fire lanterns for weddings

My Facebook account has turned out to be an invaluable tool in organizing my wedding. Aside from using it to publish our Save The Date cards, tag our guests and point them to our wedding website, it was also through Facebook that I discovered today what would be a really, really, really, really, really, really, really cool touch to any wedding:



Flying fire lanterns!!



In Cebu, fire lanterns are available through Julie Ann Sio, who is also behind the Universal Fortune Trading company. Each lantern costs P270, for a minimum order of 5 pieces. However, you can get them at P250 each if you order 25 pieces or more, plus, Julie Ann will throw in a mini hot air balloon as a "gift" to the couple.



Julie Ann Sio is in Facebook. You can also get in touch with her by sending an email to universalfortunetrading@yahoo.com.

wedding flowers

The wind was literally knocked out of me when I learned that wedding flowers nowadays cost upwards of P20,000. WHY??? Why would you want to spend that much on something that won't last and you can't even eat? I understand flowers look nice, and I understand that a wedding is simply not a wedding without flowers, but...P20,000 is a whole lotta overtime! :-P

Anyway. Here are the contact numbers of a few Freedom Park florists:

Belinda "Baby" Beleña
* Home: 272-4092
* Store: 253-6822
* Mobile: 0927-2256517
* P10,000 up

Jun Cañete
* 2550056
* 0920-8983375
* P10,000 up

Nang Bebe
* 4169346
* 5114014
* 0905-8563764

Before you get in touch with any of these florists (or any wedding supplier, for that matter), try to have a clear idea of how much you are willing to spend -- your ideal budget, and the absolute maximum beyond which you should walk away. As with everything wedding-related, the prices of wedding flowers are eye-popping, but a lot of florists are actually willing to work with your budget. You shouldn't, of course, expect tulips all around for an 8k budget. But in the bigger scheme of things, does it really matter whether it's local 'mums or calla lilies in the aisles? Focus on what's important. Everything else is dispensable.

And good luck with the florists. :D

weddings for women over 40

"In the mid-1980s, a now infamous Newsweek article declared that a single, college-educated 40-year-old woman was more likely to die in a terrorist attack than ever walk down the aisle. The claim, repeated in movies and sitcoms, convinced generations of women that if they weren’t married by 40, it probably wasn’t going to happen.

The debate was revived again last week when a study from the Pew Research Center reported that high earning, college-educated women have a dwindling pool of like-minded marriage partners.

Now, a briefing paper from the Council on Contemporary Families is trying to set the record straight about marriage, education and women. For college-educated women who hope to marry someday, the news is good."

Read the story.

my wedding website

A wedding website is a great way to keep your loved ones updated about your wedding plans. I first heard of it when my friends put one up the other year, and I even wrote a couple of posts about it. There are a lot of sites where you can build your own wedding website for a fee, but there are only several free wedding websites that have great features and beautiful templates.

What I love most about mywedding.com is that they have a lot of absolutely stunning themes to choose from. My favorites are:

blossom

chandelier

chandelier (yup, there are 2 of them)

claremont

sparrows

swirls

we do

I went with a floral swirls (pear and black) theme, and this is what it looks like.

Another great thing about mywedding.com is that it has great features. You are given a total of 19 pages all in all, including the Home Page. There are pre-set pages for such things as "Our Story" and "Wedding Party" that you can customize, and there are a total of 6 pages that you can use for whatever you want. There's even a blog page! The webpages are turned off by default, so you can work on each page when you have the time. When you think it's ready for publication, you can just turn it on. It's great fun, and it's a great wedding organizing tool.

cebu church directory

If you've tried browsing through your directory, looking for the telephone numbers of churches in which to hold weddings, you'll know a lot of them aren't in there. I was beginning to think that I might have to go the actual churches, one by one, to inquire about requirements and so on, when by chance I Googled a church's name and ended up in the website of the Archdiocese of Cebu. But why do I say chance? God doesn't do coincidences. :)

Here's an alphabetical listing of some of the recognizable parishes in the Archdiocese's extensive, and surprisingly up-to-date, directory:

ALLIANCE OF TWO HEARTS (BANAWA) PARISH
Horseshoe Drive, Banawa, 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 255-3241

BASAK (FATIMA) PARISH
Basak, Mandaue City, 6014 Cebu
Tel. (032) 346-7542

BASILICA DEL STO. NINO
Osmeña Blvd., 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 255-6697, 255-6699

BLESSED SACRAMENT PARISH
North Reclamation Area, 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 232-0078, 232-0077

CAPITOL PARISH
N. Escario St., 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 255-8516

CEBU METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL
P. Burgos St., 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 253-6422, 255-8823, 412-1335

