The Power of PRAYING

Weeks ago, I desired to have a devotional book. I longed to buy one that to my surprise, OMF Literature set up a stand at our church last Saturday. There were tons of devotional books to choose from. I really had a hard time choosing one. I asked friends and my pastor at church what they can recommend to me. Most of them recommended me a book entitled The One Year Love Language Minute Devotional Book by Gary Chapman. I started it last February 27. 

With a lot of books on display, I felt in my heart that I also want to read another book. Wives from church recommended me to read a 3 in 1 book of Stormie Omartian entitled The Power of PRAYING. Included on it are The Power of a Praying Wife; The Power of a Praying Parent and The Power of a Praying Woman. Being a newlywed gives me the desire to read this book. A lot of married women whispered to me during that day telling me that the first part entitled The Power of a Praying Wife is such a powerful book wherein you can pray for your husband. It teaches you HOW to pray for your husband. 

With 30 chapters in it, I decided to read one chapter per day for a month. I started last Sunday. And I'm so glad I bought it.

Countdown to Our Wedding

We Can Make It Through The Rain

patience seem to run out fast

tell me, when could these "dreaming" last

I long for the days that we would be together

thinking that our love would soon uncover..


days, weeks, months, then years..

wondering,when will be my last sorrowful tear?

this life without you is a suffering

it drives me mad and ruins my whole being.


the only thing that makes me smile is the "day"

the day when our lives turn worthwhile and gay

I’m aware that it’s not always "happy" and "loving"

fights would come our way and even misunderstandings.


I’d rather choose those things than to live without you

for I know and you know we’ll always come through

through the good times and bad, through tears and pains

coz’ like what we always think,….

WE CAN MAKE IT THROUGH THE RAIN..

Knight In Shining Armor

In this world full of hurt and pain,

I need someone who would help me through the rain.

To comfort me when I'm sad,

Doing everything just to make me glad.


In this world I need a Brave Knight,

Who would never give up any fight.

A knight who would dry away my tears,

Telling me to overcome my fears.


A knight who loves me for who I am inside,

With him there's nothing more I need to hide.

A person who will still be standing strong,

Eventhough everything has gone wrong.


I need someone who is willing to give me more,

Someone I can call my Knight In Shining Armor.

wedding coordination by MYSELF

Res and I decided to get married. We had the "pamanhikan" last August 2010. Our wedding month was December 2010. You might be thinking why is it on December where there is little time left to prepare right? So why December 2010?  Well, we wanted to start the year 2011 as a married couple already. And mind you, December is a festive month. The aura is cheerful and people have the sense of loving and giving due to the Christmas spirit. After that day of pamanhikan, we had to start preparing for the wedding. 

Years before our wedding, I already had wedding ideas in mind. Lots of it! Being an obsessive-compulsive and wedding lover myself, it was possible for me to put up a wedding in a month (Believe it or not!). I had ideas from the wedding gown designer, cake designs up to the flower arrangement itself. Details were bursting in my mind. I love it so much that everyday I kept on thinking of new ideas to make my wedding a unique one.

I am writing this blog to help you girls (or guys, if you are reading this) on your wedding preparations. I am not doing this to compete with wedding planners. I just want to share what my husband and I learned from our step-by-step wedding preparations. Maybe you can use this as reference for your wedding plans. 


Here it is!


1.) Setting the date - The couple needs to decide when they want to get married. They also need to see on what day it falls. My partner and I were eyeing for December. As what I've said, people during that time are in a festive mood. And the weather makes it all the more romantic. We had our wedding on December 17, 2010 at 4pm. The weather was warm in the afternoon during the ceremony and it went breezy and romantic during the reception at night. 


2.) Decide on a theme - May it be a garden, beach or church wedding, it is really up to you. I had a garden wedding which is my dream wedding. I had it at Chateau de Busay, Lahug Cebu. It was really romantic especially at night. 

You can also have different themes like a masquerade type, a medieval one or a fairy fantasy. You can just google it and ideas will pop out of them.


3.) Preparing the documents for a marriage license- The most important part of the wedding preparation. Others would say it is the hassle part of the wedding. But for me, I am proud to say that we never experienced problems during this part. Everything went perfectly well. Here are the following requirements we prepared to have a license to get married:


        a.) NSO Birth Certificate 
        b.) NSO Certificate of No Marriage (CENOMAR)
        c.) Community Tax Certificate (CTC or Cedula)
        d.) Barangay Certificate or Barangay Clearance
        e.) Certificate of Attendance of Pre-Marriage Counseling Seminar
        f.) Valid ID


       * To avail of the NSO Birth Certificate and CENOMAR without hassle, we suggest that you get them at SM Cebu Ground Floor beside Yamaha and across Trans-Asia store. You just need to fill up completely the form with the correct data. The price for the Birth Certificate and CENOMAR is around P150 each. You can get them a week later. See? No more lining up at the NSO.
        * For the Community Tax Certificate or CEDULA, you can get it at your Barangay or at the City Hall. The price depends on your salary.
      * To acquire the Barangay Certificate or Barangay Clearance, you can get it in your Barangay for free. But other Barangays require a payment.
         * To have the Certificate of Attendance of Pre-Marriage Counseling Seminar, you go to City Health and have a schedule for you to attend the seminar. During my time, we had the seminar for 8 hours or the whole day. But after that, they changed it to 4 hours already. It usually falls on a Wednesday. You inquire with the City Health staff for it. Make sure you and your fiancee will attend of course. On the day of the seminar, the attendees will be asked to pay P100 per couple  for the Certificate.
          * You prepare a Valid ID and have it photocopied. Examples of Valid IDs are PRC, SSS, Driver's License, Passport, etc. 


