Wedding Series: Stress-free Entourage Outfits Organization

It's been a while! I have been struggling to find time to continue the wedding series, finally I get to sit down and start on it again. It has been one year since we got married, and there are so much I would love to share that might be able to help out upcoming brides. Let me start on the outfits of our entourage, and how we managed to make this part of our wedding planning stress-free and fun.

Our Entourage

The usual wedding practice when it comes to the entourage outfits was the entourage members pay for their own. The bride and groom usually are the ones who coordinate the making or ordering of these outfits. When it comes to the guys, it's a lot easier since the couple does not usually have to worry about it as the guys simply need to get their own suits or barongs - the look is pretty standard. Unless there is a specific outfit that the couple would want to have custom-made for them to wear. On the other hand, ladies's outfits are more meticulous because these are, more often than not, custom-made to match the motif or theme of the wedding. This part right here of the wedding planning could be tedious.

We're Finally Hitched!

Happy New Year all! I am happy to announce that we are officially hitched! After a year and a half of wedding preparations, we finally got married last December 5, 2015 at Archbishop's Palace, Villa San Miguel, followed by our wedding party at Light of Love Events Place. It was one of the happiest days of our lives. We totally had a blast!  I can't wait to blog about the details and my supplier ratings.

I promised myself that I would not get stressed on the wedding day - and I wasn't. I lifted everything up to God because I already did all that I could. And it turned out way better than we ever dreamed of.  No major set backs. The weather was cooperative.  Everyone was happy. It was quite an intimate affair, and people danced, drank, partied the night away. It was an amazing night. Our suppliers were great. Our friends and families were super! So much love from all of them! We just couldn't ask for more. 

Wedding Preps Series: Big Day is Coming!

We are barely two weeks away from our wedding day! I just can't believe it! Looking at my list I still have a lot to do! Yes. More than a year of planning, and here I am weeks from my wedding and I am still busy.

Quickly grabbed my tablet for updates. I missed you all bride to be's. My biggest dilemma is my wedding dress. It won't fit me comfortably since I got back from Cambodia 2 weeks ago. Imagine my horror. Since then I've been working out religiously, I'm watching my diet. No rice for now. Limited carb intake. I'm also drinking One Earth's Detox Trim Tea which seems to be effective. Since I started drinking it, I don't feel bloated at all.  I am selling a few more boxes, so email me if you're in need.  I don't starve myself - no one should! I just eat right. More fiber, whole grains are great, low fat yogurt, nuts, fruits ans veggies, fish, chicken breast. Easy on beef and pork.  I have no doubts I can fit into my dress comfortably again before the wedding. But I admit, I resent everything I ate in Cambodia.

Wedding Preps Series: Marriage License Application in Manila

I know we all hate this part right here.... (cue: I Hate This Part by Pussycat Dolls) 

But we do not have a choice, do we? If you are getting married, you must get a marriage license. So my post is here to help. We've already secured our license a month ago. Since I am from Manila we applied it in Manila City Hall.  It isn't as hard as we think, relax.

Road to Forever: Our Road Trip Themed Pre-nup Shoot

One sunny day in February, ten months away from our wedding, there we were driving, admiring Sierra Madre and posing for our pre-nup shoot. 

From the start we know what we wanted for our pre-nup shoot, we want it to be casual, fun and light. We want it to reflect us as a couple, and not some stiff actors or models the photographers want us to be.  When we first met Liz Rañola of Imagine Nation, our wedding photographer, and told her about our concept for the pre-nup shoot, she was giddy and excited. It made us even more excited too.

Ask Monique: Dangwa Florist

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you're all having a great weekend. Thank goodness I managed to squeeze in an entry, here's another mail from a reader. She was referring to my wedding florist post found here.

Hi Monique! This is Tina congratulations and best wishes :) thanks for your blog now i know where to get affordable and quality flower arrangements that we need, we are also getting married next year February,garden setting, im also maximizing our budget this blog is really helpful, i also love to put personal touch on our wedding,im planning to also do the aisle arrangements as you've shown, surely i'll look forward for more of your blogs re: wedding preps etc, thank you so much also if you are not busy pls do me a favor if you found something cool and amazing about wedding supplies or anything regarding weddings pls let me know :) gomeztinamarieyahoo.com thank you PS just a question,
 are the rates they gave from the wedding expo also the same rate when you go to their shop? thanks :) 

coz im searching for more of your blogs i found this page :)

Tina

Wedding Preps Series: Half-Year Mark!

