wedding preps on hiatus

we have already booked and paid the deposits for the major wedding suppliers so it's time to chill..... Philippines wedding preps (booking-wise) would commence late this year..... meanwhile, i'll start concentrating on doing mock-up DIY projects that i have in mind.....

our wedding in the Philippines is a long way off (im sure you know that already) but january (along with december) is a peak season for Philippines weddings and if we want to get the suppliers we want we need to book them as early as possible.....

so yep!


church booked
venue booked and deposit paid
photographer  booked and deposit paid
videographer booked and deposit paid
HMUA booked and deposit paid (this isn't really part of my plan but my HMUA has a very good deal that time that i can't pass up!)


also, since we booked the **customized  worry-free package from FG , the caterer, string quartet, bar and florist is part of the contract and all we had to do is tell them our choice of suppliers  and it would be as good as booked! i think..... we still need to clarify this with our FG AE..... we actually just want to block our dates with those chosen suppliers for peace of mind and we'll just talk to them later this year.....




** customized = no photographer, videographer & on-the-day coordinator (OTD)

photo credits: http://executivecoachingsingapore.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/relaxing-on-the-beach.jpg

DIYs on my mind

i want to have some DIYs on our wedding to make the celebration more personalized......  so far here's what i'm wishing i'll be able to do:

ceremony cord
flower girl headbands
napkin holder
misalette

my bouquet
ceremony veil
escort card holders
entourage bouquets

STD-philippines

STD-US

WYB cards

US wedding invitations

let's see how many of those i can actually do until the wedding, ningas-kugon pa man din ako minsan, lol.








photo credits:
http://www.brendasweddingblog.com/
http://offbeatbride.com/2010/05/diy-button-bead-bouquet
http://www.etsy.com/listing/58592032/bouquet-vintage-lace-flowers

DIY vintage brooch bouquet

this is what's keeping me occupied lately....scout for as many enamel vintage brooches for my non-floral bouquet....


at your left is an example...but i want just shades of peach and yellow, our motif so it wouldn't look as cluttered.....but who knows, i might change my mind.....






photo credit:
http://www.brendasweddingblog.com/

2nd inspiration board attempt

i think this is more balanced now...

our  motif is peach with yellow

taking a shot at making inspiration board

my first inspiration board attempt...

not so happy....too peachy or more like orangy.... should add more yellows...

on FG contract

we finally received the FG contract....

what's left now is to make sure everything in that contract is correct (so far they have the groom's surname wrong) and other inclusion and then sign it and give the document back to them....

we also have already received the receipt...

we just need to ask now about how to upgrade the food and choose from their list of accredited suppliers (florist,string quartet, etc).

we also need to ask them about the skylanterns because bob had been pestering me to get that, lol

after the FG contract is finalized and after we have paid for the photographer's deposit i'll be putting off the church wedding preparation until late this year...... we just want to have the major suppliers booked early so we could lock the rates and because we're too paranoid that someone would beat us into booking the suppliers we like......

we finally decided on a photographer

yep!

and it's going to be J

we fell inlove with his trademark shots called "F"....plus his style is somewhat similar to the very expensive N U (he used to be under N  U's wings) that's why we decided to get him...

we like getting new budding artists.... almost the same caliber but cheaper....being cheaper doesn't always equates to lower quality..... and being pricey doesn't always equates to super high quality product, sometimes it just means you're buying that person's "name" and "fame".......  it's like buying clothes.... the branded names are always expensive....

we're not into fame and name of the supplier.....what we're after is what and how very well a supplier can deliver and yes, after looking at all his photos, J fits our criteria..... quality and at reasonable price.... and we can lock his rates, which is very very important to us....

we just sent the contract and we'll be paying the Php15,000 deposit next week.


p.s.
we want a back up photographer
with a different style as our main...
and who is willing to shoot raw + jpg
we'll just find one 6 months before the wedding

p.p.s
raw on nikons is .nef
raw on canon is .crw?

found our "this is it" videographer

we have several choices... D, cinemaworks and SKT.... you might not have heard of SKT but they're really good too and they're famous in Bacolod.... that's the reason why we're deciding not to get them them because we have to "import" them which means OOT fee....their OOT fee is 10K (for their airfare and lodging) but it would change depending on economy....you know how prices go up every year.... SKT is 80K....

the other videographer we like is john de guzman of cinemaworks..... i like his credentials problem is he's 85K and he's not open for booking for our date yet which means one thing, we cannot lock his price....so he's out....

what's left is D .... we have been devouring their videos for a month now and the more we watch it the more we are falling inlove with them.....and the best thing is they're cheap! 55K and they offer 3 videos as well..... 3 min SDE (Same Day Edit), 20-30 min editted full event video and the raw video.... i already sent money to my dad to deposit our payment to block our date......

