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

Wedding Themes

It took me awhile before I finally came up with a theme for our wedding. It took form when I did the script for our pre-nup AVP.

Here's the thought process I went through to determine the theme for our wedding:

1. Color motif - when I was a kid in the 80s I remember helping out my Mom when we prepared for several family weddings. All the weddings back then were anchored on a color motif. We went through the colors red, peach and cream, pink and lavander (twice) and other baby colors. Nowadays though it's not enough to just have a color motif.

2. Favorite things - we both didn't have any favorite "thing". We both spend a lot of time around computers and the internet, but decided not to anchor our wedding on it because we thought that our elderly guests wouldn't appreciate it (i.e. giving out flash drives would've been useless). Our choice of gadgets or replicas of them would've been quite expensive as well.

3. Favorite things to do - find common things that you both love to do. One of our friends used "coffee" as their wedding theme because they both were coffee addicts. Our interests were quite hard to render as themes since "the internet" isn't something physical. We listed a couple of things and realized that we both love Filipino music (OPM) and immediately decided to use Filipino music for our song line-up. Our interest was also largely internet based so I realized that placing the slogan "We Clicked" in all our wedding materials was apt.

Here's how we rendered our theme on our pre-nup AVP:



And here's how our theme was rendered on our wedding materials:

Wedding invitation by Gail Villanueva.

Cartoon by Miguel Apolo. 

Missalette by Ottie Pasigan.

Frames by the Twisted Wedding Planner with help from friends.

*AVP video and editing by Buddy Gancenia, script by me

The Wedding Invitation

We originally thought of having a traditional wedding invitation. Formal script text on a cream board and the usual wordings, date, time, place and entourage list. We were so busy with other wedding preparations we only managed to finalize our invitation barely 2 months before the wedding.

Here are some tips:

1. Finalize the content before you go to the printer. Make sure you get the complete names, titles and right spelling for the names. Getting everything right is tricky so it's better to do revisions before you even start with the lay-out. Do some research online as well for sample invitations so you can use it as basis for the wording.

2. Scour the internet for sample invitations so you get an idea on how you want it to look. A lot of wedding invitation suppliers also showcase their samples at trade shows and in their shops. It's better though to have an idea of what you want to save time.

3. Customize by adding a personal touch to the invitation. My son, Miguel, rendered us as a cartoon and we used it for our "Save-the-Date" invitation. Our award-winning designer friend, Gail Villanueva, took over designing our invitation (she was horrified at how our rough draft looked). [See what she did above].

4. Save by having a regular printer produce your invitations. Our invites would've cost more than PhP100 had we gone to a wedding invitation printer. We also got a hefty discount from our friend who owned the printing company.

5. Don't give it to all your guests. We only gave physical invitations to select guests and we just sent invites via email (in PDF and through a Google Calendar invite) to other guests.  

I remember also helping out a couple of friends for their wedding invitation. We just did the lay-out ourselves and printed it with our home PC printer. You don't need to do everything on your own, remember you have friends who are willing to help, so delegate!

Getting Measurements

One of the hardest tasks I had to do was getting measurements from my entourage. Most of them are based abroad and were expected to arrive just a few days before the wedding.

Here's a list of the measurements I had to get:

Shoulder - measure from tip to tip

Bust - place tape measure under the arms, take tape around the back and get measurement at fullest part of the bust.

Bust point - shoulder tip to middle of bust.

Bust distance - distance based on the two bust middles

Waist line - this is easy ;)

Figure - start at shoulder, have tape go over middle of bust and end at navel

Arm hole - have tape go around the armpit

Hips 1 - have tape go around about 3" below your waist

Hips 2 - have tape go around approximately 7" below your waist (middle of your behind)

Front deep - shoulder tip to waist line (just straight down)

Back deep - should tip to waist line from the back (just straight down)

Round under bust - have tape go around under the bust

Round under arm - have tape go around the arm (at the armpit area)

From shoulder to under bust - measure from shoulder tip to under the bust (go over middle of bust)

Full length - shoulder tip to heel

So these terms came from our mananahi.

Here's another guide you can use -

http://www.ehow.com/how_2259388_basic-body-measurements-sewing.html

Also, here are some videos on how to take measurements -

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A618038BDE16A900&search_query=how+to+get+body+measurements

Are you looking for a wedding gown/entourage gown designer? Inquire here.

Ordering Wedding Gowns from Divisoria

So far there is no way online you can order wedding gowns/entourage gowns from Divisoria. You have to do it the old fashioned way -- go there!

Here are tips though to make things easy:

1. Make a list of all the gowns and barongs you need to have done. Bring several copies of this list so it would be easy to have the store keeper give you a quote.

