Pamamanhikan Dinner

Even we are in a long relationship, our families doesn’t meet formally yet until that day. They only knew each other through our stories and just some basic information. Hal is like a family in our house already and me to them but our parents haven’t meet personally yet. My parents don’t like to go out and his mom is in London most of the time and spent maybe 1-2 months here yearly. So as soon as were engaged, we planned an early pamamanhikan. We scheduled it last summer vacation because my Kuya’s family that was already residing in Bulacan will be staying for a few days in our house for a visit and Hal’s mom was here for a vacation. I wish Kuya was present but he’s in UAE but I’m still glad that my sister-in-law and my niece were there. Tatay was always in the province so I informed him in advance. They brought some food and my nanay cooked some too.

The dinner went well since both parties are ready and aware that we're already on the right age to get married. Some questions on our plans were brought up but they let us all do the planning since they know we can handle it well. What was funny that night was it looked like Hal’s mom is doing talk and was asking permission for the marriage.

After the first meet, we treated my Nanay and my soon to be mother-in-law for a relaxing bonding time at Ace Water Spa with Hal’s brother and his family. Unfortunately my Tatay doesn’t want to join because it’s really not his thing. 

With Damon and Sansa too! 

Our Wedding Ring

We do not have plans in buying our wedding ring yet but it just happened. It was a busy Saturday; we went to a bridal summit by Themesnmotifs at the World Trade Center to check wedding pegs and possible supplier. Right after the bridal fair, we also went at SMX to check the Graphic Expo before we went home and so we pass by the Suarez Jewelry and decided to check it out.

And it all started with some chat and fitting and we decided to reserve our rings that day.

Why we easily decided purchasing it in Suarez? The rings we saw compared to those we checked at the bridal fair seems fairly priced. Though we saw good quality rings as well in other shops, Suarez also do have good quality sets of rings to choose. You can customize, buy back guarantee, plus the lifetime warranty.

Not mentioning that the rings we saw are what we like, we preferred two toned rounded ring, plus they have a promo of free diamond each so instead of adding, we just stick with the one they already include in our rings.

This is not the actual ring but this is the closest to the one we chose for us.  :)

Good value for money without loosing the quality is what we are looking at and we were able to achieve it in Suarez.

http://www.suarezweddingrings.com/

Where Are We Getting Married?

St. Peregrine Laziozi Parish is our church for the wedding. It is where I see myself walking down the isle. I grow up here, spending my Sunday obligation mostly here with my choir mates. I’m glad and proud to say that I’m part of the Epheso Choir. I miss serving and singing up there, though I am unable to attend nowadays, I still continue spending my Sundays here, mostly with Nanay and my soon to be husband. And because Hal knows that I have no other church to consider, he gladly agreed.

And for us to make sure we will get the date and the time we wanted. Reservation was made! 

St. Peregrine is such a lovely church for a catholic wedding too, simple and elegant. It’s very accessible especially if you are from the South area. Though you may have limited reception venues, still there are some locations you can consider. 

How about you? 

Where is your dream wedding? 

The Super Surprise Proposal

We are together long enough for my Dog to be called Lolo Mikey. One of the struggles were those period that I’m feeling hopeless. Getting old yet no plans and no goal for both of us, the feeling like, were are our relationship go and how long should I wait. Do I move on or wait a little longer?! Maybe it’s a common dilemma for having a long relationship like ours. So how this started, well a little punch and drama worked out. It’s a drama in a true to life situation actually. I personally do not like talking about wedding or planning for the future with him because I do not want to initiate the topic and because I want to feel that it’s him who really wanted it and not just him agreeing on me.

When I had a feeling like he need a wake up call or maybe we its time for me to do an action for both of us, we had a few serious talks which we do not do normally. If we have no plans so we better do things on our own because we are not growing.

Do you really want this? Do you think this is still healthy? Blah blah, you know what I mean? 

