BEAUTY meets the BREW: Our PRENUP Preview

Brewing next: here's a teaser of our country rock-meets-vintage, sun-kissed, azure- and coffee-tinged PRENUPTIAL shoot; ice-blended into a glamorous and perfect concoction of mocha and cream, cloudless skies, and breathtaking inspiration.

Hope everyone enjoys goin through these few snapshots as much as we did.  It was the craziest, sunniest whirlwind of a day, but we were thrilled to see the results -- even in their raw formats.  

So sit back and enjoy the brew, even if for a quick moment.  Because there'll be more to come.  More to douse your sunrise, and sweet hereafters with.

Whoever said busking didn't have to be fashionable?

love and coffee, flowing like water

the ever-chic and fabulous Kat

Care for a drink? Or a kiss?

Two hands and an engagement diamond

We stroll through this red, blistering earth together, You & I.

wrapping up a lovely story with coffee and stone walls

100-DAYS OF GRACE. (Like the falling of Autumn leaves, purposeful moments descending on a sunny pile of orange, yellow, crimson and bursts of sienna)

We no longer have to imagine it.   

We did, though, some 16 months ago. Some 480 days ago.  Some 11,520 hours ago.  Some countless sips-of-coffee and kilometers-worth of café receipts, ago – when we started this sweetest journey together.  Gab and I wondered back then, where would we be 100 days before the wedding?  What would we have accomplished?  What would have been our most unpopular decisions, and most creative triumphs, if any?

Today: officially, we’ve entered our 100-day marathon before the big day.  Unofficial, as of this writing, its 92 days. And that’s how quickly these prenuptial days burn up in a tireless, peerless, but glorious blaze.  It’s been well over a year now when Gab and I first toyed around with the idea of marriage.  How we felt so stress-free then: wading across the tideless seas of our assumed universe where time was not a factor; where 15 months seemed so, so faraway; where our list of ideas, themes and wishes could stretch on forever, with no rhyme or reason, or requited love from our wallets.

But an even better part is that the larky, dream-like undercurrent of those days have been replaced by fantastic, like-minded people, beautiful events, plush ceremonies, and sun-kissed bliss – all of which have filled up the calendar pages of our year so far.  Somewhere up there, I know that God is smiling at us, egging us to push forward further and find grace as we bury ourselves deeper and deeper into the relentless prenuptial exercises that are already upon us these next 90 days.

It is humbling, for as active as we are, we realize that there is much left to accomplish and account for these last 3 months!  But, on the other hand, we’ve never been prouder of the numerous items we’ve already ticked off from our to-do lists. In addition, we’ve never been more excited than the way all our vendors have tailored their lovely designs to match our daydreams (and budget), and in the process, how they’ve become a precious piece in the wonderful jigsaw puzzle of our lives the past 9 months.  In a manner of speaking, we’re even thrilled of the way we’ve made a few savings here and there, so that we can focus on our DIY details.  (And trust us, once an irresistible DIY idea flies by, hold onto it; you’ll never know when that concept might be the darling of the crowd, so to speak.) Everything’s shaping up and all the pieces are falling into their places exactly the way we planned.   

Just the way we always thought we’d be. 

We already know that the next hundred days will brew up a storm past June, July and August like a hurricane. These next days, weeks, months will surely be the most memorable yet! But we feel like patting ourselves at the back, for April and May were such whirlwinds of a month!  Here are the things we checked off our To DO list the past months.

nabbed my confirmation cert, finally!

1. A few weeks back, Gab & I braved the local bureaucracy, as we marched towards Quezon City Hall to file our application for marriage license. To avoid aggravation, I made lots of phone calls to inquire about the forms, processes, submissions, to ensure that our requirements were complete without a hitch before going there.  Very fortunately, the gods were smiling, as we hardly went through the hassle most couples experience in processing their marriage license. Small queues and helpful tips from roaming staff/street hawks helped expedite our way. The efficiency more importantly earned us a few hours to spare – which we used to take trips to Immaculate Heart Cathedral (near E. Rodriguez) where I finally claimed my Certification Certificate; and to Sanctuario de San Jose, where we submitted our forms and signed up for a day-long family planning seminar.  And because Gab chose to accompany me throughout the process – windless skies and sunny streets notwithstanding – made the entire process an even more pleasant adventure.   