2. Bring the design of the gowns you want made. They won't design it for you and will likely make you choose from a magazine.

3. Know what kind of clothe you want to use for the gowns and barongs.

4. Get their phone numbers, fax and email. (Note that they may have email addys, but they don't really check it). List down the name of the person you spoke with so it would be easy to call them back.

5. Measurements. It would be hard to haul your whole entourage to Divisoria, but you can request the store to send somebody to your home to do measurements. It would cost you an additional PhP500 per home visit.

6. For those with entourage based in other countries/regions, request them to send you their measurements (will make a how-to measure post soon).

For a short list of Divisoria wedding gown makers please refer to this post -
http://twistedweddingplanner.blogspot.com/2009/05/braving-divisoria-for-wedding-garments.html

Are you looking for a wedding gown/entourage gown designer? Inquire here.

Our Wedding's on Kasal.com!

I got a pleasant surprise today via email. The feature about our wedding is now up!

Check it out at:
http://www.kasal.com/html/rr/realwedd/dejesus-apolo-wedding.html

Wedding Wishing Well

The idea of having a wedding wishing well came from my sister who lives in the US. I never heard of it and it was my Tita who lived in the US for a couple of decades who explained to me what a wedding wishing well was. A wedding wishing well is where your guests can drop their gift cards/envelopes and drop wedding wishes.

I did some further research and found out how it looked like. I couldn't find any locally, so I just had one made.

To customize the wishing well further I put a small standee on top to explain what it was and also put in a small memo pad where guests can write their wishes for us.

I got the Precious Moments Filipiniana wedding dolls during a trip to Kalibo, Aklan (I'm sure glad they survived Typhoon Ondoy).

I'm really glad we had a wedding wishing well because my hubby's pant pockets were already filled up with cards and envelopes. We also got a lot of wishes from guests and I placed it in our wedding scrapbook/wedding guestbook.

I'm renting out the wedding wishing well. Please leave me a message and your email address so I can send you more information. If you want one customized I can have it done for you too.

Personalize Your Wedding: Table Standees

One thing we wanted to do for our wedding was to make our guests experience "us". Most of our guests didn't really know about our love story. Most only knew half of the couple (either him or me). Most of them saw us sparingly throughout our relationship. And some never even met my groom before the wedding!

Table Standees

The table standees served two purposes:

One, to introduce and let our guests know more about our principal and secondary sponsors, and entourage. This comprised of several pages describing our wedding party.

Second, to give a preview of the timeline of our love story. Since our work involves the internet we decided to use "Clicks" instead of days (click on the second photo to see the text of our love story timeline). Our 800th click (day) was our wedding day.

I just made the standees myself with the following materials:

scented board
linen paper (for the entourage description)
photo paper (for the love story timeline)
ribbon
illustration board
double sided tape
scotch tape (to keep the ribbon from unraveling)
computer printer (I just printed everything at home)

It was a good thing I made myself some extra standees because our guests liked it so much they brought it home!

Custom Made Wedding Gowns

I cut down costs for my wedding and entourage gowns (and barongs) by more than 50% by having them custom made. I originally planned to spend 20% of our wedding budget on my wedding gown alone, but I couldn't seem to convince myself to to spend so much for a dress. I then decided to get the services of a designer and chose to have a simple wedding gown made.

It was my niece who designed all the entourage gowns. She's based in Jakarta and has been designing gowns as a hobby (she's an awesome artist too) and eagerly sent me some sketches via email. We just told her that our motif was blue and gold and that it was an early morning wedding.

Here's one of the sketches she made:

And the finished product:

Comparison of costs:
Designers/RTW Gowns: PhP2,500-3,000 per dress/gown
Custom Made (Patahi): PhP750-PhP1,200 per dress/gown

Divisoria dress shops do not design gowns. You can either bring a sketch, choose from their catalogue (magazines) or bring a print-out of any design you find online.

Are you looking for a wedding gown/entourage gown designer? Inquire here.

The Wedding Day Program (Script)

Our friends Gabe Mercado and Mhel Garrido brought the

house down with their funny antics all through-out the reception.

My friend just pinged me and asked for a copy of my wedding day script. She said she was asked to be the emcee of her friend's wedding and she couldn't find her script anymore. I easily found my script but told her that I just placed leading statements on it since my emcees were professionals (they just volunteered though for my wedding).

