Our friend and regular Wedding Essentials contributor, accessories-designer/crafter Ming Ong has a new collection under her Obra line called “Sakura”, inspired by the beautiful cherry blossoms she saw in bloom on a trip to Japan early this year.

Sakura a.k.a. cherry blossoms only bloom once a year, in spring, and they only stay in bloom for a week.

Ming is known for crafting her unique accessories by hand and for the Sakura collection, she uses thin acrylic sheets, a mix of fresh water and synthetic stones, velvet ribbons and of course her trademark copper wires. The accessories pictured below are varied styles of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, and hair clips.

She successfully launched the collection at last weekend’s Urban Bazaar in Rockwell and you can avail of the pieces at Backstage (Serendra) and online via her website. I think these would make great accessories for a Japanese-themed wedding or you can also get them as gifts for your bridesmaids. And because Ming makes everything by hand, you can even ask her to customize them for you! (Oooh, won’t a bouquet of her hand-made sakura look fantastic? Just an idea.) Shoot her an email or send her an sms at +63917-804-ming.

Ming Ong’s Kathang Kamay
website: http://mingkathangkamay.multiply.com
mobile: +63917-804-ming
email: obraniming@yahoo.com

Thanks to Luis K., I’m currently addicted to watching episodes of Target: Women, this hilarious web show that analyzes and, for the most part, pokes fun at everything women ’round the world obsess over. You know, pressing concerns like chocolate, diets, Botox, yogurt, Twilight, and — you guessed it — weddings. Check out the video below and see what some women choose to go through just to have the perfect nuptials of their dreams.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, wedding music doesn’t always have to be of the tired, “near, far, wherever you are” variety. In fact, these days you can even customize your ceremony music with a hipper, wittier playlist that’s reflective of your personalities. Take the JK Wedding March video I posted sometime ago as an example.

Having said that, I thought I’d provide you with a smattering of alternative songs that you can rock out to when you say your “I Do’s”. I‘ve also written down suggested uses for each song but go ahead and mix & match – have a fast song for your first dance, sing a duet during the exchange of vows — it’s always the unexpected little twists that make each wedding stand out from the rest.

Love Will Keep Us Together (Nickelback)

I will, be there to share forever
Love will keep us together
I said it before and I’ll say it again
While others pretend
I need you now and I need you then
Just stop, ’cause I really love you

Granted, Captain & Tenille’s sunshiny version of this Neil Sedaka song is a classic but Aussie rock band Nickelback gives it a cool, modern edge you & your guests won’t be able to resist bobbing your heads to.

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Play during: your first dance, table-hopping

Real Love (Regina Spektor)

From this moment on I know
Exactly where my life will go
Seems that all I really was doing
Was waiting for love

This is a beautiful, almost haunting version of John Lennon’s Real Love as interpreted by singer-songwriter and pianist Regina Spektor. I can almost imagine a bride walking down the aisle as the song gently plays in the background.

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Play during: bride’s entrance, exchange of vows, first dance

The Luckiest (Ben Folds)

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know
That I am
I am
The luckiest

One of musical genius Ben Folds’ loveliest, underappreciated gems is this earnest ode to a loved one. “I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you” just about says it all.

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Play during: bride’s entrance, first dance

I Was Made For You (She & Him)

‘Cause I have been waitin’ for a long, long time
For a boy like you
I won’t be waitin’ any more cause I know
Baby, baby
I was made for you

Indie singer-songwriter M. Ward & actress Zooey “hipster poster girl” Deschanel’s project band She & Him’s charming pop love song sounds like it came straight from the sixties. The bouncy melody and Deschanel’s joyful vocals are guaranteed to make your guests head to the dance floor.

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Play during: first dance, reception

Falling Slowly (The Frames)

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We’ve still got time…
Falling slowly sing your melody
I’ll sing along

The tender, Academy-Award-winning acoustic duet by Glenn Hansard & Marketa Irglova was made famous by the movie Once. This is a slightly more upbeat version as interpreted by the Frames, Hansard’s band.

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Play during: first dance, reception

Young Folks (The Kooks)

I can tell there’s something goin’ on
hours seems to disappear
everyone is leaving, i’m still with you
It doesn’t matter what we do
where we are going too
we can stick around and see this night through

I’m sure most of you are by now, familiar with the popular and catchy Peter, Bjorn & John hipster anthem “Young Folks”. This is the Kooks’ more laid-back version and is a cool duet to sing together or dance to.

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Play during: first dance, reception

How Deep Is Your Love (The Bird & The Bee)

I believe in you
You know the door to my very soul
Youre the light in my deepest darkest hour
You’re my saviour when I fall

Yes, it’s that one by the Bee Gees. But before you turn up your nose on me, you *must* listen to this breathtaking version by The Bird and the Bee.