Since we reached the 6 months mark, I'm getting more excited and into it. I more frequently go through my checklist now and I'm more focused in getting things done ASAP. It's been almost a year since we got engaged. Aside from the materialistic wedding planning stuff, I feel that our relationship continues to grow as we happily anticipate our wedding and plan it together.  It was certainly a challenge and a beautiful experience.

Our event planner from Hizon's Catering contacted me the other day for the final detailing schedule. How time flies!!!  It's scheduled next month. I've also locked up a date for our first meeting with our OTD wedding coordinator, Events Simplified,  sometime August. I have more events at work this year and need to travel more frequent, so I make sure to accomplish as much we can while I'm in town. 

My main target is to accomplish the wedding requirements. I look at this aspect of the wedding planning as a tedious job, but as I review the process and requirements, it seems it is not so complicated after all. We already have all the forms needed from our church, but looks like it's still too early to get these done, so we just have to wait. Good thing the priest who will officiate our wedding is my mom's friend, so less hassle to get things signed, secure certain certificates, have misallette approved, etc. The marriage license we also need to wait until August before we can apply since it's validity is only 4 months. Now this is the waiting game.

Next thing was the Growing Up AVP which I promised I will personally create. I've taken a crack on it, and actually found it therapeutic. 

Wedding Preps Series: Dangwa Florist Booked

Flowers is one thing (of the things) I don't want to splurge on for our wedding. I'd rather receive something edible than flowers that I have no use of and will wilt after a few days. I don't hate flowers,  they're beautiful creations of God, I just don't find it worthy to spend so much on them. Unfortunately, we need flowers for our wedding and flower arrangements can be really expensive, there's nothing I can do about those two facts of life. But, I can do something to lessen the cost of flowers - there always is!

Wedding Preps Series: Divisoria Finds Part 1

It's our first trip for our wedding needs to the wonderland you'll hate and love at the same time - Divisoria. It was exhausting as much as fulfilling and exciting.

Some of our finds today:

In Juan Luna St., I got some art supplies that I need for DIY-ing. You can't get them in retail, only wholesale.  The Japanese paper (for the paper poms) was P25 per pack of 24 pcs. I also got some coloring and activity books for our kids entourage for P78 per dozen - what a steal! I wasn't able to buy crayons,  but they were priced at P90 per dozen (packs of 8).  I was supposed to buy some illustration boards and brown folders, but minimum purchase requirement was too many for my needs. 

Wedding Preps Series: Why Am I Marrying Anyway?

It's been several months since I started The Wedding Preps Series to share the nitty gritty of our wedding planning. I wrote about wedding suppliers, venues, budget perspectives and tips. Wedding planning is always so much focused on the logistics aspect, but I must not forget that it will happen only because of one thing, and one thing alone: I will marry a man. It's just right that I write about the very reason why I'm preparing for such celebration. (Even though I know he hates attention.) It's Valentine's after all.

Wedding Preps Series: Entourage Cards and Pre-nup Shoot Preps

Happy New Year! It's less than a year to go before our big day! I've been so lazy lately. I enjoyed the Holidays so much, I didn't lift a finger to do any wedding prep since November. I'm thinking, I want to get married already and start decorating our home! Guess I started planning too early, and now I seem to be losing interest in this whole wedding planning. But now that it's already 2015, we need to get back to work.

I've started sending out e-cards to some of our entourage. Mostly secondary sponsors only - who are siblings and cousins. The rest we'll inform later when we get to finalize the entire list.

Here are some of the cards I made. I had fun doing them all. This brought my excitement back, and I can say: now we're talking! This is it. We're moving forward.

Yes, these give away our motif. I might do a separate post about motifs soon.

Wedding Preps Series: Major Suppliers Are In Before Year Ends

Though I'm not feeling well while writing this, I know I'm relieved to have booked (almost) all major wedding suppliers before the year ends. That made us exempted from any possible price increase next year. Most were booked with promos, big plus! Also one of the major advantages was locking the date, it is so important.

Here's our dream team as of today:

Wedding Preps Series: Photo & Video Suppliers Hunt

With all the photographers and videographers in the wedding industry I almost

didn't know where to begin. All I know was our budget isn't unlimited and we don't want too post-processed photos and video.  We've decided we want an SDE (same day edit) and as months pass by I find myself becoming more and more picky when it comes to SDE portfolios I see. While I give it to my fiance the decision on the photo aspect as he's more knowledgeable.

FemaleNetwork.com's Girl Talk was a big help. I learned about so many suppliers through it.

And so the hunt began.

I've inquired with so many suppliers and viewed countless photos and SDEs. It was crazy. It was tiring as some point. I also joined Ruffa&Mike and Jake Olaso's promo in the hopes if winning a free photo and video coverage. Unfortunately, they were both booked on the date of our wedding. So let that go. Back to the hunt.

Our ceiling budget is 50k for the photo and video. It's a gift my parents would gladly give us for our wedding. So I need to stick to that budget and still have the quality of the photos and video we wanted. I will share our shortlist,  as well as the full list of photo and video suppliers we considered:

Philippine Wedding Trends: Celebration or Show Off?

I have always envisioned my wedding to be intimate, surrounded by closest friends and family, perky, light, happy. When I started planning for our wedding months ago, I found myself overwhelmed by all the elements that are expected in a wedding here. Of course, I've been to several weddings before and even then I know that wedding trends here have just gone above and beyond what the essentials are.  It felt like Filipina brides undergo peer pressure and this pushes them to put together this typical modern Filipino wedding - which is way beyond simple, by the way.

Photo source: www.praiswedding.com

My mom would always tell me, you do not need to have lots of money in order to get married. Thinking of what a typical wedding here is, that's impossible! But I know what she meant - what is a wedding for anyway? Go define it yourself.

Wedding Preps Series: Church Booked for the Big Day!

The most important booking of the wedding done! After days of calling their office to check if we can already book our wedding for next year, finally Archbishop's Palace opened their 2015 calendar for bookings. And we're the very first couple who booked for that year!

I was on my way back to office from warehouse when I called the chapel and got the good news. Since August 31, I have been calling their office daily to check if booking for 2015 is already open because I certainly do not want to risk losing out on the slot for our date. We decided that we do not want any other church as Archbishop's Palace definitely is perfect for what we wanted - a solemn and intimate wedding ceremony in a small air-conditiondioned church or chapel.

We can just imagine spending our Sunday family mornings here with our (soon to be) kids :)

Wedding Preps Series: First Grand Food Tasting with CVJ

Yan's most awaited part of our wedding preps: food tasting! Yesterday we went to our very first food tasting at the CVJ Clubhouse in Marikina.

The place was fully set up as if a wedding will take place. There was a lighted buffet table where their best-sellers were served. We were given a menu of the items being served that day. I was so happy to see Yan taking lead for the first time since we started planning our wedding. He was the one really assessing each dish and checking and crossing out items on the menu. It's what it takes to get him to participate - FOOD.

Wedding Preps Series: An Awesome Wedding Need Not Be Super Expensive

Every girl dreams of being a bride on her own fairy tale wedding.  As I grow up and take on adult responsibilities, realizations dawned on me that it is not practical to splurge most of our hard-earned money for a one-day event. Yes, it may be one of the most important days of our lives, but I cannot bear the thought of spending half a million bucks just for that. I just can't.  

Before I begin, let me clarify that this is my opinion and I truly respect the opinions of others who'd rather have grand weddings. Many believe that it's a once in a lifetime event, which is true, and worth-splurging for. Dream weddings vary and do what makes you happy.

Now that I am clear with that and hopefully no bride-to-be's will bash me, I will begin...

Last year I bought a condo unit and, of course, I am paying for its amortization. With that being said, I do not have the liberty now of splurging on unnecessary things.  I grew up being money-wise, thanks to my mom. I usually do not splurge on expensive things even if I have money to do so. I have never in my life experienced being "broke" or short of cash because I always make saving a priority. (Plus the fact that I do not pay for rent, food, power bills, etc. right now) With a condo unit I am paying for, it would be impractical to do a really expensive wedding.

Luckily, I have always imagined my wedding to be a small one, intimate rather than grand.  Surrounded only by our closest family and friends. That's my dream wedding.

Three principles I am sticking with:

1. Spend on what matters
2. Maximize your budget
3. Creativity is the key

Wedding Preps Series: First visit at Light of Love Events Place

Wedding preps on the way. This is it.

A week after Yan proposed to me (and of course I said yes), we went to visit Light of Love in QC.  There was a time I got really into researching and planning for our future wedding even if we were not yet engaged. And the venue, of course, was my first priority in mind. I have researched so much and read so many feedback from blogs and forums. Compared this and that, weighed the pros and cons. I finally ended up loving Light of Love's Atrium, its glass ceiling, chandelier, intimacy, reasonable rates, and thought 'this is it' - my venue of choice. But those were the days when I was only dreaming. Now it's really happening. I did not think of re-visiting my other venue choice and my mind and heart stuck with LOL.

I immediately contacted the AE I was emailing before to get the updated rates. I was not planning to book the place yet until August after my business trip abroad, but when I found out that almost all weekends of December 2015 were booked already, I panicked.  I can't lose the place!