (a Dhampir) and Dmitri (also a Dhampir). Recent events turned for the worst when Dmitri became the very person that he hated, he was turned to a Strogoi and Rose must kill him.

House of Night by PC and Kristin Cast. This series is like the Harry Potter for vamps. Burned is the 7th installment in the series and will be released sometime in April 2010. The premise is like this, if a person becamed Marked, he/she must go to the House of Night and learn on how to be a vampire. They are basically students and teachers who are guided by Nyx (The Goddess). I love this series since it really is like Harry Potter but the lead character is a girl named Zoey Redbird and she has the Nyx within her. For the YA genre and a true must-read!

Blood Coven by Mari Macusi. This one is a funny and short series. Bad Blood is the 4th book and this is about twins Sunshine and Raine who are different like Day and Night. Raine was into the vampire way of life and Sunny got sucked into the madness as well which she did NOT appreciate at all!

There was one series that I did NOT like at all. The first two books are ok, but as the story went on, it became dragging, complicated and boring! It's Vampire Diaries by LJ Smith. It is a really good thing that the TV series only based on the beginning part of the series. The TV series is so much better!

There are still several Vamp series that I have yet to read. Blue Bloods by Melissa Dela Cruz (yes she's a Filipina), Morganville series,  Cirque de Freak, Undead etc. I'll find the time to read them but at the meantime I'm on a break from vamp books. I guess it's safe to say that I've really been bitten. :p

snow-filled Valentine's Day

Ouch. My body aches all over. I can't even stand up straight without thinking "crap, crap, this hurts". EVERYTHING hurts! My shoulders felt like it was taken out of their sockets and then snapped back again. Let me explain why everything hurts. We went to Cascade Mountain in Wisconsin yesterday (Feb 14, 2010) with Lei, Randy and Joni to ski and snowboard. I never thought it would hurt so much like this since we go to the gym regularly. But no, it seems that every part of my body have been used and abused.

We had a great time though. Aside from Joni (she skied before), it was the first time for all of us to try winter sports. We took beginner's lesson for snowboarding. It was not easy to be one with the board. After several falls, we were able to glide successfully down. We learned how to turn to the right and left. We then decided to try the bunny hill, but it was an epic fail. Fell several times in my butt. Tried again, fell again. Hahaha.

3 hours before the end of our time limit , we decided to switch gears and try skiing. Since no one taught us how to do it, we asked Joni to guide us. There was just one thing, no one knew how to get up when you fall. I had to ask Borgy to push the lever in the skis to free my foot, then stand up and try again. After several tries, when we felt surer of our skills, we got on the lift to the top of the bunny hill and made our way down. After 2 major falls (butt hurts and knees), I realized skiing was not for me. I think I can do better in the snowboard.

Stupidity kicks in after we returned our gears. I realized that I misplaced my goggles. :( I remember I have it at hand, I was even adjusting the straps to fit it. I just forgot where it went. Good thing it was relatively cheap compared to other goggles but still, it was new and I just had it for a day. I felt really bad, and guilty too. I apologized to Borgy about losing it, and good thing I have a great husband. He said not to feel bad about it, since we cannot do anything anymore, it was already gone.

I decided not to let that overshadow the whole experience. I made sure to have fun in snow tubing. Well, I didn't have to try hard! We all had so much fun. Snow tubing rocks. Even if our fingers and toes felt so numb, we went up the hill and plunge on our way down. We tried sitting at the tubes first and then we got a bit confident, we tried face-forward (nakadapa). Awesome! There were 5 lanes, and we took turns to try each of them!

Hopefully we can try again before winter ends. There are nearer resorts in Lisle and Barlett which we can visit. We have to make use of the winter gear that we bought (kelangang sulitin!)

(before the snowboard lesson) 

(group picture)

(after snow tubing)

5 years after

Do you remember when you were asked before, where will you be 5 years from now? Well this is kinda like that. When blogging hyped in circa 2004, I was one of the many who created one and promised myself that I'll continue this no matter what. Well, what do you know, I didn't. Haha.

