Social Butterfly

We have 400 guests for the wedding. I even cut this down because it's originally 500! Well, my mom is a social butterfly. Therefore, I am. Yep, yep. Too many connections and I want them to be there to join the festivities, too. Joey has less than 20 on his list. Buti na lang we have our highschool classmates so we have some 'common' guests hehhehe.

What does this mean? The seat plan nightmare plus wedding crashers.

But sorry I am strict on the guest list. And so does my coordinator. So, this is what we are doing to make sure everything is organized on the wedding day:

1. Seat Plan -- definitely!

2. I indicated in my invites how many seats had been alloted for every guest

3. My coordinator will computerize the registration and we will have 3 laptops that day (no problem coz Joey and I got 4 hehehhe). he guest will say their name and the at a click of a button their seat number will appear. then there will be ushers and usherettes to lead them. PLUS I told them to station people at the reception area to prevent exchanging of tables (ang pasaway ilalatigo ko)

4. RSVP by December 15 for final headcount

5. I controlled the other social butterfly (my Mom) to say this personally to all my relatives and her amigas when she distributes them the invites. They have to tell her if they will attend and if not, who will attend in their behalf. She will explain to them why we need those information - because there will be a registration where they will know table location.

6. If they are not in the list, we may have to ask them to wait for awhile until my team was able to seat everyone. Then we usher them where to stay.

Anyway, I think we can accomodate even uninvited guests. Normally there is 10% buffer from caterer so it shouldn't be a problem. I just want to make sure that the ones invited will get the priority seats.

I hope this works!

Wedding Shopping 2nd Phase

The Chatuchak Queen is back with more wedding gifts.

Today I went back to the knockdown lamps vendor to buy more for the female sponsors. So all of them will get this except for Lynne, my boss. It's a bit pricey but it's okay. The vendor told me that everytime I buy, I help the villagers from some far flung province in Thailand. That's a thug in my heart but I stil manage to get a little discount.

My problems regarding the men are solved. I went to this pewter shop and bought many stuff. For the male sponsors, I got them this really nice photo frame with elephants. Again, everything's a bit pricey but I'm still within the budget. Only remaining gifts are for the flower girls, my aunts and some groomsmen.






Oh, by the way, I found a super duper creative guy who can do our unity candle. He can etch our monogram as part of the candle design! Ang galing! I can get it by next week -- 1 big candle and 2 small ones for 340 Baht or 480 pesos.

I have started typing the misalette and I think I can finish it by tonight. Tomorow I can send it to Fr. Rodel for his comments.

Till the next updates!

Wedding Shopping 1st Phase

Today I went to Chatuchak (Bangkok's famous weekend market) to hunt gifts for the wedding sponsors and entourage. I was so happy to find a lot of neat stuff to give!

For the female sponsors, I found this nice knockdown lamp.



These bags below are for the female entourage. The designs depend on their personality that's why I have 2 styles.



For my wedding coordinators' staff, I found these really neat handmade soaps. I will just add more drama in the packaging.



I am still having difficulty finding the gifts for the male sponsors and entourage (men!). Maybe I will have more patience tomorrow (sigh).

Still pending: kids, parents and suppliers (Durian chips and Bangkok sampaloc for them).

Then next week I will do my Christmas and wedding shopping for Joey.

I can't believe it's only a month left!

Winter Updates

Finally! It's winter in Bangkok. The raining has stopped. Monday morning, I was surprised to feel the cool breeze of air that greeted me as I stepped out of the condo. And then I realized it's winter!

Yep, Thais call it winter. And it can get really very cold. As in you have to wear your light jacket or wrap around a pashmina or shawl on your body to keep it warm. Just today, after I finished having dinner with my colleagues at a Korean Restaurant along LangSuan Road, I decided to walk home. And my golly it was a chilly windy night! I think I'm gonna catch a cold
:-(

And since it's winter, it means December is fast approaching (yay). Anyway, I was able to accomplish a lot of major things the past few days. Here goes my winter updates:

1. Sent all invites for distribution to Manila last Saturday (I spent only 360 Baht from the shipping company I know for 1 box containing 200 invites.Yipeee! Super savings!)

