(image courtesy of Jayson & Jo Anne Arquiza)

1. Have an ex-politician for a dad who seriously thinks you could follow his footsteps.

2. Discuss this during a family vacation with your siblings and in-laws throwing in their support.

3. When talks get serious, have your wife and mom ask you not to trade a peaceful family life by running for public office.

4. Discuss the situation with your barkada who’ll eventually egg you to run just as well, but for all the wrong reasons.

5. Hear one of them actually suggest a catchy campaign slogan that you would eventually use for the occasion.

6. Have your wife make you promise you’re not running, before she proceeds with any plans for the party.

7. Tell family of your decision. Say something along these lines:

“Hindi ako tatakbo, pero wala na akong magagawa kapag ginusto na ng taongbayan.”

8. In lieu, tell them you’re planning a election-themed birthday party; also tell them about the campaign slogan which will be the central theme.

9. Introduce yourself to people. Have no qualms changing your ‘generic-sounding’ name in facebook with the nickname you’ve always hated as the slogan made good use of it.

10. Announce in your FB stat that the reason you’re changing your name is to make it masa-sounding which the voting public can easily relate to. Include the mandatory *rolleyes* remark at the end.

11. Send feelers to preferred suppliers whom you like to work on the party to already book the date.

12. Get wife pregnant and have her OB-Gyn tell her she’s on house arrest at the start of pregnancy (translation: CALL-OFF THE PARTY).

13. Announce to siblings and in-laws the change in plans but have them say — its worse and more tiring for preggy wife to host lunch or dinner at home, than to scheme a party with reliable suppliers around to help us put things together — afterwards.

14. Bring out the party blueprint yet again.

15. Tell suppliers that the party will push through with only 2 weeks to plan and execute.

16. Book a historic/political venue for the party to go with the election theme.

17. Decide for an after-dinner affair to lessen cost.

18. Choose local street food for the menu to go with the very Pinoy theme.

19. Schedule a studio pictorial for the campaign materials.

20. Grab this photo opportunity to have your picture taken with your favorite ride.

21. Ask friends in FB what would be a good campaign hand sign and actually get very good suggestions.

22. Shoot a video for the campaign ads by simply riding around the neighborhood.

23. Have your videographer ask you to do your mandatory hand sign.

24. Actually bungle up the simple task above; it makes a funny blooper video afterwards.

25. Dub your voiceover narration and try your darnest to sound serious and convincing.

26. Have the wife make an FB event page to invite your friends.

27. Be vague about the event by posting a video teaser that actually looks like a campaign ad.

28. Design a campaign materials with slogans and catchphrases.

29. Make them nice and personalized so your wife and bestfriend would want to use it as profile pic/campaign badge in their respective FB accounts.

30. Have your friends ask for the same campaign badges for themselves to be posted on their own FB walls or as profile pics.

31. Flood your friends’ FB Highlights with all these people posting the same campaign badges.

32. Have friends of friends ask who’s the guy they seem to be supporting.

33. Always reply with “Ordinaryong Pilipino lang po.” whenever you encounter such comments even if the person asking doesn’t know who the heck are you.

34. Have your wife surprise you with a blog entry for your birthday with yet another video teaser and various links to other people’s blogs posting the same clip.

35. Have real politicians hold an important press conference in your chosen venue. Something that would hog the headlines the following day. The renewed hype on the venue would somehow lend credence to your mock campaign.

36. Have personalized button pins ready for all your guests as campaign t-shirts are just too expensive.

37. For added suspense and unpredictability, ask your dad to deliver a speech in the party.

Those are the ingredients for a fun and meaningful birthday party. Here’s proof:

• some pictures taken during the ‘campaign launch’
  
• full video ad shown during the event is posted here.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Of course, my heartfelt gratitude to all the wonderful suppliers who assisted us in mounting this event:

Events by Clarice for handling the event | 4th Wall for the venue setup and props  | Threelogy for the campaign ads and coverage | MetroPhoto for the studio pictorial on such short notice |  Josiah’s Catering and Toddler’s Inc. for providing some of the foodcarts | Flaming Olives for the mobile bar | Joy San Gabriel for the cake and personalized topper that resembled me on my scooter doing the ‘Angkas na!’ sign | PhotoLoco for the (photo)booth wisely souvenirs | John Mateos Ong and his ImagineNation team for the covering the event and providing the projector | Sensitivity for providing the needed audio reinforcement

Special mention to a couple of N@Wies/FB friends who gave us some vital campaign ideas: Joanne Figueroa-Yap for suggested the hitchhiker’s thumb for my hand sign which tied in very well with the ‘Angkas na!’ campaign battlecry; and Mylene Ramos-Lado for posting that *rolleyes* smiley on my wall which eventually landed on the ‘official’ seal as displayed in the picture above.

Best of all, thanks to my pregnant wife for spearheading this ‘campaign’.   I think she’d make a very fine First Lady. Don’t you guys agree? 😉

Muling nagpapasalamat,
~ Abet Rana
(the blogger formerly known as John)

The Wedding Congress in SM Megamall’s Megatrade Hall opened yesterday (Fri | Jul. 24) and it will run until tomorrow (Sun | Jul. 26).  In time with this annual event is the release of the 7th edition (2009) of “The W@W Wedding Primer.”  Soon-to-weds may get their FREE copy at the registration booth by the entrance.

Read more about about the latest edition.

 
(me holding what we use to call “isang set” back in HS: gulaman’t sago + bananacue)

Yeah, I know there was not a single blog entry last week.  That’s because this blogger was in the thick of things preparing for his MCUHS89 batch reunion.  It’s been twenty years since I graduated from high school.

Since I’ve invited some of the high school pals to attend the W@W VideoFest, an idea (or two) struck them.  They enjoyed the Paparazzi Wall and Photo Booth during that January 30 event, that they asked me if our batch fund could afford such for our own reunion.  W@W gets these stuff in its own events for free out of love and goodwill.  Clearly, that shouldn’t extend for my personal gain, right?

Boy, I was so proven wrong.   In last Saturday event, a photobooth came in courtesy of Jayson & Jo Anne Arquiza‘s Smiles Photo Booth.   A Paparazzi Wall, designed for us by W@Wie Jenki, was printed and installed for us by 4th Wall.  And what is a paparazzi wall without photographers, right?  Nice Print sent two hardworking & very courteous photographers from its pool to cover the whole thing. A heart-shaped, prom-inspired, balloon arch was made for us by Weddding Wonders & Party Surprises.  Even the stage in our HS Quadrangle was spruced-up also with the help of expert stage & lighting design by 4th Wall.  They also took care of the printing of our souvenir mugs & button pins.  The works talaga!

And the best part is, we didn’t have to beg to get all these.  The moment our friends knew I needed help for this event, they willingly offered without asking for anything. Nakakahiya man, sobra pa rin akong nagpapasalamat sa pag-alalay.  The community spirit in W@W, and in the wedding industry in general, is alive and well.

My reunion last Saturday night was an event I’m truly proud. Our HS principal was so impressed how our Quadrangle looked like that even our University’s VP  for Administrative Affairs dropped by to see how things are going. 🙂

Of course, special credit goes to Benz who worked with me in these at the background. Thanks, Mimma!

To the above mentioned suppliers, thank you very much.  Makabawi din sana ako sa inyo. 🙂

Starting last Thursday, the W@Wies have been busy bidding for the 2008 W@W Christmas Auction. The items up for bidding are products and/or services donated by various wedding suppliers to help us raise funds for mounting the upcoming W@W Christmas Party (happens this Friday!) and our 10th Anniversary Celebration in March 2009.  Our annual auction is open exclusively for W@Wies who are given the chance to get the donated items at a fraction of its actual market value.

Among the big items up for grabs for this year is Jason Magbanua‘s wedding coverage pegged at P75,000.  Cecilio Abad donated two bridal gown packages worth P65,000 each.  Robert Blancaflor threw in a floral and event styling package also valued at P65,000.  Threelogy and JSDV both pledged their video coverage worth P55,000.  Another wedding gown package worth P50,000 is up for grabs donated by Niko for Veluz.

There are actually more than a hundred items that are now being auctioned as we blog. Check out this list to see the complete list of the generous wedding suppliers who supported us for this endeavor.

MARAMING SALAMAT PO!

We have just created a handy and functional web toolbar that our users can download and install in their own browser (compatible with either Internet Exporer or Mozilla Firefox). It’s called MyW@W Toolbar and it’s FREE and ready for download!  It’s loaded with shortcuts, perfect to those who access our site often.

Wanna learn more about MyW@W? Visit mywaw.weddingsatwork.com