Fact

Fact: Rodney kisses me goodbye every morning at 6:00am as he leaves for work, even if I am asleep, even if he thinks I am asleep and I'm not.

It's Official!... well.. It's Penciled in!

My reception venue and ceremony venue are both pencil booked for November 19th, 2011! We have a date!

So I made a ticker...

Happy Holidays!

This blog is becoming less and less a resource and more about us! Geez. I'm only posting it here so that people who get in the mail will still be surprised.
Anyways, our Christmas cards arrived, so now I can finally mail them! Sorry, Philippines Shutterfly took too long, so you'll have to get your cards after the holidays. A for Effort!

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel! Maligayang Pasko!

Kahit Maputi Na Ang Buhok Ko

I just had to add this.
Rodney and I, after seeing this on the We Heart Wedding blog, starting checking out different Tagalog bands and songs for something that we liked that we can have somewhere in our wedding. Maybe not our first dance but that will add the feel of us. At my cousin's wedding last month, they kept their non-dancing music to jazz to set the tone of their wedding and reception. Anyways, after a couple hours of youtubing, we ended up at the same song.

So here it is.
And for my English-only friends, the title is loosely translated to "Even when my hair is white". Take a listen, and even if you don't fully understand the lyrics, you'll get the feeling.

The Fairy Godmother Coordinator

Wednesdays is Wedding Wednesdays on my favourite channel Slice. Part of why I love this channel is its abundance of wedding shows - thats why they can dedicate a whole day to wedding show episodes! Wedding SOS, Rich Bride Poor Bride, I Do Let's Eat, Newlywed Nearly Dead and Bulging Brides, hit at every aspect you'd need to think about for your wedding.

As I write this, I am watching Wedding SOS. If you're not familiar with this show, the show follows Jane - a wedding coordinator who they dub a Fairy Godmother - who assists couples whose planning have gone wild and grants them three wishes to make their wedding a success. It's an interesting concept and usually she's fixing either the completely disorganized, or the kind of "out of the box" kind of couples. From what I can draw from this show, is the importance of a Wedding Coordinator. 

In high school, Wedding Planner was on my short list of careers. Seriously, right behind lawyer, politician and policy maker/analyst. So right now, I'm on a path to the last one (as I write this, I am on personnel leave as I write an exam for a policy analyst), but most of my jobs before my current career path involved event planning - not wedding planning - but it has the same principles. I headed my prom committee, coordinated events on boats that toured the Toronto harbour for a cruise company, and most importantly, I was VP of my university's students union, representing 41,000 students and with the portfolio of campus life...a.k.a all social events for the union at the university.

I naturally had assumed it wouldn't be that difficult planning a wedding. Well, I'm sure if we had decided we wanted to do some thing in Toronto, it wouldn't be that difficult. Since it would be my first wedding I'd be planning, I think I could have made it unique without fitting into some cookie-cutter mold of what a wedding looks like. I would have hired someone for the day or at least the month leading up to it because it is a full time job to get all the things together. The point is, everyone planning a wedding needs help, and I would recommend to everyone to get a planner. My friend, who is also planning a wedding, said to me: the last thing I want on my wedding day is for someone to come up to me and tell me a vegetarian meal is missing. I want to be in lala land on my wedding day so I'm hiring someone because I don't even want to know if the kitchen is on fire.

In terms of my fairy godmother planner, we had our first skype meeting the other night. I had worked a 12 hour day 7am - 7pm (working some overtime to have some extra Christmas/Wedding money) and when I arrived home, I googled "Time in Cebu". Where I thought they were 12 hours ahead, they are actually 13! So I adjusted my plans and chatted with her upstairs. The good news is that we're moving along to try and get BE Resort for the ceremony and the Shangri-La for the reception. Second, she says its completely possible to have my dress made in the Philippines (I am constantly jumping for joy at the thought of it!) and finally my task for the week is a wedding budget. Just because I am abroad, I'm not a rockafeller, so I do have a limit. Of course theres going to be some adjustments to account for the difference of how much things cost in the Philippines but I think its doable.