Moving on will be hard, so technically the cool off or break up thing was the wake up call, no break up happened. We talked about getting married, no date but it should be 2014. After that, no more discussions, so it’s like, WHEN and HOW. No plans yet?! How will it happen if we are not planning on it? So I just then let it go and try to wait a little longer, maybe he will open it up. Am I just the one who wanted it?! Oh come on!

And then one day, with no clues or idea or what so ever…

It was my birthday Jan 13, 2013. I didn’t plan anything special on that day; it was a no celebration birthday for me. I planned it like that because I wanted to have different kind of celebration every year. He told me he will meet me around late afternoon, so I said ok. Kaye on the other hand, (my bff) asked me if I’m okay visiting another bff Jhona for a girl talk. So I said yes. I am just at home, bumming waiting for Kaye to txt me so we can meet and go to Jhona's house. Hal on the other hand told me that he will be late and will just go to Jhona's place later to meet us. I am only expecting just a simple bonding time with him (maybe a movie marathon or a food trip) after we meet my girlfriends. 

Then I was surprised. 

Kaye blindfold me on our way to Jhona's house, I thought it was them who will surprise me because it’s my birthday. I am clueless. As soon as they removed the blindfold, I saw Hal's friends and they are also there. I do not know what to think, I still thought it’s because its my birthday. And these guys on mask danced in front of me, everybody was shouting and cheering. Then I have goose bumps, puzzled but clues were getting clearer. The shirt behind their jackets says WILL-YOU-MARRY and then Hal ( I know it’s him already ) walked, removed his jacket pick up the bouquet showing the ME print. I am speechless. 

Because I know he is not the sweet type, I am really surprise he was able to convince and arrange a party like that for me. On my birthday, he proposed and our friends celebrated it with us. I learned from him that he was thinking about it few months before, the long wait was over, finally.

I let my parents watched the video after that day. They have no reactions but only commented “Kulang sa practice” Hahaha!

Introduction: Our Wedding Date

The author of UntiedEscape will finally “tie the knot” so lets forget about escaping for now as this is all about getting married.

I will not begin with cheesiness and mushiness because I am quite not a fan or maybe I wanted to right about the real thing. Getting married to someone you really love is something you should decide carefully. Be it a short or long relationship, long distance or he is just a block away from your neighbourhood it doesn’t matter because you will live your entire life with him or her.

My story may be boring to some and kind of amusing to others. It all started January 16, 2002 when I finally decided to say I love you. It may not go well at first because it seems just like “what to do” the  is finally " stage, but we are still together for quite, ohh I do not want to count anymore so can you do the math?, by the way please subtract a year on your count because we broke up years back.  Yeah, right… that long.  J

Our life together is not perfect but it was fun, all because we share the same stuffs and understand each other. It’s all not about finding the perfect guy or the best guy but it should be the “your match”. The perfect guy for you is not a perfect guy for me, you do not want to change him or her for you but maybe some improvements will help to keep you both going. You will know why.

Some common questions I had from my friends are how do we manage to keep it that long? Well, I really do not know, maybe I do not give up easily, and so he is, and we just keep on going back to each other after all the trials and heartaches. There are a lot of flaws and challenges along that journey that maybe just make us realize that we are for each other. Maybe I am so patient, considerate, understanding, and so he is. Those words are such “gas-gas” words already but that’s true. You also need to listen and give space to your partner. Impulsiveness, may cause damage so better think carefully before doing something stupid. Well I’m not a love guru but this is all came from experience.  Any imperfections should be patch up by love and encouragement to keep it right. You do not want to push your partner to be picture-perfect for you but to guide him eventually in realizing what you mean and will soon adjust himself because he loves you. That’s I guess the key of our long and crazy love. You do not tolerate but you help each other. And remember, trust gives a big role here, and your life should not evolve only to him, you enjoy the life around your family, friends and the people around. And by the way, you put God with you in every way, and thank Him every morning because He is your match maker.

Ok so be it, I encourage questions if you’re still not convinced, anyway I asked him to read this first and agree before posting so I am sure we are on the same thinking. Or else I can ctrl + a then delete. :D

Our long relationship plus another long engagement will be made official on December 20, 2014.