Your Wedding Ring

When Sweetie started planning to propose to me he didn't have a clue where to get me an engagement ring. Good thing we had a friend, based in Cagayan de Oro, who's Mom owned a jewelry shop. He lost no time and enlisted her help in his grand proposal plan (and that included getting my ring size by stealth!). 

We decided to get our wedding rings from the same friend (Golconda Jewels in CDO). Sweetie wasn't comfortable wearing accessories (he didn't even wear a watch back then) and he was happy that I just wanted a traditional set. We went for white gold. The big plus was our rings were handcrafted Philippine gold and we got to meet the artisan who made it.

Here's the desk Manong works on to make jewelry.

Manong check the size of our rings.

Doing some polishing.

Our handcrafted white gold wedding rings. 

 

 

 

How to Make Your Pre-Nup Video (Your Love Story)

Good friend and famous videographer, Buddy Gancenia, was our heaven-sent (gift from Ninang Janette) wedding story teller. Aside from documenting our wedding Buddy offered to do our pre-nup video as his wedding gift. We actually just planned to make our own since our budget was limited, so Buddy's offer was very much welcome.

We set a date to shoot the video almost 2 months before the wedding. I just wrote the script when Buddy was on his way from Quezon City to Paranaque. I crammed everything in less than 2 hours. It was quite hard to jump-start the script but this is more or less how I structured it (and basically what I do whenever friends ask me to make their pre-nup vids):

Theme
Timeline
Important Highlights of Your Love Story
- When and where you met
- How things started
- How he courted you
- How you said yes
- Highlights of your relationship
- The proposal
What you love about each other (suggested by Buddy)

I had no idea what to do with our video since Buddy said he wanted to interview us. What I wanted to do was share the gazillion of photos and videos we had. One of my friends suggested I follow the flow of the movie, "100 Days of Summer". So I thought our theme should be related to the internet since we both loved blogging and our jobs were IT related. I then traced the timeline of our love story and discovered that our wedding day was the 800th day since we met each other. I then proceeded to unearth photos and videos to show highlights of our relationship leading to the proposal. The rest was Buddy's magical secret sauce.

Here's what Buddy came up with based on the script/timeline I wrote -

I've made a couple of pre-nup vids for my friends and so far all of them were happy with what I made. It was made out of love so I don't think I'd make one for people I don't know. Making your own video or working closely with your videographer would surely make your story-telling much more personal. 

Do You Need Pre-nup Photos?

When Sweetie and I were planning our wedding one of the tasks we had listed was to have a pre-nup photo. Most of our plans though flew out the window since we lost 6 critical weeks from our planning time because of Typhoon Ondoy. Because we had to take care of other things we decided that we didn't need to have a formal pre-nup photo shoot because we had a gazillion of photos from the first time we met. We both loved taking photos so our real problem was choosing what to use.

Our dear friends, Markku and Hana, offered to do a pre-nup shoot for us, but I was so busy traveling around the country because of some work projects I just said we'd take up their offer for a post-wedding shoot (we haven't done it until now haha).

Sweetie joined me in one of my trips to Cagayan de Oro. Aside from work we managed to meet the artisan who hand-crafted our rings. My dear friend's Mom owned the jewelry store (Golconda Jewels) so we entrusted our rings to her (and Sweetie got my engagement ring from them too). Honey (my friend) brought us to see the Del Monte pineapple plantation and to have lunch at the golf course club house. And since we had our camera we decided to have some casual pre-nup photos taken. We thought it would depict us better than having a staged-all-made-up photo session (well that's just us).

I gave the same advise to friends who got married. Throughout their relationship I would take their photos and I eventually used this to surprise them with their love story video. Instead of getting them a traditional gift I printed for them photos from way back in the 90s to the present to show how their love progressed through the years. They were really happy about it and said it was good to see photos of the two of them since they were young (I guess I always knew that they'd end up together).

So my advise is, take as many photos throughout your relationship before tying the knot. This would should your family and the rest of your friends who didn't really see how your relationship grew. And well it's something you can show to your kids later on. 

Because Videos Should Be Fun!

One of my colleagues pinged me this awesome pre-nup (I assume it's pre-nup) video. Made me smile.

Watch it!

Book: The Power 7 Wedding Suppliers

I got this in the mail a few weeks ago. A book compiled by Thunderbird Resorts with the title, "The Power 7 Wedding Suppliers". The thick book shows the awesome work of some of the wedding industry's popular suppliers. 

A dear college friend, Ernest Pascual, is a revered wedding coordinator. When Sweetie and I were planning our wedding I bumped into him a couple of times at wedding events and he was always rushing around together with his client. I had no doubt that Ernest would make it big as a wedding planner because he's so creative and has a great eye for details.

As I was leafing through the book I was awed with the handiwork of the the different suppliers featured. The well-thought out themes for the weddings, the beautiful bridal gowns, the heartfelt photography reminded me how exciting it is to plan one's wedding. Each and every page was a feast to the eyes and certainly awakened my creative juices. It was like putting together all the magazine and resources I read online in one book.

Planning your wedding? Get a copy of this book and see the fabulous work of some of the top suppliers in the wedding industry. 

Thanks to Thunderbird Resorts for sending me a copy of the book!