Bridal Shower Surprise!

I had an awesome bridal shower surprise last night at Centerstage Tomas Morato. I got there late because I had to sleep off a raging migraine. When Alvin and I entered the videoke room, I was greeted by my family, Len and Mike and my friends from French class. Such a happy gathering of the people closest to my heart! Nadine and Jada arrived a few minutes later. We had an overload of food, super fun games (courtesy of Len! Thank you!), and goodies galore! My sisters Adie and Bek took care of designing the labels and prettifying the prize cupcakes and candy souvenirs. And just this morning, Mom and Adie told me about their trip to Tomas Morato to scout for a good venue, braving the rain, too! I was super touched! I am loved in so many ways. Thank you!

It was a wonderful night! Not the typical un-wholesome kinda party, but fun-er! Super thanks to everyone who shared their time (and singing prowess) with me last night. I had a blast!

Mike, Len, Bride-to-be Me!, Adie, Ant, Bek and Mommy. Thank you! :)

Mes tres amis! Merci beaucoup! :)

One of the games played was this one. Making a wedding gown out of tissue paper. This was the winning team: Jada and Edna as designers and Nadine was the model.

Awww... antok na si Mommy. :)

So who says your fiance can't be part of your wedding shower? Tee-hee! Excited to be his missus. :)

Thanks, Mommy, Adie, Bek and Len! Love you!

:)

Updates...

I finally saw my partially complete wedding gown last night, and it's gorgeous! I had my second fitting with Mommy Virgie last night at her place. Since the groom is not allowed to see his bride in her gown before the wedding day, Alvin patiently waited outside the house. I was tempted to take a picture of the gown, in all its lacy, golden splendor. But I decided against it. Syempre dapat surprise. :)

I tried the gown on with my wedding shoes, too. I got them a few weeks back. My friend Pam and I went to the dep store of SM Megamall one evening, and went home with happy and triumphant smiles. Super bilis lang namin nahanap. It was like I was meant to find them right then and there.




Now that we're talking about SM's dep store, I am amazed at how fab their Parisian designs are now. I remember back then when their shoe styles were awful. You really didn't want to buy them no matter how easy on the budget they were. But it seems they've gone through a fashion overhaul over the years, and the shoes are just delish! Still inexpensive, and now looking so much better! Pam was able to buy a pair of very chic, high-heeled gray booties. The camel heels I wanted didn't have my size. But Alvin and I went to the dep store in SM North Edsa and found them there, and he bought the shoes for me. Yey! :)

Parisian and What A Girl Wants in SM Dep Store are now on mine and Pam's shopping lists from now on.


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I got super imbyerna with the first printing company we found for our wedding invitations. They actually do printing for my Dad's school. Their rates are cheap, so Vin and I decided to get them to print our invites. The problem is, they're sobrang tamad! Or maybe they just didn't want to accommodate us. I was trying to get a quotation, and they really took their sweet time to come up with the very simple price list. I had to rush to their office pa and talk to the girl who promised to send the quotation to my sister's email a million years ago. I had to be masungit just to make them move. So, my fiance and I scouted for a different supplier and our friend, Tita Mags, recommended New World Printing Corp. They were able to deliver our invitations just in time. And the invites look so much better, too! The colors are brighter, the paper they used was better. More importantly, hindi ako na-stress.




So now Vin and I are acting like couriers, going around the metro to distribute our wedding invitations, braving traffic, heat and rain. Nakakapagod, but it's so much fun! Check out the design of our invitation on our wedding blog.

:)


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Someone told me, after finding out I was a radio announcer (and not a doctor or a lawyer), "Okay lang. Ang importante naman may trabaho."

This made me smile. I wasn't offended at all. I get this kind of reaction from a few people, and I'm used to it. People react differently when they learn about my job. Some chuckle and think that it's not an occupation to be taken seriously. Some, most of them actually, are impressed, sometimes awed. Radio DJs are considered celebrities, too.

