Where there is love there is life

Alia is the happy type of kid.

And I cannot be more grateful for her to be this way !

There is not a day that passes without me to smile a thousand time thanks to her.

An afternoon at home just the two of us!

She loves playing peak-a-boo.

She loves dancing and moving her hands in a close/open motion.

She laugh out loud when we kiss her tummy.

She closes her eyes and smiles when she feels the wind on her face in the trike.

She loves climbing the couch to get the TV remote whe we try to hide it on top of it.

She absolutely loves to put her little hand in our puppy's mouth and giggles when Pampu lick her hand.

She loves crawling around the house without a diaper and throw all my beauty products on the floor. 

She loves to swim in the ocean.

And I love her so!

She smiles to people in the street, in the trikes and make them smile.

About a month ago, I was walking on the beach with Alia on her sling on my hips. I felt someone was following me. I looked back and saw two kids about 7 and 9, jumping behind me and doing faces to make Alia laugh. And she was laughing so much. They kept following me and entertain her for about 10 to 15 minutes until I had to enter in this shop I was going in.

Alia with her favorite tito, Ken and Chocnut the dog

In Boracay, she starts to be known among the tricyle drivers for the baby that smiles to them, laugh out loud if they smile back to her and pinches them if they do not pay attention.

And they always end up smiling, laughing and making faces along with her.

Alia is totally obsessed with trikes. Every time we hop in one, she’ll be excited and trying to reach the handles and the breaks.

Quite a few drivers will turn their mirror facing her so she can look at herself in it and laugh.

Some of them spend the trip making faces to amuse her.

All of them will laugh along with her.

And I always am one proud mommy seeing her spreading happiness around her at such a young age.

Isn’t it promising for the future ?

Happy Buddha: her Halloween costume

Yesterday when we went home from a play date with her buddies and my mommies friends, she was so happy to see her Daddy Yo. While breastfeeding, she stopped, turned her back to me and hugged her Daddy Yo! A long hug, her two arms around his neck.

He melted!

Playing and cuddling

He then left the room to let Alia sleep. As he closed the door of the room, I saw her crawling to the door, sit next to it and say "Baba?". He came back in until she was settled with me in bed.

Once alone with her, I felt a tear rolling on my cheek. She was breastfeeding and I was just happy to have her in my life.

Love is very powerful.

Playing with the computer while Skyping with her Lola back in France

Mr & Ms Astronaut we are!

I officially am married!

And as (not) planned, it was totally freestyle, unprepared and fun!

Photography: Denise Tolentino

Roldan had many idea on how he wanted to propose to me but he's not organized at all!

He asked my dad's permission when we were in holidays in France last year and a half. 
My dad needed help to bring some old stuff at the municipal dump and that's when Roldan talked to him!

Then, he proposed to me the day we came back to the Philippines: on the side walk of a street of Makati, between a KFC and a dirty building and of course without a ring! 
He had no idea on how to know my finger size and he knew I am not a "precious jewellery" lover.

We set the date and I decided to organize it myself. We didn't ask any wedding coordinator to help us. My sister is a graphic designer so she took care of the invitations.


We didn't want the usual Boracay wedding you can see everywhere on the beach. We wanted something away from the crowd and the noise. Something that looks like us. Laid back, fun and no stress.

Photography: Denise Tolentino

Concerning the dress, I wanted anything but a "wedding" dress. No "gone with the wind" style for me. 

The simpler the better.

A very good friend of my mom did my dress in a week or less, after closing her pharmacy (yes, she's not even a designer but she's got gold in the hands). 

We were in France in August to visit so it was really short. She did the perfect dress for me!

My shoes were  handmade a week before the wedding by my friend Django Valmores. 

He's an amazing artist from Mindanao. He's got a shop here in Boracay and in Legaspi market, in Makati where he sells handmade bags, shoes, bracelets, drums...

Roldan's barong was hand painted by a friend of him, fine art graduated and tattoo artist. It was a Sabong, 2 roosters fighting. 

As we wanted something that really looks like us, he went for a short and bear foot and asked to all our guests to wear shorts and beach casual dresses.

The preparation was not a hassle nor stressful as we were very easy with the resort we worked with. As long as everybody could seat and eat, I didn't really care about all the details. I knew their food was quality and very good. And I knew that was their jobs to set weddings up. Not mine. This is not their first wedding but it is for me!!  So I let them handle everything!

The rest was handled by friends.

Our photographer was Denise, my bride's maid as well.