We were advised by our musician to start off the reception with the traditions (cake cutting, doves, garter toss etc.). They said that from experience a good percentage of people would leave right after eating. So this is how our program went:

Introduction and welcome
Parade of Entourage
Introduction of Principal Sponsors
Introduction of Parents
Couple's Grand Entrance
Cake Cutting and Wine Drinking
Dove Release
Garter Toss
Bouquet Throw
Prayer Before Meal
Photo Opp by Table
Routing of Wedding Book for Signing
Friends Harana
Distribution of Giveaways
Distribution of Gifts
Pre-nup AVP Showing
Champagne Toast
Best Man's Speech
Maid of Honor's Speech
Words of Advise: Bride's Parents
Words of Advise: Groom's Parents
Game for Couples
Father-Bride Dance
Couple's First Dance
On the Day AVP Showing
Word of Thanks from Couple

*We also created an AVP slideshow of our couple photos. It was used during the waiting time and lunch.

My Wedding Bubus

It's been 7 months since Sweetie and I tied the knot. To a lot of people my wedding seemed perfect, but there were actually quite a number of bubus that we just laughed off during the day. I'm sure you'll find it funny.

1. Bridal Car. My bridal car did not show up. Go here to know what happened.

2. Leche Flan. Even though we were both hungry we ended up just eating leche flan.

3. Missalette. Sweetie could barely read the vow because the print in his copy of the missalette wasn't printed well. He sounded like he wanted to back out. LOL.


4. Offertory Assignments. Don't ever forget to tell those involved in the offertory procession about their roles. We only managed to let half of them know and forgot to inform our parents about their roles.

5. The Missing Table. We managed to assign everyone to a table and completely forgot to print out the table assignments for our godparents! Eeeeek!

6. The Blue Bridal Shoe. I had two pairs of bridal shoes. One was blue because my designer said that it was the trend to have bridal shoes in the color of your entourage motif. I had already broken in the blue pair and then he told me to wear the other pair. I ended up walking barefoot at the end of the reception because I wasn't able to break in the pair I used.

7. The Flying Cannon Bouquet. Oh-ho! One thing I learned. Do not throw your wedding bouquet with too much force! My throw almost broke the ceiling. LOL!

8. Bridal One. We let go of the service car that brought me to church and brought us to the reception venue because we didn't have enough money on us. At the end of the reception we had no idea how to get back to the hotel. Good thing our dear friend Juned offered to take us to the hotel. His van was then baptized as, "Bridal One".

9. The Wedding Rings. The photographer borrowed our rings from the best man when we were preparing to leave for church. As I was leaving the hotel, I received a panicked call from Sweetie. The rings were not returned to him! Good thing our friend, Hana, offered to check the room and found it on the desk.

10. The Pesky Price Tag. We were kneeling down already when Sweetie noticed from the TV monitor that there was a white square thingy on the sole of his shoe. He moved his foot and realized that he forgot to remove the price tag of his shoe! My brother-in-law was laughing his head off because it happened to him too.

And the biggest bubu of all...

11. The Forgotten Wedding Gown. I got so stressed out the day before the wedding. I was brought to the hotel by our trusty driver and only realized halfway to the hotel that I forgot to bring my wedding gown! 


It's been seven months since our wedding and all these things are just really funny to us now (especially #9 adn #10). As OC as I am, there are things that will still fall through the crack. I'm glad that we just focused on enjoying our day and let these little mishaps go.

A Blog by Wedding Essentials Magazine

A few weeks ago I managed to attend the launch of Wedding Essential editor-in-chief Marbee Shing-Go and Cynthia Bauzon-Arre's blog, We Heart Weddings.

I got a chance to chat with Marbee and she said that blogging is really new for them but they thought it would be great to share more wedding stuff that they see and aren't able to include in the Wedding Essentials magazine. I was quite funny though when I met her since I am a fan of the Wedding Essentials magazine. I just had to relay to her what happened to my collection when typhoon Ondoy flooded my basement. I also told her that I wish they'd do another feature about different telas and she said that it's upcoming! Yay!

Welcome to the blogosphere Marbee and Cynthia!

Wedding Gowns in Divisoria

Since I had my entourage gowns sewn in Divisoria I had the chance to chat with the owner of the shop I got when I picked up the gowns. He was doing some bead work on a gown and shared quite a bit about their business. He said that prior to having the shop he did odd jobs (i.e. driver/kargador) and that sewing was actually much easier and would earn you more money.

He also shared that aside from walk-ins they get a lot of orders from designers (take note of this!). They just get the design and have this done in their factory located at the outskirts of Metro Manila. Here's a short video I took while I was in Divisoria (I just used my phone), in case you haven't gone there.



Take note though that Divisoria shops do not design wedding gowns. There are two ways you can get your gown from Divi:

1. Buy ready made. There are so many different designs to choose from and they usually have it in different sizes. You can also have it adjusted at the shop, but you will have to go back for it a few days after.