I guess the most important thing of all is how I see my work as a radio personality. We go on air, wearing big smiles and making sure our voices sound like sunshine even if we're going through a storm. We fill the radio waves not just with music you love, but with all the knowledge we've got and all the humor we can squeeze out of ourselves. We take pride in knowing there are hundreds of listeners tuning in to us every single day, singing along with the songs we play, laughing with us, sharing a part of their day with us, making them feel happy or nostalgic, or sometimes mad and angry. We make you feel kilig everytime we greet you and your friends on air. We're voices on the other end of the radio you have at home, or the stereo in your car. Voices that have become your friends, your companions. We may not be saving lives like doctors in a hospital, or doing something huge and important like a lawyer fighting for a case or a politician passing a law, but we sure as hell try our very best to give you really good entertainment on your radio as you go through your day. We make sure you're not bored at work, or while you're stuck in traffic. We make sure every time you tune in, it's a worthwhile listening experience.

"DJ lang" daw ang work ko. I just smile.

:)

Wishful thinking...

Oh, to have Martha Stewart organize my wedding. Sigh.

I remember browsing through a copy of Martha Stewart Weddings Philippines several times while planning for my big day, getting tips and ideas here and there. I was lucky to have met and interviewed on my show the editor-in-chief, Tata Mapa. Now this lovely, energetic lady was even luckier to have met Ms. Stewart herself during a US trip.

Martha Stewart, you are inspiring.

Toink!

Lead actress in a local soap opera plays an emotional scene. After a dramatic confrontation, she tries to get out of the office. She runs to one corner and tries to push open a door. She fails. She pushes another door. Fails. Then she cries aloud, "I need to get out!" Camera zooms in on a sign on the door: PULL to open.

She reads this, sniffs, and pulls the door open, exiting with her head held high.

Hilarious.

Copycat!

Someone's trying to be like me. She's trying to copy the way I talk, getting into the same interests and hobbies. I'm flattered. Imitation IS the best form of praise. But part of me is irked, too. C'mon, m'dear. Get over it. This is where I do a Cherie Gil smirk and say, "Gaya-gaya!"

Bonus!

When your dearest friends give you presents and surprises, those are just bonuses. The greatest treasure, really, is the friendship. As Vin and I prepare for our big day, we stumble upon gifts from friends every now and then. My makeup-artist-turned-friend Cheryl Cabanos gave me an impossibly generous package. This excites me tremendously, as she knows my face very well, and she knows how to masterfully work her magic on my visage even with her eyes closed. If there's one person who can really make me into a stunning bride, it's Cheryl. My buddy and partner-on-air Jada gifted me and Vin with her photo booth services. That's gonna add so much fun to the wedding reception! And for our honeymoon, my good friend Tita Mags of Mossimo gave us accommodations to this wonderful place called Discovery Shores Boracay!




We've been to Boracay a few times, but we've never stayed at its topnotch hotels/resorts. Now we get to experience it. As newlyweds on our honeymoon, too! That makes it even more thrilling! Sana October na! I can't wait! Tee-hee!

Ang daming bonus! And the blessings keep on rolling in. We are ever so thankful. Thank you, God, for the graces and the gift of friendship!

:)

Excited!

My big day's just around the corner. Very, very soon I shall become Mrs. Carilo. Sometimes when I stop and think about it, it still takes me by surprise. It can still seem so surreal, even after all the wedding preparations we've been doing. I'm excited! I know the days have been slipping by so fast lately. But still I want to go fast forward to September!

Almost everything is in order. You can check out our wedding blog for more stories and photos. We have yet to print our invitations though. Alvin's having a hard time getting principal sponsors. Hopefully everything will be done by this week. On Thursday, we'll be meeting up with our director and coordinator, Jet Loveria and the rest of DJTeam, Inc. I've worked with them for years, and they are amazing! We're kampante because Vin and I know our wedding program is in good and creative hands. We'll be meeting up with our videographer next week as well. Instead of a pre-nup photo shoot, we're actually doing a pre-nup video with Geronimo Photographico. I'm sure it's gonna be super fun! We're working on a few surprises for our guests, too. The creative director in me cannot be contained. I really want everything to be special, fun and different.

