Got our wedding memories!

Hello! We know it has been a month and we are still not done with our supplier reviews. We'll get back to that soon, but for now, here's an update!

We finally got our wedding album, videos, and prints from our photographer/videographer, MyPhotato, now known as WeCelebrate. A and I had a wonderful time going through everything and reliving the day. It was like a terrific anniversary gift! We'll be sharing what's inside the album soon.

Our wedding is in the Josiah's blog!

Hi! We just have to share that Josiah's Catering, our caterer, featured our wedding in their Real Weddings blog! It's a very cool anniversary gift! Thank you Josiah's for helping make our wedding perfect for us, and thank you for sharing our happy day on your website. Please click on over to the blog post on the Josiah's Catering website to see the entire article.  

The Bride's Bouquet by Holland Tulips [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

Our wedding flowers were some of the last things we booked, so we didn't get to talk about them in the blog. I'll start off with my bouquet, because it's dearest to me.

I am not a flower person. I don't really like getting flowers. I prefer chocolates, toys, books, music -- things that I can keep. The wedding was the one time I actually wanted flowers, so I chose my favorites, which are blue roses and orange tulips. 

Wedding Rings by Matus Jewellery [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

It's time to talk about our rings. They're really simple white gold bands that look like our promise rings from 1999 and my engagement ring.

Our wedding rings

Matus Jewellery was our ring-maker. Almost all our transactions with them were done at bridal fairs, except for our final fitting and pick-up which happened at their store in Megamall. [See these posts for our Matus stories: Wedding Expo Philippines, The Weddings and Debuts Fair.] 

Like I said above, the wedding rings we chose were based on our promise rings from long ago, and my engagement ring. They're half-round, white gold bands with diamonds (a Matus trademark) plus our first names and wedding date engraved inside them. Mine also had a mini diamond because it's my birthstone. 

With the box

The rings

The Bride's Reception Dress by The Secret Creations by Edgar Basilan

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

I talked about it in my last post, but I just felt that my reception dress warranted a different entry. It's pretty special to me, and I love it as much as I love my gown. It was made by Edgar Basilan of The Secret Creations. Since I had a princess dress, I needed to change at the reception into something more comfortable that I can move around in.

 At our reception in the dress

It has a somewhat naughty back!

Entourage Dresses by The Secret Creations by Edgar Basilan [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

First, an update. Okay so we didn't make our anniversary deadline -- no surprise there. It's all right though because our wedding photo album and our videos will only be coming in at the end of the month. That's the only time we can talk about our photographer and videographer because that will be the end of our experience with them. The good news is that this blog will remain active until then!

Today's post will be about our entourage dresses. Our dressmaker was Edgar Basilan of The Secret Creations. He has been making gowns for my sister-in-law for a long time, so he was highly recommended and trusted. I wrote about it a lot already in this blog so there really isn't much to write. [For our booking story, fabric swatches, dress sketches, dress pegs, etc. please see these posts: Dressmaker - Check!, A Day with My Girls, A Day with My Matron of Honor, Bridesmaids Day.]

Kuya Ed was tasked to make our bridesmaid and flower girl dresses, as well as the gowns for my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. He also ended up making a couple of dark blue gowns for two of our principal sponsors, but those were done separately. That's a lot of dresses!

My main peg for my reception dress and entourage dresses was this Tibi dress. The bright orange and color-block design appealed to me, so I wanted something that looked like it, but isn't exactly it. Kuya Ed had to design different necklines for me and all my bridesmaids, as well as design the flower girl and junior bridesmaid dresses based on that design. I made my bridesmaids choose the design they wanted, and Kuya Ed adjusted the designs to fit their body type. The fabric had to be cut into different pieces and sewn together. The dresses had different-colored linings and petticoats with uneven hems.

My bridesmaids

With the groomsmen

Up close 1

Up close 2

One Year!

It wasn't the best of first years. It was actually a difficult one. The good part is that now we know that we're in it for the long haul. Being married to each other and the happiness it brings trumps everything else.    

DIY Invitation and Program Stamps [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

I am just blasting through these posts because, well, I'm on a deadline! Heh. I thought I'd take a break from supplier stories and talk about our wedding DIYs. We had quite a few, simply because it was much easier to do things ourselves. More importantly, we had our Wedding Fairies, who went above and beyond their creative duties. Everything we thought wasn't doable was totally possible for them!

