upping the ante

This blog was inspired by one of the blogs that I was following, Wedding For Two. In Sex in the City (the movie), Carrie said to Big, that her dress "upped in ante". What was supposed to be a simple intimate wedding turned out to be one for show. Well, we all know how that turned out.

This got me thinking, well, I have always known that I'll have a fabulous dress on my wedding. So it wasn't the reason for upping the ante. What did it for me was the month. I am a June bride. Getting married on the wedding month, I had the thinking that mine had to be really really nice for it to stand out from the other weddings. Suddenly I had the urge to get just the best suppliers even though their rates are waay above our budget, invite guests who really weren't part of our priority just so they'd be pleased that they were invited, and make up the need for other favors that are really just add-ons in a wedding. Its like I wanted to comply with the requirements of a magazine bride. Upon reading the blog entry from Wedding For Two, I realized I was starting to lose sight of what is essential. Just because ours was a June wedding, I was suddenly trying to make it special for them and not for me. It was turning into the word that I have been trying to avoid since the start of the whole wedding preps - GRAND. Good thing I was dehypnotized from all the wedding porn that early.

I want my wedding to be fun, heartfelt and personal. I don't want my wedding to be another one of those weddings for show and to get so out of control that my groom will be driving away in a Limo. So now I'm trying to stand my ground on the number of guestlists, with choosing the right suppliers, those who are low-key but delivers what WE want, and just saying NO to those things that aren't really important to us.

But yes, we're still kinda upping the ante when it comes to our taste levels, it has become more stylish and more classy, but we're staying within budget and going for our priorities. It will still be the same fun, heartfelt and personal wedding and hopefully, still very affordable :)

my wedding photographer

Who are they? Well, I'll be meeting with them this Saturday, hopefully. I pray that we are a supplier-client perfect match. I was so impressed with the photos in their website/blog that I think I look at it everyday. Our few email correspondences tell me that they are professional and have good background and reputation.
Then again, they had me at their signature phrase, that's almost same to our wedding theme, and just a few words that describe me and babe.
You might think its too early for me to be writing about them, but its fine, since I won't be saying who they are yet (just in case they aren't who I thought they were when I meet them).. Its just that, when things get too hectic with the preps, or they give me headaches because their rates aren't exactly how much I'd like to spend for photos, I want to be reminded of why I got them in the first place, and this blog entry will do just that.

It's not surprising when I say that I'm getting them for their expertise. They have such impeccable eye for details and their photos come out classy, romantic yet real at the same time. It has a certain light that I think the sun exudes naturally when two people are in love. Honestly, with the quality of pictures they produce, I think they're actually charging pretty low. But that's fine with me, for now ;) hahaha. I have several friends (and relatives) who I believe, can take nice pictures, especially since they know our style and personality as a couple. That's great, but of course, I want a team who has dedicated their time capturing beautiful moments of people in love, thus, they should be real wedding photographers. I can't and I won't entrust my wedding pictures to newbies, just this once.

And then, its because they don't seem like the more popular wedding photographers who will go around making a scene and stealing the limelight from us on our wedding. I have a feeling they will be very low-key, not demanding a lot, not directing every minute of how we should act and pose, but just quietly taking beautiful shots of our most cherished moments.

See, our wedding should be sacred, intimate, and I guess, I just want people, our family and friends who have witnessed our love story, to feel that its not one of those weddings that aims to make a show. There are moments in a wedding that should be quiet and heartfelt, yet vibrant of the love between the bride and groom. With my experience in weddings, I've noticed that sometimes, just to be able to get a dramatic shot, photographers ruin that moment by directing everything. I don't want that for my wedding. I want our friends to be able to come near us when they want to, and would like most of our time enjoying the moment with our loved ones than creating poses. I just felt that, with the way their pictures turned out, that they are the type of photographers who are unobtrusive yet delivers beautifully.

So there... I look forward to meeting the husband and wife team that I will get to be our photographers on June 18,2010. I even asked babe to give me a call when I meet them, just so we're sure that both of us made the decision. I hope everything goes out terrific. Pray for me :)

so busy...

so much to tell, or write, and no time to do it. I'm so busy at work now. I'm enjoying it, but of course, I'd rather dedicate most of my time to my hobbies :)

I'm excited to blog about my updates and show off my DIYs.

Soon I guess. Please pray for me. I think my prayer regarding the venue is about to be answered. I'll let you know. Its almost the weekend anyway, I'll allot time to blog, I promise.

For now, let me leave you with these beautiful images :)

Wedding for Two

I've been reading a lot of wedding blogs lately, but only the ones that make me think and try to be creative, and not the ones that make me want to wallow in self-pity. in fairness, i found a lot belonging to the first category. Just like that of wedding for two, a practical wedding, and offbeat bride. There's a lot, actually.


Just wanna share with you this nice illustration. Simple. But really, if we're turning into show directors-slash-dictators while preparing for our wedding (or in other words, Bridezilla), this ought to put some sense to our weddingporn engorged heads.

my personal mission statement - draft pa lang :)

In time for the season of reflection, I attended a 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for Associates Seminar. And one of the exercises was to make a draft of our personal mission statement. To be able to find our goal, our purpose... and to begin with an end in mind each day. So I just thought I'd share this to you :)

Disclaimer: first draft toh ah, so its nearly not perfect... but in the light of the lenten season, I just like to share this :)

April 7, 2009

To become the daughter, the sister, the wife, the mother, the friend, the hero, the blessing that God created me to be.

To make my parents proud, not because I ended up exactly how they want me to be, but because although I chose to lead a different path, I am a reflection of how well they raised me.

