Have Fun on Your Wedding Day

I've seen brides get so stressed over their wedding and it showed in their photos.

JUST HAVE FUN! You don't need to be stiff and serious. Have fun! Laugh! And most importantly, be yourself. Just ignore whatever bubus or hitches that may happen, nobody will really notice. In my wedding, the bridal car did not show up... so I took a cab. We had no ride back to the hotel, so we baptized my friend's delivery van as bridal one. My feet really hurt because I wore 3-inched heels, I walked barefoot during the reception. We winged it and we had a great time and that showed in the photos and video.

I was in Tagaytay recently and caught a bride and her entourage having a fun photoshoot. I hope though they didn't walk down the aisle in those cute knee high socks!

A Guide for Maids of Honor

Anne, my maid of honor who made sure I was always picture perfect.

I have been maid of honor several times before I got married. I was a professional abay and had gowns of every color theme imaginable. When I wasn't a maid of honor I would prep the anointed MOH of what they should do. I did have lots of experience because my first MOH stint was when I was just eleven years old. Crazy huh?


So here's a guide for maids of honor:

1. The rule: your main job is to make sure that the bride is beautiful and comfortable at ALL times. If she ends up oily/sweaty/ugly in a photo it's your fault. (This is the reason why I had THREE MOHs). You are to be the bride's guardian angel/fairy godmother.

2. The second rule: just focus on the bride. For everything else, it's the job of the bridesmaids/groomsmen.

3. What to have in your bag: tissue (lots of it), powder, lipstick, wet tissue alcohol, safety pins, bobby pins, double sided tape, small scissors, small comb, cellphone, and smelling salts (my sister once had to revive my cousin who fainted during the wedding!). These are all for the bride and not you.

4. What to have in an extra bag: slippers, hairspray, make-up (blush on etc.), towel, camera, suppliers list, charger, ballpen, script, and list of entourage.

5. Do not get stressed. You have no right to be stressed because the bride might get affected. Keep calm and always reassure your bride that things are going well.

And, of course, be prepared for your speech in case the couple requires you to come up on stage to share something about them.

And, don't forget to smile.

Customized Wedding Table Decor

I got the idea of making a customized table decor slash entourage background leaflet when I attended a friend's wedding back in 2005 (yup that long ago). I didn't get a stylist or add any other stuff for our table since: (1) I wanted my guests to talk to each other and see each other (so none of those tall table centerpieces); and (2) I wanted my guests to focus on eating and watching what we had prepared for them. I wanted though to let everybody know about who were part of our entourage and why we chose them to be part of it. So here's what I did -

Inside are descriptions of each person in our entourage which include: (1) how they are related to us; and (2) a short memorable anecdote about them (i.e. My tito taught me how to ride a bike.). I specifically invited close family and friends and no business contacts, so I wanted to communicate to everyone that was there that they were each close to my heart.

I didn't want to leave the back side of the table piece empty so I thought I'd summarize our 800 clicks (800 days of our relationship). It tied up nicely with our pre-nup wedding video.

It's easy to make. Here's what you need:

colored board
laid paper (for printing)
1/4" ribbons
illustration board
double sided tape
photo paper

1. print the content on the laid paper (half-bond); print the love story summary on photo paper
2. cut the colored board in two and on one half install the pieces of laid paper by using a ribbon
3. stick the photo paper on the other half of the colored board with thin double sided tape
4. merge the two colored board with thin double sided tape
5. make sturdy by placing illustration board as the bottom

Your Wedding Reception

Fun. Should be one of the overriding themes of your wedding. A percentage of your guests would leave after getting their fill of your buffet, but most would stick around if you entertain them properly.

Three factors contribute to a memorable wedding reception:

(1) The Food

I've seen some wedding guests blog about awful reception food. I've seen brides cry over this so Sweetie and I did a lot of research (a.k.a. food tasting) before we hired the right caterer. Our guests raved about the food and have since hired our caterer again and again (our caterer was Ignacio's Catering). It's also good to hire a medium sized caterer instead of a big, commercial one. Why? Because you get to talk directly to the owner and he'll give you lots of tips as well.

(2) The Program

Nowadays you can choose to either have the traditional ceremonies (cake cutting/wine/doves) before the meal, that way everybody witnesses it. Most weddings I've attended also require guests to have their photo taken with the newlyweds before they proceed to the buffet table. Make sure you have a script that your coordinator and emcee can follow so they wouldn't have to bother you during the reception. A sample program/script can be found at this post.

(3) The Emcee/s

Some weddings I've attended provided great food but had inexperienced emcees. My tip is to hire an emcee and not leave the hosting job to just anyone. We were lucky to get professional artists for our wedding (Gabe Mercado and Mhel Garrido aka Bill Kosme) and our guests continue to rave about them to this day. You may also hire professional wedding emcees (you'll find them at wedding fairs) or get one of your relatives/friends who are experienced. One tip though, don't let the emcee sing unless he's a really good singer.

Kilig Engagement Stories from Kasal.com

Jay and I got featured last weekend at Rated K. We unfortunately didn't get to watch it since we were at the 2010 Philippine Blog Awards. Everyone though we bumped into said that they watched it. I know I have embarrassed my husband enough (since he didn't really want to do it), but I insisted on doing the feature because I wanted to inspire people and show that love and romance is still "in". (You can watch the Rated K clip here.)

After our wedding got featured here at Kasal.com (which is BTW where the researchers of Rated K found out about us), the Kasal.com team invited me to be one of the judges for their "The Proposal Kasal.com Story Contest". I immediately said yes because I knew I was in for a lot of kilig stories.

Here's links to the stories submitted to Kasal.com -

Ann & Bry - http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=128907800496244
Katherine & Lito - http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=128923557161335
Adonis & Karen Sue - http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=130779130309111
Limuel & Ianna - http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=131187583601599
Jet & Jen - http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=133414773378880
Chris & Tintin - http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=133423746711316
Charles & Lara - http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=135131123207245
Joey & Jennifer - http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=135136243206733
Kate & Arnold - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/notes/kasalcom/kate-arnolds-proposal-story/138403612879996