One of the things we wanted was a personalized stamp for our invitation envelopes and our misalettes. We simply thought it was a cute idea, and it's easy to achieve anyway. The little details make all the difference, so we made it happen.

We knew that it would take time to make the stamps ourselves (we're not that talented), so we first inquired at the personalized stamp stalls at the mall. They were ridiculously expensive! We knew that there were stamp-makers out on the streets selling stamps for a fraction of the prices at the mall, so we decided to go that route. We first made the design on the computer to print out. We just wanted the venues and the date on it for a sort of instant reminder. 

The design

Wedding Fairy Clang likes going on solo field trips. She came across this guy on the street making wooden stamps and luckily, she had the design with her. After a quick BBM exchange with me to confirm and some waiting time, the stamps were done. A and I picked up a large blue ink pad at National Bookstore, and we were good to go.

Stamps!

Bride's Wedding Shoes by Vivienne Westwood + Melissa c/o Geleia [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

My wedding shoes caused so much excitement during our preparations. They were almost impossible to find, and I was close to giving up on them. I'm glad I didn't, and I was able to wear my dream wedding shoes on that happy day. Here's the long story behind the shoes: My Wedding Shoes.   

At the time, I kept the shoes a secret. I only posted a picture of the box here. I did tell a few of my friends about them when I was still on the hunt because I needed help finding them, but that was it. These shoes were so special to me that I wanted them to show up on that happy day and not before. 

 

The shoes are Vivienne Westwood + Melissa Lady Dragon Heart in Dove Grey and Blue. I got them at Geleia. Like all Melissa shoes, they're an updated version of the jelly shoes, and are made of a really fragrant kind of rubber/plastic. They're part of a collaboration between the Brazilian shoe brand and the British designer.

The Bridal Gown by Edwin Uy [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

Hello! We're trying very hard to get all our Happy Day documentation done before our anniversary, and hopefully we'll be able to.

The husband has written about his suit (see The Groom's Suit by Edwin Uy), so now is the time to write about my gown. We chose the same designer -- Edwin Uy -- for our wedding attire. I was actually able to document almost all the details regarding the making of my dress here. [See Gown Designer - Check!, Gown Design Presentation, First Wedding Gown Fitting.] What I didn't really blog about was the final fitting (which was done the morning of my bachelorette party), the finished gown, and our experience with the designer and his team.

The dress!

Wedding Coordination by The Best-Case Scenario Events [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

Since my husband and I started this blog, quite a bit of the inquiries we've gotten from brides-to-be have been about our coordinator, The Best-Case Scenario Events. Last night, I got another email from a soon-to-be bride saying that she read my post about booking with the owner, Camille Vivas, [see Wedding Coordinator - Check!] but she would really like to know how the entire coordination team did at our actual wedding. I gave her a brief overview on Best-Case, but I also promised her I would finally do this post, so here it is! Brace yourself though, because since the coordinator is the only supplier that dealt with every part of the wedding, this is going to be a long one.

Camille (in metallic gray), just looking after things at our reception. (Photo by 4play Band)

The Groom's Suit by Edwin Uy [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

Hey! It's Aleq. It's my turn to write about the details, because this post is all about me, the groom. It's been a while, so let's get it on.

The suit I wore to our wedding wasn't initially what I had in mind. At first, I wanted to go for a light gray suit. However, most of those who got married during the year we were making our preparations opted for the gray suit I wanted. To break the mold, I decided to go for a blue suit.

Most important suit of my life

Wedding Food by Josiah's Catering [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

The third most important wedding supplier is the caterer, because the food is one of the things that people remember the most about the wedding. In this country, people tend to remember if the buffet ran out of food or if the food wasn't good. While we were doing our preps, the question we were always asked aside from where the ceremony and reception venues were going to be was who our caterer was. It might be a cultural thing, but it's a big deal here.

We took our sweet time in pinning down a caterer for precisely all those reasons. We ended up choosing Josiah's Catering, and we weren't disappointed. [Read all our caterer posts here: Initial Meet - The Philippine Wedding Summit, Food Tasting - Part One, Caterer - Check!, Final Food Tasting and Dress Check.]