Reading older posts make me sentimental, it was like reading letters back in highschool. It brings back happy and weird memories. A different time from now. The last post that I have, I have been concerned with  shoes, havs, movies, working life in Trend Micro and Borgy. Well, not much has changed, come to think of it. I still concern with most of those things.

One reason why I stopped blogging was because of social networks. Social networking got  huge. Then everyone have their Friendster account. I also created my Multiply account. Most of my pictures are still there, and I try to update as much as I can. Then Facebook came along and everyone have one! It got so huge, that even my parents have one!

As I am writing this entry, I am now 27 years old. Currently living in Westmont, IL with Borgy who is now my loving husband! (yep, that's what he is now to me!) We've been living here for more than a year now. I can say everything is pretty much well. Aside from the fact that I miss family and friends back home, things are great as they can be.

I'm a BUM/wife and I basically entertain myself by doing mundane stuff. I've come to terms with the changes of living without earning for myself. It used to be very hard for me, (honestly, at times it's still hard)  since I'm a very independent person specially when it comes to money matters. I plan ahead and I save. I'm quite proud that what we have right now is partially because of my contribution. Haha, Ok, enough about that.

To say that many things have changed is a bit of an understatement. Let's start with the easy stuff. I've posted before that I has a phase with Havaianas. Well the phase became this life-size monster that consumed me. It came to a point that I hyperventilate whenever I pass All Flip Flops. That I purchased 10 pairs at a time. It got so bad that I stopped counting them after they reached 50 pairs. It mellowed down and then it basically stopped when we left. I took with me about 20 pairs but since there are 4 seasons here in Central, I can basically just use them come spring and summer time.

All of them

I also had a phase with Converse Chucks. I have about 5 pairs now, but I think that's just that, a phase. I've been into boots now. Hahaha. See, a girl still needs her shoes. Be it a flip-flop, rubber shoes, boots or anything in between, it never fails to make one happy.

Forward to movies and books, the last Harry Potter book came out in 2007, entitled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. JK Rowling is a genius, she was able to answer every question and the ending is something that made everyone happy. I have accepted that Harry grew up and had a great life. The 6th movie installment came out last year (July 2009) and I must say, the movie is getting darker and darker. The 7th and 8th movie will come out some time this year. Why there's an 8th? Well, I think the movie people got greedy. They chopped the last book into 2 movies! I can imagine myself watching the 1st half and then after 2 hours of watching and building the anticipation, it will tell me to basically wait for another 6 months for the 2nd half. Great huh?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Scholastic)

Then there is the Twilight Saga. I was still in Manila when I got intrigued by the books. It was not that big then. They were releasing the 1st 3 books (Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse) in anticipation for the release of Breaking Dawn. What drew my to the book is not the story, it was the cover. It was so pretty. Black and red always make a stunning combination. So I bought the series and found myself daydreaming about Edward. But then the movie came out and everyone (I mean EVERYONE) wants Edward. Okay then, he's all yours. Hahaha.

Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer

As for the movies, I guess the ones worth mentioning are Transformers and Avatar. Those two were such huge blockbuster hit, Avatar toppled Titanic as the highest grossing film of all time.

As for the personal stuff, 2006 was hard for me (exeptionally hard), since Borgy left for Indonesia and we almost broke up. Being in a long-distance relationship is so hard, it almost borderline impossible. We were able to patch things up when we went back

2007 was a time for preparing his applications to work as a PT here in the US. We were able to complete most of them which was why on Jan of 2008, he left for US to take the NPTE exam. It was timing that I had to have my gall bladder removed. That was quite an experience. For as long as I can remember, I have not been confined in a hospital, then all of a sudden I have to get my gall bladder removed. Everything turned out great after the operation but I really got scared.

wedding day (June 09, 2008)

2008 was definitely our year as the most important and life-changing things in our lives happened that year. He passed the NPTE, he got picked in the H1B lottery and we got married! By Sept of 2008, we left for US and started our life in here. 2009 was pretty exciting too. We travelled to different states and we got to experience all 4 seasons. My family also visited us around May, and that was really fun. I've missed them so.

2010 is just beginning. As much as possible, I want to write everything in here, so that when time comes, I get look back and read about it. That's what this is for right?That's it for now. It's getting late and I have to write another entry!