2. Have it custom made. You can choose a design from the multitude of catalogs they have in the shop or bring a copy of the design you want to have done. They will give you advise on what kind of cloth to use or you can request.

Cost: PhP3,500 and up (ready made/custom made)

Affordable Wedding and Entourage Gowns

One of the things that people usually ask me is where to get affordable wedding and entourage gowns. I personally wanted to wear an expensive gown for my wedding, so I went around town and met with several wedding designers. I went to see designers based in Makati, Paranaque and Marikina. Also scouted for some in nearby provinces and through wedding expos.

I was keen on getting a gown that cost at least PhP70,000. I wanted to use pinya as the cloth of my gown and PhP70,000 was the minimum amount we'd have to pay. Eventually though my practical side kicked in and refused to budge with the amount of money that needed to be shelled out for the wedding gown. I could not convince myself (being schizo here) to spend so much on something that I would wear for just one day. (My wedding gown has been neatly tucked away in its box and I haven't checked it since I kept it.)

My practical side won and I compromised by getting a designer that offered affordable wedding gowns. Here are some tips:

1. Have it made in nearby provinces - my cousin has a wedding shop in Quezon and she had very affordable packages, too bad she was out of the country when I was preparing for my wedding. My best friend had her gown made in Laguna and it just cost her around PhP7,000.

2. Affordable designers - I went to see quite a number of designers. I chose Amonn Velasco because he had good reviews and he was very accommodating. I had an unpleasant experience with a well-known designer based in Marikina so I told myself that the designer I would choose had to be someone I'd have good rapport with.

3. Divisioria - the most affordable wedding gowns are in Divi! You can either buy it ready made or you can have a design copied. One of my nieces designed all the gowns that the entourage wore and I just had it rendered in Divisoria. I have a rundown on how much gowns cost in Divisoria in this post.

4. Use your Mom's wedding gown - my Mom wanted me to wear her gown, too bad though I don't have an 18-inch waistline and my Mom wasn't sure if her 50-year old gown would stay up the whole day.

It's really up to you how much you want to spend on your gown. My practical side won out. Check out my wedding budget planner and think about it.

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.

A Love Story Told by Google

This was really brilliant!

Our Love Story Video

Finally after some trimming our dear friend-videographer Buddy Gancenia has uploaded our pre-nup video. The script, the planning and the shoot was done in just one day. I did the script an hour before Buddy and Jay showed up at home. The script revolved around our theme, "We Clicked" since both Jay and I are online junkies (he's a web consultant/developer and I work for a search engine). Some friends also suggested to use "500 Days of Summer" as inspiration for the love story AVP. I didn't watch the movie, but after watching the trailer on Youtube several times I got the gist.

So I traced back our "clicks" (days) from the first day we met and was surprised to find out that our wedding day would fall on our 800th click (the 800th day since we met). Anyway, here's the video of the clicks that happened before the wedding.

 

Homemade MTV

I would say that the best way to entertain your guests during your reception is by showing some videos. It may be a prepared pre-nup AVP (a summary of your love story) or some photos of videos of what transpired during your relationship. Sweetie and I made a pre-nup AVP together with our videographer (Buddy Gancenia), but we're still waiting for him to upload it on Youtube (he said he is still trimming it a bit). It was a gift from him and I just whipped up the script a couple of hours before he came to shoot our video.

We still keep in touch with our pre-cana classmates via email and one couple, Sherwin and Olive, shared an endearing homemade MTV. Here's their awesome video -

Choosing Your Florist

After that mishap with the bridal car provider, I would like to stress out further that one has to be careful in choosing suppliers. One of the things that I did before I booked suppliers was to read reviews about them, especially with the wedding gown designer (it's one of the most important things!). I also spent some time getting to know the suppliers who I only met during wedding expos.

Here's Lawrence dela Rosa of Angel of Hearts. We only managed to canvass for florists at the Themes & Motifs wedding expo last September. We choose Angel of Hearts because they owned the farm. Our wedding day was sandwiched in between holidays and we wanted fresh flowers, not flowers that had extended shelf lives because of the refrigerator.

Some tips from Lawrence about choosing a florist:



Aside from the flowers the husband and wife tandem also gave us advice about marriage.

Stall #13 Dos Castillas St. (Dangwa),
Sampaloc Manila/Stall #33 Manila Flower Center,
Laong Laan St., Sampaloc, Manila
Tel. No: (+632)742-5039
Telefax: (+632)749-1202
Mobile: (+63)920-9384610; (+63)918-5938212
(look for Lawrence or his wife Lory Jean)

Just Married!

I have just gone through one of the most magical moments in my life.

Watch here: