Quezon Road Trip

LJ’s friends invited us for an impromptu road trip to Quezon. Unisan, Quezon to be exact. Where is this place exactly? It’s at the very faaaar side of the Quezon province. 

We left at 7am and arrived close to 3pm. We were unlucky enough to be stuck in a 3 hour traffic because of some bridge-road construction. At one point, we were beside a JAC liner bus with free Wi-Fi. It required a password so Alou knocked on the driver’s window to request for it. Resourceful! That Wi-Fi connection entertained us for a good hour.

Despite arriving late, we still continued with the island hopping. We paid 1,200 for the boat, 30 pesos for the Dampalitan Island and 20 pesos for Borawan. 

Wedding Duties: CieLJ Saves the Date!

It’s finally here! Our much awaited Save the Date illustration. LJ really wanted to have this old school style comic cover ever since he saw samples in the internet. He said I can do anything I want with the formal Invite, but he’ll be the design master for the Save the Dates.

After much delay, LJ sent an inquiry email to Andrew Villar. He’s the creator of the popular weekly comic strip seen in Manila Bulletin’s Entertainment Section, “Ambush.” Fortunately, he was open to our idea, and asked more questions to better understand the concept of what we would want to appear in our 'comic cover.'

Here’s the scene set-up that LJ provided… the advantages of being engaged to a writer, hehe!

Without further adieu, here’s Andrew Villar’s masterpiece for us…

Wedding Duties: Invitation Design

The rain and the fear that the roads were already flooded on that Saturday afternoon did not stop us from heading over to Printed Matter's concept store in Quezon City. I'm glad we went there since the invites displayed in the bridal fair were conveniently transferred to the store, making it very easy for us to recall which ones we liked. 

Just in case you are heading over to the Printed Matter Concept store in QC, they've posted a map online. You can view it through their website. 
Before going there, we browsed through some sample invites from the web, 

we were thinking post card, 

we were thinking simple, 

we were thinking washed out map background, 

semi-rustic... 

Wedding Duties: Hear ye! Hell yeah!

Less than 3 months left and we finally got a supplier for our wedding invites! Yey! We booked Printed Matter when we attended the Themes and Motifs bridal fair held at SMX. 

We weren’t really planning to hire anyone, this was supposed to be my DIY project… 

LJ thought otherwise; he was already imagining how I would look like -- a month close to the wedding, I'm covered with wrapping paper and entangled in ribbons, while crying that I can’t finish it. LOL! 

123rf.com

So to prevent the drama, we went ahead searched for a reasonably priced invite.

CieLJ Tips: Getting your NSO BC and CeNoMar

We talked about how we did not call the NSO hotline here. We didn't request for our documents to be delivered, and instead decided to do it ala-DIY by going to one of the NSO Serbilis Centers. 

In our case, the Makati City Hall (old building) was convenient for us, this is one of NSO's listed Serbilis Centers, so off we went. This is the building right along JP Rizal.

Here are the steps, it's quite easy. You seriously don't have to deal with fixers if it will be just for this. 

What to bring when getting your NSO Birth Certificate: 
Ballpen, for the forms
Envelope

A street vendor sells this just within the area if you are feeling lazy. There's no getting around the need to fill up the redundant form though... So flex those fingers! 

Here are steps as posted along the NSO Walls... 

Step 1: Get application form from the SCREENER

--- one form for the Birth Certificate, another form for the CeNoMar

Wedding Duties: NSO Documents

Amidst the fun and colorful wedding preparations, we simply can’t ignore the boring legal requirements.

One fine afternoon, LJ and I headed over to the Makati City hall to request for copies of our Birth Certificates and Cenomar. Oh! Fun!

Make-up Pick-me-up!

Etude is currently on sale, so I decided to swing by Megamall while LJ was spending a couple of hours at the gym. He allowed me to go alone with the condition that 1. I get back in time so we can still got to the Themes and Motifs’ Bridal fair and 2. I’ll get him some Spam Jam Musubi, deal!

The goal is to just go to Megamall, hoard Etude products and then get back home to finish some wedding planning… well I got a bit side tracked… hehe!

CieLJ Tips: How to Get to Tito Boy's Shop?

A small help for those who needs to get to the shop of the ever famous and well loved BKS. I'm sure there are more available routes, but these are the ones that we've tried. ",)

Here's the full address:

Unit 13 Cuevasville Commercial Bldg. 
Cuevasville Subd. along Daang Hari Road

Getting Ready for the Wedding

We will be having a morning wedding, not necessarily by choice, but I guess you can say, by fate. That being said, well for one -- good luck sa puffy eyes! I am a bit nervous about the preps. Since we'll start setting up at 3am, it's going to be very difficult to have a plan B in case we need to buy something or find an alternative if a supplier doesn't do well. 

demeblog.com

I ran across this article from theknot.com and found it helpful so I'm sharing it here. I particularly love Tip# 5, I'm pretty sure that will easily be confirmed on our wedding day. 

5 Tips To Getting Ready The Morning-Of Your Wedding

Wedding Duties: 3 month Stretch

It's three months to go until the 3am call time. Our major suppliers are booked, but now comes the hard part -- details. 

tybinc.com

CieLJ Cravings: Bar-B-King is Luuurv!

Have you tried eating at the Bar-B-King yet? no?! you should! 

With our frequent trips to Megamall, we've actually strolled past this resto many times but never really considered eating here before. That day, however, we were feeling a little adventurous (or perhaps "lazy is the right word, no?) we decided to just not think about it and walked inside the first restaurant we saw that offered rice and meat. 

We were so happy we did! 

Grilled Angus Belly Beef, Php 165

Wedding Duties: Bridal Cruisin'

After months of browsing for a bridal car supplier, we've finally booked one from Don Robert's! You can read more about it here. 

For a while, I really considered not getting a car supplier anymore. We liked the cars from Don Robert's ever since we saw their list of available sedans, but they are pricey and we had to think of alternatives. 

Wedding Duties: from Bug to Jag

I've never really thought much of bridal cars. All I know is that they're supposed to be white. I remember when I was younger, my family had a fondness for white cars, so whenever someone would be getting married, there's a good chance they'll be borrowing our Toyota Crown for the bridal car.

I once saw a red bridal car when I was a kid and I kept asking my mom, "ay baket hindi puti? pwede ba yun?" It was such out of the norm for me. Bridal cars should be white, regardless if luma or bago, basta white, yun lang requirement. 

http://yeahitsjm.tumblr.com/

CieLJ Cravings: Cue Modern BBQ

We recently tried the Cue Modern BBQ located along Bonifacio High Street. 

The place was well decorated, with interesting accents. My eyes couldn't stop admiring the details, from the ceiling to the walls, and the simple table decor. 

Kitty vs Zombie

I didn't want to force LJ to come with me to the Gift Gate Sale knowing that they will most likely have girly stuff so I dragged Gina instead. LJ decided that he's ok with tagging along, but if he gets bored, he'll just wait for us somewhere once we were done. Deal!