Cashing in on Cyber Contests

Yesterday I found out that the entry I submitted for a story writing contest was chosen as one of the finalists. Yay! I chanced upon the contest from one of the forwarded messages from an egroup to which I belong. All I had to do was write a short story for a certain age group about their given topic and send the piece online. The price if I get lucky? Twenty grand. Not bad, right?

Joining online contests sure is one great way to use your internet time wisely. Most online contests don't require any purchase, documents, travel, nor much of your time, but the rewards are surprisingly, well, rewarding. My sister's boyfriend, who happens to be a wrestling fan, joined an online contest which promised a weekend for two in Australia to watch the smackdown live. People usually pay no attention to such contests, but when he won, his friends raced to their terminals, signing up for every contest imaginable.

I've yet to search for such contests, but I will soon, after I get that twenty grand. Wish me luck!

Our DIY Wedding: Gifts

A couple of days ago I heard a story on the radio about this English couple who received 24 oven toasters of the same brand for their wedding. The couple never thought that the joke they told their friends would be taken way too seriously.

For those who don't want this horror story to happen at their own wedding, a bridal registry might just do the trick. My husband and I initially wanted this one, too, especially since we were starting our marital lives from scratch. After inquiring from the malls, though, we trashed the idea due to the following reasons:

• Only selected branches of department stores offered registries.
• These stores, although belonging to the same company, weren't coordinated. This means our guests will be able to purchase only from the mall where we were registered.
• Our guests will be coming from different parts of Luzon, and most of them were far from the malls which offered registries.
• We didn't want our guests to be limited by a set of choices. We didn't want to be too imposing. And we didn't want to "require" them to buy us something just because we invited them to the celebration.

Luckily, after the wedding, we didn't get 24 oven toasters. Only a couple of items were doubled, which was not bad at all. There were some close friends who asked us what we wanted, and during those instances we didn't hesitate to tell them our needs.

Speaking of gifts, another trend in today's weddings is to indicate in the invite that a monetary present is preferred. This is very practical, yes, but my husband and I didn't opt for this, too. As I have said, giving us anything was not a requirement. We invited family and friends because we wanted them to celebrate with us. Thus, their presence was more than enough.

ASEAN-wide photo contest on biodiversity

To all photo enthusiasts, here's something to get busy with. The contest will run until 30 August 2009 and winners will be awarded during the ACB side event at the ASEAN Conference on Biodiversity in Singapore on 21 – 23 October 2009.

For more info, visit their website.

A Very Long Engagement Indeed

I've found out last summer that my friend who owns the Of Knives and Pen blog will not be getting hitched this year. Apparently, her fiance's sister had to tie the knot first, due to an unplanned pregnancy. Major bummer! Imagine having to give way to other people who don't have any clue to their marital future. Ugh!

I told her not to fret, though. With the date postponed, she'll have more time to prepare and enjoy the single life!

Getting Rid of Mosquitos

Yesterday, my dad received a forwarded email swearing by the effectiveness of Listerine as a mosquito repellent. Of course, having absolutely no confidence in forwarded junk (I immediately delete emails with "Fwd" on the subject line), I simply scoffed at the idea. Although it's worth a try, the mouthwash brand is not cheap to begin with, and I'd rather use the following to get rid of these pesky insects:

• Neem Oil - If I'm not mistaken, the oil comes from the seeds of the neem tree. Planting one in your yard may also help. Neem gets rid of a bunch of other insects, too. In one of my family's vacant lots, termites invaded and destroyed the trees. But lo and behold, the only one left standing was the big neem tree, simply unscathed. Check out the Discover Neem website for more information.
• Citronella - Citronella is sometimes mistaken for lemon grass, because they look similar. It also emits a nice citrus smell. I don't have a plant at home, so I just bought from the grocery the kind resembling silica gel. Lasting for two weeks, each pack only costs around USD2, which is very affordable. Other forms of citronella-based repellents are candles and stick-on patches. I hung the packs in the room where my baby's playpen and crib are, and he doesn't get those dreaded mosquito bites anymore.
• Plantex All-in-One Solution - My colleague introduced this product to me. It does a lot of things, from disinfecting to getting rid of warts. Although I've bought one, I haven't tried using it specifically for mosquitos. But when it got rid of my warts, I believed in the product in an instant. A hundred ml only costs about USD3. They also have another product, an anti-dengue solution, which is worth a try.

Our DIY Wedding: Shoot!

A couple of years ago, a decent wedding photo/video package was at around PhP50,000. Had we availed of such a package, we would've allotted 25 per cent of our budget to just that. Aside from the price, we also had qualms about the usual packages, because:

• we wanted a solemn and simple celebration sans the artificial lighting and clutter made by wires on the altar.
• we only wanted photography, not the complete photo/video package (because of the price).
  
• we wanted a more candid, almost journalistic documentation as opposed to the usual scripted coverage.
• we wanted to get all the photos as soon as the photographer gets back to the studio, if not during the event itself.
  

It was a good thing I had a network of creative people to match our specifications. We commissioned the services of photographer Brendan Goco, who agreed to cover the hotel preps and church ceremony. As for the reception coverage, we asked Fara Manuel, who also happened to be my sister's friend.

Of course, that's not my husband. Film director and actor Tado happened to be in the premises during our wedding. And lucky for me, our photographer knows him so he agreed to pose as groom.

Aside from that, to further cut costs, we asked the following people to do us these special favors:

• my sister (who was also a photography hobbyist) and her friend to hold cameras during the event.
• our guests to bring their own digital cameras and take shots from their reception tables.
  
• my "events team" (which I will talk about later) to bring the laptop as repository for digital images taken by the official photographer and guests. Our reception hosts, during the dinner, just reminded guests to stop by the registration area to share their photos.
  
• relatives who had video cameras to document (just for the sake of relatives who insisted that we should video it).
• a close friend who asked beforehand what we wanted for our gift to just give us a wedding photo album. I got one from her and two more albums from our other guests. That solved the storage for prints.
  

Right after the event, the official photographer already handed to us the digital files, ready for printing (at our own expense) and upload for friends and relatives who were not around during our special day.

Our DIY Wedding: Reserving the Church

My husband and I were lucky to have gotten a slot six months before our big day. The rule of thumb is that you're supposed to reserve the church one year before. By the way, we had a Catholic ceremony as both of us belong to the same denomination.

I had a lot of questions before we finalized the venue and date of the ceremony. Among them, on top of my head, were:

• What are the requirements, i.e. seminars and documents and their schedules/deadlines for submission?
  
• Are there seminars/required activities held during Saturdays (so we won't have to miss work)?
  
• Does the parish hold office during weekends?
• What is the process should we decide to move the event to another date?
• How long is the interval between Masses on the day of our wedding?
  
• Will another party be using another area of the church on our chosen schedule (Some churches hold baptismal and matrimonial rites at the same time and that could be noisy.)?
  
• Can we choose the priest who will celebrate the Mass?
• How much is the fee?
• What is included in the fee (flower arrangements, candles, etc.)?
• What kind and color of flowers are included in the package? (Most churches prepare only one set of flowers for the whole day. Also, I wanted the kind and color of the flowers to complement my own bouquet as well the color of my maids' gowns. I will also base the reception flowers on the church flowers.)
  
• Do we have to pay if we want to add something to the existing provisions?
• Will the parish provide the Mass booklet or can we make our own?
  
• What manpower will the parish provide (commentator, readers, lay ministers/servers, entourage assistant etc.)?
• Can we bring our own choir?
• What equipment are included in the sound system (because I just wanted to play Pachelbel and Enya from a CD during the wedding march)?
• Where are the photographers allowed to move? Are they allowed to go up the altar?
  
• How much time will be given for the post-ceremony photo shoot at the altar?
• Where else in the church can we have our pictorials?
  

I'm sure I had a lot of questions then. The most important, though, were those about the date and requirements, especially since my baptismal and confirmation records had typographical errors and my husband had not received his Sacrament of Confirmation. The papers had to be corrected right away, lest our slot be given to another couple who can meet the deadline.

So if you're planning to get married soon, do collect your papers and check for typo errors. Furthermore, check with your local government regarding their own requirements. If I remember correctly, the marriage license is also a Church requirement.