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Play during: bride’s entrance, first dance, reception

Love You Madly (CAKE)

I don’t want to doubt you
Know everything about you
I don’t want to sit across the table from you
Wishing I could run
I want to love you madly
I want to love you now

This is an awesome, feel-good love song by alternative rock band CAKE with a crazy funk-pop vibe that’s guaranteed to get everyone on their feet.

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Play during: first dance, reception

The Way I Am (Ingrid Michaelson)

If you are chilly, here take my sweater.
Your head is aching, I’ll make it better.
Cause I love the way you call me baby.
And you take me the way I am.

The beauty of this song lies in the sweet, honest lyrics about growing old with a loved one (“I’d buy you Rogaine when you start losing all your hair, Sew on patches to all you tear” – now that just makes me cry), in the snappy, clap-your-hands beat and simple, bare-bones musical accompaniment, and in Ingrid Michaelson’s warm, pillow-soft vocals.

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Play during: first dance, reception

Love Me Like The World Is Ending (Ben Lee)

This is the first day of the future
And all I want is you
I wear a pair of socks you left here
And I know, I know, I know nobody can ever fill your shoes.

I absolutely can’t make a playlist without indie rock poster boy Ben Lee in it and in this song here, aptly enough he makes a plea for everlasting love with an infectious, almost-anthemic pop song that radiates with joy, warmth, and positivity. Isn’t that how all wedding music should be?

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Play during: recessional, first dance, reception

Love Among The Stars (The Cherry Orchard)

A love like ours was meant to be…and all these stars shine just for you and me
This is how it should be, you and me yes you and me
Love among the stars, love among the stars

If the sugary lyrics I quoted above doesn’t make your heart melt, then maybe the breezy, summery boy/girl vocal harmonies and Bacharach-influenced pop orchestrations will. It’s just the right amount of sappy, sweet but not cloying.

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Play during: first dance, reception

More to follow next week!

~ Cynthia

Download the tracks at

Registration is free and you get 25 downloads upon signup at no cost.

Aside from weddings (and countless other stuff), another thing Marbee & I have in common is our love of, tadah! EATING. AND trying out new restaurants — the further away from the malls, the more exciting actually. I’m sure a lot of you feel the same way, what with all these new restos popping up in every nook & cranny of the metro. And now, I am about to show you one of my (not-so)-recent “discoveries” in the QC area.

Despite living roughly 7 minutes away from it, I only came to know about Adarna Food & Culture in August of 2008 via my friend Earnest Zabala. She told me that they served Filipino Heirloom food… heirloom food? Oooh. I was intrigued. But before we get into the, ahem, meat of this blog entry, let’s talk about the setting first.

You can find Adarna along Kalayaan Avenue in Quezon City, just a stone’s throw from the Quezon Memorial Circle. Enter the courtyard garden and you get the feeling that you’ve just been invited inside a warm & cozy Filipino ancestral home somewhere in a far-off province. Once you set foot inside the restaurant, you are greeted with a vast, and I mean vast, collection of assorted knick-knacks and memorabilia including an antique, pre-war piano that will make your mind wander and wonder about those days when life was less complicated.

The first time I was in Adarna, the first thing I asked was if the place can serve as a venue for wedding parties, be they engagement dinners or wedding receptions. Good news dear readers, the answer is yes. Chef Giney Villar was kind enough to show us around and I saw that the main dining area along with the adjacent lanai and courtyard can house a party of around 75 to maybe 100 people. They also have a smaller, private function room that can house a group of 25 or so. I think the nice thing about having your wedding here is that the experience will definitely be more homey & intimate than, say, holding it in a hotel ballroom.

But even without a big party to plan, you can always go to Adarna for the food (which is what my husband & I have been doing for the past year). In fact almost all our project meetings, small gatherings, and catch-up sessions with friends are held there and don’t think we go just for the ambience (and free wi-fi!), oh no no no.

Clockwise from top left (All photos except that of the Kesong Puti & Langka Fry and Banana Peanut Rolls are c/o Adarna’s Multiply site):
1) Adobo Batangas (P176), slow-cooked pork in flavorful adobo sauce. (I don’t eat pork at all… until I met this dish.)
2) Rich and chunky beef Kare-Kare (P370) & Adarna’s take on the Bicol Express
3) Roasted Pepper Soup (P163) (A smoky global Pinoy soup made from grilled bell peppers topped with crisp grieben and parsley) and Sigarillas Salad (P140) (Light and refreshing winged beans, onion and tomato dressed in a citrus vinaigrette and sprinkled with Ilocano bagnet bits)
4) Kesong Puti & Langka Fry (P86) (Malolos, Bulacan carabao cheese and home-sweetened langka in a crisp wrapper with mango cream sauce) and Banana Peanut Rolls (P63) (Ripe saba banana with roasted peanut cream in a crisp wrapper drizzled with old fashioned caramelo sauce)

*You have to forgive me for not having enough photos of the glorious food, my camera takes a back seat automatically once they’re served. The following are lifted from the feature by ClicktheCity.

