I'm Back and I'm Married

Obviously, I’ve been in a blog hiatus. From the moment I stepped on Philippine soil, I’ve been busy. But happily and excitedly busy preparing for my BIG DAY: My Dream Wedding.

Now, I’m back to my reality – back to work, back to cold England and back to being alone ( well, for the time-being until my dear husband can join me here). Before going home, I thought I’ll have all the time I want with my 5-week holiday but now, looking back, it seemed so short as I would have wanted to spend more time with my family, my in-laws, my friends and previous colleagues and of course my then-boyfriend and now-husband – Zach.

The first week was spent attending to all wedding-related issues such as marriage license application, family planning seminar, pre-nuptial pictorial, make-up trial, gown-fitting and meeting with suppliers and coordinator. It was really amazing that my gown fits me perfectly and didn’t even require any alterations. I was so proud of my mom who did the body measurement while she was here last August; of our designer, Glen Canlas for doing a very excellent princess-like gown; and of course of myself for maintaining my figure for 4 months. Hehe!!! Zach did a great job of choosing our wedding suppliers and coordinator as they are very friendly and professional people. They went an extra mile in extending help to us especially to Zach who was solely doing all the plans and coordination as I was abroad all the time.

After a year...back in each other's arms.:)

In between appointments, Zach and I bonded and pampered ourselves together by going to facial, body scrub, body massage, foot spa, manicure and pedicure, and hot oil treatment for my hair. Towards, the end of the week, we met up with my highschool friends and shared an all-seafood dinner and chatted over coffee afterwards.

At Marina with all-time friends

Catching up over coffee

Kantahan na!!! (Fritz, would you like to share the other mic with us?)

On the second week, we juggled between Manila and Angeles as relatives and family members from abroad started to arrive. After a busy first week, this was kind of breather for us as we have finalized almost everything with our suppliers and we were only dealing with minor things. We even had time to go to the chapel and reception venue for an ocular check and witnessed an ongoing wedding ceremony just so to get a feel of what it will be like on our wedding the following week. We were fortunate that Typhoon Seniang came a week early and did not bother to wait for our big day (unlucky for the couple who married on that day though!).

Working together on our DIY wedding favors. L-R: Auntie Baby, my mom's cousin and the Tres Marias - Auntie Nenet, Nanay and Auntie Darling. They went back home in the Phils just for my wedding. ;-)

The week after, I spent most of the days with my father and my younger sister, Joy, who came home from Qatar. I also took time out to visit my previous colleagues. The rest of our family members and relatives from Bacolod arrived just two days before the wedding and didn’t even waste time to roam almost all the malls in Metro Manila before travelling to Clark on the 16th of December where our wedding will be officiated.

Our BIG DAY started out smoothly (which I will be discussing in detail in the next post) with our make up artist, florist, coordinators and photographers coming in earlier than expected. Friends and relatives started arriving early in our rented Holiday Inn Villa in Mimosa Leisure Park.

It was not a complete rest for us the week after the wedding though. We attended dinners hosted by cousins for our balikbayan relatives, meet up with friends, and frequented the airport to send-off those that flew in for the wedding. Due to the limited time as I was scheduled to go back to London in two weeks time, we cancelled our planned honeymoon and didn’t really have a formal one. Huhu! Guess, we’ll just have to postpone it later when Zach will, hopefully, be coming over here in England.

Christmas Eve was spent with Zach’s family. We went to Midnight Mass and went home for Noche Buena. We hardly slept after as we had an early morning flight to Bacolod to have Christmas Day with my family in the beach.

The following days were spent pigging out with Bacolod’s authentic fresh seafood recipes, La Paz batchoy, cansi, inasal, KBL and others (Oh my! It’ll be a long time before I could taste them again. Huhu!!!), shopping, family gatherings, and meeting friends. On the 30th, my parents prepared a post-wedding lunch buffet at home where neighbors, friends and relatives who were not able to make it to our wedding attended and shared our joys.

Moments of Relaxation:

We welcomed the New Year in Bacolod and it was more of poignant for all of us as we were all missing my dear sisters who were not able to spend the holidays with us. Nevertheless, we still had a merry new year with my little brother, Eugene and nephew, Kyle, enjoying the fireworks and firecrackers and of course having an official new member in the family, Zach!

It was indeed a busy, fun-filled and merry holidays cut short because of me having to return back here. As always, vacation days spent with people close to our hearts are never enough. I guess, I have no other choice but to look forward to my next homecoming to my dear Pinas.