Friday, June 4, 2010

Location location location

I was born in Quezon City, grew up in the province, went back to QC in high school and stayed in Manila before I moved to the US. If I were to pick a location for my wedding, I would say, in an airport, a bus station or ferry dock. I can’t think of one place in the above mentioned which I can really call my home. So picking my wedding place should't be that difficult but boy was I wrong.

Groom-to-be and I decided to have a simple wedding with very limited number of guests and since my interests (and his presumably) geared towards nature and outdoors, the first choice for the place would be in Tagaytay overlooking the Taal Volcano abound by rolling hilly terrain would be the perfect destination. Perfect for a geologist like me. The day we told the parents, N’s mom and pop rushed to the Tagaytay to check out churches and reception venues. As pour moi, the best I can do is read blogs on the previous weddings held in the area.

There were a couple of churches in Tagaytay which piqued our interests including Caleruega where one of our friends got married (http://www.dominicans.ph/caleruega/index/) and Our Lady of Lourdes (http://lourdeschurchtagaytay.wordpress.com/lourdes-church-photos/). The reception venues are a plentiful to choose from as well since Tagaytay is becoming more and more popular destination for wedding these days. Either church would’ve worked but apparently it’s not only the location that we have to consider. Most of our relatives and friends reside in Manila so we thought that we should reconsider finding a place of easier access for everyone.

And to Manila we came back. Stressed out on reserving the wedding date that we wanted, I was surfing the web for church photos of every church I can find in the net. June is a very popular and busy months for weddings and to reserve as early as now is a must. I stumbled across various blogs, websites and photos but remote planning your wedding can be a very daunting task. The thing is, anything can look good on paper but to experience and see what the place really looks like is a totally different story. Not only that, once I found a church that we think would work for us, the issue of the reception venue would come up next. Seriously, it never ends.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The wedding budget

The first thing I remembered doing with regards to wedding prep was to create an estimated budget for both ceremonies held here and in the Philippines. This way, I can justify if we actually made the right decision of saving money if we switched the venue from here to Pinas. Being an OC, it's imperative for me to have all bases covered. Having lived here for almost 5 years, I am clueless at the current package rates for these kinds of affairs would cost considering inflation, taxes, currency exchange, etc. Let alone wedding package rates. The only prices I'm aware of are round trip tickes from here to relatively any country in Europe/Latin America/Asia, Macbook Pro, Nikon DSLRs, iPhone and other tech toys. Make-ups, dresses, kikay stuff, please don't ask me. But thanks to my bestfriend Google, I was able to find some blogs online with an estimated budget for a 'simple' wedding of 100-150 people.

So what's in a wedding? Of course yourself, the groom and a whopping price tag of 2 round trip tickets for 2 to Europe inclusive of 2-week vacation stay and more. Yup, weddings, I realized are not cheap. Breaking it down, you have the following:

Church 20-25K PHP small to medium size (up to 150 pax capacity)
Venue 50-100K PHP depending on the size
Caterer 75-150K PHP depending on the size
Photography 50-100K PHP depending on the package (number of prints and sessions)
Flowers 35-50K PHP
Invites and Souvenirs 10-20K PHP
Wedding Dress 50-100K PHP depending on taste, couturier, etc
Rings (pair) 30-100K PHP depending on the material
Incidentals 50-100K PHP or 20% of total estimated budget

Note: 1USD =~45PHP

Looking at the first draft of our estimated budget, I thought to myself, with this amount I would've done several trips abroad, several backpacking/adventure trips and upgrade my camera. I'm a very practical person and again if I have it my way, I don't mind saying I do in an empty courtroom with my groom and the judge but I guess some things are worth the sacrifice and I just keep telling myself, I will only get married once. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Next stop, the never ending details.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

pre-wedding long distance planning entry 1

This morning I woke up with very congested nose and half-deaf left ear. It feels like I'm inside an airplane and the only difference is that when the plane lands I will still be on my bed. As my daily routine goes, I call N to wake him up pretty much. We live in different states and a time zone apart so every now and then I try not to call him at 6 in the morning (4 am his time) or I suffer talking to a groggy zombie or a drunken sailor. Lately our favorite or shall I say the only topic of our conversation revolves on our upcoming wedding and by upcoming I mean a year from now. And the stress started again.

Originally, in my own dream world, my wedding would simple, hassle-free, go in-go out kinda thing court wedding. Just me and my groom, the judge and one witness. And then there's our families. When you're the eldest and first to marry among your brood or the eldest and the last one to marry, then I guess some selfishness are needed to be set aside. Since N and I both reside in the US, we thought about having the wedding here for practical purposes. After talking to both of our parents, they said they were fine with it but with some reservations. Of course, many won't be able to attend, too far, blah blah blah. Few weeks later, we caved in and told them we'll just have it in the Philippines instead. Lo and behold, the next day my mom-in-law to be was already in Tagaytay hunting for church venues. Not too excited, huh?

At this point in my life when I'm ready to be selfless and give in to other people, I have come to accept that part of my wedding, if not a big part of it is for our families. I still get to choose my own wedding dress but I couldn't care less what decorations they put in the reception venue as long as the flowers are not 'lanta' (withered) or which church they pick (as long as it's not too big for 100 guests) or which guests our parents prefer to invite (as long as they're not politicians and such according to N). So much for giving in. Some things I just have to let go or I'll be stressed and congested and sick every single day.

Tomorrow will be another day. Hopefully it will be a better one.


The overwhelmed bride

I got engaged two weeks ago. Cheesy as it may sound but after 30 years of waiting/not waiting, I can proudly say that I've finally met my 'the one'. My significant other, N, and I were high school batchmates but we were never classmates. Having different sets of friends, we never had to chance to say hi to each other let alone interact with one another. After high school, both of us went to the same university and took different majors. We only each other by name although he persistently insists that there was one incident where we bumped on each other and finally got introduced which honestly honey, I don't really remember. Fast forward 9 years later, our paths crossed again on, well, facebook. He emailed me, I emailed back, we meet and person and they say the rest is history. Two days later, reality struck me when I realized what's next after the engagement.

Wedding. A word I have never thought about until 2 weeks ago. I guess I'm not the typical girl who knows what she'll wear on her big day since day 1 or someone who knows what colors of dresses her bridesmaids will wear and all that kind of fun stuff. Honestly, I've never been to a lot of weddings although I've been a maid of honor twice (my twin sis' and cousins nuptials) which I have vague memories of so I don't even know what people do on such occasion, what they wear, how they behave, etc. And now I have to prepare my very own. And to make matters even more complicated, we (our parents) decided to have the wedding back home even though both of us are residing overseas. So we started checking out churches/chapels, reception venues, wedding vendors, suppliers and in order to keep my sanity, I decided to write a blog of this one heck of an adventure also known as my future wedding. I am not a girly girl and right now, I can honestly say that I'm one lost bride and hoping in the process to find myself and eventually have the wedding I didn't dream of but would've wanted if I would dream of one. Enjoy the ride.