The year of the Fire Dog bids well for Joan and I, but nonetheless never a reason to be complacent with preparations. Our fears, worries, and panic about our upcoming wedding are rising at an alarming rate.
Five months to go...
Just before New Year 2006 we secured the pina cloths for myself, the best man, and the rest of the men in our immediate family. My mother was able to get discount from a supplier in Kalibo, but I felt a bit guilty after we saw how hard the weaving process is.I'll be sailing back to Aklan this February to get fitted by our local lady 'sastre' for my barong. She's been making my school uniforms back in my elementary and highschool years.
The entourage has been assembled, and we've rounded up seven of the twelve principal sponsors since we started personally inviting them during the Christmas holidays. No one refused, mercifully (but it's never in our culture to refuse to be ninongs and ninangs, right?).
We're three ninongs and two ninangs shy of completing the entourage and, thus, finalizing the invitation.
Why the delay? Blame it on my hesitation: first, I fear my prospective ninang/ninong won't even remember me, and; second, I worry to no end about the implications of getting a specific person as our sponsor. Not that I am being too picky, but these people are going to be part of our lives forever.
Just the same, though, I must decide fast -- there are invitations awaiting final layout and printing.
The last batch of souvenirs are in. It's time to dress them up. Yey!
A source of potential heart-attack is our caterer, which has been going through some employee-employer turbulence these past months. They lost two account executives, both handling our account, since we booked last October 2005. The first was suspected of estafa, and the second resigned after working for barely two months.
We have yet to meet the third, and hopefully the last, account executive whom we will be working with. It gets kind of tiring having to familiarize yourself over again with a person, however professional they may be.