...Census says: we're ready to rock & roll!!!!! :)

bespoke suits and tuxes and good breeding

 2. This month Gab & I finally visited and met the cool crew behind Sarto Manila - a custom tailoring shop in New Manila that Gab’s been keeping an eye on since he read through their very articulate and on-the-button blogsite.  Gab had been taking increasing interest in their bespoke suits, which looked stylish but not overly stylish.  Roguishly young, I think? Conversations started over email, and there was immediate rapport/chemistry between Gab and his couturier – so much so, that one of the Sarto partners had wondered if Gab was an old friend! Sarto’s partners-in-crime Jonathan and Albert immediately reeled in my fiancé’s sense of style and without missing a beat pegged down every bit of nuance and detail that Gab was looking for. He’s now very much a Sarto man himself.  Dressed to kill, not to be killed. Haha!

3. In May, we also twice met with Kim of Jeanel's Handicrafts, to discuss and go over the design of our wedding favors.  For those who aren't familiar with them, Jeanel's is very talented group who does carefully hand-made crafts, embroideries, and an array of export-ready decors.  They're based in Daraga, Albay - a faraway, sleepy town w/c has a fantastic up-close and personal view of the majestic Mt. Mayon - so there was definitely an authentic, country feel to our interaction.  It took us all the way to the Bicol Region to find the people who would provide our guests with well-made souvenirs.  This item, we can honestly say, is close to our hearts, and has a brilliant design that's uniquely ours. So unique, in fact, that Kim gave us exclusivity over it. :-)

4. It took us a long time to decide on one of the few missing suppliers for our wedding: the musician.  We’ve seen several in fairs and local websites, but couldn’t decide on one because they all appeared the same.  We also wanted a chorale group since we both enjoy a well-sung song, but we don’t want too many voices drowning out reception chatter.  Finally, with the help of Gab’s mom, we nailed down The Bernie Pasamba String Ensemble – highly-reputed, seasoned musicians, and legends in their own right in the industry.  We’re thinking of jazzing up their playlists/repertoire, by adding a few contemporary/pop-renditions to their mix.  The guests should have a fun time while being serenaded and  their old souls stirred up inside.

making the music last through a lifetime...

Oh – and June will be the month when a most difficult aspect to music comes around: the selection of wedding songs and background tunes! HELP!!

important detour to get our pre-nup permit :)

old Manila coffee and emptied bread toasts

5. What has made us even busier and PAINFULLY spend-foolish these past weeks amidst our crazy wedding-meets-condo carnival, is our pre-nuptial pictorial. Last month, Gab & I already made an ocular inspection of our preferred venue – and a couple of weeks ago, we made a side-trip to obtain requirements to shoot. We were confident our specially requested photographer from Niceprint (same guy who did Ogie+Regine’s popular wedding) would do an awesome work on us, so it was just a matter of donning chic and cool clothing that matched our themes. So the weeks that followed, we went around major malls and tiangges, and SPLURGED on tops, blouses, jeans, hairdresses and other accessories to perfect the look we wanted. We had an entertaining time dressing the part and imagining our poses, even if Gab had a distaste for mall-based fitting rooms and needing to take his pants/shoes off. 

pre-nup splurge! several more shopping bags and receipts not included here

 

5. And the finishing touch? About week ago, I got an appointment to meet with and reserve the services of a very fabulous and classy lady in Cherry Pacheco – who committed to do my hair and makeup for the prenuptial shoot.  Hip and fashionable, her portfolio is amazing, especially at such a young age!! And her charm and cheerfulness just exudes throughout her work and dialogue.  I couldn’t be any more glad that Cherry gets to bring out the drop-dead gorgeousness that all brides want for themselves.

We are getting closer and closer to the big day. The planning is coming along very well and we are almost done with everything as scheduled. Few months more and you’ll already smell the Brew. 