The wedding planning train is chugging along and I'm glad I'm blogging about it. Out of all the events I had planned, I am out of my skin with excitement!

Deposits and Payments ..from abroad

An issue that will come up again and again is remitting money to pay for deposits from abroad. A best case scenario would have been for me to dump thousands of dollars to a super trust worthy relative, pay one fee, and they would do domestic transfering and such for me. Alas, as with everything, that best case scenario doesn't exist, and although I would love to trust my coordinator with something like that, I'm too scared - and not financially secured, so likely I will be remiting money as it comes along.

I have started my research, since I need to send my deposit to Tisha. I'll update with another post when I actually do it.

Note: Obviously, people who do this on a regular business or OFW's who are trained by the Philippine government on leaving, probably have way more knowledge on this. So anyways, this is what a single Canadian-born Filipino girl researched, all by her lonesome.

There are essentially two ways (to my knowledge) to remittance - a bank wire transfer or a "door-to-door". A bank wire transfer is whern they will wire money into a bank account, or wire from your account to the receivers account. A "door-to-door" service is where they will litterally send the money to the person's doorstep in cash. I am guessing this is a wonderful service for more rural families who are receiving money.

Here is some information from my initial research:

One of the "Big Five" Canadian Banks:
I do not officially bank with one of the big five full service banks because I don't feel the fees and restrictions is worth it, frankly. I bank with a basic financial institution that is well known in Canada, but does not have actual full service banks. I do most of my banking online and it offers a comprehensive chequing, saving and the GIC and loan basics. Anyways, because its a basic bank they do not do account to account international wire transfers.

If however you do have a bank account with one of the Big Five in Canada- Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank or CIBC - you could inquire regarding their international rates. I walked into CIBC just to feel it out, and they let me know you must have an account with CIBC and their rates begin generally at $30.00 for a wire transfer into an international bank account. They did also mention it depends on the amount remitting. You'd have to discuss further and have more details because there are other restrictions and may be some other fees.

MoneyGram:
Their website has a nice calculator for their services. Depending on the service you use, the fees vary, but for me from Toronto to Philippines the fee was $17.84 for their Account Depost SMARTMONEY service and $25.00 for their 10 Minute Service. Unfortunately, their website doesn't explain what these services actually are, for you to make a decision. They also note "In addition to the transfer fees applicable to a transaction, a currency exchange rate set by MoneyGram or its agents may be applied. Prices subject to change.", so it may be more.

Western Union:
Very similar to MoneyGram but they have the ability of doing a transaction completely online without the use of their agents. I do remember seeing ads for this new service as being 24/7 and therefore more accessible...well according to them. From my understanding, you need to use a credit card to do it online, and it is not deposit of cash. Unfortunately to use this agentless service will cost you, with the fee (for me) at $29.04. To use a Western Union agent the fee was $20.33. Note, they also have a similar disclaimer in terms of additional fees:

Payments will generally be in local currency (except that in certain countries payment may be in U.S. dollars or other alternate currency at participating locations). In addition to the transfer fees applicable to this transaction, a currency exchange rate will be applied. Local currency is converted into the payout currency at an exchange rate set by Western Union. Any difference between the rate given to Customers and the rate received by Western Union will be kept by Western Union (and its Agents in some cases) in addition to the transfer fees. Please ask a customer service representative for information concerning the currency exchange rate applicable to your transaction.

Remittance Agency:
According to Statistics Canada's latest Census, in Canada Filipinos are the 4th largest visible minority group and one of the top source countries for immigrants to Canada. These statistics don't even speak to those not reported, such as Temporary Foreign Workers and Live-in Caregivers. From my personal and professional experience, this adds to the Filipino population but also drives some characteristics of the community. For example is the number of different remittance agencies in Canada that fulfill the need created by current or former OFW's in Canada.

PNB Remittance is the global remittance branch of the Philippine National Bank. I've seen them throughout Toronto's "Filipino" neighborhoods (there are few of these compared to other communities, but I could go on about that later). I reviewed their website and as I suspected, its not very informative. What I think is their fee schedule, shows fees based on the amount of money you are sending. Despite a website with a lot Canadian info, the amounts are in USD. For $499-1000USD for example, the fee is around $20USD.

