be prepared to marry a mexican...

with all the bureaucracy and paperwork involved in getting married...jeez. it's no wonder couples run on to vegas!

just to give you a rundown of all the red tape, here is what i have to present at the civil registrar's office in cuernavaca:

• original and 3 copies of my birth certificate with the proper stamp or seal of the issuing authority of the country of origin OR legalized by the mexican embassy in the issuing country. documents must be translated into spanish by the officially designated translator of the municipality of cuernavaca.

• original and 3 copies of the authorization to contract marriage issued by the national institute of migration.

• original and 3 copies of my passport.

• original and 3 copies of my actual status in the country (as of now, tourist).

PLUS!!!

• blood tests for sexually transmitted diseases and blood type.

• medical certificate from an approved hospital or health center confirming health (and once you have this certificate, it's only valid 15 days, so rush rush!)

• copy of the id's of all the witnesses (4).

• certificate of attendance to a family planning course.

• all documents have to be presented with 8 days minimun in order to reserve a date for marriage.

do you have a headache yet after reading all that??? i hope not because there is more still...

to get the authorization from the national institute of migration, they need:

• original and copy of the application form signed and approved.

• original and copy of my passport and all pages.

• copy of my migratory card.

• original and 2 copies of the official receipt of payment for migratory services.

• a letter signed by both of us in which we declare that we have no legal impediment to contract marriage, and to indicate when and where we plan to contract marriage.

sigh. i don't even have the energy to write anything more after all that.

if you ever plan to getting married in mexico to a mexican, check out these sites for the exact information:

registro civil cuernavaca
instituto nacional de migracion

my chair obsession

as most other brides-to-be, i have my fair share of bookmarked "wedding websites" that i refer to now and then. but now i am starting to think that their sole purpose of existence is information overload. usually i end up more confused than when i started, and no where near the original idea i had to begin with.

case in point today: CHAIRS. have you really thought about the variety of chair styles that exist? i know, usually we don't pay much attention, but trust me, when the time comes to make a choice between this or that one, you'll start to care ;)

what confused me the most is that there were tons of photos with ideas, but no names for the chairs. so how exactly was i supposed to tell the banquet people which chair i specifically wanted???

thus, my afternoon long search on google images for all sorts of chairs. we'll stick to the typical wedding ones...




to begin with, let's start with the most popular chiavari chair, or better known as the tiffany chair. or sometimes spelled as the chivari chair. usually comes in all colors, including gold and silver for those metallic occasions.









then there is the chateau chair (and reason for my search) also available in all colors, with or without integrated padding.










and of course the typical outdoor folding chair. makes you think about spring garden weddings for some reason.









this one i had never heard of; the napoleon chair. i think i like this one the best though.










and to finish up my chair obsession for the day, here is the no name chair. i call it that because it was filed under the chiavari chairs, but is obviously different. i can find out if you want though.









thankfully, the people at Qingdao Aoxin Wood Industry Co., Ltd. helped me out by being the only company that popped up on a google search to have all these items on hand with exact descriptions and labels to clear up my confusion. You can check out their website here in case you are interested in buying wholesale furniture for events. and if you do buy, let me know. i figure my four years experience buying from china just may help you out ;)

so now the question remains...what will my caterer think when i call up demanding napoleon banquet chairs?

*thanks to my dear friend S. who listened to my chair rant!*

**all photos belong to Qingdao Aoxin Wood Industry Co., Ltd.**

hot off the press and we're here

May 29 - 1:32pm - Chiconcuac, Morelos

we are finally in mexico lindo y querido!!! it seems the last two months of planning went by so fast and now we are here and can breathe a sigh of relief! SIGH

we left manila a little sad of course...it's hard to leave mom behind, but i know i'll see her soon but for the first time in my life, it really felt like i was leaving home. it's so bizarre actually. even though i've been roaming around for a while now, this move is really a move. i'm making a new home elsewhere!

but anyway, i'm happy to be here and to start getting more wedding planning scheduled in! we hauled the invitations across the ocean with us (we LOVE LOVE LOVE them by the way!) as well as the little regalos or give-aways. and! i also got the material for my veil heehee!

this weekend we have a boda, so i'm sure that will help with more ideas and things to think about over the next few weeks!

we are happy to be home, so watch out for more posts now that i can concentrate and dedicate time to all the wedding ideas and planning!!! yay!

besos!

one step further

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May 18 - 7:51pm - Manila

after a very eventful departure from shanghai (overweight, overweight, and more overweight - sigh), we finally made it back to manila. we've spent the last couple of days really winding down and letting go of all the stress of packing and moving. it's not over yet, we still have one more leg - the journey across the pacific - but at least we still have bout a week to enjoy being in the tropics.

finally being here i can get back to a lot of the wedding details that i have put off over the last few weeks. there is a lot of paperwork and certificates that i need to get, but i won't bore you with that info. we are really excited about two other things though!

