skip to main |
skip to sidebar
SCENARIO 1:I read somewhere over the net that if you are getting married in the Philippines, you must allocate around P227,000 to P295,000 for 100 guests (Gasp!). Add P18,000-22,000 for the on-day wedding coordinator. Is that furreal?
SCENARIO 2:
One time at lunch, I overheard a bride-to-be thinking about how much to spend on her wedding. She said to her friend that she plans to save P500,000 max for their wedding. She explained that having a P100,000 wedding is cheap. She has guests coming from abroad to consider. Half a million?! For a wedding?! (me dies in seat) I'm amazed how couples budget so much for a wedding. Where do couples get that kind of money? I wanna know. Really.
I said to myself I'll not slave myself over unnecessary wedding details. But here I am, battling on what fonts to use at our invitations. What font complements this font and that. What color should I use? Uh-oh.
Since I'm in the DIY movement for our wedding, I'm planning to DIY our flowers, too. I was thinking of buying flowers in bulk at the local market and arranging them with the help of my bridesmaids. We'll just tie the flowers with some ribbons and viola! Flowers for the wedding.
I like roses, so I'll definitely have pink roses for my bouquet. Hand-tied pink roses. 
For my bridesmaids, we can tie calla lillies for each lady. 
For the mothers, pink or orange mums and as buttonaires, a single pink rose bud. For the church, maybe some mums and hydrangeas in different colors. Or sunflowers! 
I'll search for other flowers that I can use. But I don't know how much these flowers cost. Note to self: canvas flowers and look for a vendor.*All images are from the Knot.
Bridal shows. I have a sort of love 'em-hate 'em affair with bridal shows. There are times when I want to go to learn what's out there for brides, to know the latest at weddings, know wedding vendors, etc. But there are times when I'm hesitant to attend a bridal fair, thinking that I'll be overwhelmed with the possibilities, wedding ideas and information that I'll scrap whatever it is I've planned to do and just go with what I saw at the bridal fair. (Info overload!!!) Sometimes I think that bridal shows would raise the bar to the highest and make my wedding plans seem inconsequential, not at par and it would just push me to pay for things/people that I never planned of having in the first place. But what the heck. I'll go to a bridal show and see what's out there, find inspirations and incorporate them to our wedding. A bridal fair sounds fun. Maybe I'll find something that I can use, maybe I'll feel a bit sorry that I went, I'll never know.
Pink and brown. Use pink as the main color with brown as accents. It looks cute, right? The image is from flickr.
I'm planning on DIYing our wedding invitations. I'll call it "Project Wedding Invite". The invitation is a great way of being creative at a wedding. You can experiment with different designs and layout to see what you like instead of just paying a pre-prepared invitations that have been used by many couples. Making your own invitations can be therapeutic (I think), as long as there are no tiny ribbons for me to tie! It can save you money, too. Family and friends can help me as I do this Project. It will be a fun bonding experience for me and the people close to me.
I'm searching the web for wedding gown designs. I have ideas on how I want my gown to look like. I want a gown that: 1.Is light. I want to wear something where I can easily walk and dance. A gown that I can wear by myself without the help of my bridesmaids or the make-up artist(!). A gown that will follow my motions. 2.Will complement my pear-shaped body. 3.Is a bit different. Something that you don't usually see in Pinay brides (i.e. ballgown silhouette, petticoats, tons of fabric (waaah!) I have some gown inspirations from the Knot.
At the moment, I love the last one. It's by Vera Wang. :)
My fiancé (I'll refer to him as “The Cook” since he's a cook) and I want a simple wedding. He's lucky that I'm a girl who only wants simple at her wedding. :) If finances are really tight, I'm OK with wearing a cocktail dress and having only our immediate families and some friends at the wedding. Afterwards, we'll go to a good restaurant where we'll celebrate our union with delicious food. I am THAT simple. He's lucky.
But, since we have time to save for our wedding, I'm thinking of having a wedding which is in the middle of a lavish wedding and a Civil-type wedding. A wedding which is not so over-the-top but also not so simple as the one I described above.