I checked out the website of one of the bigger ones in Canada, iRemit. Their fees are less than the options described above. Door-to-door and bank-to-bank costs $10 if sending to Metro Manila, while $12 everywhere else in the Philippines. They also have a "iRemit visa" service where you can send your recipient a "visa card" but you load it with money, and they can use it like a debit card around the Philippines.

Close to my work is Mabini Express, that I did a walk in on my lunch break. Their door-to-door fees are $8 for everywhere in the Philippines, but their bank-to-bank fee is $12 and they work with "most" banks in the Philippines. You'll have to inquire with them for specifics, but the bank I needed to deposit my coordinator's deposit, they work with.

Conclusion: There are a lot of options out there, and I'm glad I did some initial research. I didn't realize how much the fees varied and the types of services out there. If you have any first generation family, recent immigrants or recent arrivals from the Philippines, I would suggest asking them and finding out their experience. I don't have that luxury, so am figuring this out on my own. I will likely go with iRemit or Mabini Express for this time around for a direct bank-to-bank deposit. Mabini for door-to-door situations in the future. I am not sure what would be the difference to choose one of the other options with higher fees. Maybe some people are concerned about reliability and the possibility of fraud or scams, but like I said these other agencies have a history and service thousands in Canada daily. If it was a new smaller company, I would have reservations. Obviously because of these fees, I am going to have to add a little bit more to my budget to deal with them and also have a plan on how to pay the vendors when I arrive.

Note: the Shangri-la takes credit card. No fuss no muss. Nice right?

Married Life - Pixar's Up

So I don't think I did a good job of explaining what we're like. I'm very good at policy and politics, etc, but love and feelings, surprisingly, I've gotten worse and worse at expressing myself.

Anyways, this clip is from Pixar's Up and its sort of what Rodney and I are like...except we could have babies and now have Isabela.

Another Birthday - More to Come

On November 29th, my partner turned 27, which made me realize that when we started dating when he was 23. We were still kids at that age! Just thinking how much he - we - have grown is so incredible.

Rodney and I met in Montreal. After graduating from University, I worked full time on campus, but still had time to pursue other interests. I was a member of Filipino community organization and had attended a human rights in the Philippines event in Europe, so was sponsored to go to Montreal to speak on the event. Rodney was also a member of the Filipino community organization that had sponsored me to speak. He actually wasn't there to hear me speak because he was working, but also in the evening he had spent some time with a Filipino youth who had been involved in drugs and recently quit. Rodney was keeping him company to support him and keep him from going back. Very honorable if you ask me.

Anyways, when we started dating our Philippine heritage was a big part of our discussion. We had really significant and deep conversations about politics and theory, which is incredible considering both of our backgrounds. So we fell in love and yadda yadda.

(I think technically we weren't dating yet when we took this picture)

We've been living together for three years and have a beautiful daughter, that .. I don't know.. I kind of feel silly writing about our love now. It's so real to us. He's the best I ever had.

I've never been with someone that thought struggling things out together made us stronger. I've been with someone that was so clear about everything, that wanted to discuss everything, think about everything ..so that we could be the best together. I've never been with someone that was so honest and so raw, that I could really be myself. We love each other so deeply, that its hard to believe because you'd think it was corny or unrealistic.

When our daughter was born, it was obviously a new chapter in our lives but it was true test of who we were as a couple. When she was born, we had only been together a little over a year. We used to have so many people in our lives, but when the baby was born that all changed. The picture above is from my baby shower, it was huge and fun and it made me excited to what was to come. Today, not a single person in that picture, and the majority that came to the shower, are still in our lives. Our parents live so far away that when it came to support - even to just have someone watch the baby so I can shower - was few and far between. There was alot of stress and alot of adjustment, so it really put us in a position to adjust to each others needs, grow as parents, and become a pillar for each other during this crazy time. Thinking back now, it probably did our relationship a world of good, just being the two of us, but I would not recommend anyone that is having a baby to do what we did. We're really special, and having a baby alone would take a lot of strength.