         *** I would suggest that you have everything clear copied instead of photocopied and have 5 copies at least of each. The rest of the clear copies will be of great use to you in the future. 


          *** The documents I mentioned above are for partners who are 25 years old and above. Those under 25 usually require a parent's consent and parent's appearance at City Health.


          *** Another very important reminder - Once you process these documents, you make sure you two get married within 3 months from the date of filing since the validity of the documents is within 3 months only. If after 3 months you are still not wed with your partner, then you will be asked to file again.


          *** If you already have the necessary documents, then you will now proceed to the Marriage Section of City Health Office at the 2nd floor. You are to wait for 10 days (include weekends on your count) from the day of filing and you will now have your wedding license. What can be easier than that? 


4.) WEDDING SUPPLIERS (the fun part!!!)


    A.) Venue for the Ceremony - may it be a church, garden, beach, or in a house, it is really up to you. But do coordinate with your officiating minister if it is allowed or if there are other requirements needed for you to have the wedding on the place you want it to be. Do ask how much is the fee for wedding ceremony use. I had mine at the Chateau de Busay. There was a fee of P3000 for ceremony use.

    B.) Venue for the Reception - common venues are hotels. You can also have a garden or beach reception venue. Please do check the area if they can accommodate the number of guests that you have. Do check their menus and have a taste test of their food. Inquire their inclusions if you avail of their wedding packages.

  
   C.) Wedding floral arrangement; Bridal bouquets; entourage flowers; church floral arrangement; reception floral arrangement - This is one of the challenging part of my wedding preparation. I inquired at different floral shops and looked at different pictures of their wedding floral arrangement. This is very important,  for the floral arrangement and decors make the wedding theme you want come to life. 

Here are florists I can recommend:
http://www.juncanete.com/index.php?&vmcchk=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1 --> my wedding florist. I never regretted it.
http://www.pinkfloraflowers.com/about.html 
http://www.lushbloomscebu.com/




    D.) Wedding Photographer - One of the most talked about wedding supplier in this generation! This too is one of the hard part in the planning because you want to make sure you get the best pictures captured on your very special day. Believe me, it was tough deciding especially if you are on a tight budget. My wedding photographer is Marlon Capuyan. He was indeed great at capturing images that you have never imagined. His website is marloncapuyan.blogpsot.com. You'll never go wrong with his photo package. 

Other professional photographers I can recommend are:


Christopher "Dondon" Colinares - http://www.colinaresphotography.com/v2/
RockPaperScissors Photography - http://rockpaperscissorsph.com/
You will never go wrong with them. 


     E.) Wedding Videographers - Very important too! During my wedding, Res and I got one of our friend as our wedding videographer. We just availed the simple video wedding package since we just want everything to be covered from preparation till reception. His name is Kieth Omega of D8 Workstation. He is very good at it. You can contact him at 0917-9932762.
 Other professional videographers that I can recommend are:
Dino Ojerio - http://ojeriovideo.multiply.com/
Eugene Florendo - http://www.eugeneflorendo.com/



     F.) Maquillage - Wedding Make-up is one of the top list in mind of the bride-to-be. Who would not want to look radiant and beautiful on her wedding day? To have that desire, one must have the best maquiller in town. During my wedding I had my make-up artist Marion Alcasid do the magic on my face. She not only makes you naturally pretty, she also makes sure it does not look heavy on you. To know her wedding package rate, you can call her at 0923-5656181. 

Other maquillage artists I can recommend are:
Wenwen Zaspa (Who does not know her??!! She is fantastic!) Contact No. : 0932-2334097
Jessie Glova - http://jessieglovacosmetics.blogspot.com/

Ramil Solis - Contact No.: 0922-9901746/09173239488


* You can also check their facebook accounts by just typing their names.




     G.) Wedding CAKE - One of the fun parts in wedding preparation! It was not hard for me to look for one. My brother's wife recommended a friend of hers. Her name is Arvy Enjambre-Lopez of The Cupcake Theory. You can see in her website http://cupcaketheory.multiply.com/  a variety of wedding cakes, naughty cakes, design cakes and cupcakes that is just oh so delicious! Her Red velvet cupcakes are to die for!!! Just check her site to see what I mean.

Other Wedding Cake suppliers I can greatly recommend are:
http://www.chedzcakes.com/ 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Chocolate-Leaf-Patisserie/235863795491?v=wall&sb=0
http://www.redribbonbakeshop.com.ph/shop/categs.asp?categ_id=15



     H.) Bridal Gown and entourage gowns -  I had my bridal gown made by Protacio Empaces. My husband's barong was a pina cocoon made at Teresing's at SM Cebu. The price for a pina cocoon is at P5ooo. I opted to have my entourage gowns rented at Heavenly Weddings wherein they have a wedding package consisting of 1 Maid of Honor Gown, 4 Bridesmaid gowns, 4 Flowergirl gowns, 1 Bestman Barong, 4 Groomsmen barongs, 3 bearer barongs. The package is at P5000. You can check out their website at http://www.heavenlyweddingscebu.com/.

         

     I. Wedding Souvenirs - I was quite confused with what wedding tokens I am to give to my guests. Instead I chose a wedding Photobooth from Baicapture. Their website is baicapture.com. Guests will have fun posing themselves with cute props that make it wacky! After a few seconds, they can get their copy of the shots taken and placed in a picture frame also from Baicapture! What a great souvenir it is!

*** I will just end up to here.. More wedding details to come =) thank you!