GETHSEMANE PARISH
Casuntingan, Mandaue City 6014 Cebu
Tel. (032) 346-9560

GUADALUPE PARISH
Guadalupe, 6000 Cebu City
Tel. No. (032) 254-4593, 254-3065

HOLY FAMILY PARISH
Maguikay, Mandaue City, 6014 Cebu
Tel. (032) 346-2574, 344-3790

LOURDES PARISH
Punta Princesa, 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 261-5393

MINGLANILLA (IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY) PARISH
Minglanilla, 6046 Cebu
Tel. (032) 490-9635, 490-8021, 272-5807

NUESTRA SRA. VIRGEN DELA REGLA PARISH
Lapulapu City, 6015 Cebu
Tel. (032) 340-8081

PEDRO CALUNGSOD SHRINE
Archbishop's Residence Compound, D. Jakosalem St., 6000 Cebu City
Tel. No. 2552170

SACRED HEART PARISH
D. Jakosalem St., 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 253-6479, 255-6336

SAN ROQUE PARISH
Mambaling, 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 261-3060

ST. JOSEPH PARISH
Mabolo, 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 231-2378, 232-9669

ST. JOSEPH SHRINE
Mandaue City, 6014 Cebu
Tel. (032) 344-3354

ST. THERESE PARISH
Lahug, 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 233-4964, 231-4380

STO. ROSARIO PARISH
P. del Rosario St., 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 255-5570, 255-5579

TALAMBAN (SAN ISIDRO LABRADOR) PARISH
Talamban, 6000 Cebu City
Tel. (032) 344-3378

When I say recognizable, though, I mean recognizable by me, and that isn't saying much. For instance, the Redemptorist church is not in the list above because I have no idea what it's official name is. (Or it might actually be in the list above, and I just don't know it.) So, if the church you're eyeing for your wedding ceremony isn't in my list, head for the motherlode. The main directory page looks deceptively empty -- the actual directory is a drop-down list, so what you need to do is point your mouse over the word "Directory" in the red bar at the top of the page. Got it? Great.

Discovery Weekend Cebu 2010 schedule

The Catholic Church requires couples to undergo a Pre-Cana before they can be wed. Most parishes organize their own Pre-Cana seminars. However, there are some alternatives to the traditional Pre-Cana. One of these is the Discovery Weekend. "The Discovery Weekend is a weekend experience held in the Philippines for engaged couples or "steadies" who are seriously considering marriage. The purpose of the program are the following: to assess each one's relationship to oneself, to each other, to God and the Christian community to experience, develop and deepen their relationship through a method of communication and dialogue which they can bring into their marriage to witness to the many dimensions of marriage openly, honestly and realistically through a team of three married couples and a priest to be able to plan their marriage and not just their wedding." Source: discoveryweekend.org Cebu is scheduled to host two Discovery Weekends -- the first on March 5-7, 2010, and the second on September 3-5, 2010. The contact person for Cebu is Joyce Fernan, who may be contacted via email (joyce.j.fernan@gmail.com) or mobile phone (09176202020). The Discovery Weekend website actually has a registration form that you can print out and fill up ahead of time. You can then register at Plains & Prints boutique (Ayala Center Cebu or SM City Cebu branch). Couples who have attended Discovery Weekends say that it's a great experience. The registration fee of P4,500 includes board, lodging, and materials for the whole weekend. Oh, yeah, by "Weekend" they really mean "weekend" -- the program starts Friday evening and ends Sunday night. So it's a bit time- and capital-intensive, but it's bound to be a whole lot more meaningful than the usual Pre-Cana. Whether it's worth the investment is up to you. :)

In the oh-for-goodness'-sake-who-knew-picking-a-motif-can-be-such-a-headache phase? This might help.

Or not. Because picking a motif can really be a big headache, and my head's not done aching yet. But I have found some online resources that can help a bewildered bride-to-be.

Okay, before that. The first thing you should know about colors is that one person's teal may look nothing like another person's teal. And what someone calls sage may be what someone else calls greenstone (or as near as doesn't make a difference). So: saying your motif is "teal, mocha and sage" is fine, but provide swatches to the people who need to know what exactly you're talking about.


Fortunately, BHG's 20 Perfect Wedding Color Combos uses colors such as brown + green + orange. Their color combinations are illustrated with photos that assure you that the mix of colors works.


The Brides.Com Color Studio has a nifty color wheel that you can just click (or "spin") and you can generate color palettes such as jade+pearl+lime or tangerine+aqua+cream.


Seattle Style has beautiful photos of beautiful color combinations. (I'm still fighting the urge to go with red+white+black.)


And, finally, Colour Lovers has a thousand color palettes (and patterns) that make you wish you could use them all.

Now if I could just pick one...