2018.

Obviously, I spent a good lot of the year busy in preparation for our intimate destination wedding in Vancouver, Canada. A lot of my free time was spent planning, canvassing suppliers, research, sourcing, and coordinating with our excellent planner, Lisa from Shing Weddings. Chad and I had my Friday nights and his Saturday mornings blocked off specifically to sync up on “wedding stuff”. Sharing a Google Spreadsheet of our expenses against our budget was tremendously essential and helpful as a big picture tool. Overall, I felt like we did good teamwork. I did get stressed a few times, and wished a many “can’t wait for our wedding to be over” so I could devote time for other things. I am very glad we’re done with the ceremonies and finally now concentrating and enjoying our actual marriage!:)

Planning and having our wedding here in Canada made me see how culture and the social circles really play a huge influence on the kind of ceremony and reception people expect to give, and expect to see. Despite maybe looking grand at first glance, our wedding was actually very simple when stripped down to the elements. Initially, I did not expect to enjoy the big day (because I really do not like being the center of attention) but I was surprised that I had so much fun! There was so much love from our family and friends, beauty all around us, good food (ugh I still crave for our wedding cake…) and dancing!

I am truly so very grateful our loved ones were able to celebrate with us as we pushed for a small wedding. We were in a beautiful, heritage venue rich in history, on a perfect Spring day filled with magnolias and roses.

Hot tip: strategically match your color theme to the flowers in your wedding venue to save on flowers and decor. Haha.

I write this post actually nearing our first anniversary, which wow – time flies so quickly, doesn’t it?! I think we’re still in our honeymoon phase just as well, where I constantly feel never-ending gratefulness and joy for our union. I feel like we do get along very well and I attribute some of that to the friendship we already had before dating.

One time we were on a road trip on one of those long weekends and I was looking out the window, I turned to Chad and said, “I really like being married.” to which he replied, “Me too. Me too.” We kind of wish we got married sooner. But looking back, everything panned out already as serendipitously as possible. If I really think about it, we only dated for like a year and a half, and then engaged the next, and then got married the following year.

• Read “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “Baby Signs”. Allot a time to read periodically
  • I’ve started reading these books but stopped reading “Baby Signs” because, as much as I wanted to prepare myself, I just couldn’t relate to it yet!! I’m still on 7 Habits, but I’ve finished two other books, namely: “Love & Respect” by Dr. Emerson Eggerich and “Smart Women Finish Rich” by David Bach.
• Continue to regularly exercise, like doing 7-minute workouts every other weekday
  • This is a failing mark. I exercise in the morning but it’s barely a 7-minute workout! Carrying on for 2019.
• Finish the wedding planning so we can actually start working on our marriage
  • Now that I read this, I feel like this was just to give me at least one check off the list! LOL
• Aim to get a raise at work, or an equivalent
  • YASS. This was not easy to ask for, and it took a big leap from me but this actually happened! I am now a Senior Software Developer, still working remotely.
• Attend an enriching conference (?) / any learnings-based goal / or a yoga retreat
  • No : ( But this year Chad and I will be attending another TedX talk in Calgary which I’m looking forward to! I still want to go to a yoga/wellness retreat someday.
• Start volunteering again
  • Yay, finally! I will soon start volunteering for Kids Ministry again at the church I currently attend (SunWest). After getting my police clearance I should be good to start shadowing and look forward to being on the roster.
• Continue learning Spanish
  • My phone is now back in Spanish, but I feel like I did not progress much compared to last year. Maybe I should start watching Spanish dramas or something… 
• Cook more, juice more, and get a blender to make healthy smoothies!
  • We received a blender as a wedding gift from my awesome sister and her family! This goal will have to carry on because I do not cook, juice or blend as much as was intended when writing that goal.
• Experience a new activity such as free diving or scuba diving
  • Nada, lol. Maybe when Chad and I are in Palawan on our anniversary weekend this year.

If you notice in our engagement and wedding photos, I made sure to choose hybrid (film/digital) photographers. I am still enamored by the timeless beauty and unique characteristics only achieved via film. I think this can look backwards because film photo quality just can’t compare to what you get from digital nowadays, but I think it is fine. In the end, we print the photos and I love how they look very raw and organic. Out of all the elements in our wedding, choosing photographers was the most stressful for me! It took me countless hours searching and inquiring, until I finally found Muguet Photography and Emily Michelson who are both immensely talented artists. After finalizing photographers, the rest of the wedding I was more chill about lol. Guess its like that when you’re a photographer yourself.

The following are a few photos from our wedding, with the last photo being a group shot of everyone.

Our family and friends flew all the way to celebrate with us, and we couldn’t be more happy and grateful. Having the wedding in Vancouver was also a great reason for them to go sightseeing. The day after the wedding, some of us went to Grouse Mountain and a few hiked the Grouse Grind. I felt like having our friends and family over in a new place made for special and unique bonding moments.

We then flew to Cebu for a banquet/wedding reception to celebrate with friends and family that couldn’t join us in Canada. It was at an iconic Chinese restaurant called White Gold House. We have some funny memories of this place. Chad and I were part of a dancing group back in high school collectively called the “choir”–we were a group that did mostly dancing, not singing, for school presentations in and out of the campus. I recall we did a few performances to celebrate Double Ten at this specific Chinese restaraunt.

Here’s a really old photo of one of our performances! This was way back between 2004-2007.

I would post some photos of our Cebu wedding reception here but I don’t have digital copies of it! For posterity’s sake, I remembered my new Dad calling up each of the family members, introducing me as one of his daughters for the first time, and finally honoring Chad’s ama. I was really touched by this gesture. You maybe can guess–I love my in-laws a lot!! 

When we returned to Canada, the next 6 months were newly married bliss.

We went on road trips across the border on long weekends, explored new restaurants and cafes around Calgary (the food scene here is surprisingly great!), snowboarded together for old time’s sake, went on a group camping trip in Banff, went hiking and strolled around parks, watched a couple of Broadway shows at the local theatre, checked out Calgary’s Stampede shows and carnival, binge-watched House on Amazon Prime Video, Chad (mostly) and I cooked and enjoyed dinners together after I finished work, Chad got a job for a few months, we watched a Cirque de Soleil show in Lethbridge, routinely shopped at Costco/Superstore/Walmart for grocery, etc – basically got into the slow routine of everyday married life. Chad and I look back at this and are grateful for those foundational 6 months which we jokingly call “our perfect life”.

 

 

 

 

 

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Honeymoon stage is real! Pretty impressed with my husband’s weekend getaway planning skills, and really all he has been these past few months. I enjoy the everyday mundane married life together, while long weekends are the icing on top of the cake. It may be optimistic to think we will always feel this way as new challenges arise, but this is why I want to take a moment to write this, in order to reminisce and remember how it can be going forward – overall to remain thankful for this gift. #chadgotsanne #lakelouise #banff @fairmontcll

A post shared by Anne Lorraine (@anne_gots) on Nov 11, 2018 at 1:29pm PST

By the end of the year, we flew back to the Philippines to spend Christmas with my new family. Before that, we went to Taiwan together as a big group with all the cousins, aunties and uncles! That’s where I got to really spend time to get to know them individually. It can be intimidating to join a huge family like Chad’s–but they were very warm and welcoming so I was happy.

Afterwhich we went to Dumaguete to celebrate Lee Plaza’s 10th year anniversary with the Lee side of the family. That was a lot of fun as well!! We even did a side trip to Siquijor.

To cap the year off, Christmas eve was spent quietly at home watching fireworks from afar with ama, dad, mom, Chad and Ahia Clement. And then on the day, Chad and I went to Timezone to play arcarde games!

Now I’m going to cut to …

• Read “The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did)” by Philippa Perry 
• Start exercising again more regularly
• Start seeing a naturopath again
• Use social media less
• Write a little more
• Build a Smart Mirror
• Develop the Gothong shipping website
• Go on a beginner’s sewing course!