After everything we went through, this wedding is going to mean so much to us. We are so in love and so happy in our family. We can't wait for the big day.

Wedding Dress Ideas - How would a Balikbayan do it?

I am dying to talk about my wedding dress with the wedding planner. The reason I would like to speak to her is because I would like my dress made, but am wondering if it would be possible to do given the distance. The reason I want my dress made, is not only the fit and the uniqueness but I really want something made out of Pina fabric.

Pina fiber is the ingenious fabric derived from the leaves of the Spanish Red Pineapple. and is the finest of all Philippine hand-woven fabrics. Pineapple fibers are an ivory-white color and naturally glossy. This delicate and dreamy cloth is translucent, soft and fine with a high luster.
Since piña fabric is hand loomed by only a few weavers, it is very precious and scarce, which also makes it expensive. The major end use of Pina fiber is the Barong Tagalong, wedding dresses and other traditional Philippine formal dress. Source

There is also another significant side to the fabric. During Spanish colonization, it was forbidden the natives wore imported fabrics and the barong tagalog (often made with Pina) was to be sheer to prevent the concealment of weapons. So not only is it a fabric born out of a rebellious nature to still be finely dressed without imported fabrics, it was made by and for Filipinos. It also touches on my environmental desire as it is an organic and sustainable fabric. Finally, I would want to support this industry and its art form, to encourage
job growth and opportunities in the Philippines.

Weaving and embroidery jobs enable women, especially, to earn salaries that allow them to be home rather than being forced to travel abroad to become domestic workers. Source

The source just had to drop the domestic bomb. For the last 4 years, I come across Live-in Caregivers (what OFW in domestic work is called in Canada because of the Federal program that brings them here), every single day. In my volunteer work, in my job, on the street. There is a better life for the kababaihan than this.

I already talked about why we wanted to get married in the Philippines. The Philippines just means so much to us. So to have a gown made of Pina silk or at least have some Pina elements, it would be so significant to me. We are also thinking of a modern Filipinana theme, so it would just tie everything together.

I have so far narrowed down that I want a heart top, and a very flowy dress. I also would like an off-white (like the Pina colour!).

I've been googling around to copy pictures of what I am interested in, but a good resource my bff suggested is the Kleinfeld Bridal website. There you can choose what you're interested in and will show you different dresses based on your selection. Very easy if you know what you want or don't want. This is also what I learned what I wanted was called. Apparently my "heart top" is called a Sweetheart Neckline, and my "flowy dress" is called a Sheath Silhouette. I'd also be interested in an A-line silhouette too but not too...big.

I found this today (on the Kleinfeld site), and it is essentially what I am looking for:

Where you see those flowers(?), if its made with pina, there would probably be more handwoven embroidery. Or maybe the pina will be in the flowy waist part, and something more structured and tight on top? Or the other way around?

Here is another dress that I love the bottom, and I think this is also what a pina dress could look like:

I think I'd bring the bottom up a little bit though. My coworker just returned from the Dominican where she said she was a beach ceremony take place everyday. She noted though that the bottom of the dresses would get wet and sand would stick to it, cause it to get heavy and hella dirty. Plus, if our dream is the beach, why would I wear heels. I am going to wear flipflops probably (or some sort of flat sandal) so will need it to be at my height flat footed.

So back to my initial dilema. Is it possible? Here are some scenarios:

Best case: I can be measured here, the coordinator knows a good designer who will work with me the next few months with designs and the coordinator will purchase the fabric. I can be fitted the second I arrive in the Philippines, and hopefully 2 weeks before the wedding is enough time for alterations. The universe has no quams with my wedding dress desires.

Ok: Have someone here make me a dress, have people I know going to the Philippines buy me Pina fabric for it.
Downside is that I only know one person who can make beautiful wedding dresses, and shes in Vancouver. And yes, she's made a dress with Pina. But its just as much as a stretch as in the Philippines, and she never comes to Toronto, and I'd have to go to Vancouver just for her.

If I have to: Will buy something decent off the rack in Toronto and bring it with me. I'm just worried about the cost.