1. we pick up the invitations on friday!
2. we chose the wedding favors today - a little recuerdo for the guests of the philippines.

i'm so anxious already to get the invites - the stress is getting to me. i actually have nightmares about them. the other night i woke up with palpitations because all the paper it was printed on was glittery pink! aaarrrgggghhhhh!

aside from that, i'm sure the week is going to fly by and we will be off before we know it. i just hope i'm able to squeeze a round of golf in between...

besos!

gigil!

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April 18 - 1:04pm - Shanghai

the weather in shanghai is all over the place. one day it's 30 degrees out and the next it's back down to 12. this is really messing with my wardrobe, especially since i'm packing and unpacking our winter clothes constantly. in a week we won't have a choice since the movers will come to pack everything up and we'll be left with just a few basics...

rodrigo and i are getting really anxious to go already...sometimes we feel like we have one foot here, and the other already in mexico, and that is preventing us from getting anything productive done...hahaha

can i just say that i am getting really excited about the wedding!!! hahaha as if you couldn't tell...some friends are already talking hotel bookings and flight reservations, and i'm getting really GIGIL yehay!!! i love you girls!!!

this weekend is shanghai F1...so we are going to see our last live race...one of the many things we'll miss about living here...

be back soon...

besos!

don't forget china

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April 5 - 3:27pm - Shanghai

over the last couple of weeks, rodrigo and i have been pondering over some of the things we are going to miss about shanghai...and of course there are things that we are also going to forget in a second (or better said, things that we don't really want to remember ). our friends who live in shanghai will probably understand what i mean

anyway, thinking it over, we realized that there is a lot we can take advantage of being in china that will definitely help us make our wedding day unique and really, for lack of a better word, US.

chinese calligraphy is so beautiful and we were thinking of ways of how to incorporate it into the wedding, while at the same time not going overboard. well, yesterday, we finally 'executed' our idea and it came out perfectly! so we are really excited and so anxious to see how it will look and what you all will think...heehee

so...that was one more item ticked off the list of things to get done before we leave! time is flying by and before we know it, november will be around the corner. and there is so much to do yet!

by some miracle, rodrigo is in the kitchen (just kidding gordo! ) cooking up our lazy sunday afternoon late lunch, so i'm going to join him with a glass of wine and get ready for the malaysian grand prix! yay!

besos!

too busy

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March 31 - 7:40pm - Shanghai

i've spent the whole week dealing with moving agencies and their quotes to get our stuff across the pacific, so alas, not much time left for wedding planning.

but i'm waiting on some samples to arrive tomorrow. hopefully they will help me solve the 'illumination' issue i have to deal with, since dinner is out in the garden...we shall see.

aside from that,i can't think of much else that i have done the last few days that has to do with the wedding.

OH! wait, i remember (and this has everything to do with planning) - i started my workout routine again! hahaha. i MUST fit into the dress! i just remembered cause as i sit here typing, my triceps are killing me...uff.

i'm going to whip something up for dinner. be back soon...

besos!

our big move back

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March 21 - 2:14pm - Shanghai

i may as well start with the BIG news: we are moving back to MEXICO! crazy, huh? :O after giving it A LOT of thought, we have decided our adventure IN china (not with china) must come to an end for now...

so there you go...if you thought i didn't have enough piled on my plate, now i have to deal with packing up our lives and shipping it across the world. hahaha but i'm not complaining, in fact, it's going to be much easier to plan this wedding now that i don't have to do it across the pacific.

this last week we went to yiwu, about 3 hours from shanghai. we bought all sorts of fun stuff to decorate the reception. i'm excited about it and i want to get there already to see how it will look.

our printer FINALLY sent us the first proof of the invitation. i was beginning to worry we were going to have to find another printer. but the design she presented is actually perfect, we love it, and aside from the necessary minor changes, it's pretty much what we wanted. so we hope to get those printed soon and mail them by end of June maybe...

did you notice that we added a gift page to the website? we signed up for registries at pottery barn and at el palacio de hierro. we figured 2 different places gives people a choice, and really for those of you that are internet savvy, it will be easy to make the purchase online if you don't have physical access to the store...

so that was my week pretty much...it's rainy saturday in shanghai (big surprise), so we are going to sit on the couch, snuggle up, and pop in a DVD.

besos!

who?

