Addicted to SIMS 2 and other updates

Hello everyone! I am back to blogging. I've not blogged for the past week or so because I got addicted to playing the SIMS 2. hehehe! Since I just stay here at home and since I've got nothing better to do (or so I would like to make myself think hehehehe! :) ), I play it the whole day. :) On the career front, sadly, I decided not to accept the job offer with the call center I was talking about. :( I was fairly disappointed because they kept asking me to go to their office, promising me a nice position, but everytime I go there, it seems like the interviews are endless. The last time I went there, they told me I was up for contract signing already. Lo and behold, when I got there, they made me fill out an application form - again! After that, they made me go through another interview which went fairly well, with the HR telling me they were impressed. After the interview though, they told me to wait for their call for the schedule of my contract signing. I guess I got fed up. I've been waiting for them for 3 months now. First they told me training will start Feb. 21st, then it got moved to March 14th and then they asked me to drop by their office last March 21st for the contract signing and then they're asking me to wait again. I need a job, and I've been turning down offers from other big call centers, all because I was waiting for them to get their act together. Haay! So now I am back to applying and getting back to the other call centers who called me up. Hay, I guess that's part of the risk I took when I applied. After all, they're just a start up company. I understand. Another thing though, during my last interview, the HR already disclosed the salary scheme they had. I was dumbfounded. They were offering Team Leads a salary that's way below the average call center agent salary. :(

On a happier note, last Friday, we had sort of a gathering here at home. Our Ninong Andring (who is also my MIL's brother) arrived from Hawaii and we held a welcome treat for him here. Nothing fancy naman, just a simple gathering of sorts. There were food (yum! So long diet!) and countless chit chats, catching up with hubby's cousins who I haven't seen since our wedding and pasalubong from Ninong Andring! hehehe! :) MIL kasi hails from a big clan in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte. Kaya almost everytime may birthday or someone comes home from the states, they come here to gather, eat and chat. While it is nice to be part of this big a family, I am still trying to adjust to the frequent parties and reunions they have . All my relatives kasi from my mom and dad's side are in Davao, Cotabato and Samar kaya we don't get to have big gatherings. All the hulabaloos of preparing for the party and cleaning up after doesn't appeal to me - yet. :) On the other hand, I enjoy din naman. I love seeing Hubby's cousins and chatting with them. I guess it just takes time getting used to. :)

Hope you all had a great easter!

Done!

New template's up! Hope y'all like it :-)

Disappointment

Today I was able to get the certified true copy of our marriage contract (local copy) from the quezon city hall. While I was raving about the speed of the application process, the result was a big disappointment. It was a bad photocopy of the original with just a stamp and a dry seal. While having it photcopied isn't really bad, i wish they could have at least used a nicer paper and had it copied clearer. As shown in the photos below (right side), the copies that I had were much clearer! oh well. can't do much about it can't I. La lang, just ranting I guess.

Sorry

Currently trying on several sets of templates and changing the one i did. sorry for the delay :)

Supplier's Rating Part I

Finally! Here's the first installment of our Supplier's Rating. Please bear with me as this is long due to the kuentos. ;-) CENTURY IMPERIAL PALACE SUITES - The Bride's Preparation Venue

We got a one-bedroom suite for my preparation. The hotel's staff were very accommodating and pleasant with my hundreds of questions and they even granted my request for an early check in. On the day that we were about to check in, I couldn't find the receipt that was issued to us! (We paid in advance) But they accommodated us and just asked for an ID. In about 5 minutes we were already in our suite. The suite isn't that large but for me, it was roomy enough. The room was clean and the room service and housekeeping staff were very prompt with our requests. Rating : 10 Recommendation: Recommended FARLEY CASTRO - for the Bride's Gown, Bride's Mom's Gown, and Entourage's Gown We heard about Farley from W@W and immediately called him up and asked for his rates and packages. Several of our friends from W@W also got him for their weddings and we liked his creations. I scheduled our measurement taking August of 2003. Since Farley's shop is in Malabon, I requested if we could do it at Jasper's place in Kamuning. He immediately accommodated my request. Everything went well and I was overwhelmed by the humility and kindness of this person! One of my flower girls couldn't make it to the measurement schedule, so we had to go to Binondo to get her measurements and Farley was kind enough to oblige!

During our first fitting, all the gowns fitted to a T, even for those who only sent their measurements, so that made it our first and last meeting. He was not very particular about payments and would not even ask you for a single cent (apart from the down payment) until you get all the gowns! Remarkable!

At first, I was actually hesitant to have my gown made by Farley because I haven't seen a sample of a bridal gown that he made. But I took my chances because we were on a very tight budget. I originally wanted a couturier to do my gown, but after hearing her quote of 25k for a simple gown with no beadings whatsoever, she said it was because duchess satin was expensive. Well, I didn't want to shell out that much for a gown I would use only once. I only wanted a simple yet elegant gown. So I decided to book Farley for my gown. He quoted 10k for my gown. I was not disappointed; he even placed a scatter of crystals and beads on the upper portion of my gown and extended the length of my train at no extra cost! The package even included a very long illusion tulle with star beads and crystals and he used duchess satin :-). And he also included a shawl for the entourage gowns, also at no extra cost :-)

A day before the wedding, we were at a loss about where to get a body form for my gown. I called Farley up to ask if he had one available and he did. He even had it delivered to the hotel.

