Wedding Preparations

Are you dreaming of the perfect wedding? 

Me, I'm excited for everyone who's getting married.  I also have this feeling that God has been strategically placing all these friends around me who are connected to all preparations and requirements that have to do with weddings. lol.

Wedding Event Planner, Wedding Give-aways and Wedding Invitations - My Little Craft

For example, my friend Bel Mojica and her partners have a cozy little shop that brides would just love.  It's called My Little Craft Bridal Boutique and they offer wedding supplies/event planning for all your wedding needs.

Sample invitation from CreativePrints, one of My Little Craft's partner stores

Another invitation from  CreativePrints

Custom-made wedding cords from Islas Aromaticas, another partner store

Another heirloom wedding cord from Islas Aromaticas

 You can drop by My Little Craft Bridal Boutique at Unit D, G/F Magnitude Bldg., 186 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave., QC. or call 440-3659.

Wedding Photographer - Foreverday Photography

One of the most important things you need to think about would be your wedding photographer.   My friend Ching and her passionate and talented photographer hubby Gail  would gladly document that special day for you.  Gail is one of THE Pat Dy's apprentice wedding photographers. More than that though, he's skilled, extremely nice, and very professional to deal with. You can be sure your wedding will be most beautifully photographed.

Gail captures the beauty...

...the love...

...and the fun of weddings.

Check out more of his photos in Foreveryday Photography or add Foreveryday on Facebook.

Wedding Singer - Phoebe Bitoon

Then there's Gail's sister Phoebe who is just an awesome jazz and anything-romantic singer.  This pretty and petite songstress will capture your heart I'm sure.  You just have to listen.

Engagement/Wedding Rings - Glitz of Bitz

It seems like the whole Bitoon family is into weddings.  Not only is Gail and Phoebe's dad a pastor, their Mom also makes the most beautiful engagement and wedding rings.  You can probably have similar pieces made, but I'm sure they'll cost more than what Tita Portia Bitoon is offering.  You can contact Glitz of Bitz through Tita Portia's facebook page.

blue sapphire, diamonds, and white gold

two-tone diamonds eternity rings in 14k white gold

Wedding Cake - Sweet Afters

Need a gorgeous wedding cake?  Try Sweet Afters by Ayee Venida, my friend Ven's sister.  Ayee launched her first wedding cake during Ven's wedding, and it was a hit.  Sweet Afters also makes the cutest cakes and cupcakes for birthdays, baby showers, and other events. You can contact Sweet Afters at sweetafters8@gmail.com

Red Roses Fondant Cake

Groom - looks like he's all dressed up...

LOL. I'm sorry Echo. You're as beautiful as a wedding day, but God is not finished with me yet! Harhar.

Feel free to comment away if you know any other people to contact for weddings...it might be handy for the future :D

Happy wedding thoughts everyone!

So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.- Matthew 19:6

Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires. - Solomon 2:7

How do I know if it's love?

What is love?  It's Valentine's Day and couples everywhere are probably saying "I love you" to their special someones right at this moment.  I wonder what they mean by "love".  We hear that love is blind, love is like a rosary full of mysteries, love takes time to heal if you hurt so much...

What is love for you?  Have you ever said I love you to someone? Are you confused about the meaning of love?  How do you know if  your love is real?  Bible verses contain much wisdom about love. Read these and you'll see that much of what we want out of love and a great love is written  in the Bible.



My Lover is mine and I am his. - Song of Solomon 2:16




So Jacob worked seven years to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days. - Genesis 29:20

Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires. - Song of Solomon 8:4

Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover? Under the apple tree I roused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who was in labor gave you birth. Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned. - Song of Solomon 8:5-7




And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. -1 John 4:16

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. - 1 John 4:19-20

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. - Proverbs 17:17 

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. - John 15:12-13

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. - Leviticus 19:18

Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs. – Proverbs 10:12

For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her.  -Ephesians 5:25


however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. - Ephesians 5:33


Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God - 1 John 4:7

After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

   “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”

   “Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him. - John 21:15

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. - Romans 5:8

The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." - Mark 12:31

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; - Romans 12:9

Above all hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.- 1 Peter 4:8

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!  1 Corinthians 13:1-8

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13:13

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.  We love, because he first loved us. - 1 John 4:18-19

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8

Aren't these love bible verses beautiful?  I pray that everyone finds the Greatest Love of All Today (and no, it's not learning to love yourself).  Happy love day to everyone! :) 

Of love, little girls, grandfathers, and fishball

I was buying fishball when this cute little girl sidled up beside me with her lolo in tow. She was asking him to buy her fishball too. Everyone (one girl -- that's me -- and 5 men) around that fishball stand was looking at the little girl and smiling.  I felt that no other face could look at that little girl with more love than her grandfather. For a while, it seemed as if the world had stopped. There were no rushing cars and loud horns; no litter on the streets and people hurrying to get home.  It was only that little girl and her lolo waiting for the fishball, while the rest of us remembered how simple and beautiful and in love we could be.  

The Naming

I fancy myself to be a writer.  There’s a marketplace out there teeming with opportunities for people like me.  It’s a creative process to shove what I am in the background and focus on the ones that would sell:  the techie, the businesswoman, the analyst.  I never thought I had them in me.  I look at my simulacra with wonder and ask them, “Where did you spring from?”  They’ve expanded what I am, and I greet each one like someone I’ve met for the very first time.  There are times that I enjoy playing with the various aspects of my persona.  I delight that I can take on new forms. It’s my dream to cosplay strong women characters with super powers and long hair.  I just never thought I would don the garb of a techie-guru-slash-businesswoman of sorts.  It can be fun, but today I am saturated.  And I see myself for what I really am:  a poser; a jack of all trades, master of none.

Kazuo Inamori, the founder of Kyocera and other highly successful enterprises says that one secret to success is to focus on doing one thing well.  He believes that at the heart of everything is that one truth that we’re all searching for.  I haven’t thought about it enough to believe what he believes.  But oh, how I long for that one truth in me to be free.  I don’t want to be just a writer.  I want to be named.  And this does not mean something as shallow as getting a by-line or gaining recognition.  I want to be able to write as naturally as a caterpillar spins herself into a cocoon, as languidly as a cat cradled by the afternoon sun, as bravely as a woman warrior arms herself for battle.

Sometimes, in my simulated writings, I see vestiges of who I am.  In titles like On Love Letters and VoIP and in the humor which no one except my editor will probably read. How does one weave herself completely into work?  How does one show who she really is in absolutely everything she has to do?   When inspired writing comes, is it okay to hush every other voice inside you?  They speak in whispers, all buzzing at the same time like students waiting for the professor to say something.  Are they talking to me? Are they me?

Then You come.  And You tell me You are my Truth, my Comfort and Defender, the Lover of my soul.  I can be what I am in You.  Some of my questions remain, but the turmoil has passed.

I have been named.