One "Deathly Hallow", please.

Our decision to go get Harry Potter 7 on its release day was so out-of-the-blue. We were sort of in a Potter-high-EQ business, but well, on the morning of July 21st, we couldn't keep our excitement to ourselves anymore and agreed to go get it in the afternoon. We figured that though the book is going to sell like hotcakes, we're pretty sure that there's going to be a hotcake for every Potter fan.

21 July 2007. Vincent busy
skimming HP7.

Off we went to the new Trinoma mall. We thought it wise to go there than to squirm our way through the more popular SM City -- Saturday being a mall day. We got lost inside that huge, ill-lighted mall for a while (it was our first time there), but finally managed to get into the nearest bookstore we spotted.

Seeing that bountiful table full of dominantly-yellow books in the middle of the store, we again had to compose ourselves and act normal! We're like, "Okey, calm down, cooperate and nobody gets hurt", as if there was a mob rushing through, when there's practically none. A young couple got to the table after us. The wife (we suppose) ordered her companion to go get the clean one. Deep inside, Vincent was so tempted to let out his unsolicited professional advice and tell her, "Lady, that's not the way to go", but thankfully, we just kept it to ourselves and that saved us from a lot of impending trouble ;-)

And so, when we've finally kept our adrenalin down to normal levels, we approached the table, carefully selected our copy and let our automatic librarian instincts overtake us: collate through the book and make sure that the copy we chose has complete pages (no thirty chapter ones!); inspect for torn leaves; make sure that the spine stitch secures all 700+ pages. Having done that (and a little peek), we mounted our invisible broomsticks and flew off in no time at all.

By the way, this book is our third acquisition ever as an engaged couple. The second being The Half-Blood Prince purchased just months ago by Vincent in Kuala Lumpur! Strange, strange couple. Hehehe.

Pre-Wedding Album

The aisle is waiting for us.

We never really had a pre-nup album. We are not into choreographed stuffs kasi. These we took using our trusty digicam ;-)

Cupcakes de Emma

Emma, Ninna and I drowned ourselves into "essential" girlie chats while we let alone Vincent as he struggled with his British phone pals the other day. It's been quite a while since I last caught up with them (they're Vincent's soon-to-be ex-officemates) and so seeing them during my recent visit to the Abrigo household was such a pleasant experience.

I was giving them updates about our wedding preps -- which was more of like a Q&A portion because frankly (I've no idea whether or not they noticed), I wouldn't know where to start, if not what to say, unless you ask me -- until Emma, being the most active interviewer in the room, queried about our souvenir ideas. I told her that we were planning on giving away a functional memoir, something that our guests will not only put on display to dust. And in the spirit of breakfast buffets, we're considering either a breakfast mug or a piece of cake on a small plate (platito) bearing our initials and the wedding date. The latter sent Emma the giggles and volunteered to bake cupcakes for the platito. "Kaya mo ba 100 cupcakes (Can you make a hundred)?", I then asked her. After an ecstatic yes!, she's officially in for the job. Wagi!

Now we really have to scout for custom-made platitos.

Wedding for dummies

This has got something to do with our very sincere we're-getting-married-for-the-first-time alibi. Besides being lousy gift-givers ourselves (a dilemma we both share, especially when we go out on a trip; it's not uncommon that we come home without bringing anything for everyone), we are really not into frills and embellishments. We both are not the event planner type. As long as the reason (maybe a person or just Vincent submitting a project proposal a minute before the deadline) and the food (a celebration is never a celebration if there's nothing to chow, at least that's what we think. hehehe) is there, tuloy ang ligaya (the party goes on)!

Given that premise, you now can at least picture how big of a leap this planning and coordinating for the wedding is for us. It's a good thing we're both librarians and we both agree that it's a plus for us. We need all the help we can get from all resources available to us, namely: people and books. We are practically working on our Big Day with camaraderie (padrino!), self-help references and recollections from friends' weddings tucked in our belt. So far so good though. Church and reception venue's been booked, wedding party's been 85% committed, our invite design and layout is almost through (it's all sweat, heart and one tendon cyst surgery down the line for Christine due to Photoshop® addiction), food tasting and negotiations for a prospective caterer is on the way. No wedding disasters in sight as of yet, and we are definitely not looking for one :)

HQ 745/L45 1997. Translation: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Wedding by Teddy Lenderman. Mr. Lenderman is our new best friend!