The Wedding Preps

10-11-12     I wanted a date that's easy to remember. Tapioca has issues with dates. He's bad at remembering dates. He hardly gets the date of my birthday right let alone our anniversary as girlfriend/boyfriend. And I'm telling you it's one of the grounds for breakup. When I found out he can't even remember his parent's birthdays, I mellowed down. He only knows his own birthday. Well, what makes me think this date would be something he'd remember? I don't know actually. I guess this is more for me than him.

In the wedding planning phase, we wanted to get married on the 9th of September so we don't have to remember anymore dates. But we're just the type of couple who's not in a hurry to tie the knot. It was not top priority. In short, pabanjing-banjing lang kami. September 9 came and we still didn't get things done. We were able to get the wedding bands two months in advance, though.

We went to Chinatown in Binondo to check out some wedding bands. While browsing, we ended up at this store whose owner (me thinks) gave us an offer we could hardly resist. The ring was already on sale and we didn't have the money yet. I told her our budget and she made a way to work it out with our cash at hand.

. . . two tone wedding bands with two tiny diamonds 

(Sorry for the bad photo. Tapioca used his phone camera)

So there. Kung di kami napilit ng store hindi pa kami bibili ng rings.

No choice but to move the date, Tapioca decided on September 30th. Knowing him, I have doubts it will push thru. Until we get the license then we can't set a date for sure. I was right. When we went to the City Hall, they told us the license won't be released until October 1st. So much for setting up the date.

Tapioca wanted to get married on the same day of the release of the license but part of me thought the date didn't seem right. Actually, he wanted to get married asap. The sooner the better. We both wanted to get this over with. Well, I wanted to get married in September. But now that September is over, I don't want just any other date on the calendar. I wanted something special. Then it hit me, 10-11-12.  I know it's just numbers. Nothing significant. Just numbers in ascending order.

And the date is sureness na. Since that date is available we booked it right away.

Now the people from City Hall told us we can only get married within Quezon City. Uh-okay. So Cafe 1771 is off the list. Our 2nd choice - Alba in Tomas Morato.

After setting up the date with the guys from City Hall, we went straight to Tomas Morato and got a reservation at Alba. The girl we talked to was very nice and accommodating. Too bad I can't remember her name. They have catering services, function rooms and packages that are budget-friendly. They also have an option to customize our menu which we really really wanted. However, this girl seemed to be pushing us for a buffet menu. We weighed our options:

Buffet Menu Pros:
- More variety in terms of dishes served on our day.
- Guests can eat as much as they can.
- Cheaper than customized menu.

Cons:
- Dishes on the buffet are on rota so they can't tell us exactly what will be served on our day.
- The only regular items on the buffet are the cochinillo and the two types of paella.

There are more pros than the cons. But the cons we didn't like. I mean we don't want any surprises on our wedding day. And surely, we don't want any bad food on the table. So we studied their menu and tried to create our customized menu. Tapioca and I were starving and we're having a hard time picking the dishes. Since we're already there and they're serving lunch, we tried their buffet offerings and see if we'll like it.

my appetizer plate  . . .

And you know what? We did like it . We liked it so much we disregarded the cons. The buffet spread was not as much as compared to hotel buffets but everything tasted so good. Reception done.

The dress we never really thought of. We were thinking of going in jeans with white shirts and that's it. But the last minute change of plans again. We went to SM Cubao and I bought an off the rack dress. A really cheap one. What I like about this dress? It evokes vintage. All the lace and jazz. I know this is like the dress worn by the ninang sa kasal and not the bride. But who cares, I like it.

. . . off the rack

Okay, I just wanted to give you a preview of the wedding. Up next, the wedding post na talaga. Stay tuned.