the only problem we have with D is that they're notorious for slow replies..... but we'll take our chances.... they know how to do a job well done and as time goes they're getting better and better..... right now i'm in the process of compiling the tricks that they do for their video (they do diff things on all their videos) so we could request how we want our SDE taken...

oh, another thing.... we're not getting their prenup MTV video thingie.... that's additional fee, we'd rather get the crane (which we did mention when we pencil book)....but we'll see... we still can change our minds....

update: we did decide to get their signature prenup MTV and we're glad we did! it just made our SDE even more interesting!!


so that's what's new...


p.s.
i got the contract from my HMUA
B already, yey!

p.p.s
we still don't have FG's!
and they're having a bridal fair this week...
which means they'll be busier than the usual...
que horror!
i need to get that contract before they get too busy again!

chucks for wedding shoes?

i was tweeting about this when i friend of mine told me about kristine hermosa and oyo boy's chucks wedding...

now that's a bummer.... i mean, if they were just ordinary couples that's fine because the whole philippines won't know about it..... but since they're famous it would be easy for other people to assume i copied the chucks idea from the celebrities....

but that's fine... i'm still having chucks (much to my h2b's horror, lol).... and besides, it would only be me.... my groom can wear whatever he wants...

i actually chuckle at that idea... i'm imagining me on red chucks, well, i really want a peach chucks since my motif is peach w/ yellow (notice that i said "with" and not "and").... so peach shoes would match my motif but i cant find any peach chucks so red it is! anyway, i digress.... i chuckle at the idea of me wearing bright red chucks under my wedding dress and H2B would be wearing his usual formal shoes.... think Mr. Big (from sex and the city) and Jo March (from little women) getting married.... the always formal, mr. manners, dignified Mr. Big marrying the tomboy (although im really not but i love my chucks and i have tons of them) easy-go-lucky, free-spirited, stubborn Jo March..... or mark darcy and the goofy bridget jones....

haha.

photo credits:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/63985608/embroidered-converse

waiting for HMUA & our venue contract

We're still trying to negotiate some stuff from our venue. We want to get rid of the VAT by paying 50% of the balance upfront. No reply from our venue yet. I have sent my proposal Thursday last week. I'll wait til Thursday this week.

I emailed the scanned deposit slip to my HMUA already and she came back to me asking details about my wedding like name of the couple, time and venue for ceremony, time and venue for reception and hotel details. We haven't booked our hotel yet so that one's empty. My HMUA hasn't replied yet. I'll also give her a week and then I'll start following up again.

Let's see if I can actually wait for a week, LOL.

HMUA: B

i dont have a good skin and  i need a make-up artist who can do magic, haha... plus it would be less photoshop work for my photographers, hi hi....anyway, i've read this review from one bride who claimed she doesn't have a good skin but B made her really beautiful on her big day... i saw that bride's pic, and deym, she is pretty!

that's enough for me to finally decide i am getting her!

we've made a few email exchanges already.... the other thing i like about her is her retouches are up to the end of the reception...most HMUA i have inquired just include retouches until before the reception...so that's another big plus...

so no diana kwong anymore... she's my "this is it" HMUA...

if you're curious here's the rate she gave me:

Inclusions for your January 19 wedding are as follows:

P17,000.00

- hair and makeup for bride, groom plus 2 heads

- unlimited retouching till end of reception

- free upgrade to airbrush makeup for bride

- free airbrush trial makeup (only, no hair)

- 50% downpayment to lock the date and package rate.

i'm a happy camper...weeeee!

babaw much, lol

our venue, really really confirmed!

So anxious to know whether or not they got my down payment already. I paid thru Xoom.com on Friday afternoon (Jan 28) and according to my AE  they got my down payment on Feb 1  (Tuesday) and that it's official, January 19 is ours!

So relieved!


Now it's time to go thru the contract. I'm still waiting for it.

venue update

We already paid for the deposit thru Xoom.com. We're supposed to wire the money but it didn't go thru and it's because the person from the bank who filled up my wire form have wrote "USD" instead of "Peso" in the denomination field. And since it was a Friday and they told me about this error at 2:00 PM they said they can't make the next wire til Monday morning because cut-off time was 2:30 (i got to the bank at 2:25).

Monday morning EST is Monday evening in the Philippines. We need to send the payment ASAP or we'll lose the promo rate. So I went ahead and paid thru Xoom.com. I've trusted Xoom.com for 3 years now to send  emergency money to the Philippines they just weren't my first choice this time because the amount I'll be sending is much higher than what I usually send. Anyway, I immediately sent the confirmation receipt to my AE at our venue as proof that we tried to pay before the Manila time deadline as soon as I completed the initial Xoom.com transaction. After that it was just all waiting and as of today, well, yesterday (it's 3:13AM here now), according to Xoom.com, the money has already been deposited to our venue's Account. I'm now waiting for my AE's confirmation.

This would really be an exercise of patience.