To provide a happy, solid environment for my children in the future. To be a nurturing mother and friend.

To be all that I can be to my (future) husband. A partner, a lover, a companion, a crying shoulder, a fan, a wife and a bestfriend.

To create lasting moments of happiness with my loved ones; to spend my life loving them and laughing with them.

To be the voice of women. To make sure each girl is treated like a princess, and every single lady know her unique beauty and capability.

To be the woman that God wanted me to be.

Just reposting nice blog entries

Yes, I suddenly had the urge to repost some of the nice blog entries I found from different wedding blogs :) This one below is a good read :)


http://www.apracticalwedding.com/2009/03/what-happened-with-i-stopped-reading.html

Just so you know, I'm really not ready to kick the habit of reading wedding blogs just yet. I guess because I'm enjoying and still learning from a lot of them. Especially in the best suppliers to get. I also visit blogs of several wedding suppliers. Of course, I have to be in the know ;)

Anyway, maybe I should just work on my new post (which I haven't finished yet) before I repost other entries :)

Posted from Wedding Bee

I was trying to take a breather by browsing weddingbee one time, and I came across this blog written by Ms. Glitter. Except for the first paragraph (which is totally opposite) and the part about the groomsmen's ties (I totally knew that), it was so me! It was like I wrote this blog and felt it by heart...

Anyway, let me share it to you na lang:

Can I tell you a secret? I’ve never planned an event in my life (unless you count a friend’s birthday at a local restaurant as “event planning”). And I don’t know what I’m doing. Shhh, don’t tell anyone.
Often times, I feel genuinely out of my league when reading through the posts of other bees or looking at weddings in magazines or online. Picture-perfect brides remind me of that girl from one of my college English classes. She always had the correct answers, and her nail polish matched her shoes. Next to her, I felt like the awkward girl in the back of the classroom who needed to borrow your pen and wasn’t caught up on my reading. I was always one step behind.
I care about wedding planning (or I wouldn’t be blogging about it), but I’ve got to be honest with myself: I’m a big picture type of person. Ask me what marrying Mr. G means to me, and I could probably write a novel about it. Ask me if the groomsmen’s ties should be matching the bow on the bridesmaids’ dresses, and my indecisiveness takes over.
I have general concepts of what I want everything to look like and how I want the day to run. But, now it’s crunch time.T-minus three months to go. Wedding tasks are becoming very specific. Details, details, details. I feel myself wanting everything to be just right. Since when did I become a perfectionist? And who said everything had to be perfect, anyway? I’ve got my stomach in knots every night. But why? Maybe I’m trying to be the flawless girl from English class. But I can’t be her; I can only be me.
I need to remember to remain true to Mr. G and I, and what we want our wedding to be. Weddingbee and other sources of inspiration have helped me tremendously. Without them, I honestly don’t know where I would be. But, when all of this is done, I can guarantee two things: my wedding will be over and I’ll be married. Through all of this, Mr. G and I may not be featured in Martha Stewart Weddings. It probably won’t be perfect, but I hope I’ll love it because it will be ours.
Have you found yourself striving toward wedding perfection? How have you dealt with that need to get every detail just right?

updates, wishful thinkings and divi-ilaya trip

I was really the busy with work the past few weeks, events here and there, I wasn't even able to devote time to our business. But more than that, I missed the wedding preps. Imagine, almost a month passed by and I haven't done that much preparations except look up some photographers, go to bridal fairs and my proposed venue.

I guess Babe and I are pretty much done with the conceptualizing thing na, we basically know what we want for our big day. So we're entering the implementation stage na kaya lang its kind of in a halt kasi before anything else, I really want to finalize the reception venue.

The last I heard about it from my future brother-in-law, the management hasn't gotten back to him. Apparently they're busy because they're moving to a new office. So no progress there yet. At the same time, I have finished drafting the letter for our town's congresswoman slash the owner of the clubhouse. I still haven't printed it out though, I'm stil dilly-dallying on whether I should send it. But I badly want to finish booking the venue, that was my objective for March and its now the first day of April :( so I might just send that letter after all.

Anyway, we held our event last weekend in a hotel, and it really made me smile that despite the fact that I wanted to be somewhere else that time, I was surrounded by happy brides...and grooms of course. There were 5 weddings in the hotel on that date! Well, it was a Saturday, and it was one of the more popular and nicest hotels in the metro. So even though I was just so exhausted and wanted nothing more than to be at home and chat with my babe, just looking at the brides and how radiant they are and how pretty their dresses are, with their grooms holding their hands and they entourage and guests dressed in their best, that somehow made me smile and eased the exhaustion that I was feeling. My favorite was when I realized that one bride has the same color motiff as mine (nice dresses too) and then there was a semi-bride wars moment. Two couples crossed paths at the hotel. And it was sweet that although they didn't stop, they smiled at each other and wished each other the best. It was nice to see something like that at random.

And then of course, even though I have been so busy and tired working all week, I didn't let the weekend pass without me doing some shopping and a bit of wedding preps. So because my MOH and Bridesmaid stood me up :( , I just went with my cousin to Divi. Lets just say it was a tiring day. But fulfilling because I was able to score nice clothes, bag, shades, etc. I went to Ilaya to find swatches for my wedding gown and entourage's gown, but I was disappointed. I was expecting a mecca of cloths of different colors, but it wasn't that much. Well, it was partly my fault since I really didn't know what to ask for naman and I really went just to know what kind of cloths and colors were out there. Anyway, I'll leave it all up to my designer.

Those are the updates for now. Hopefully I hear from Portofino soon. Of course I need to pay the reception venue first before I pay for the caterer and for the photographer right? oh wel...