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