Patrick and Faith

February 21st 2009
Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel, Punta Fuego
Upper Beach Club Punta Fuego

Think of these:

An 88-hectare flame-shaped peninsula just 3 hours away from Manila.

A big, gorgeous, hillside, well-decorated house that can (possibly) fit in a hundred.

A very beautiful, stripped down, intimate chapel atop a small hill.

A mountainside reception venue overlooking the South China sea.

And a pimped out, yellow golf cart with 700 Nm of torque at your disposal.

Sounds good, huh?

Yup, and that’s Patrick and Faith’s dream wedding.

And it came true last Saturday.

And we were there to document the entire event.

Must be our “Lucky” day.

And their first kiss – the BESTEST EVER!

Oh, and tons of dreamy 5D footages here.

Congrats Patrick and Faith!

Photo: MangoRed
Make-Up: Irene Sy-Go

I’m in fact flying on Valentine’s Day…spending 12 hours of the most romantic day on the plane…there will be no V-day dinner date… but still got surprised with flowers and a bear delivered to the office (thanks bem, you really spoil me)!

We also celebrated a few days  early…had dinner at the Meatpacking District…was too shy to take a photo of every food…but couldn’t resist to take this…

…tartare sampler of salmon, lobster, tuna and yellow tail over rice krispies…yummy!

And this…Lucky beer…which has a very interesting bottle…amazingly, it came from Australia!

Thought there will be no more V-day treats…but my co-workers gave us  these…

more flowers…wedded bliss candle…chocolate hearts and sparkling wine…which we devoured before flying off to get married!

Advance Happy Heart’s Day to all!!!

As you may all know, we are going on our honeymoon in Australia, but we also had a civil wedding last October. Therefore, it is appropriate, I think, to have a mini-moon, just a quick weekend getaway close to New York City! And yes, we did exactly that!

We first drove to Cooperstown to visit quintessential small-town America and to partake with America’s favorite pastimes, beer and baseball!!! These are just examples of what we saw on the way, awesome fall foliage…

pumpkins…

and Otsego Lake.

Cooperstown has an old America feel (no Times Square neon signs here!) and Main street has retained its 18th century flavor.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, however, is the main tourist attraction due to the town’s local legend Abner Doubleday who invented baseball. Crowds of people went in and out of the Hall of Fame, so we just decided to check out a local game at the Doubleday Field.

Afterward, we strolled to the Lakefront Park…

and had brunch at the Lakefront Restaurant…

Food was forgettable, but the view of  Otsego Lake was amazing! After brunch, we drove to Ommegang Brewery to partake with their 11th anniversary celebration…

They had free tours and tastings at the Brouwerszaal, Flemish word for brewer’s room where our tour concluded and the tastings were held.

Here’s Pat enjoying his free beer!

Inside that huge tent…

they had puppet shows…

alpaca feedings…

Belgian waffles…

and of course, beers!!!

This is my favorite food and beer pairing: Belgian-style beer and Belgian waffle with Belgian chocolate…

but nothing really beats this (taken at Cafe Leffe in Leuven, Belgium). Someday, I’ll go back there…

After a wonderful day in Cooperstown, we drove to the Adirondacks and stayed here…

Our suite featured king sized bed…

a living area…

that connects to the balcony with a really nice view…

Once we were settled, we feasted on these…

…Belgian chocolates and Belgian-style beer from Ommegang brewery. After a much needed nap, we had dinner at the Rodizio, a churrascaria, before trying our luck at the casino. I don’t really like to gamble but for some reason I was specially lucky that night!

The following day, we had couple’s spa treatment then partook in a buffet breakfast. We, then, took a walk around the property, here’s the golf club…

the casino…

me at the hiking path…

and here’s the lodge where we stayed…

We also saw amazing flora and fauna…

Then it was time to check out. We were sad to go, but we had to take a picture first at “our” duvet…

Our minimoon road trip, however, did not end here. We drove back to Brooklyn and got our tattoos!