We asked our good friend, DJ Schatz and the drumming band of my husband, the Jungle Boys to play during the wedding. We know we love their music so we let them a complete freedom to choose what to play and when to play it!

Photography: Denise Tolentino

On the D-day, in the hotel room, my friend LiAn did my make up, my friend Cats did my hair and handmade my garter (boheme style). 

My brides maid chose the color of their own dress, yellow. 
It ended up super nice! 
Retro 70's style!!

I was only wearing a headband found in this really nice stone jewellery online shop in France.

Roldan arrived on the beach with a paraw (sailing boat) and the Jungle Boys playing drums on it.

Then, the girls and I went down with the golf cart. Still to the sound of the drums.
We were so unorganized and relaxed, our ninongs and ninangs forgot to walk down the aisle and my parent didn't walk with me. But we had so much fun! 

Our puppy, Pampulutan was the ring bearer. The whole time of the ceremony, we carried Alia in our arms because she didn't want to be far from us. I loved it! 
We'll have the memory of getting married as a family!

We had no program. We only knew we'll see our pre-nup video during the party. A friend of us offered that the company he's working (Dreamscape Asia Production) for will do our wedding video for their portfolio. We just had to pay for their tickets coming here. And they did an amazing job!!!

Photography: Denise Tolentino

Our friend LiAn just grabbed the mic and improvised. We had speeches and a surprised video from my sister. It was really cool! 

My side of the family made us do the "Hora", a traditional jewish celebration dance and our "first dance" (on "Kung Fu fighting" by Carl Douglas!) was the "traditional filipino dance" where the bride and the groom dance and everybody pin money on their gown.

Photography: Denise Tolentino

Our cake was made by our friend Julia Lervik from Lemoni Cafe, in Boracay. She made super yummy cupcakes and a main cake. 

Some were chocolate/fresh strawberry with turquoise icing and some were mango/orange with orange icing (the colors of our invitations). 

The decorations on the cupcakes were mini sailboats, gumamelas and kitesurf boards. 

On the main cake, we asked Julia to make 3 astronauts instead of the usual bride and groom (We really are kind of an Astronaut family!).

We had so much fun we even forgot to cut the cake! But we cut and ate it the day after to celebrate Alia's baptismal.

We didn't want to plan as nothing ever happen as you planned it. So to avoid to be disappointed or stressed, we chose to follow the flow. We knew that having all our friends + our families together would make a great party anyway. 

Photography: Denise Tolentino

I was so touched all our friends and family were there for us. 

A lot of them told me it was one of the best wedding (if not the best) they ever attended. 

Guess what? Me too!

And the coolest thing was we were featured on the rebellious blog The Rebellious Brides saying: "This is by far one of the most beautiful, most moving weddings I have ever seen since RB's existence." Check out the full feature here.

"Love is being stupid together" Paul Valery

Haters will hate and I will still believe

Last night, I received an email from this classmate of mine when I was studying Mass Communication in Paris. It made my day.

To make it short, he told me it was quite weird for him to write this message but seeing what was happening to me, he felt he had to. He went on with the fact he was part of the people who didn’t believe me when I said I was moving to this tiny island in the Philippines, refering to himslef as a slanderous Parisian.

He said that after all, he’ve got to admit I’m holding on what I said and he’s really happy about it.

He congratulated me for my recent wedding and my beautiful daugther.

Photography courtesy of Denise Tolentino

Yes, people criticized me. I didn’t care.

They bad-mouthed my choices. I didn’t listen to them.

I believed in myself and my dreams were louder than all the malicious mind around me.

They were waiting for me to fall. They were waiting for me to fail and come back to France. They were expecting me to fit in where I was supposed to be.

Guess what? I was supposed to be where I am now! And I am staying right here, chin up, stronger everyday.

Now people back in France will know when I say something, I do it.

If I have a dream, I will want it so hard I will end up getting it. With time, work and a push from the Universe.

Don’t ever let people choose for you, intimidate you, make you change your mind.

Follow your heart. Shake your mind. Walk in the untouched path.

I let people hate, talk and slander me.

Because I knew what I was capable of.

I am not the one who will live with regrets.

Hater will always hate..

I don’t want to be one of them.

I will keep living my life and loving it wherever it brings me.

If ever people are waiting for you to fail, it’s only for them to fell better themselves.

Never take it as a failure but as an experience that will make you grow and bring you to the right path. The path that was made for you.

Photography courtesy of Denise Tolentino

"Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe