Friday, February 22, 2013

Our wedding got featured at BridalBook

Yep!

Here's the link:http://www.femalenetwork.com/bridalbook/wedding-articles/real-weddings/featured-wedding-marlin-robert


It's just a bummer that after I sent them the story of the proposal they still got it wrong. So just to reiterate this is wrong:

 Finally, one evening, while they were in front of the Eiffel tower, he found his perfect timing and asked her to be his wife.

it should be:

 Finally, on New Year's eve, while they were in front of the Eiffel tower, he found his perfect timing and asked her to be his wife.

Oh and our ceremony decor is not from Design Avenue, it's 15-58, our florist.

And the HMUA, Mayone is my HMUA while Irene Manigo is the HMUA for my entourage.


Saturday, February 9, 2013

Supplier Meeting/Detailing - Part 2


from july 30 until aug 3 of 2013 i went home to the philippines for a quick visit to meet with the suppliers while i was in between jobs (my contract just got done).....  more about that here: On Detailing and the Whirlwind Pinas Visit.......

a week before our wedding we had to meet with wedding suppliers again for remaining wedding stuff and here's what our week was like:



Day 0      
1/11
\

ETD (JFK)

Day 1
1/12  
ETA (MNL)
Day 2
1/13

1. Couturier - Boy Kastner (barong fitting)

Day 3
1/14
2. Coordinator 
Day 4
1/15

3. Church - Notre Dame De Vie (canonical interview)

Day 5
1/16

4. HMUA: Mayone Bakunawa / 5. Photographer : JLR / 6. Videographer: DLS



this second half is just all tours.....

Day 71/18
Segway Tour in Intramuros, Manila

Day 8
1/19
(wedding)
Day 91/20Villa Escudero (overnight)
Day 101/21Tagaytay (day trip)
Day 11
1/22
Corregidor (day trip)
Day 121/23El Nido
Day 131/24El Nido
Day 141/25El Nido
Day 151/26El Nido
Day 16
1/27
Manila (Resorts World, Greenhills pasalubong shopping)
Day 17
1/28
Departure

so that's 6 suppliers total! 

i think if you're an overseas bride you can do what i did, go home 6 months before to take of wedding items that needs your personal appearance and needs to be in production right away.... take for example the entourage's gowns...... the sooner you tell your couturier the correct color shade and fabric you want the earlier he/she can start making your entourage's gown......

or, you can just meet with your wedding suppliers weeks before your wedding but if i may suggest, if you want to do that, try to do 2 suppliers per day and don't squeeze more than that in a day, and then plan how many weeks you need to be home before your big day based on how many suppliers you need to meet..... why i said 2 suppliers per day? you don't want to be too stressed out days before your wedding..... now for stuff that needs to be taken cared of way in advance, like the entourage's gown or your gown, you might want to talk to your supplier on that.... most of them can handle overseas bride and you can even do fitting online so just talk to them...... as to the right shade of color and fabric to use, you can try sending your pegs via snail mail to your supplier..... 

happy preps!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

because details matter...

interviewer: so, marlin,what do you consider your strengths?
me: i have very good attention to details and....


.....unfortunately, i wasn't lying.... i said "unfortunately" because it's a double-edged sword, lol..... i think it comes with the territory because i'm a programmer.... anyway, this is a list of some of our wedding details and where and how we got them... click the photos for better view..... in no particular order...



i have been thinking of a unique guestbook and i have been toying on different ideas but we decided to stick to this mailbox and postcards... i bought the postcards from 2 suppliers from etsy.com (parkersupplies for the vintage-looking london & paris postcards and  frenchgirlsgarden and binkerbows for the other old postcards).... for our custom cardboard mailbox, i ordered it from lchrisman5.......

i also bought a cage for the "enveloped" gifts..... bought it on sale from michaels and just shipped it thru balikbayan box from the U.S...i like how our cage blends with the other Josiah table decorations....






i want our arrhae to be different and to also match our theme....so i asked some of my friends if they can donate some foreign coins.... these are from two of my friends and some coins are from my personal collection (i've been collecting foreign coins since elementary)...... the picture next to it is a door hangtag....there's supposed to be one for the groom too but i think the photographers missed it...






i bought the bridal hanger from etsy too (look for Lori Mills) ...and i was supposed to use this for our civil wedding but decided to use a dress form instead....now i brought this with me to the philippines because i was worried  we won't be able to borrow a dress form..... but it turned out that's not the case.... the couturier who made my ento's gown rented me one plus a steamer....




our boarding pass escort cards was from Meghann Gillette... i told her what our color is and what we want on it..... she just gave us a one-page edittable PDF file and i manually typed in the guests name and their table names (which are famous city names) and we printed and cut it ourselves..... the passport wedding invitation was from etsy too, Ginger ..... she was so patient with me....i don't know how many times i have asked her to make some changes, or add something.... i got the fernbrook logo from fernbrook itself....












next is our wedding favors.... i ordered 120 pcs of mini suitcase favor tins from beau-coup.com and we ordered a custom paris sticker with our names and date of the wedding....unfortunately, you can not customize the "Merci for taking this trip" but we don't mind..... and then i bought 15 lbs of globe chocolates .... and i have small eiffel tower trinket that i added as an after thought, lol.... i'm supposed to make a napkin ring but ODed  (over dosed) on DIY stuff on my civil wedding that this time i just ordered a lot of stuff, haha.... got the eiffel tower trinkets from etsy too, from happysupplies.... they ship from china so expect it wouldn't arrive until after a month if you're in the U.S.... the photo of a caricature below is our save the date.... ordered the caricature from jo acierto and then i bought some images from a digital scrapbooking website and made a postcard using adobe elements.... then we asked our friend rv to print it for us (thanks arvs!).....





if you're a filipino you know about arrhae and cord and veil and candle and bible used as part of the wedding ceremony.... well, i customized all those too, but then again i just ordered it from someone...that someone is janess ojeda of Trinkets and Favors.... i got a discount so this package is for 4,200 plus 200 shipping fee (she's from manila and i ask her to ship them at my manila address)








our misalette is from jun hernandez (theresecarmelaweddings@yahoo.com).. 30 copies for 1,500 pesos...suceeding copies is 400 for every 10 pieces.... we just ordered 30 pieces and hired a church commentator rin for 1,000..... he patterned the design of our misalette from our wedding invitation...






the Todo frame. Now this one is DIY.... again i just used  images that i bought from a digital scrapbook website and used adobe elements to stitch the images together and type the wordings.... we call this the Reception To Do List.... the frame is .70 cents from ikea and is back to back...i lugged this around in our luggage on our flight to the Philippines...we had like 15 of these...






we also made the goodie box for the kids table.... this just have small packets of candies some small toys, finger puppets, crayola, etc..... we also ordered a custom coloring book from etsy....Kelli and Greta....she just gave us a soft copy version and we just printed it at home and added a ribbon to keep them intact.....







we also made some goodie bag for the female entourage..... i just bought a peach fan and an "emergency" chocolate that i bought from cracker barrel..... i bought the emergency chocolate because i thought it's cute, haha.... and don't worry it taste good, hee hee






since we're having a travel (and paris) theme i want to use city names instead of a table number.... below are just some of the table names.... what we did is i made all those photo with city names (some of the photos used are actually mine, like the venice photo below) and sent it via email to Josiah (our caterer)....i just asked them to print it, put it on a frame and display it on each of the tables..... we also requested for the stamp napkin ring... we got that idea from Josiah's travel theme...we just changed the ribbon to peach.... and we specifically asked for that laced charger plates.... there are a lot of laces on the table setting including the chair covers to match our (travel and) paris theme....









now for my favorite itemssss (yes madaming ssss, haha)... my custom painted shoes from figgieshoes.com...... i have two.... initially i was thinking of using the same shoe i used for our civil wedding (which is a flat ballet shoes) but i changed my mind and decided to go for something with heels.... but i was still able to use both of them....i'm not a heels kinda girl and my feet hurts quickly with heels....so i was wearing my flat shoes the entire time during the reception and was just wearing the red shoes during the ceremony and pictorials.....




i DIYed  (do-it-yourself) my brooch bouquet (here's how i made my brooch bouquet )  and i have already used it once on our civil wedding by the beach.... i collected all the brooches for a year thru ebay, flea markets and estate sale..... some are really old, like as old as 1920s and some are new....

i also would to take your attention to the white, furry-like fabric (see photo above and below and the first few photos above), i brought that with me because they make for a very good background..... i bought that from ikea and shipped it thru balikbayan box.... yes, photo background is important to me too....i told you, details is everything! lol....

our cake! i love our cake.... since we are overseas couple we have to do everything via email.....but i was able to do taste testing during my short visit to the philippines last august.... but the design and details of the cake was just via email....and i'm very happy they execute each and every request/design i asked them to do..... below is our peach and yellow themed sugar flowers cascading cake.....oh, did i tell you everything is edible? yep, as in everything...including the leaves... we also ordered mini cakes (for the ninongs and ninangs) and cupcakes for the entourage from them.... supplier is judy uson, the cake artist

color is a little off but the main cake is really ivory
it just looks pink on the photo

from my cousin's camera..nasistensyahan na, haha...


our onsite studio....
we thought photobooth is too common for our taste...don't get me wrong they're still fun but we just want to be different...and since me and my cousins and my college friends are photo studio addicts we decided, why not! i just brought some props with me like the boas, hats, masks, etc....

we just have one requirement, we want eiffel tower in the picture and we want it to look indoor...so we want drapes and sofa and flowers.... the onsite studio team didn't disappoint..... (we booked their 4d)....




guests posing, and guests lining up
to get their photos