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March 12 - 9:27pm - Shanghai

rainy, icky day in shanghai - so i've been sitting at my desk ALL day long and i think i'm pretty much cross-eyed at this point.

i haven't stopped with the tedious task of looking through the whole guest list, revising one name after another, cutting some out ( sorry!!!), adding others (lucky you!). (sigh). it's been a long process. but hey, i guess every couple goes through this 'guest list dilemma'...

the second part to it is how to address the guests! there must exist some middle ground somewhere between too traditional and too ultra modern. i just haven't found that place yet. how do you make sure the invitation doesn't sound either like some stuffy medieval event OR a casual 'hey, come hang out at my place' thing?

hahahaha! these are my issues as of late. but don't judge me when you get your invitation ok!? i'm trying to find a happy medium here!

i'm sure if you are reading this you probably got my 'request' to send me your most updated mailing address. sorry! but with facebook, everything is much easier nowadays, right? but at the same time it's also much more difficult to keep some things out of the loop, oops!

aside from that, i heard from my caterer, which has absolutely thrilled me because her ideas are great and her quote was perfect. so i'm really excited about the food and how it'll be prepared and served and i really think everyone is going to enjoy it. at least i hope so.

so that's it for tonight. rodrigo is out at some meetings, so i'm going to go sit on the couch with my glass of wine and munch on something alone. boo hoo.

besos!

things to do

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March 10 - 11:44pm - Shanghai

wow...last week was a crazy work week for me, so i really didn't get much wedding stuff done at all, including updating this little blog. i was out traveling southern china - no, not for fun - visiting factories and suppliers all day long...

so this week i've made myself a to-do list that involves doing as much wedding stuff as i can handle. now it's a matter of where to begin, although i was able to get some done today.

i finally emailed my caterer to start working on our menu. we need to finally agree on the food and costs so we can plan and budget all that in...so i'll be waiting to hear what they say over the next couple of days.

we are also thinking of unique decorations and what fun stuff we can find in china for the big day. that will save us on some of the costs! not everyone has the advantage to buy direct from factories, so might as well take advantage, right?! so over the next few days maybe we'll head out and visit some suppliers...

also, we are narrowing our options for registries! we finally decided it may be a good idea to register somewhere, so look out for that page on this site soon where i'll post the links to where we are registered.

hmmm, i think that is all we did today. we just got home from a yummy thai dinner and i'm ready for bed - (yawn) -

besos!

where to stay

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February 27 - 12:25am - Shanghai

i found the websites to other hotels in chiconcuac, so i'm happy to be able to add more info to the accommodation page for everyone...check out those links.

i've been talking to rodrigo about where we think guests will stay and what advice we can give them...hmm. ultimately it's up to you...but we were thinking:

if you are just staying for the weekend, it would be ideal to stay in chiconcuac...to be close to the church and the reception and not have to worry about transportation...

however, if you are coming for more than that, a couple of days ahead, staying in cuernavaca is probably a much better option, simply because there will be more things to do - shops, restaurants, etc...

chiconcuac is really tranquil, which is what we love about it...so some of you may want that r&r even if you are staying more than the weekend. and if you really need to get out and do something, i guess 15kms really isn't that bad of a taxi ride or a drive, if you rented a car.

i'm sure you'll figure it out! in the meantime, it's waaaaay past my bedtime.

besos!

the beginning

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February 25 - 8:32pm - Shanghai

uuuuffff! i just got done trying update this website with more photos and info for guests...took me forever to figure out the photos, so i hope they are appreciated

anyway, so the idea came about to write some sort of a blog on here to let you know how the planning is coming along AND since i'm doing most of my planning from 10,000 miles away, i'm never that far from my computer, so i thought it wouldn't be too hard to keep this updated. we'll see how that goes...hmm.

so anyway, that is it for tonight. after battling with linking images, i'm done for now. rodrigo is ALREADY rolling his eyes at my constant whines for help. heehee =)

besos!