Armed with these life lessons, I journeyed to discover myself and pursue my goals which are: to buy a reliable car that will last long enough so I can save for an apartment of my own and at the same time travel to all seven continents without getting into debt! I know, I was way ambitious but I almost did it!

Four years from today, I bought the biggest purchase of my life, my own apartment! It was worth all the sacrifices I’ve done. For a year before deciding to buy, I saved money by brown bagging my lunch, making my Chinese food lunch special last for 3 days, foregoing shopping and traveling, and working 3 jobs! Yes, 3! I had my regular 8-4 nursing home gig, then for 2 weeknights a week, I worked 3 hours in a group home and on Saturdays, I did 3 hours in an outpatient clinic. 9 months into ownership though, I quit all my 3 jobs and accepted a higher paying position from which I walked out of on my first day there! I was crazy, I have a mortgage and just quit my job because I didn’t like it! Good thing I work in health care which is a growing industry, I found a new job 3 days later that I’m really happy with. For sure, because I’m still working in the same company!

I still have my 9 year old car that I paid off in 2 1/2 years in good running condition. Although, sometimes I wish that I am currently driving a Volvo C30, I wouldn’t trade in my car just yet. It still serves its purpose of driving me to work and back. In addition, since I’ll be going back to street parking after I’ve moved in with Pat, I wouldn’t want my shiny, new car get damaged. So, I’ll be keeping this car until after we buy a house!

As for traveling, I’ve been to 17 countries on 5 continents, soon to be 6 since we’re honeymooning in Australia! By backpacking, eating street food, staying in hostels and just buying magnets for souvenirs during my travels, I’ve avoided getting into debt! In fact, if I’m not getting married this year, I could have bought myself that Volvo as well as drive around Scandinavia with my new car!

Now that I’ve done what I have set for myself to do, I am now embarking on a new chapter of my life! It’s now time to figure out the toothpaste situation (if you know what I mean…compromise, that is!), merge finances, plan our future, have kids, buy a house, grow old together, etc. I’m psyched! Oh no, what about our doctorate degrees? Somehow, we’ll figure it out!

It’s not really big since our families know about this but getting married in another country involves a lot of paper work which we didn’t realize until we are knee deep into our wedding planning. So one beautiful autumn day last October, we took a day off from work and decided to get legally married in New York.  Our civil ceremony was perfect with just the two of us, all nerves and honest emotion.

Anyway, if you saw Sex and the City, Big and Carrie got married in New York City Hall inside a Manhattan courthouse wherein other couples can watch the “proceedings.” With us, since my fiance’s apartment was just across the New York City Clerk’s Office in Queens, we decided to do the deed there and boy, were we in for a surprise! We both dressed the part, me in my Betsey Johnson dress, and my fiance in his Barney’s suit. We walked hand in hand, getting nervous as we neared the building, but ended up bursting with laughter as soon as we saw other couples who were waiting to get hitched.

As soon as we arrived, 2 couples were ahead of us. The first couple had their whole family, including their school-aged kids in tow. They were dressed as if they were going to a club…her with her tight red dress and him with his baggy pants, red shirt, Adidas sneakers and major bling bling. The next couple were less ghetto, the girl tried really hard with a nice white cocktail dress, but her fiance was wearing tight jeans (Dominican style), white shirt and cowboy boots.

Anyway, back to our civil ceremony, we were also surprised that the Queens office has an actual chapel and couples can get married in private. This is us outside the Queens office with Pat’s apartment building as background:

Here’s the sign outside the chapel:

While saying our vows…I got so emotional, I was practically teary eyed, but it went so quickly, I didn’t even notice it!

Here’s the best part, being handed our marriage contract, we’re legal in the USA, but not in the eyes of God!

Afterwards, we went to lunch at the River Cafe in DUMBO to celebrate…

…and were given a table with the best view of the Manhattan skyline!