Scary: Buy a dress online. It's alot cheaper but scary! Another scary option is if I can't have it made, and decide to get something off the rack in the Philippines and try and have it altered while I am there.

I will update when I finally figure it out. I am sure this is something any Balikbayan bride will want to figure out.

More Venue Debates!

I finally signed the contract today and sent it over to Tisha! Eek.
Now to figure out how I'm going to get the downpayment to her... but that's a whole other post on international wire transfers, remitting, etc. Now that I think about it, I should probably get on that, because Balikbayan brides are going to have to figure that out!

So Tisha, gave me a few ideas off the top of her head to add to the venue debate.

First is Abaca resort, which is actually also beside BE Resort that I had blogged about before. I had checked out the website of this resort before and sort of ruled it out because there was no beach, at least from the pics, and if a resort is not promoting their beach, what are they promoting? Well this one is also promoting its style and sheer architectural beauty. I also had ruled it out because it was expensive, so I thought out of my range. Tisha said they do have a great restaurant space, that for an intimate reception would be all ours. So I put it back on the radar for the reception at the very least.

She also suggested one of the private islands that are part of Maribago. I did mention that Maribago was an option I had thought of, but she brought up the option of this private island. I loved the idea, except that she mentioned we'd have to take a raft to get to it, and if its in low tide, you have just walk across the water because its too low for a boat to go across. Um. Kinda wack for everyone.  So I'm not really considering that.

Maybe I'm not as good at communicating what we're looking for as I thought, so I just left Tisha know that we want some where with a beach for a ceremony, and good FILIPINO food for the reception. I also mentioned that maybe she has to propose places that are ok with us getting catering, if we decide to not go with their menu. That might not work out with all locations.

Balikbayan Wedding Tip#1:

Clarify everything that you want in a venue. What is a deal breaker, what is flexible? You have to think of these details through! 

 

Not Quite Perfect

In a previous post I talked about how everything seemed to forming nicely.. in my mind. The dream was that, we would have a wedding on the beach front and the reception at the Ocean Pavilion at the Shangri-la in Cebu.

Unfortunately, I got an email from the coordinator at the Shangri-la that told me that they don't do wedding on the beach. Something along the lines that their beach closes early and anyone in a bikini can walk through our ceremony.

UGGGGGHHHHH! I was so down in the dumps after reading that email. The beach ceremony is the thing we will not compromise on the wedding. Something tiny and intimate is what we wanted on the beach. Like this:

Anyways, so after a day of being down in the dumps, I started emailing other locations to get some ideas. Of course I let my potential planner in on it, so maybe, even before we sign anything she can think about how to make this happen.

Here are some ideas:

1. Ceremony and Venue at a different location. I got some quotes from other resorts in Cebu. So far, the ones that are the most reasonable (priced and looking) include: Maribago Bluewater  and the Hilton.

They both seem to be able to do a beach front ceremony. Maribago and Hilton also does a beach front ceremony, but from the Hilton I actual requested a quote for their restaurant as a reception venue:

I wanted something indoor/outdoor, like the Ocean Pavilion, and in case of rain. The both major downside in both of these locations is the food! Do people really NOT want Filipino food in the Philippines? Its a European menu and that's exactly the opposite of what we want. So we'll have to work around trying to get a caterer if we do it here too. I haven't even asked if THAT's possible. And that is something we're also not flexible on. Note: Shangri-La DOES have a very yummy sounding Filipino buffet menu.

Also, Regina did not speak highly of the Hilton. I can understand by looking even their pictures. It looks like it needs some renos and redecorating. The rooms are nice but is it classy enough for a wedding.

The other option, which I hope is super possible is:

2. Beach Ceremony at a different location, Reception back at the Shangri-la.

I was thinking that maybe we could the beach ceremony at the Microtel that Regina had talked about in her blog. It is a few kilometers from the Shangri-la, is newly built, has a beach front and the accommodations is affordable at the equivalent to about $65CDN/night. We were actually following Regina's lead and going to have our Out Of Towners (i.e. all of our guests) stay here, so to have the ceremony here would make it so easy for everyone! Check out her blog for her personal pictures of the place, its perfect.