  Eating at our wedding!

We don't really have anything to say about Josiah's except that they did a fantastic job at our wedding! Our banquet and events consultant Karla didn't forget anything we told her, from how we wanted the backdrop to look to how we wanted to be able to eat at our wedding.

Wedding Reception at the Pergola [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

Like the church, the reception venue was one of the things that we covered at length in this blog. It's the second most important part of the wedding, and it took a lot of time and effort to pin down. We chose the Pergola, mainly because it was a blank canvass, it fit our budget, it was modern and bright, and it had amenities we liked. [See these past posts for details: Venue Hunting in Roxas Boulevard, Reception Venue - Check!]

The Pergola with our entourage outside waiting to do their grand entrance (thanks Noel for the pic!)

Getting Married in UST's Santisimo Rosario Church [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

The church was one of the things that we talked about at length on this blog. It's the first thing you book, because it's the most important. You can't book suppliers unless you know the date of your wedding, and you can't pin down a date until you've booked the church. 

The Santisimo Rosario Church, better known as the UST Chapel, was our only choice for the wedding because of our history. We're really glad to say that we had a lovely ceremony there that went without a hitch. 

Santisimo Rosario

Our wedding is in BridalBook!

Julls & Aleq 

We're in BridalBook today! It's so rad. Thank you to the BridalBook team for the feature! We loved how they described our wedding -- classic mixed with contemporary and quirky elements plus a spunky motif. It's exactly what we wanted to achieve, yay! Most of all, we really just wanted it to be fun, and we're glad that came through.

It was also very interesting to find out what elements they would highlight and what photos they would pick. We must admit that we didn't expect some of the things they chose. It's cool to be able to see our wedding from a wedding website's point of view. They even knew the names of our flowers (we didn't) so props to them, heh.

We're glad that our wedding is there to be able to give inspiration to other couples planning their wedding. Please click on over to the BridalBook feature to read the rest of the story.

Update: BridalBook is now a part of FemaleNetwork. Here's the new link to our story.

Wedding Makeup and Grooming by Shu Uemura [Happy Details]

Now that we have finally posted about our happy day, it's time to talk about the details. If you've been following this blog since we got engaged, you probably noticed that though we had a ton of stories to tell, we didn't really post about the specifics. That's because we chose to keep it all to ourselves so our wedding could still have the element of surprise. Well, we can talk about everything now, yay! p.s. Please read our note about suppliers.

Even until now, one of the questions we are asked the most about our wedding is who did my makeup, and what kind of makeup was used. That was one of the few details we didn't have any trouble sharing on this blog, but of course a lot of people didn't know that we posted about it, or didn't have access, or simply just didn't get to visit the blog until after the wedding. Makeup and grooming was also one of the last things we booked, and because it was crunch time then, we didn't get to post a proper "Checked!" blog entry.

We went with Cindy Pineda Dela Cruz of Shu Uemura Rockwell with Avril Seguin for the bride's hair and makeup, as well as the groom's grooming. We discovered them through our friends Anabel and Carl, who first got their services for their own wedding. [Note: Aleq and I chose a lot of suppliers whose work we had already seen for ourselves. We didn't want to take risks for our wedding, so we went with tried and tested people.] We decided on a separate team just for us, and another one for our families for efficiency. I contacted Cindy through Facebook, and she was really easy to talk to. We reached an agreement quickly, and after a reservation fee, we were good to go.

My trial session with them served as my makeup for our prenup shoot, which went really well. They did my look at the Shu Uemura store in Rockwell, and it was fun and a half. See the behind-the-scenes post from the prenup shoot for a blow-by-blow of the day.

Here's a rundown of the makeup Cindy used on me for the wedding. (The photos of the makeup and tools are from the day of the prenup.) Everything is Shu Uemura. 

• puRENovate Intense Pore Perfection Solution
• Face Architect Liquid Foundation in 754
• Loose Powder in 7yr light
• Hard Formula Eyebrow Pencil in Walnut Brown
• Limited Edition Chocolat Donna Eyeshadow Palette
• Drawing Pencil in Matte Brown
• Calligraph:Ink Liquid Eyeliner
• Mascara in Black
• Tokyo Lash Bar False Eyelashes
• Glow On Blush in Soft Pink 336
• Rouge Unlimited Lipstick in pk376

We used a MAC orange lipstick for the reception, and it was the only non-Shu product of the day. I actually bought an orange Chanel lipstick before the wedding, but we went with Mac instead. I wanted something loud and bright!