Food you cannot NOT order (or try at least once):
1) Piassok (P304) (An Exotic Sulu dish of beef chunks cooked slowly in smoked coconut cream and ten spices – buttered, grilled and sliced just before serving.) My favorite thing to eat here, the beef is slow cooked until tender – so tender in fact that the meat just falls off when you pierce it with a fork.
2) Ang Morena (P67.20) (Subtly-flavored chilled coffee flan with coffee syrup and cashew nuts served in a Carnival coupe). My husband’s favorite, imagine a silky coffee-laced leche flan that melts in your mouth. The chopped cashews on top provide just the right amount of texture and balance to the flan’s sweetness.
3) Felicidad (P120) (A special cold luxurious drink made from eggs, cream and milk with a splash of rhum and vanilla) — just like a native eggnog, lip-smackingly sweet and milky.

Adarna Food and Culture
119 Kalayaan Avenue Diliman, Quezon City
See the MENU

What do you get when two advertising industry writers fall in love and decide to get married? Why a wedding chock-full of creative, personal touches and lots & lots of PAPER of course! Pardon the type-casting but isn’t paper (apart from pen) supposed to be a writer’s best pal?

When Dino Ocampo, a friend & colleague back from when I worked in the industry, mentioned that he was to settle down with fellow creative Pia Roxas, I knew their wedding was going to be anything but cookie cutter. With the help of stylist Candy Reyes, they managed to infuse their wedding with elements that reflected their personal fancies – a shared love for travel, diving, photography, curios, and of course, writing. What struck me most about the decor is the predominance of paper elements – quite appropriate for a marriage between two people who weave words for a living, yes? – so that’s what I chose to feature here:

Dino Ocampo & Pia Roxas' wedding

Clockwise from left:
1/2. Custom postcards featuring their photography were handed out for guests to write messages on (what a great idea!)
3. Instead of bouquets, the bride her entourage carried bags with a “paper flower” on top.
4. Huge paper flowers made by hand by an urban poor community.

Dino Ocampo & Pia Roxas's wedding

Clockwise from left:
1. Paper flowers abloom all over the tables in the reception area.
2. Paper bag luminaries light the path to and from the garden.
3. Another shot of the guest postcards.
4. Folded paper hats & stars printed with the couple’s writings for guests to take home.

Read more about their wedding in an upcoming issue of Wedding Essentials magazine. They also have a wedding blog filled with comprehensive wedding preparation step-by-step photos and tips [here].

It’s no secret that freelance writer Chinggay Labrador is a very good word-weaver, after all she’s the one responsible for making most of the Dream Themes come to life on the pages of Wedding Essentials magazine. But did you know that she makes perfectly wonderful, melts-in-your-mouth and oozing-with-chocolatey-goodness chocolate-chip brownies? She calls them Superfudge — yup, after the beloved Judy Blume book — and Superfudge-y they truly are:

Chinggay doesn’t put nuts in her brownies because she wants to keep them pure & simple and I can’t agree more. Being a chocoholic myself, I know how the presence of nuts can interfere with the chocolate-savoring experience and I assure you that none of that interference ever happens here. All you will taste is layer upon layer of deep, rich chocolate which is how it should always be. I still remember the first time she brought a tupperware of these goodies for me & another friend to taste — they were so good we completely forgot what we were talking about before she took them out. Needless to say, we finished them all before you can even say “Superfudge!”

If you’re racking your brains for something premium and homemade to give as gifts (these would make great gifts for your sponsors and/or bridal party actually) or to serve at bridal showers and engagement parties, I would suggest you check out Chinggay’s brownies. She sells them for P380/pan; they come in 2×2 squares and a pan contains 8 pieces. You may contact her directly at chinggaylabrador@yahoo.com or via her mobile 0917-8111034.

In fudge we trust,
Cynthia

I love looking at wedding invitations — don’t you? Everytime I receive one  I take time to savor the experience of opening it, to read every single word down to the punctuation marks, because having been a bride myself, I know how much thought goes into the production of that little (in some cases, big) piece of card stock.  And since you’re here reading this blog, I’m sure you’re on the lookout for invitation ideas so I’ve compiled a few photos of invites  – some I received, some I just found on the web — that will hopefully inspire you to be imaginative and inventive with your own.

