Year 2010

I can't believe it's almost 2011. I don't want 2010 to be over just yet but there's just no slowing down time. Lots of things happened since my last status update:

• Alejandro's grandma, Lola Flora passed away in August :( I realized what a wonderful person she is and how she touched a lot of peoples' lives in her own humble way and cheerful, optimistic personality. It's very inspiring to know her from people's stories.
• I had a great time at Academy of Science's Thursday nightlife on my birthday. Friends came to celebrate with us and it was really fun! Alejandro got us an indonesian cooking class at Kitchenonfire.com in Berkeley. I love the techniques they showed us on getting the most flavor from herbs and spices.
• Celebrated my Lola Tindeng's (my dad's mom) 90th birthday in Las Vegas on the July 4th weekend. We decided to go to Utah's Zion National Park and Arizona's Antelope Canyon the same week. It was an unforgettable, fun-filled adventure!
• In October, we had our most-awaited trip to east coast and South America. We were in New York, Boston, and Massachusetts for one week - visiting friends and checking out local happenings. Finally get to visit Harvard and hang out at Widener library. In South America, we spent another week in Cusco and Machu Picchu in Peru. Cusco will forever be in my heart ~ warm people, quaint, colorful town, and cute alpacas! Then, we spent our 3rd week in Brazil at Rio de janeiro and flew to see Iguacu Falls. We had quite an adventure crossing the border to see the Iguacu Falls side of Argentina, which I find more interesting and have more to offer. It was unbelievable!
• For halloween, I took Alejandro to Great America's crazy halloween mazes. They outdid themselves with the decorations and shows and all the costumes. We rode the super fun roller coasters and drop zone! Terrific rides!
• Saw Aida playing on the simulcast at ATT Ball Park in SF. Great view, lots of fun!
• Was reminded of what life should be about by Dr. Bob Moorehead's "Paradox of our Time".
• first wedding shower I've ever attended at work turned out to be my own wedding shower! My co-workers made origami cranes for our wedding and put together a wonderful wedding shower in our office area. They're so glad to finally meet my fiance, Alejandro.
• I had a small bachelorette party at Castro's the Cafe and we had a lot of fun :) I was initially planning a pole-dancing class or a trapeze class but everyone was busy with the Thanksgiving weekend.
• After months of planning (and budgeting), we finally had a beautiful and memorable wedding day in December. It was unforgetable and fun! I feel like I spent more time bonding with family and friends during the set-up and preparations. It definitely gave my sister and I a chance to spend more time with each other. To me, it was a perfect wedding with all the dreams and visions I have coming true. The best part is having so many people lend us a hand in making it all happen. Most of the stuff we had were borrowed, used, and consumed so we feel good that very few waste went to the landfill at the end of the day. It's a good karma. I was so touched with how great things turn out that I wanted to start a class in DIY (Do-It-Yourself): wedding on a budget.
• Lola Tindeng passed away in the Philippines on the hour of our wedding. I overheard my dad screaming on the phone right when we're in front of the church but I didn't find out until after our reception as we gather at my Uncle Virgil's house to offer some prayers. Many people comfort us by saying, "she was there with us in spirit". May she rest in peace.
• We signed up with ourwishingwell.com for our wedding in place of a registry. Unfortunately, they charge both our guests and ourselves when it's time to put in and withdraw cash gifts. So, we strongly recommend finding other sites or other ways to receive cash gifts toward your honeymoon or other wishes, like gifts of photography, etc. We like the idea of gift cards to support local stores and/or your favorite shops, as well as donating to charities.
• We were in LA for Christmas, my first Christmas away from my family. But, I had a lot of fun - playing charades, guessing games, 'bop-it', and SET with Alejandro's family. We also went to see the Wayfarer's Swedenborg Church in Palos Verdes and did some whale watching at the Interpretive Center close to it.
  

