Live, Laugh, Love (Cams first blog post on wedding updates)

Live, Laugh, Love

Camille and Alexis

June 18, 2010

Holy Family Parish/Portofino clubhouse??

lets tackle these things one by one:

Stop! this will be a rather long read. You can pause in between. :)

June 18, 2010

I have always wanted to get married in the summer. It was summer when he proposed to me, it was a Sunny April afternoon. Anyway, I am a summer person. And I have always envisioned my wedding to be in the summer, or May, which is the month of flowers. So, when we sat down to discuss our wedding plans, I requested that we forego the popular 10-10-10, or 9-9-9 dates that people suggest and have the wedding in May. He agreed and the initial date we set was on the 21st of May next year, exactly 2 years, 1 month and 1 day after he proposed.

But as we were starting the preparations for the wedding, we came face to face with the reality that we can't decide on everything without considering the people around us. Because as my mom grew excited and told our close relatives about the date we have set, issues started to arise, since some of my closest uncles and aunts and cousins who live abroad would want to come home and attend my wedding. But they can't in May because the kids have classes. So my mom had to ask me if it was okay to move it in June. At first I didn't want to move it to June because I really wanted to get married in May, and I'm itching to get married already so that I can be with my babe. But I know that marriage is the start of a new life as a family, and I don't want to start that life with disappointed relatives, and I really want to share this moment with them anyway. Plus I'm positive that they will love my husband-to-be. We were just starting out together when they met him. So there... after a lengthy and almost heated discussion with my babe, we finally set the new (and final!) date to June 18, 2010. It falls on a Friday (my request) and the number 18 is his lucky jersey number (babe is an amazing basketball player). Now that we have set a date, the next step is to get a reservation for the church.

Holy Family Parish

There were just two choices for the church. One was the Holy Family Parish in Las Pinas, where we live and the Shrine of St. Therese in Pasay. A brief background of each, Holy Family is the church in the subdivision where babe and I served as members of Youth For Christ. Some of our activities were held there, and its where we go to mass when he was still working here. Its near our house and that of our close friends. Somehow that church felt like home to us and so I have always imagined getting married there. It has a beautiful altar and has an antique, southern feel. The Shrine of St. Therese on the other hand, was something that we just stumbled on. Underneath it was the columbarium where the crypt of a beloved friend and family is. The place below was nice and so we were intrigued by what the church above looked. It didn't fail to amaze us when we got up. It was stunning to say the least. One of the nicest churches I've seen so far. But it was really big, quite expensive and far from where most of our guests will be coming from.

So, we were torn between a church that had our fondest memories, or one which blew us away the first time we saw it, the feeling was almost like falling in love. We're both okay with either of the two so we prayed hard to be able to make that decision. Being the event planner that I am, I decided to look at the big picture and include other elements of the event. Like the nearby venues for reception, the difference in price, the location to guests, its relevance to our budget, and so, the OC girl in me made a table comparing these two churches and presented it to my fiancee. With real and actual figures (yes, I did some research) on ink, we were able to see the relevance of choosing the church to our budget and the whole event. And so, finally, we decided to go with the Holy Family Parish as the church for the ceremony. I secretly hoped that we would end up there, because it was where babe and I went to church even when we were kids (although we didn't know each other then of course). He was an altar boy there, while my family used to live in that subdivision. And I remember clearly what I was wearing, when after a YFC activity, we went to hear mass at the Holy Family, when he looked at me and sweetly whispered to me that he feels like we're already married. So marrying him in that church, makes it all the more romantic, don't you think? :)

Portofino

I came to know of the place when we attended a family reunion. From then on, I found the place to be promising for an elegant and intimate event. Although the next happenings in our lives brought a little melancholy to the venue, and we almost crossed it out of our list. I grew a little depressed about the whole thing for quite some time, since it was the most ideal place to have our reception (considering proximity to the Holy Family church, budget and our concept). Still, at the back of my mind, I kept on praying for it. Then, when I have started looking for other options, I got a go signal to put it back in our list. I was really grateful. Yet despite of that, I needed an insider ( a lot owner, or employee) to be able to book, or even just come in for an ocular. A distant relative works for the owner of the subdivision but I didn't want to use that connection because that means inviting other distant relatives to the event (when what we really want is an intimate gathering). Luckily, Babe's brother used to do sales for the subdivision and they were granted a lifetime membership meaning they can visit the place and have someone book events at the clubhouse. I'm so excited! I'll be a little tied up for the next few weekends, but I promised we'll have our visit on the next available Sunday! I'm still praying to for this... I hope I get prayers from you too. I'll update you when we get it. :)

Live, Laugh, Love

I've dreamed of a beach wedding from the time I started dreaming of marrying my boyfriend, now my fiancee. I love going to the beach, and so does he. Every time he comes to visit (he works abroad) we make it a point to schedule a trip to the beach. I loved the movie Mamma Mia for its unpretentious, laidback summer theme. Months after he proposed, I already looked at catalogues of summer dresses and even downloaded a reggae-inspired version of the Canon in D. So there was just one ultimate theme in mind for our wedding: summer, beach, flowers.

And then the change of date.

Practically and theoretically, I can't have a summer wedding in June. Although I believe in the power of offering eggs to St. Claire, and the trend to push through with the theme despite the season seems to be accepted by most, my being an event manager tells me to do otherwise. I just can't risk it. It's just one day and there will be no ulitan if the rain messes it up. Knowing that June is rainy season, I can insist on having my summer wedding. So...while daydreaming about my pre-nup photo with my babe, I pictured us just laughing and horsing around, and making a fool of ourselves and I can't help but realize that we are not the usual touchy feely couple, instead we are the playful couple who always joke around and laugh, chase and mimmick each other, doing all sorts of fun stuff together yet loves passionately. So, even though the live, love, laugh phrase is getting popular and I see it everywhere, I thought it describes us best as a couple.So I proposed this concept to my babe and he liked it, even more when I started getting all the aspects of the theme out of my head like the design of the venue, the program, etc. I promised to give him pegs/a presentation of how I visualize it in my head coz its hard to describe over the phone and email (and men are visual beings). I'll have to do that bit by bit every night (since I have a full schedule on the next few weekends. Do you know of wedding or bridal related websites that I can get inspiration from?:) Anyway, my babe was pretty much convinced, so we're going with the live,laugh,love theme :) Still, we're using the Pachelbel on the beach music for the processional, I already paid for it and it still applies with our personality as a couple :) (who wants the music? I'll try to load it here so you can here it)

I'm so excited as I begin the wedding preps :) Honestly, I didn't think it was gonna be this easy and this fun, but well, what can I say? I have the best groom and husband-to-be in the universe, a wonderful support-group and peers at W@w, supportive family and friends, and a lot of guts to do events since the previous weddings that I organized.

I'll be attending weddings expos and bridal fairs for the next few weekends, but hopefully I get a lot of things done before the week ends.

Happy preps to all the brides out there!