Here are the things that I want our wedding to be:
1. A reflection of who we are. A wedding which shows our guests our values and personalities as a couple and as individuals. I want guests to take a glimpse of who we are and not just know our names. I've been to weddings where I only knew the bride and I have no idea whom she married. I have relatives and friends who are not from my province and I want them to know The Cook even for a short period of time. And I want his relatives and friends to know me also aside from referring to me as “Yung girlfriend ni _____” (She's the girlfriend of (insert name of the boy).
2. Family-oriented. I want our families to join us in the wedding preparation and be included in the wedding proper as well. I'm thinking of asking family members to do the Bible readings, cook their specialty dishes for the reception, provide the music, etc. Families are there to support us and what better way to bond with them but to include them at our preparations.
3. Fun. I want our wedding where we and our guests will have fun. Many weddings are so structured and with so many rules there's no element of fun or adventure in it. If you're a guest, you go to the ceremony, take pictures of/with the couple, go to the reception venue, eat in a buffet, take pictures with tablemates, watch the traditional bouquet/garter toss (which only involved the bridesmaids and groomsmen), the cutting of the cake and opening of gifts, get the favors, then go home. Sometimes I feel like a robot when I attend weddings and getting the favors is my trigger that the wedding is over and I have to go home. No fun. What are the fun things I want to include at our wedding? I'm still thinking about dancing. The Cook is hesitant.
I'm an avid reader of Meg's wedding blog and I'll use her by-line.
4. Creative. My college is in the Arts and Sciences and there should be some creative juices in me. I've been in play productions, poetry reading sessions and I have friends who are artists which could help me in my endeavor to be creative at our wedding. This is where “personalized” comes in.
5.Thrifty. I don't want us to spend an arm and leg to pay for the wedding and then be broke the next day. There are other things more important to save and spend money on. Like payment for a lot where we'll build our home, doctor and lab fees when I get pregnant, tuition fees of our future children, etc. Which one do you like, a grand and expensive wedding or your own nice home in a safe surrounding? I'll pick the latter.
6. Sane. Who wants to be a bridezilla? Definitely not me.
These are the things which will help me in planning our wedding. I'll look at it everytime to guide me in my quest of having a personalized and simple wedding that we can truly call our own.
I'm lucky that our parish priest (whom I want to officiate our wedding) is a simple priest. Last Sunday, he talked about guidelines of the Church on weddings. He said the Church asks for a donation of P1,500 (USD32) for a couple to get married. Just P1,500 and two people can get married in Church. Weddings are expensive nowadays since people want to put non essential things in a wedding. For example, he said couples (and their families) want lots of flowers, a carpeted aisle in Church, a choir, videos, bright lights, etc. All these are not important in a wedding. The things that are important in a wedding are the couple who are getting married and a maximum of four witnesses (or sponsors). That's it. There's no need to have a long list of sponsors since only four names will be included in the registry. I feel that couples want many sponsors in their weddings to augment the cost of the wedding. Even if they spend lots of money for their wedding, they still have sponsors who will give them money (called “pakimkim”) as gifts. :)
The Priest said that we have to use our heads and common sense when having a wedding. There is no need for a “Little Bride and Little Groom”. What is the purpose of having them in your entourage aside from adding “cute” factor in the wedding? Not only do you pay for the bride's wedding gown, you also have to dress the “Little Bride”. Another non essential wedding thing. He informed us that children who will be included in the entourage (Ring/Bible/Arrhae bearers and flower girls) must be 6 years old and above. Children lower than that age would only disrupt the wedding ceremony since they would only be noisy and cry a lot and you need to pay more attention to them when they play around the church. I agree!
Everytime the Priest gives advice about wedding, I can't help but smile. We are on the same wavelength when it comes to what's important in a wedding. He wants to change the wedding norm in our parish. No lavish ceremonies, no designer wedding gowns, no long list of sponsors, no reception with lots of guests (whom usually are not known to the couple who got married) no to things that are not important. Just a simple ceremony that solemnizes the unification of two people who vow to love and be with one another till the rest of time. Oh so sweet!
I'm engaged. Yey! Then what?
I'm getting married and I created this blog to be a corner in the web where I can put my thoughts into words, share my ideas, maybe inspire people as I plan my wedding. The wedding will not be THE wedding of the year nor the grandest wedding in the area. It will be a wedding which hopefully will reflect my own and my soon-to-be-husband's personalities and values. Our own wedding. Period.
Now, on with the planning!