I had a little chat with my friend, May Valdez, this afternoon at the station. She told me about the weddings she has organized before. According to her, most of the grooms don't really want to be involved in all the planning and preparations. Corny. :(

It made me feel very happy and incredibly thankful for having a fiance who's with me every step of the way. We've become such an inseparable duo, Vin and I, for the past few months. We spend all our free time together, working on wedding preps, meeting suppliers, planning this and that. We even have a wedding preps scrapbook! Whenever we accomplish a task or two, we sit down and get crafty (and cheesy,too), complete with our stickers and colored pens and markers. That's probably the reason why preparing for our wedding hasn't been too stressful at all. We got each other's backs, we're always in it together, and we're having fun while working. For us, the journey's just as important as the destination. Every plan, every detail, every task accomplished together is a cherished moment.

Look at me, such a gushing bride! Bear with me, my dear friends. I'm giddy with excitement! Every time my fiance takes my hand, kisses it with a smile and says "We're getting married!" my heart goes on a frenzy. I just can't wait!

:)

A little loyalty and respect, please?

A guy friend of mine attended a stag party just recently. He told me that he and his buddies paid for two women to go "all the way" with the groom. He was chuckling while telling this story, and I tried to laugh along with him. But honestly, I am appalled! Most women already disagree with the whole stripping thing during bachelor parties. Now the modern day stag has evolved into something like this? The groom having sex with another woman who isn't his bride? No wonder there are so many broken families, divorced couples, cheating husbands, cheating wives. Has it become passe to honor and respect the sacredness of love and marriage? Has infidelity become sort of a trend? Why are people treating disloyalty like it's a fact of life accepted by today's society?

Call me naive or old-fashioned, but I am completely against this act of unfaithfulness. Marriage is about two people who love each other, and choose to remain faithful to one another. Their bodies, their hearts and their souls are exclusively for each other. This also applies to the couple before they are wed. Aren't two people in a relationship supposed to be loyal, too? So if, during a bachelor/ette party, you decide to do the deed with someone else just for kicks, doesn't that show disrespect for your partner? It's like trampling on your relationship for a moment, just so you can have one last bit of fun before you tie the knot.

It's sad, really. After I heard my friend's story, I truly felt sad for the bride. Does she know that her husband-to-be, the man who promises to love ONLY HER for the rest of his life, went "all the way" with another woman just a few days before he says 'I do'? Does she have any idea at all that this man who swore to be faithful just kissed, embraced, touched and became intimate with someone else? I bet if she knew, if she found out, it would break her heart. If she and the groom switched places, if it was she who slept with another man just for fun, would he take it lightly and say it's okay? I seriously doubt that.

When it comes to love, relationships and marriage, have loyalty and respect become out-of-date?

The lover is a monotheist who knows that other people worship different gods but cannot himself imagine that there could be other gods. ~Theodor Reik, Of Love and Lust, 1957

Crazy for HP!

Image borrowed from files.wordpress.com

I just saw the trailer of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. For reasons other people will never understand, I cried. Four years ago, my girlfriends persuaded me to read the books. After Sorcerer's Stone, I was hooked. The wizards have won over my very soul for the rest of my life.

It all boils down now to the final chapter, where Harry finally comes face to face with destiny, and the one enemy that can never survive while he exists. The final installment will be divided into two parts. The first half will be shown on November of this year. We'll have to wait until July, 2011 for Part 2. But even now, I find myself feeling quite sad that the end has come for this literary masterpiece-turned-silver screen blockbuster. What is there left to expect after Harry Potter? I remember reading a Daniel Radcliffe interview on the net, and he mentioned being worried about life after filming Harry Potter. They were all so used to making the movies that it's hard for them to imagine life afterwards. I think I understand how he feels. After the last chapter, there will be nothing else to look forward to.

Millions of Harry Potter fans all over the globe, including myself, will be waiting eagerly for the Deathly Hallows on the big screen. I re-read all seven books a month or two before an HP film is released. So now I'm dusting off my J.K. Rowling collection so I can start reading them again, for the third time. And I will never grow tired of going through the stories over and over.

Wanna check out the trailer? It's awesome! Click here!

6pax!

Dad is getting the new Samsung 3D TV for the family room, and I heard him tell the guy from Abenson's on the phone:

Kaya lang dalawang glasses lang kasama niyan. Eh six kami dito eh. Kukuha pa ako ng apat.

Yey! I'm still part of the head count! I know I'm getting married soon, and I won't be living with the family in this new house anymore. But I still want to feel part of it. I still want to be included. And I'd like to have my own pair of 3D glasses, too.

:)