Do I really need to explain why a reception at the Shangri-la will still be perfect?

1. No bad reviews of service or location.

2. Amazing Filipino buffet offering.

3. Beautiful location. The Ocean Pavilion is an indoor location that can spill outdoor, giving us the freedom of both, but also a backup indoor location that will work if the weather does not cooperate.

4. Somewhat affordable.

So lets hope we can work something out so that this works, because frankly, I don't know what to do if it doesn't!

The Wedding Planner

In my last post I mentioned I had emailed potential coordinators and was awaiting a response. I had emailed on a Thursday, so I was allowing most coordinators to get back to me by Monday morning EST (or Monday night in the Philippines) to get back to me. That's pretty reasonable.

I got this list from Regina, and did some initial googling to narrow my list down too. Looking at photographer's sites and catching the coordinators name was pretty helpful at getting a feel of an planner's style. It was also important for me to email the coordinators to get an idea of response time. I also was sneaky and put my personal email (I emailed from work) in the cc, to see who would reply all, and would notice.

Coming into work Monday morning, I was anxious to see what responses I would get. To my surprise, only one planner email was awaiting me on Monday. It was from Tisha of Bliss Unlimited, my first choice. It was a good intro email that was detailed, and her quote documents attached and she did click the reply all! I was excited to hear back from her and replied to her email right away, and my next response from her was Tuesday at 10am (10pm in the Philippines!). By Tuesday, I did get another email from another planner, but it was sort of unprofessional and not inviting, with no quotes or details. Tisha also mentioned that she had abroad clients before and has a Skype strategy. And like I mentioned before, I was hoping Tisha would pass my test because I had already read her blog and felt as if I knew her. 

Anyways, I passed the contract to Rodney to review. I can't make big decisions without him, what kinda precedence would that set in our relationship! But, I doubt he's going to have a problem with it. 

All ready to go!

I'm at an official starting point where I'm ready to just jump into the wedding planning. So I emailed the Shangri-La Cebu, where I have come to the conclusion I want. Yes, the SHANGRI-LA.

I came to this conclusion for a few reasons. First, I was scouting over the internet different resorts, trying to find something less... grand, in other words, less expensive. I would find places, think maybe it was ok, and then would read a few reviews of people complaining of service, inability to swim in the beach waters, peeling paint, etc. I didn't want to fly, or have people I knew fly, half way around the world for something that people would not feel comfortable in. But no one ever once crticized the Shangri-la.

I also started to get stressed thinking...would people be able to afford staying here for a few days, could we afford it? Would they have activities to do? Would I be stressed out trying to entertain them? Would it be a hassle to get there? The Shangri-La answers all those questions.

First, it's 15 minutes from the Mactan International Airport. No worried about flying to Manila, transferring flights, taking a taxi and then a boat to some other resort.

Second, Lapu-Lapu and Cebu City is one of oldest cities in the Philippines, with lots of historic sites to visit. Also because its adjacent to the city there are lots of restaurants, bars and clubs to go to. There is also a playarea for kids and toddlers in the Shangri-La itself. Finally, because it is a beach island, the ability to do scuba diving, boating, etc, are there too. The stress of entertaining guests, or having activities for them to do - gone.

Lastly, thanks to my saviour Regina, she mentions another resort (as well as post pictures) that is close to the Shang where she is planning to accommodate her out of town guests. The cheapest room at the Shangri-La is $240CDN. The rooms at this resort/hotel close by is $65CDN/night. Bingo, another worry gone. And for us, because of this stupid 10 day waiting period to get a Marriage Licence, we'd have to stay in Cebu for an extended period of time. Because of where its located, we should be able to find a vacation rental - someone's empty property - that they rent out with weekly or montly rates. In an initial google search, I found a townhome - a whole house! - for $17CDN/day! Everything is coming together (in my mind) that this wedding is actually POSSIBLE.

So the next step is to get things in place. So I emailed the Shang's event email with an inquiry. 24 hours later, still not response. So I sent another email, with more precise details for a more comprehensive quote to a contact Regina suggested. No response yet, but its only been two hours.