A Wedding to Remember

Wedding planning and preparation became a very memorable experience for my hubby and I mostly because it was a DIY (Do It Yourself) with help from family and friends. Initally, we were planning to have it at Mira Vista Golf Club up in El Cerrito hills. It has a beautiful deck with a panoramic view of the city and eastbay. When it's foggy, it feels like you're up in the clouds and the trees and landscape is just very dramatic. They quoted us close to $10,000 for about 80 guests, which was okay. However, after the food tasting, we didn't really think that the $45/guest was worth it. We decided that if we're gonna spend that much, we might as well plan a wedding that we really wanted, which includes a church wedding and a nice venue for the reception. The church required at least 6 month notice and to attend seminars and such. It took us a while to find Albany Memorial Building for our venue (~$1200). I fell in love with the ornate wooden beams that are colorfully painted and decorated with big, old lanterns. We originally have our hearts set on a Mission theme and the church and venue pretty much fit what we're looking for as far as ambiance and warmth.

One of my bridesmaid's brother-in-law sings for a church choir and his voice will bring tears in your eyes. He sang some tagalog songs for our wedding and everyone finds him amazing. Instead of having our party catered, we decided to order and pick up food from couple of Filipino restaurants and an Indian restaurant and ordered the food we love. We served empanada and turon for hors d'oeuvres and for the main dishes, we have pakora, chicken tikka masala, naan, rice, sisig, and filipino bbq. The Filipino food was a hit and we didn't ordered much but we had a lot of left overs! We hired two servers who also picked up the food and helped with cleaning.
We spent 3-4 hours the day before setting up the venue with unique table arrangements, colorful table covers, various centerpieces (colorful potted plants, origami cranes, candles, petals), colorful chinese and star lanterns on the stage, and with our guestlist/wish bowl with colorful scrapbook cards for the guests to write their messages. I framed the card that we received from the Pres. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, when we send them our wedding invitation, next to our wish bowl. It was funtastic! Everyone helped put things together - from picking up rental supplies to setting up all the decorations and final touch-ups. We were so tired after the preparation but I still managed to get my mani-pedi before the wedding rehearsal and dinner that night.

It was slightly rainy the morning of our wedding. My ex-roommate made my bouquet and bridesmaids' bouquets and I was so glad she was there to help put people in their places and help me with last minute stuff. My bridesmaids were wearing different color dresses (yellow, orange, red, purple) and my orange bridesmaid was running late. Fortunately, they my hubby's cousin, who happens to be wearing an orange dress, and had her march with the rest of the entourage. It always crack me up to see the picture and realize that by the time I marched to the alter, my orange bridesmaid already sneaked in to her post. How funny!

There are a lot of memorable things in our wedding, including our slideshow, our money dance, our first dance (which I choreographed - thanks to YouTube), our multi-flavored Kara's cupcakes tree that everyone adores, and our spontaneous last dance (to the song "At Last") where everyone coached us to dance in the stage. I actually bought a $10 "The Promise" figurine for our cake topper because it's very decorative and something we can always put in our home and remind us of our wonderful wedding. At the end, our photographer (who charged us $600 for 2 discs of photos, including retouched and engagement pictures), took more pictures of us at the playground and back alley, which turned out real well!

Overall, there are so many things I really enjoyed with this experience - all the bridal shows, freebies, and delicious food on sip-and-scan events at bridal registry parties (Macy's, Crate and Barrel, Bloomingdales) we attended, my last minute bachelorette party at the Cafe in Castro, SF, shopping for dresses and customizing a $400 trumpet/mermaid dress I got at David's and Bridal, and putting together all my creative ideas to design my own wedding. I'm very grateful to my very supportive (and understanding hubby) and to all our family and friends who helped materialize my plans and design. I'm also glad that I found wix.com (to put together our wedding page) and weddingwire.com (which has amazing tools and the seat planner was unbelievably super handy!). Other resources we used are: evite.com,Weddingchannel.com, Avon Brides, Michael's, Real Simple.com, Martha Steward, Herecomestheguide.com, local cupcake bakery, Rock-climber cake topper, VistaPrint.com (for save the date postcards and final inviations), Michael's and Joan's for ideas on favors (luggage tags, ornaments, herbal potted plant, bottle stoppers, lanterns).