Sorry I've been neglecting my blog, but ever since Bob and I got engaged on December 22, we've been running around for the wedding preparations and trying to keep up with our homework at school. Today is my last day:-)!!!, as it is for all of the Applied Linguistics students. I think Bob still has classes next week.
As for our wedding preparations, first Bob bought our rings: white gold with small diamonds, as you can see. Then we had to set the date, which took some thinking. As I think everyone knows, we choose April 7. Then I went to a huge market/mall place in Manila called Divasoria a couple of times and picked out a dress. They have dresses made with really nice cloth (they make some really nice material here) and embroidered for way less than you could get them in the US (or if you get one made with cheap cloth, it can cost as little as $50 at Divasoria, but I liked the good cloth:-)).
After that, we had some trouble applying for our marriage license. We travelled all the way to Bambang only to be told that we need written parental consent becasue I was under 25 at the time (I'm turning 25 tomorrow, by the way). When we got back to Manila, we had my Dad send one. Then Bob went back to the province with the form the next weekend only to be told that it needs to be notarized. They said that all they need is a signature from someone at the US Embassy in Manila. So then we went all the way to the Embassy, which is kind of far from were our apartments are, only to be told that they've never had someone bring one in, and that we can't have it notarized unless my parents are there. Finally, Bob decided to apply for the marriage license at the city hall were he is from and where people know him, so we went all the way back to the province again, and finally got the marriage license:-).
Then Bob asked one of his nieces to make our invitations, which saved us from having to go to an invitation printer, and I think they look really good:-). He just brought them back from the province after he went there this weekend.
Of course, that's only part of it. We've had to prepare many other things. Bob had done much of the planning and has gone to the province several times more than I have to make arrangements. I guess that's the problem with going to school 6 or 7 hours from where you'll get married.
Anyway, I suppose it's worse to have a family member getting married all the way across the world. I'm very excited that my Dad and my sister and her husband and their 2 1/2 year old son will be arriving on April 2!!!!:-) It will be great to see them!
