Spiritual Reminder

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Gal 5:6 NIV

Spiritual Reminder

"Thou hast put gladness in my heart."Psalm 4:7

Commitment

. . . for life.

Tobit and Sarah's Prayer

(a good choice for Wedding Mass First Reading)

"Blessed are you, O God of our fathers;
praised be your name forever and ever.
Let the heavens and all your creation
praise you forever.
You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve
to be his help and support;
and from these two the human race descended.
You said, "It is not good for man to be alone;
let us make him a partner like himself."
Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine
not because of lust, but for a noble purpose.
Call down your mercy on me and on her,
and allow us to live together to a happy old age.
Amen, amen." Tob 8:5-7, NAB

Spiritual Reminder

"I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me." Gen 30:27

Wedding Tips

To maximize your trial hair and make-up (tmu), schedule your pre-nuptial pictorial on the same day. You are not only made up for the occasion, you will also get to see how you will look in your wedding photos with your make up.

Spiritual Reminder

"God is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of - infinitely beyond our highest prayer, desires, thoughts, or hopes." Eph 3:20

Wedding Tips

1. Agree on your wedding budget - who pays for what, etc. Having financial and budget concerns during wedding preparation is one of the most stressful issues - and can really get into your nerves. Be clear from the start.

Spiritual Reminder

"Remain in my love. . . that your joy may be complete." John 15:9,11

Wedding Song

(Here's the song we used for the entourage march - a very beautiful prayer in the form of a song)

The Prayer
Andrea Boccelli

I pray you'll be our eyes, and watch us where we go.
And help us to be wise in times when we don't know.
Let this be our prayer, when we lose our way.
Lead us to a place, guide us with your grace
To a place where we'll be safe.



La luce che tu dai
Nel cuore restera
A ricordarci che
L'eterna stella sei.

I pray we'll find your light,
And hold it in our hearts
When stars go out each night,
Remind us where you are..

Nella mia preghiera
Quanta fede c'e.
Lead us to a place ?

Let this be our prayer
When shadows fill our day
Guide us with your grace

Give us faith so we'll be safe.

Sogniamo un mondo senza piu violenza,
Un mondo di giustizia e di speranza.
Ognuno dia una mano al suo vicino,
Simbolo di pace...di fraternita.

La forza che ci dai
E desiderio te
Ognuno trovi amor
Intorno e dentro se.
Let this be our prayer,
Just like every child.

We ask that life be kind
And watch us from above.
We hope each soul will find
Another soul to love.
Let this be our prayer,
Just like every child.

Needs to find a place, guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we'll be safe
E la fede che hai acceso in noi
Sento che ci salverai.....

Marriage Preparations

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

The Discovery Weekend is for couples seriously considering marriage. They can be engaged to marry in a week's time or going steady for a short period but contemplating marriage. The weekend is not necessarily for perfectly matched couples nor is it designed to help unstable relationships. The program is intended to enrich and deepen the couple's relationship to better prepare them for marriage. So any couple may join the program, regardless of the status of their relationship-as long as marriage is in their minds.

Texts from Discovery Weekend Website. For reservations, schedule, and more info, check out www.discoveryweekend.org

Wedding Preparation Templates

Please leave a comment if you want to get a copy of our wedding preparation template, calendar guide, budget template, and on-the-day, and coordinator checklist. I promise to respond promptly.

Wedding Candles

Check out this Unity Candle and Tapers I did for my good friend's wedding!

Her motif was all shades of green and the unity candle was perfect. Finding a matching taper was a challenge, though. I looked for ordinary apple green candles and wrapped it with chiffon green, tied with a satin bow and accentuated with flowers. All materials I got from a department store and cost me only a little more than a hundred pesos!

My friend and her family loved this!

Paul Tan Jewelry

Engagement Ring and Wedding Bands

Our wedding bands were nicely done by Paul Tan. A silver-gold-edged band made of 14K gold, he also made my unique and nice engagement ring.

He was very flexible – very willing to consider our budget without sacrificing the quality of his jewelry!

I just have to mention that my husband personally designed my engagement ring – and he said that he never had a hard time explaining the very design he made to Paul.

Many of our couple friends got their engagement rings and wedding bands from Paul. We even came up with a name for ourselves – the fellowship of the ring! Ha ha ha!

Rave: Like, like, like

Rant: None

Manila Vocal Ensemble

Wedding Choir/Reception Band

A group of music teachers from various schools in Manila with heavenly voices! My ninong/cousin based in Vienna first heard them in one of their concert/performances in Europe. Right after their number, my cousin followed them to the backstage and booked them for our wedding! Wasn’t that sweet?

When they got back in Manila, we immediately scheduled an appointment to hear them sing. We asked them if they could sing our favorite Bukas Palad and Himig Heswita songs, they sang it for us. There were some glitches on songs they were not familiar with but they assured us that they will work on it. We were confident they could sing it.

Except for Glory to God that they replaced with another version withhout our knowing it and for some technical glitches (lack of proper coordination between COTH and our coordinators), they were heavenly especially when they sang the bridal march (a separate review on this).

They also sang in our reception and they showcased their songs that wowed the audience abroad (and our guests and us, too!). They can sing almost all songs – after all they were all musically gifted!

Their group is composed of 4 female and two male singers (one male singer played the organ) and they did pretty well!

Rave: Like, like.

Rant: They could’ve told us they will not sing the version of the song that we requested and my husband said he noticed some off-key notes from the organ. But for the unbelievably low rate they charged us, they were certainly worth more than what we paid for !

Velasco Arts & Crafts

Barong Materials

The very nice material of my husband’s and the male entourage’s barong came all the way from Kalibo, Aklan. The material mede of pure piña fiber was hand-embroidered and made from the fiber plant in Numancia, Aklan. I learned that some (if not most) of the barong materials being embroidered in Lucban, Quezon come from Numancia, Aklan. The materials we got was a lot cheaper then those from Lucban. It just so happened that our province is near Aklan so it was not a problem sourcing the materials.