Rating: 10+++++ Recommendations: Highly Recommended! Great Service, beautiful gowns, affordable price! :-)

KUKS REYES - Bride's Hair and Make up. Also for the Bride's Mom, Bride's Sister and 3 entourage members I found out about Kuks thru W@Wie Tina ni Francis. Kuks and I only communicated through SMS and phone calls and I didn't go for a trial. My call time for Kuks and his staff was 11am. I was surprised when he and his staff came knocking at the door at 10am! I didn't expect they'd be that early since I knew they would be coming from Edsa Shang (where Kuks did the make up of Monet's entourage.) Anyway, after serving them breakfast, they got to work right away. Kuks did not even use a mirror. I just sort of told him what look I wanted and he did his magic! He did such a fantastic job that my guests said I looked fresh. :-) What's more, Kuks and his staff were very "kwela", they were very instrumental in helping me relax hours before the wedding! They stayed until after the reception, retouching my make up as needed. Rating: 10+++++ Recommendations: Highly Recommended

TROPICAL BLOOMS - Flowers for the entourage and Bride's bouquet Kuya Angel and Ate Matet of Tropical Blooms is another one of our favorites! As with our other suppliers, meetings with them were fun. They’re very easy to talk to. The flowers were fresh and beautiful. The arrangements exquisite! I love my bouquet of red tulips! It lasted for like a week after the wedding before it dried up. The flowers also arrived early during the wedding day! Rating: 10+++++ Recommendations: Highly Recommended

UNITY COINS Our unity coins were a gift from what we consider "very dear friends" - John and Benette Rana of www.weddingsatwork.com! The Unity Coins were very beautiful and served as a unique arrhae for our wedding. We will forever treasure these coins as a reminder of our bond, second to our wedding rings. :-) Thank you so much John and Benz! Rating: Since the Unity Coins were gifts, I prefer not to rate them but we do highly recommend that you get one for your wedding or a gift to someone who is getting married! :-)

WEDDING RINGS Our wedding rings were also gifts from my dear best friend in college - Marifa, who is also one of our entourage. She had it made by their jeweler in Tarlac. They're made out of 18k white gold, matte finish, with a touch of gold. She just asked for a picture and their jeweler did an awesome job. Rating: No rating since this is also a gift but a lot of people tell us how wonderful our wedding rings are... and we agree! ;-)

HER-Mans Tailoring - Groom's Barong

We found HER-Mans near the Kamuning Market. They did a great job with Jasper's barong, but the owner, Mang Herman (so that's where the business name came from! hehehe) gave me this feeling that he didn't like doing his job. When we went there and showed him the picture of Jasper's barong, he often clucked and kept telling us that it was hard to do. Well, I would've went out of his shop that instant but Jasper didn’t want to go tailor-searching anymore. Thankfully, Mang Herman did a good job naman. Rating: 8 (minus 2 for his negativity) Recommendations: slightly recommended

KAMUNING MARKET - Male Entourage's Barong

If you find Divisoria far, then Kamuning Market is the next best place for affordable telas. :-) Rating: 10 Recommendations: Recommended

WEDDING LIBRARY - Unity Candle, Poppers

Since we didn't have enough time to scout Divisoria for our poppers and not enough budget for a Unity Candle by Balay Kandila, we trooped to Wedding Library for these. Our Unity Candle was simple but good enough (and affordable) and the poppers were great! Rating: 10 Recommendations: Recommended if you don't have time (and patience) to squeeze in a Divisoria trip.

;-)

INVITATIONS - Jasper and Nyree Wanting to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop, I experimented on doing our invitations. Jasper loved how my design turned out and we agreed to use it. We then bought cartolina-sized papers from Star Paper. Jasper and his dad were the ones who did the cutting of the paper to 8 x 11 sizes. After which, I printed our invites using their ink jet printer. Then we had our invites matte laminated at Well Coat. A little side kuento, since we had the same wedding date, Clarice, a W@Wie, emailed me one day and told me about her wonderful idea. She suggested that we (along with other December 2004 W@Wies) have our invitations matte laminated all at the same time so that we would be charged one price and we could share the costs! Her idea turned out well as all of us were able to save a big chunk of our wedding budget! Thanks Clarice! :-) Our invitation envelopes were DIY's as well. Taking inspiration from W@Wie Raquel ni Carlo (who also did her invite envelopes). Rating: 10+++++ of course because these were DIY projects by me and hubby :-) Recommendations: We recommend that if you have a considerable length of time to prepare for your wedding, you might as well do your invitations yourselves. A great way to bond with your hubby-to-be, your invites will mean more to the both of you since they're "a labor of love". It's also a great way to save! ;-)

Application and "Pasyal"

Today saw me trooping to the Quezon City Hall to request for a certified true copy of our marriage contract. I applied for both a local and a foreign copy. I would need the foreign copy for my passport application. The process was a breeze. Again, kudos to the Quezon City hall staff for providing fast service! I will be able to get the copies by Thursday March 11. For those who would be getting their certified true copy of marriage contract from the Quezon City Hall (only for those who got married in Quezon City), you only need to bring the original copy of your marriage contract (the one you got from the church) and a photocopy of it. Proceed to the Civil Registrar's Office. Window 1 is for the foreign copy and window 4 is for the local copy. Fill up an application form and give the forms to the person manning the window. They will issue you a pay order slip and then you will be instructed to proceed to pay at the 2nd floor of the building adjacent to the civil registrar's office. After paying (PhP 50.00 for local and PhP 60.00 for foreign), you need to go back to the civil registrar office and present the receipts to the window where you got the pay order slip. They will issue you a small piece of paper indicating when you would be able to get it (3 days). That's it! :) As usual, I brought my inaanak with me for a pasyal. Okay okay, so it's not really a pasyal place but I love bringing this little guy along. ;) After I applied for the copies of our marriage contracts, we proceeded to a grassy strip at the city hall. We let him loose and the young man had a grand time running and playing around! Ah! The joys of being a toddler... ;)