For appetizers, we shared arugula salad with fresh mozzarella, tomato, grilled eggplant and balsamic vinaigrette…

…warm potato and goat cheese terrine with marinated golden beets, baby greens and aged  sherry wine vinaigrette…

…and yellow fin tuna tartare with Asian pear, chili,  sesame and pine nuts.

For our main course, I had a shellfish duet of grilled garlic shrimp and Maryland crab cake with avocado…

…and Pat had char-grilled 24-ounce aged T-bone steak!

For dessert, we shared sticky chocolate toffee cake and pistachio ice cream sandwiched between dark chocolate cookies. The petit fours at the bottom of the photo were on the house (our wedding gift from the restaurant)…yay!

No we did not drink anything alcoholic because we don’t want Pat to turn red before meeting with our Indonesian photographer to have our civil wedding portraits taken!

We then headed headed home half-married, since I still don’t consider myself married without the blessing of the Catholic church. I know, I’m a tad conservative!

We were hoping for only 120  to attend. The room can fit a maximum of 150 people without a dance floor! So far, we have 128 attendees, and are still waiting for about 30 who have not responded yet! We really do hope that everyone can attend, and I’m sure that if they can all make it, we will find a way to make it work! It will be a tight squeeze, and we have to be creative, but there has to be a dance floor!

I began the arduous task of finding a wedding ring soon after I got engaged. At first, I wanted  a band with diamonds on it, like my engagement ring. While my fiance wanted to go for the traditional route of having matching bands. Then, after giving it some thought, I decided on a plain engraved band because I plan to wear it 24/7 and I don’t want to worry about any diamonds falling off.

Fast forward to January 2009, since time is slipping through our hands and we were determined to knock off as many remaining wedding tasks as possible, we went ring shopping last weekend, but we ended up with nothing! Zilch! Nada! That’s due to the fact that none of the traditional rings I’ve tried fits with my engagement ring which is why I’ve considered a curved wedding band like this Elsa Peretti one…

I just love how it looks so simple specially when worn alone! For the first few years, I plan on wearing both my engagement ring and wedding band together and this is how they look (pardon my ugly fingers!)…

but eventually, especially after I have kids, I see myself just sporting the band and saving the engagement ring for special occasions. Anyway, we ended up ordering these beauties online since all the Tiffany’s in the tri-state area only offers the one with diamonds on it. Now, we only have to worry about having them engraved and what inscription to put!

We’re hopefully having about 12 tables, but we’re also anticipating for much more, so we have prepared 15 table cards. Each card is made to look like a post card and will have the location name on both sides, a description of the place  and what we did there with our engagement and/or travel photos on one side and a picture of the beach that my talented fiance took while visiting that place on the other. It is also one way of showcasing my fiance’s skills with the camera for which I’m so proud of! So, which one will make the cut and where will you be sitting at?

We used it as an opportunity to get closer together and to get to know each other more. It was a learning experience so we can develop the skills we will need in order to be a successful married couple for we both do not believe in divorce. It was also the time to examine yourself, to “sow your wild oats,” and to really think about what you want in life. After all, marriage is forever.

With our 21-month long engagement, it may seem too long to others, but for me, it was just about right. Every day I am more excited. I’ve learned that engagement length is a personal decision based on so many factors, and at the end of the day, only the couple can know what is right for them. I’ve learned that you need to plan and save, but also to grow and transition into the couple you’ll be… and that takes time. I’ve learned that wedding planning, while often stressful and crazy, is important and meaningful.

Feast your eyes upon this:

J. Crew always manages to have cute and preppy styles. Don’t you just love those mismatched colors for the bridesmaids’ outfits and shoes? Here’s a couple of pictures in our wedding’s colors, no less…

…which gave me an idea on how I would dress my lovely ‘maids, with mismatched colors, of course! My matron of honor will be wearing an orange dress and gold shoes and my 3 bridesmaids will be wearing yellow dresses with red shoes. I just hope that they’ll all love it just as I do!