2. Distribution instructions - sent to my coordinator

3. Glass bulbs for beads bracelets - sent to Manila, 300 sets

4. Wedding favour tags, guest sheets, table numbers - print this weekend

5. Misalette - start typing this weekend; print all on week of November 28

6. Photo gallery - choose photos and bring to shop for developing

7. Photo-taking area - buy more beads as part of decoration (capiz and beads combined)

8. Entourage make-up artist - booked; Jayvee Flores

9. Reception seating arrangement - follow-up coordinator

10. Reception script - start writing this weekend

11. Beads accent on ring and unity coin box - start this weekend

12. Silk pillow for ring box - source out materials this weekend (DIY)

13. Unity Candle - source out in Chatuchak

14. Cord - done (DIY). I decided to make it 2 colors with Swarovski in the middle




Joey will be here on the 9th of December. Alas after almost a year we will see each other! I feel so happy and giddy!

And we still have 34 more days of tension before the big day!

Honeymoon Blessings

4 months ago, I planned to surprise my h2b (Joey) on a second honeymoon trip to Switzerland. After our Boracay honeymoon, what he knows is that we will go to Singapore but on the departure day, i will reveal to him that we will go Switzerland. So, I started planning for it.

However, I had to let go of that plan because I forget we have to attend this highschool reunion after our Boracay honeymoon. It's a good occassion to attend because we will be seeing our classmates after 20 years! And everyone's excited for both me and Joey since we were classmates in highschool. We just have to attend that momentous event, too.

I finally told Joey about my plan. He was soo excited about Swtizerland but he said we can go next time. No problem.

However, 2 days ago, my boss called me up in a panicky voice asking me if I still plan to surprise Joey on that Switzerland trip. It was because, secretly, she has been planning to give me and Joey a honeymoon surprise trip as a wedding gift! But she has to reveal to me her plans 2 days ago because she found out about my plans from a colleague and she panicked that her plans might go futile.

She is giving me and Joey a trip to Europe or Japan! We can either go to one country to explore or go to several countries!

Of course I chose the trip to Europe.

I am supposed to keep this as a secret to Joey. It's okay to post it here since Joey rarely visits my blog hehhehe.

We need not rush to go there after the wedding. I told her we can go to Europe during the Songkhran Holiday here in Bangkok (almost the same period as our Holy Week). It won't be that winter cold in Europe so perfect to travel.

Isn't this a wonderfeul blessing? Just when I thought our plan went poof, a better offer came and for free!

Note that this is the same boss who gave us those expensive flute glasses which we will use for our wine toasting.

Hay swerte (how lucky).

Thank you Lord :-)

and thank you Lynne (my boss), too.

Our Invites and Other Updates!

Finally, after being quiet for a loooong time, I have time to update my wedding blog. Things got kinda crazy when I hit the 100th day. I went to full blast preparation, coordinating from Bangkok, buying beads, supervising the invites printing, etc. And voila! One day, my hardisk crashed!!! Yes, and just like Carrie in Sex in the City, I didn't back up. All the wedding files were there. My months and months of research all gone. I went to Compaq and they told me they had to change the hardisk entirely so I should have the file saved in an external hardrive. Sad to say they cannot save my files anymore. I think it was affected tremendously causing not only bad sectors but worst sectors :-). Anyway, I have lamented on it and I have no more tears to cry.

My life went on despite the hulabaloo with my laptop (which is less than a year old, brand new, sigh). Maybe i had too much wedding files hehehehe.

Last week I got the invites and they are fabulous! I chose 250 gram art card matte paper with spot UV lamination in some elements of the cover - our photo, names and the monogram. Then it has lamination inside.

I created the envelope which looks like flower petals when you open it and you can seal it by making the flaps overlap each other. Then we printed our monograms as a sticker to safely seal the envelope.

I did the calligraphy of all names on the cover. Then I added the final touch of tying in charms outside the envelop. I like the overall effect. My target is to have all these invites distributed by 30 November.

Now I can do the misalette.

Here are photos of the invite: