Hi! I’m Janina Pangilinan-Villanueva. You can call me Jan. I was born and raised in Manila, Philippines, where I worked as a writer, event planner and marketer for a golf retail company. I made my move to New York to finally be with the one whom I call my God’s best and build our little family as I continue to pursue my passion. Here are five things you can find on my blog:

Writing 

I feel like I have been writing my entire life—from diary and journal entries as a kid, to letters of different kinds, from feature and news articles for the school paper to formal office correspondence, and of course, blog posts. I just feel most comfortable expressing myself in writing. I’m not talkative but you can find a lot of my thoughts and experiences in this blog.

 

Weddings & Events

Aside from writing, my other love is event planning. Everyone has this friend who organizes group dinners and get-togethers, birthday parties, and has everything you need in her big momma bag. That is me. After years of being in the wedding industry, and organizing product launches, trade shows, and even Christmas parties and company outings for my day job, I know this really is the path for me. This is how I gave birth to Fête by Janina, my full service event planning company. You can find out more about it here.

Motherhood

I am a mom to two wonderful girls, Maiella Eliana,  who is turning 5, and Katrice Eliana, now 18 months old. It has been such a journey for me—I have always pictured myself as a wife and mother, but raising children has a lot of surprises! I have zero knowledge about kids when I was pregnant and relied solely on reading and asking a lotof questions.  Boy, do I have stories to tell you as I am learning more about myself each day with these little rays of sunshine God has blessed us with.

 

Relationships

My sister would always joke that I can be a “Life Coach” because she and my friends always go to me for advice in life, faith and relationships.  Since I work in weddings, I also get really excited in learning different love stories and how to make relationships last. And I like sharing what I have learned, especially when it comes to my faith, and my marriage. (Trivia: our own love story became viral when my then-boyfriend Warren was photographed by the famous photographer behind the website Humans of New York. If you want to bore yourself with our story, click here, here and here).

SHARING

I am a strong advocate of food for everyone and hope for those who need it most.  This is why I support the Saving Grace Project, a group that provides monthly help to our sisters in the Correctional Institute for Women in the Manila, as well as Joseph Feeding Mission, a weekly feeding charity that goes to different parts of the Philippines.

Thanks for visiting my blog! I would love to hear from you. Send me a message and let’s see how we can collaborate!