Your Ceremony Venue

This is usually where planning starts. Your ceremony venue. Oftentimes the ceremony venue is the first thing you would book. Here are some options:

Church

This is where most Filipinos hold their marriage ceremony. Most of us default to having the ceremony in Church. We have so many Churches in the Philippines, but aside from choosing a Church that is important to both of you, one should also consider other factors:
(1) Accessibility. Remember you will have to process quite a number of requirements so you will definitely be going back every few weeks to the Church
(2) Ample parking space. Make it easy for your guests to park. Some churches don't have enough parking space.
(3) Lighting and acoustic/sound.
(4) Check out the church policies.
(5) Fees, of course.

Here's a sample comparative chart I did of churches.

Garden Weddings/Reception Venues

There are quite a number of reception venues that have gardens where you can hold your ceremony. Some reception venues also have chapels. You can also ask your caterer if they can set-up the ceremony area for your garden wedding.

Here's a list of reception venues in Metro Manila.

Beach/Destination Wedding

One of the hardest to coordinate, unless you have time, is to have a destination wedding. I remember a colleague who was so busy coordinating her Bali wedding I rarely saw her around. If this is something you really want, prepare to spend a lot of time to iron things out for your wedding.

Budget:


Church: some Churches accept donations; smaller Churches charge about PhP3,000-5,000; medium-sized ones charge PhP10-15,000; larger ones and with aircon charge at least PhP25,000

Garden/Reception Venues: usually integrated in packages; some range from PhP50-70,000

Beach/Destination Wedding: depends on where you go

Wedding Budget Planner

One of the key things you should discuss with your fiance is your budget. Your wedding day is just the beginning of other expenses that you will incur when you start your life together so don't pour in your life savings for your wedding day.

Here's a rundown of expenses that you will incur for your wedding:

Ceremony
Reception
Stationery
Flowers
Photography
Videography
Music and Entertainment
Attire
Hair and Make-up
Gifts
Jewelry
Transportation
Honeymoon*
Others

*You can plan this separately.



View the budget planner I made at this link or download it as an Excel file. The wedding  budget planner allows you to put percentages on the expenses and a target spend amount. Best to play around with it before you start looking for suppliers so that you have an idea on the amount you need to prepare for the wedding.

**You will have to download the file in order to play around with it.

Where to Start Planning Your Wedding

This is a question that my friends always ask me. After getting engaged and after going through pamamanhikan, one would realize that planning a wedding is a daunting task. It is truly overwhelming since your wedding is probably the only huge event you will have to plan in your entire life (that is if you are not a wedding coordinator or an event organizer). I always tell people that it is easier to plan an event for a couple of hundred of people than a wedding.

Anyway, have no fear since nowadays there are many tools online you can use to plan your wedding (and you can even do without a coordinator like we did!).

HAVE A CHECKLIST

The secret to organizing your wedding is to have a list. Yup, a check-list. The best check list I've used is the booklet that Wedding Essentials includes in its magazine. Just follow it diligently and you are sure to complete everything in time for your wedding.

AGREE ON A BUDGET

We scrambled around to put together a budget and plan before our pamamanhikan because we wanted to show our parents that we were prepared and serious about getting married. The booklet from Wedding Essentials provides a good run down on all the expenses that you will incur in your wedding. Things will change as you make decisions so it's best to put this spreadsheet online and collaborate by using Google Docs (helped us a lot since I live in Paranaque and he lived in Marikina).

Identify which expenses are important for the two of you. Do you want to spend more on photography and videography? The reception? Entertainers? Your wedding attire? You will have to identify which of the costs would be your "luxury cost" and which would be the least priority for spending. We personally spent a good amount of money on photography and videography and put the bridal car on least priority. We also managed to get a lot of help from friends.

START PLANNING!


Start planning months ahead. Cramming for your wedding isn't a good idea since you'd probably end up spending more. Best to start on your church, reception venue and caterer and then you can spend some time dating again till you realize that you have to start working on your wedding again.

The TWP is Baaaack!!!

Sorry I've been absent the past few weeks. I need time off to learn how to be a wife and thank God for Youtube for making things easier! Youtube has so far helped me learn how to cook and iron. You can read more about my adventures as a wife at Mabuhay ang Bagong Kasal.


I have so much to share to you and will be updating my blog more in the coming days.