When A Wedding Planner Plans Her Wedding - Page 5
I asked my fiancé the three most important things for him for our wedding. He said he wants good food, since we are both trained chefs. Years from now your guests will only remember the good food that was served in your wedding.
We are planning to serve steak as we sell steak at our reataurant as well. :)
)
Next one for him is the attire. The pictures/wedding video will be the only thing that will be left for us that we can show our kids and grandchildren in the future, so it is important to look good in them.
This is what by bestfriend's husband wore. A great fitting suit will accentuate a man's body.
 "White groom style")
Lastly, the honeymoon. Because we both love to travel and he said that preparing for the wedding is not as important as preparing for married life. The honeymoon will be our first trip as a married couple and it has to be special, as we might be making our future child there. Lol. That's exactly how he said it. ?
)
I cannot argue with this as i value those things as well. However, when he asked me i told him something different. Keep in mind that i was thinking towards the allocation of our budget.
My first would be the photographer/videographer. With our small budget to work with, we will have to choose which of the two to splurge on. I want to have a tear-jerker, take-your-breath-away SDE and possibly a wedding trailer. However, photographs of our wedding that we can display in our home are very important too. Both capture on the day events that will let you re-live the day over and over again, even long after it's done. What about you, which would you give a bigger budget to?
This is a wedding photo of Metrophoto by Oly Ruiz.
)
My second would be make-up. Yes, i am going to be a bit selfish about this as this is the day i'm supposed to be my most beautiful self. And as much as i would like to think that the best photographers will help me look like Jennifer Lopez or Kim Kardashian on the big day, i know this is not possible. I have seen many good wedding photographs that have been edited and choreographed, but bad make-up will always, ALWAYS show.So this i am willing to put my money on.
)
)
Lastly, i want beautiful and classy styling. I want the aura of the place to look and feel the way i will feel that day. Classy, elegant, and happy. Being a stylist by profession, this means a lot to me. Good thing though i know people and suppliers that will help me save enough money so we can allocate the budget for something else.
Styling i did and our company's wedding fair sample setup
 "Purple wedding reception decor")
)
I feel it is important to know which are the top three suppliers that you and your spouse value. This will help you decide on which to splurge on and which one to adjust. Even though with us our priorities are kind of different, we now know how we can compromise.
I have already done my research about churches a long time ago. And after working in the wedding industry, i have grown my knowledge even more with the different kinds of churches within metro manila. When my fiancé wanted to look at churches, we embarked on a roadtrip to Rizal. Here are the churches that we saw.
The first church one we saw was Piazza Della Trasfigurazione. This was located along the highway so it would be very easy for the guests to find. The parking is ample as well. The church is about 6yrs old so the interior is still very nice. Clean and simple, but still classy and traditional.
)
)
The downside however is the place is kind of hot. It's elevated so the trees does not shield it from the sun. Also, the walk is quite long. It's uphill and if i will be wearing a long heavy gown i imagine it would be quite a workout. I don't to look or worse, smell sweaty when i walk down the aisle. So this might not be it. Too bad cos their rates are quite cheap.
The second one we went to is the San Geronimo Church in Morong Rizal. We love the classic vibe this church gives, it is traditional Philippine Baroque and it is at least 150 years old. The aisle is long so i can have my dramatic entrance. Haha. And the place is surrounded by trees.
)
)
The downside about this church however is it's too far. It is about an hour away from Metro Manila without traffic. My guests might have a hard time to find it, and unfortunately it is already considered out of town by suppliers. Which means they will be asking for an out of town fee. Boohoo.
We stopped for a while to get lunch and one of the servers in the cafe told us about this fairly new church that is not very far from metro manila. So we decided to check it out.
And it didn't disappoint! It is the most beautiful church i've seen here that is of modern design. It is like a glass encased dome with modern structure design and we got goosebumps when we saw it. We knew this was it!
)
)
It has ample parking space, it is surrounded by trees and it's located uphill so the wind is strong. The ceiling is high and i feel like i'm one with nature. Since i've always wanted a garden wedding, this is the closest it can get. The rate of the church is quite high but it would already include flower arrangements.
Some pointers in looking for a church that you shouldn't neglect are parking, accessibility, distance and ventilation. You always have to think about your guests as these factors might affect their willingness to go to your wedding, this could also affect your budget in terms of your suppliers location. But never sacrifice what you personally want. Because when you find the church you want to get married in, you will know it. Just like we did. :)
So there we've narrowed down the possible church option if we decide to ditch the beach wedding idea. At least we are getting somewhere. Whew!
We've been so busy with the restaurant lately that we haven't had enough time to talk through some details. The restaurant has been featured recently so we get a lot of clients coming in. We do marketing in the morning, open by 1pm. Our closing time is 10pm-11pm so when it's time to get home we are both beat down so badly. We are always both so tired that even of we have a restaurant, we can't even cook our own dinner. *sigh*
On top of that we have our families constantly asking us for details. We do not know what to tell them exactly so we try to avoid saying anything about it. Still, we know we have to give them something.
So last night, after the hulabaloo of our restaurant life, we sat down and decided to sort some things out. We made lists of our top wedding suppliers for the venue, caterer, videographer and photographer
)
For each supplier we researched their works online. We read some reviews so we can compare notes and see if it would be fit for our wedding. We decided to choose at least 3 that we both agree on. Then i backtracked email inquiries to check their rates and if they are available.
It is important to check the amenities included for each supplier as well. For example, videographers now use aerial shots using drones. Since this is fairly new, some of them include an additional fee for this. If you are like me who wants this you have to include this in the total of their rates.
)
It took us 4 hours to narrow down our best suppliers in mind. We had wine and cheese and had a lot of fun pitching ideas. Because of the restaurant, we've been so busy and sometimes feel like we are on auto-pilot. We see each other everyday and talk to each other but we haven't really bonded as much as this in a while now. It feels nice, and i feel reminded of why i love him so much. I'm happy that the planning is helping us grow together and not apart.
We need a new word for busy. This has been the most hectic week we've ever had for the restaurant. We've been so busy that we barely have time to eat. I lost 4kgs this week. Which leads me to my other plan for the wedding. Losing weight.
Fianceè and I have been talking about losing weight recently. Since we are both on the overweight side of the scale. If we decide to do a pre-nup pictorial or a wedding video trailer we have to look our best. And even though our wedding is still most likely by July next year, pre-nup pictorials are usually done several months, or a couple months before the wedding at the latest.
My Fitspiration
)
I was planning to do our pre-nup shoot by May next year so we really have to lose weight by then. I also have this goal to be able to wear a bikini.. In public, before i turn 30. So i guess the stars are aligning and the gods are conspiring for me to lose weight wether i like it or not. Haha.
Then again, losing weight out of stress is not healthy. The reason why i lost weight this past week is because we both forgot to eat the whole day being busy with kitchen prep and all. So this week i'm planning to eat healthy instead.
In the Philippines we gave a trend these days where you can have healthy gourmet meals delivered to your doorstep. One particular company that i'm looking at getting is thesexychef.ph. They have bridal packages according to the kind of diet you want. They have South Beach, Paleo and even Blood Profile Based Prescription.
The package will be determined according to your current weight and how many kilos you want to lose.
)
)
)
Iam thinking of doing the South Beach diet since it's high in protein, and i will need to that to be able to work the entire day at the restaurant.
As for exercise, i am trying to swim every morning with my dog before going to work. But work itself is such a strenuous workout on its own that i'm usually saving my extra time for sleep.
Did you try to lose weight before you got married? Is there any suggested workout plans or diets you can recommend?
