The Church...

It's been a while since I last blogged but that doesn't mean things haven't been happening. Some things just move at a slower pace than others. Finally after much discussion, Junby and I have chosen the church where we will exchange vows in the presence of family and friends. It's inside one of the subdivisions in Bacolod City. Its cozy and just ideal for Junby and myself. It's quite famous as well for its unique mosaic made entirely of shells. Here are a few shots of the chapel:

It's actually called the Barangay sang Virhen Chapel although it is more commonly known as the Sta. Clara Chapel. The chandelier is made up entirely of shells and so is the mosaic, the altar, and even the cross! By the way, right after we finalized the venue for the wedding ceremonies, the gracious parish secretary arranged for us to have our canonical investigation the following morning. At least now, we have that one requirement ticked off. Now just a hundred more to go :)

Countdown

In case you have not yet noticed the newest addition to this blog, there is now a countdown clock embedded at the top of the page. It is counting down the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds until our wedding on December 15, 2007 at 2:00 pm (Bacolod time). I spent a bit of time yesterday trying to figure out how to get it to work. Now, it is working fine and I am very pleased.

I have a similar counter on my laptop. ;)

More pamamanhikan photos

Since I mentioned in my last post that I would upload some more photos from the pamamanhikan, here they are:

Group photo of everyone. From L-R: Tita Elsa, Kara, Tito Bing, Honey, Tita Mitsu, Mitzi, me, my mom, my dad:

A couple of photos of just me and Mitzi, from that evening:

Pamamanhikan...

First of all, my apologies for not having posted anything new on this blog in ages. Mitzi and I just kept putting things off until the time I would be back in Bacolod and we could go sort out stuff together, and then we were all busy running around and stuff to actually do any blogging...

But anyhow...

One of the Filipino pre-wedding traditions is called the 'pamamanhikan', which is basically the formal meeting of the two families. Traditionally, the bride's family hosts this and it is during this occasion when the groom and his family formally requests for the hand of the daughter in marriage.

So it was that on the evening of Friday, January 12, 2007, my parents and I found ourselves at Mitzi's house for the pamamanhikan.

Clueless as we were -- first time for both Mitzi and I to do a 'pamamanhikan' ;) -- we were grateful that it was not an overly stiff, formal affair. In fact, it was quite casual. Mitzi's family (her mom, her sister Honey, Honey's daughter CC, lola Pen, tita Elsa, tito Bing and their daughter Kara were on hand) were very hospitable and we spent the evening mostly just chatting and enjoying a meal together. Towards the end of the evening, the "go / no-go" decision was handed to CC who was asked about me marrying her tita Mitzi and she gave her two thumbs up ("deal or no deal?" was the question asked of her).

The photo of CC giving her thumbs up is below. I will post some more photos from that evening in another blog entry. Gotta wrap up now since I am currently posting this from B&N and they're about to close... :P