TOPAZ HORIZON

On the eve of our third wedding anniversary, Vince and I drove all the way to old Manila for a symphony concert by the FILharmoniKA orchestra of Gerard Salonga.

My younger brother, Theodore Amper, happens to be part of it! He's a cellist and we're very thrilled that he's with the FILharmoniKA group. Exciting times for everyone!

For the concert, the orchestra played Antonin Dvořák's Cello Concerto with guest cellist Richard Bamping. He was great. The first violinist was amazing. The whole orchestra was fantastic!

Vince and I had such a lovely time, just letting the music sweep over and through us. I literally felt my soul swell with the music. And the little Jelly Bean? Well, he kicked about every time the orchestra builds into a crescendo so I think he got excited when the music got louder and faster and... well, he took after his father then. Vince likes his music loud and strong!

Theodore is also part of the string quartet Manila String Machine, which performs at weddings and other special events. They performed at my wedding three years ago so I highly recommend them. Book them now!

The traditional gift for the third wedding anniversary is leather. Vince and I had been toying with the idea of giving each other bags--he needs a laptop bag and I... well, I don't need a bag but I definitely will not refuse one!

Instead of bags, however, we found ourselves getting these throw pillows:

They're embroidered black leather pillows from Dimensione, about a P1,000++ each. They come in other designs and there's also white versions. We like how they ground the look of our living room, which has started to look too feminine. Plus, you just need to wipe them clean!

P.S. That's my old teddy bear, Mozzarella! You can tell he loves the new pillows, too.

This past weekend was just lovely. Vince and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary and the 11th anniversary of when we fell in love! I'll update soonest with a proper post, but for now here's a look back on that very special day:

Tessa Prieto-Valdes a.k.a. The Sea Princess wrote about our wedding in her column. I totally forgot where I put the news clipping of that! But here's another from the Inquirer (click photos to enlarge):

I'll have the Wedding Essentials magazine feature and Cosmopolitan mention scanned so you can take a look, too. I wish I'd also recorded the bridal feature on Kate Torralba's wedding gowns of some TV show. I heard that we had really nice photos from our wedding shown there. Oh well! Have a nice week!