A few months more, and we don’t even need to imagine or blog about imagining it, anymore. :)

Watch out world – there’s so much more in the NEXT FABULOUS ENTRY.

BLISTERING, MADDENING & BEAUTIFUL

What a difference a day made, twenty four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers where there use to be rain
My yesterday was blue dear
Today I'm a part of you dear
My lonely nights are through dear
Since you said you were mine
Oh, what a difference a day made…
And the difference is you, is you”

"What a Difference a Day Made," by Dinah Washington

We hardly ever, if at all, copy and paste lyrics in our entries.  Which can be sometimes intriguing, ironic and regrettable as Gab and I both have such different, voracious, and accessible tastes in music – i.e, my experience as a performer with Center for Pop, and Gab’s as a bassist for three amateur bands. We’ve only managed to share a handful of eclectic/pop/sentimental renditions in our wed-site, although surely, the remaining weeks before September should allow us to swoon everyone with an additional wholesale inventory of Videoke hits. :-)

Gab in his revered den

Banyo talk w/ the architect

  …But the lyrics to the song perfectly capture our present Manila State of Mind. That – despite the extra-ordinary, super-sized, bottomless busy-ness surrounding our blistering days/nights/in-betweens, we’ve kept at our sweet, lovely miracle like two little engines that could.  Every week is a heatstroke-worthy trek to the condo, to a wedding fair, to Wilcon or Home Depot, to meet a vendor, to meet our contractor, to go over our priority list, to meet up with friends and guests, to the bank/parlor/dress shop/Church, or to have my lovely gown refitted, etcetera.  Our weekends these months in no order comprise city-wide searches for stylish (but reasonably-priced) lavatory/bathroom fixtures and floor tiles, canvasses for wedding favors, scanning the WorldWideWeb for prenuptial, reception and floral arrangements, and putting in the work for DIY items. WHEW.

DIY resumes at 38 degrees C.

 Oh. And gasoline prices be damned!

But we’re still smiling and shining ala Stevie Wonder and Friends, never minding the torturous perspiration and agitation.  I should be so lucky that Gab is very much involved in the fiery planning process (and I thought guys weren’t supposed to dedicate their time on these granular, petty details?? Awww.) – because I wouldn’t last another day without him :-) Our cash flow/accounts are also taking a s-e-r-i-o-u-s hit because of these regular appointments and disbursements; but luckily, we’ve been gifted with the occasional generosity of a few friends and family members.  God’s love still truly works in the ways of others. :-)

...with another Save-the-Date fan and fellow frappe-drinker, Ao.

Sometimes, our quieter moments at our respective offices provide stables for reflection and perspective.  Reflections and revisitations can never be mundane: what started out as an honest albeit playful “what-if-we-get-married proposition” back in February 2010, has become this epic, maddening kind of life-altering event that has pretty much consumed our every spare weekend and centavo over the past year!

We wonder to this day, less than 4 months from our D-day: how did we ever get here? How did we ever fall into each other’s place, countenance and comfort?  How did it happen – plunging headlong into each other’s ethereal daydreams and thick, ice-blended concoctions – that we’ve ultimately found ourselves joyous and resolute atop our very wishes-on-a-star? Was it the first kiss, or a crooked, circumspect smile, or the gentle tap of two fingers on the shoulder, that did us in?  Was it the first trickle of iced coffee intertwining with our first share of shallow stories as they ascended from our larynx and out of our lips? What made the difference?

with Gab's cutest nephew, Zeke

world's finest: bride, couturier, bridesmaid

A lot of conjecture can be thrown in and out of the furnace, and be wrought from its voluptuous flame, so to speak.  None of which would be entirely accurate, but, romance has its way of filtering out all logic and deduction, and to speak only through metaphor, if not, hyperbole.  And we are romantics, are we not?  What we can tell with some veracity is how, one slow afternoon in 2009, we ended up having drinks at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet in Q.C., and snacked happily on the remains of the day.  Fittingly, Gab and I turned from mellow acquaintances into good friends that day; although it wasn’t until a few months when our partnership took off in which we concluded our first out-of-town dinner (Bag of Beans) with memorable frappuccinos amid the cool palpable darkness of Tagaytay.  The smaller dates that would follow were no less evocative.  

Bag of Beans, baby

Starbucks Tagaytay (2010)

In hindsight, we sort of regret not to have taken pictures of our “older” events - particularly, as neither of us anticipated the momentum that would transform our cheerful friendship into a lifelong commitment – the greatest and happiest decision we’d ever made. :-) But while there are only a few photos to tread our just-friends past with, the places themselves retain their relevance, ambience, and indelible power.  For posterity’s sake, we’ve managed to somehow sneak into the thickets of wedding preps a few quaint dinners at those very cherished places.  (Sadly, the old Coffee Bean outlet’s been shut down, since)

Commemorating partnerships and sweet transitions at Chocolate Kiss Cafe, UP Diliman

But at the end of the day, we realize: we’d still much rather head home. We’d much rather find time to chat, lie down and relax, embrace, sleep, tug, dream and care about each other as if it were the most precious alibi for missing out on the many fleeting, immaterial urgencies of the waking world.  The beautiful difference had always been with us, no matter how sentimental, no matter how grandiose the world allows our metaphors to be.

---------------------------

And it always starts out best, as friends.............................

Summer 2009, seasons of true friendship

office sendoff, August 2009 - a larger destiny beckons...

Home Sweet Home, October 2009...our first official date @ Le Souffle

 

Celebrating our first "lavish" dinner @ Lemuria (November, 2009)

...followed by a most memorable Christmas (City of Pines, 2009)

High in the sky, on our first Valentines (Cebu, 2010)

Turnin' the tables: reminiscin' the friendship @ our old office (March 2010)

..and a well-deserved summer romance (Pearl Farm, May 2010)

Falling into place, the best Engagement dinner @ Tosca (end-August 2010)

... and a post-engagement weekend at Hong Kong (October, 2010)

2011 is LOVE -- as in the flourishing of greens and blues and earth (February, 2011)

...as in the inspiration we find and recreate everyday.... (Tagaytay, 2011)

As in the differences we celebrate every passing moment, w/ every cup of coffee (Cafe Ysabel, May 2011)

A Different Kind of Summer Romance (and Finding Time to Do Everything)

We GET it.

Hitting the resort after a birthday party

Its torch-like out there, the prickly heat of the sun like hedgehog quills, and its glare – especially at midday – is overwhelming every bit of Earth and infrastructure. Day-lit working hours tending to be a bit more sluggish, office loads more grueling than usual, and our traffic-tested tempers lousier than we’d wish!  A/C seems to be broke even at full blast, and I’m ‘fraid there just aren’t enough horses to ramp up the, er, horsepower. Gab sweats a lot, lot more than I do, but I’ve had my full and unfair share of changing shirts within the same hour these days.  And if you’ve driven past by those thermostats beside the traffic lights: we’re looking at 38, 39, 40 degrees Celsius! Wow. Literally, enough to induce human convulsion.

Calm moment at Club Manila East

So you can imagine how much of another miracle its been that, despite the furious, unrelenting heat here in Manila that Gabby ABSOLUTELY despises, we were able to accomplish our fair share of grown-up tasks, eventful due diligence and rewarding rendezvous(es?) the past 2-3 weeks to keep our happy momentum from melting down, or burning down from its own flame.  Of course, we haven’t hit the beach either, as much I’ve been wanting to, but that’s always an open possibility right after marriage.  And that’s just about the most comforting, lovely reality thereafter.

SVD dinner @ ShangriLa Mall, w/ Tonet

late visit with Frances & Baby Chloe

As we had hoped, we’ve gotten great responses and more than a few thumbs-up for the Save-the-Date packages we started distributing out since late March to friends we hadn’t seen for a while now.  Its been dubbed a “labor of love,” by a few friends – and that’s what it is precisely.  Others wondered if those were our Invites, already, and if receiving one meant getting a free Frappe. Hmmmm!!? Other friends were more hilarious, as they tried in vain to twist and open the coasters as if opening Forrest Gump’s box of Choc’lits.  Gabby calls it a fusion of strengths: our love for the café culture, and matching, granular workmanship from our lady friends at Creative Prints. We love them dearly… But its mid-April now, and we still got several dozen SVDs waiting to be released as soon as we’re able to reach a “binding” decision on who else makes it to our guest list.  If only money grew on trees… (we’d plant more of them every day!)

First jam w/ TNJ in two years, and first to get married. That's my bassist :)

 The other week, we also took a day off from work to finally meet with our preferred lensman at NICEPRINT. Niceprint hardly organizes early 1-on-1 meetings with their more coveted photographers, so we felt privileged to be a rare exemption!  We wanted to check firsthand if we’d hit it off well with our guy, if there was real or just contrived chemistry between us, and more importantly to solicit his views on our pre-nup shoot scheduled very soon!  Very fortunately, he (barely in his 30s) was very receptive and engaged by the ideas / concept that’d been brewing ala Caffe Ti Amo concoctions in our heads for some months now!  Exciting exciting! Around us, vivid wallpapers of John and Priscilla, Ogie and Regine, and posters of elegant couples perked up our smile not because of their conspicuous, Photoshopped-caricatures, but because we feel we are already affiliated with among the industry’s most admired and respected names.

Our sneak "pre-nuptial" preview + another Gabby/frappe sighting :)

recovered plywood from Gab's backyard

The DIY Spirit also continues to inspire us at every turn! We were such busybodies during the SVD preparations, that we’ve completely embraced the risks, the rewards, and the intimate process of doing some of the additional wedding items ourselves! For the SVD cups and frappes, Gabby did most of the graphics and editing, re-coloring and general design, I did the reproduction, trimming and cutting, and inking all the names.  It might not seem all that much work until you start putting in the long hours right after office, and then see your sleeping hours fall to the sound of timbeeerrrrrrr. :)

giving birth to another DIY Project :)

So what’s our next DIY project? We got the base material with us, but we’re still figuring out an effective design amid the crisscrossing of daily events. Gabby, however, is already doing his best impersonation of a carpenter who thinks he can do a little more than just nailing and hammering. :) I love him!

At any rate, beads of sweat, fuel, food and vendor receipts aren’t the only things piling up these days of wedding planning.  As if wedding schedules weren’t enough distraction from our work, the intermittent renovation and improvement activities involving our  1-½ BR condominium near Ortigas/New Manila has also been well underway since the start of the year.  It still amazes me how we've managed to be so productive and proactive in meeting both our wedding and condo-related responsibilities, on top of being soaked at our respective offices.  I'm just so thankful that Gab hasn't ever been remiss in his property+contractor obligations, design consultations, and weekly inspections, despite the  humidity outside and the distressing number of scheduled payments and other preoccupations! (i.e., Gab also does some freelance writing)  And he isn’t letting up on making sure our modest place is as alluring and accommodating as our shrinking peso-denominated bank accounts can afford… hehe. 

True to form, we’ve been visiting the nearest Wilcon megastores on our spare weekend hours to peruse through and list down estimates for floor and wall tiles, kitchen and bathroom wares – and those in fact are getting to be more entertaining than we initially thought!! Oh, and one time we went accent piece hunting at the popular LRI Design Plaza and the upper-crusty Kish shop in Reposo St., Makati – but came out empty-handed and humbled at the same time. Though we are definitely purchasing an item or two there soon....

...only, not this semester, I’m afraid! :)

But we get it. This is already getting to be a summer like we’ve never ever romanced before.  Oh, summer breeze, you make me feel fine…

Adulthood takes another step forward with help from a small sledgehammer

My fiancee the white-collared carpenter, perfecting the art of chipping cement blocks :)

..a few weeks later...

...VOILA.  (Gab peers out from his self-styled, custom-designed coffee den/type)

Busybodies that we are -- we deserve THIS

Caffe Ti-Amo means "I love You,"  with rich foamy milk on top :)