J & Cat Reyes' invitation set

This pretty pomelo pink & brown invitation suite was designed by my friend J Lucas Reyes for his & his wife Cat Magsaysay’s wedding in January of this year. When closed, their names are visible through a tulip-shaped die-cut window on the cover. They also painstakingly folded hundreds of origami cranes that served as table decor and favors for the guests. The tulip and crane images were predominant in all their wedding paraphernalia, from the misalettes to place cards and gift tags.

Carlo & Niña Herman's Invitation

Graphic designers Carlo Herman & Niña Villa (whose beautiful wedding was featured in the January-June 2009 issue of WE) invited guests to their celebration in style via an elegant loose-leaf invitation set in white & silvery-gray that they designed themselves. Each card has a different bird motif design at the back in the same color scheme. The invite set came in the post nicely packaged in a taupe felt paper inner envelope that was enclosed in a translucent glassine outer wrapper.

Calvin & Evangeline Bauzon's Christmas wedding invite

My brother Calvin and his bride Evangeline Lazam’s Christmas-themed wedding was in December last year. Evangeline walked down the aisle carrying a bouquet of white poinsettias so I designed their burgundy, chartreuse & cream wedding invite with the flower as the main focal point. Everything is contained neatly in a 2-fold folder and a wraparound “belt” (special thanks to Ghia of The Write Impression for the suggestion) that has the same poinsettia image printed in a repeating pattern along with verses from a poem the bride, a writer, wrote for my brother.

Wedding invitation for Sarah Meier & Banjo Albano by Inksurge

This jaw-dropping wedding invitation by my friends Rex & Joyce who make up the cutting-edge design duo Inksurge caught my eye as I was surfing the net one time. The design is an original  graphic insignia that was inspired by the architecture of Caleruega church and was custom-made for the Bohemian-themed wedding of model Sarah Meier and Banjo Albano. You can see more photos of the invite on their website, under “shots >> print >> Banjo & Sarah wedding invite“. (Inksurge also designed a fictional wedding invite for Johnny Depp & Vanessa Paradis in WE’s Jan-June 2008 issue).

Wedding invitation for Ian & Pat Magbanua by Electrolychee

Here is an unconventional and very original wedding invitation in the form of illustrated postcards created by Marcus & Bru, aka designer couple Electrolychee, for their friends Ian & Pat Magbanua. According to Bru, Ian is with the electronica band Drip and is a volkswagen beetle aficionado while Pat loves to scuba and enjoys their out-of-town drives so these character traits are reflected in the colorful, whimsical illustrations on the cards. You can see more photos of the set on their website. (Electrolychee designed a fictional wedding invite for Gavin Rossdale & Gwen Stefani in WE’s Jan-June 2008 issue).

Karl & Mimi de Leon's "Sun & Sand" wedding invitation

And last but not the least, a wedding invitation for the wedding photo industry’s Brangelina, Mimi and Karl’s beach wedding in October of last year and I had the honor (and pleasure) of designing it for this couple I admire. The simple, no-frills design consisted of their names in a large, legible but wedding-y typeface and a repeating pattern made up of images of little sea creatures, all in yellow & grey which was their wedding theme. It looked delicious once printed in letterpress (tip – go for letterpress if your budget allows it!). The motif was carried out throughout all the elements in the wedding, as you will see in these photos on their blog.

That’s all for now. Happy inviting!

~ Cynthia

Here’s a partial list of outlets where you can buy the new issue of WE, =) Thanks to our circulation head Sandy Cotoco for this information

Gold Mag Connecticut
Shell Oasis Greenhills
National Book Store Trinoma
Tamayo’s Wedding Store SM Mall of Asia
PowerBooks Mall of Asia
Fully Booked Mall of Asia
Books for Less Mall of Asia
PowerBooks Ermita Midtown
Holland Tulips Mall of Asia
Fully Booked Greenhills
Abacus Filinvest/ Ayala Alabang
National Book Store Greenbelt
National Book Store Petron Square Bel Aire
National Book Store Glorietta and Glorietta 5
PowerBooks Trinoma
News cafe SM North EDSA
Holland Tulips SM North EDSA

Wedding Essentials magazine is now available in major bookstores and magazine outlets in the Metro, for inquiries pls. contact Sandy Cotoco at 527.8121.

Pls. get a copy and tell us about it. WE`ll be posting another contest soon! Happy Monday, =)

WE is available at the Bridal de Manila fair at SM Megamall, Megatrade Hall 3.
August 8, 2009- August 9, 2009, Megatrade Hall 3, Megamall. If you`re near the area, pls do drop by.

WE have not 1…

Not 2…

BUT 3 covers this issue!

Pls. grab a copy everyone! Hope you like it, =)