Yesterday, I started to email different wedding planners, again based on a list provided by Regina of local coordinators. Like me, she's not in Cebu, so she needed someone that is there and is an excellent communicator with an out of town bride. Out of the .. 10?... I emailed, only one replied back. Funny enough, it was Regina's planner! (He actually said he was working on a big wedding at the Shang - i.e. Regina's, so I replied, thanking him for responding so quickly, but also to congratulate her from a blog follower. I hope that makes her smile, instead of creeping her out.).

Anyways, so I've just been formulating plans (with Rodney's help of course) in my mind, but have nowhere to go without hearing back from the venue and/or a coordinator. I'll just keep bouncing at the starting line, all ready to go.

<3/ Camille

A little background

We finally decided to do it.

My partner and I have been engaged since 2007. Shortly after that engagement, we became pregnant with our darling Isabela and put anything to do with a wedding on hold. We lived and loved together, and now with such developed common-law laws and acceptance, it didn't really matter to us. We had already knew, we were partners in everything, partners in life.

Late 2009, one day at home I turned to Rodney and asked him if he would marry me if it were in the Philippines. There are only a few times that you can really see in someone eyes, what their heart is feeling, and Rodney's was so happy it was going to burst. So we were happy and started chugging along thinking about wedding details. Rodney and I met, and fell in love, because we both loved dearly our Philippine heritage. We had both been organizers within the Filipino community and believed in a Philippine renaissance, where those abroad learned about their heritage and the strength of its people, outside of food and beauty pageants. A wedding in the Philippines would solidify who we were as individuals and as a couple, and we were so happy.

We promptly discussed our plans with out family and were thrown off our feet when my mother, like the pillar rock that she is, objected and dug her feet into the ground. She wanted a wedding in Toronto only. Despite my father's initial excitement, he had to join the team and reject the wedding. His parents, who were also initially excited, also stated they would not support it unless we wed in Canada. At the time, I also started a new job.

After several months of resistance from parents, difficulty trying to figure out planning a wedding in the Philippines, and I remained on contract at my new job, we decided to abandon plans.

Time passed. We didn't talk about it again, with anyone. Not even between us.

Fast forward to now. My cousin's wedding, November 6, 2010. It was beautiful. Exactly an affair, my parents would want with a big church wedding, lots of guests at a classy reception venue. It was great to go to but Rodney and I knew, that would never be us.

After the wedding, Rodney and I talked. Really, what are we waiting for? For my job to be permanent and not be on contract to contract? Who knows when that will happen! For my parents? If they miss it, who will regret it more? And if we caved to our parents, wouldn't we be terribly unhappy? To go through those motions and to resent our own wedding. So in the end, we decided to just go for it. Even if not a single person was there except for us and our daughter on a beach in the Philippines. That's what we wanted. We actual dreamed about just eloping and getting married on the beach alone.

And now, we're going to try for it! So here we are...

I wanted to keep this blog to remember every moment of it. Another major reason is maybe to be a resource. If anything, it will keep me organized.

You will see from the blog list, two blogs that changed my life! I say changed my life because it effects the wedding, which will be a major event in my life.

You see, trying to figure out how to plan for this wedding eventually got me really down. I was really lost and the fact of not being able to BE there and figure it out, compounded the difficulty of it. I think that was why I abandoned ship so easily the first time. But these blogs brought me back to life. I saw how someone else was planning their wedding (at the venue I want too!) and having a list of places to go and people and resources. You should have seen my excitement. I thought I had discovered gold for the very first time in human history.

The second blog was that of a wedding planner in Cebu (maybe she will be my coordinator!). It's a blog of her story of her wedding and now, of weddings shes working on. Her heart is so amazingly happy and sweet, that I was just drawn to her writing, but also to have an idea of wedding culture in the Philippines by being able to experience other people's wedding. DING! Another diamond.

Maybe my blog will mean something to someone like how these two blog have helped me through so far. If not, c'est la vie!

En y va.

<3 / Camille