Our Happy Day

Eight Months, Our First Christmas and New Year, Plus a Few Updates

Hello! It's been a while. We got bitten by the bug that hits almost all newlyweds after the wedding. Getting over the stress of wedding planning, basking in the exhilaration of the wedding, and then focusing on starting a new life together can certainly make couples ignore things like the wedding photos and blog. Our lives had a chance to settle down a bit over the past few months, so we figured it was finally time for some updates.

Eight Months!

First of all, we celebrated our eighth month as husband and wife last December! We only celebrate sporadically to keep things interesting, heh. (Actually we usually just forget. Having been together 13 years before we got married, we are not so good at monthsaries anymore. Those are a lot of months after all!)

L-O-V-E!

First Holidays

We also had our first Christmas and New Year! 2013 was a mix of highs and lows for us. The year started out amazing but it got tough near the end. The wonderful thing is we now know that we meant it when we said "for better or for worse" at the altar. 2014 is going to rock. 

A + J on New Year's Eve

What's up?

Now for updates. We completely forgot about That Happy Day for a while because real life got in the way. That will change. We'll be celebrating our first anniversary in a couple of months so we really have to complete our engagement and wedding stories here. 

I also got emails and messages from bride-to-bes or friends of soon-to-be-brides asking about wedding advice and supplier feedback. I answered and gave info as much as I could. It was really nice to be able to help other women out there who are planning their own happy days. Before the wedding, I was trying to balance the process of documenting things and providing info. I didn't want to give things away so that we could still have the element of surprise at our wedding. Now that it's over, I can finally blog about everything I left out. The emails and messages I got have also pushed me to really get this blog going again.

What happened to our wedding photos?

First up are the photos. Even though I have posted our same-day-edit video and photo slideshow in this blog, I have never posted the actual photos. To be honest, just going through wedding photos is almost as stressful as planning the entire wedding. We had to sift through a gazillion photos from our photographer and our family, friends, and suppliers. We also had to choose specific ones according to where they will come out -- the official wedding album, Facebook to tag guests, this blog, etc -- and we had around 4000 raw photos (official and unofficial pictures) to choose from. A and I found ourselves kind of wishing we lived in the days when there were only 36 shots in film cams and wedding albums only had a fraction of the number of photos we have now. 

Photo overload!!!

We only finished turning over the photos for our official wedding album and posting more photos in Facebook last November so we can probably expect our wedding album and video to arrive around our first anniversary, heh. We just couldn't narrow everything down to 120 photos when we had hundreds! We settled with our photographers at 135. I'm very obsessive-compulsive as well, so I usually have a hard time with these things. But hey, I have friends who only finished their album after 5 years, and friends who are on their 6th year but still haven't chosen pictures. A and I aren't so bad after all.

The good news is, I finally got my "nutshell" folder done today! It's a folder that has more than the number of photos in our wedding album, but has a lot less than our ultimate folder of wedding photos. (See? OC!) I'll be posting the photos after this post, yay!

The Start of Preparation and Supplier Kwento

I'll be starting my stories on our wedding details and suppliers soon. I'm excited to post about our DIYs and other fun stuff! My Wedding Fairies would be happy to hear that, I'm sure. 

I have to say though, that I won't be posting any supplier reviews. We had a wonderful wedding and we don't really have anything to say but good things about our suppliers. Instead of reviews, we will just be telling stories of our experiences with everyone. Our day wasn't perfect, but those imperfections were just very little things. Talking about them feels very nitpick-y for us. If we did have anything major we'd like to warn other soon-to-wed couples about we would write about them for sure, but we simply don't. We've heard a lot of annoying and even to the point of nightmarish stories out there. We truly feel very lucky not to have experienced any major mishaps and to have picked very trustworthy and capable suppliers. We actually still can't believe our day was as perfect as it could possibly get actually. 

The MyPhotato (aka WeCelebrate) guys, partying at our wedding

That's about it! Thank you for reading the blog and keeping up with us this entire time. We'll most likely finish everything by our first anniversary. It has been a blast!