The pamamanhikan preps

On the first sunday of 2010, aside from celebrating my 32nd birthday we will have another big leap of our wedding preps, the pamamanhikan. Pamamanhikan is a Filipino tradition for soon to be wed couples where the meeting of two families happens. Ours would be formality and have both parents/families meet and mingle.

H2b and I planned this to be a double celebration; it will be an early dinner as not to have a late get together because there's work the next day. Our objective: have a short and sweet meet up where both parties will still feel comfortable and at ease but at the same time will be able to discuss all that matters.

So how do you prepare for a pamamanhikan?

The list below is my opinion on how the bride-to-be should prepare for this day:

1) Set the time properly. Make sure that you won't have long hours of lull time or short talk time for important stuff.

2) Let your h2b know that they need to bring something. It's a tradition that the h2b's family will bring food to the b2b's family, most of the time it's the family's specialty food.

3) Prepare all the wedding related stuff. This helps avoid any argument from both families and can set the direction of the conversation. Let them know your plans: before, during and after the wedding.

4) Be yourself but dress well. In my humble POV, it's still a formal event you don't have to buy a gown or have your hair done at the salon. Just wear something nice and comfortable. Your h2b's family will be appreciative that you value their visit and prepare not just the food but yourself as well.

5) Enjoy. This is just the beginning of having them all together, savor the first!

In all honesty I am anxious and tense for this day, I even started looking for the proper dress to wear and thinking already of what food to prepare. Hope everything will end up fine, so before this h2b and I will have our year ender wedding prep meeting to set everything up. ^_^

an early year-ender part 2

I'm glad that I was able to do the 2nd part before the year ends, or otherwise it wouldn't be appropriate to use the early year ender title. The 2^nd part covers our nth visit to Tagaytay for the church choir and a meeting with the OTP FB Manager.

I woke up early on that warm day of November 29^th, sent an SMS to Rins and called h2b. Meeting place is at Starbucks 6750 and call time is 7AM unfortunately I got there almost 8AM (thanks to the external HD that was missing and took x hours off my travel time).

Heading to Tagaytay from SLEX is a breeze but since it’s a long weekend (Nov 30 is a holiday) Tagaytay proper welcomes us with a heavy traffic.

On the way to Tagaytay, pictures pictures at the gas station. H2b pissed-off at the traffic hihi and adik friend Rins working inside the car.

We weren’t able to start the 10AM OLLP mass, but were able to hear the Lourdes Tagaytay chorale sing. After the mass, I approached the choir coordinator and talked to her about the possibility of getting them for the wedding ceremony. The conditions are acceptable, the peso power is more than reasonable and so I asked the coordinator to pencil booked our date. One month before Dec 17, we need to go back, meet with them and finalize the song list. For those interested to contact them, here’s their multiply site: http://ltcg.multiply.com/ they do accept wedding from Calaruega, COTH and different areas of Cavite.

After that very short meeting, we attended the 11:30 AM mass then headed to OTP for the complimentary lunch and meeting with the FB Manager. The FB Manager greeted us when we arrived and had asked their head waiter to take care of our late lunch; they prepared 3 meals instead of 2 with no additional cost to us. The meal was filling and started off with a pumpkin soup (i love this!), grilled chicken with steamed veggies and fruits for dessert. After the tasty lunch, we re-visited the Aurora Ballroom accompanied by the OTP head waiter. When we got to the place, we were able to envision the set-up of the venue and thought of other stuff we can include to perk up the place. We pretty much covered everything and just needed a confirmation from our AE and the FB Manager.

The width of the hallway going to the ballroom

The cocktails area, in case we will have one.

Convy of our options.

We met the FB manager after the ballroom inspection and were very pleased with all his suggestions/recommendations for the reception, these are those that we know of but were thinking it may add up on our cost fortunately he gave it at to us for free! I gladly jot down these suggestions and was already thinking where we can include this in the program. We also cleared up the inspiration setting we sent him for the ballroom and I'm so happy to know that it was all doable. Yippeee! I just hope that he can deliver, we will see then. We ended the meeting with an agreement that he will get back to us on our requests.

And we mean business... hahaha serious!

After OTP, we went to Rowena’s since I can’t go home without my blueberry tart cheesecake (yummy!). It was a long day indeed and so we decided to chill out for a while at Starbucks Paseo de Sta Rosa, of course coffee is on me for being late ^_^ still its great to relax after a long and very productive day.