Wedding Day

I got married at 23. In my country, culture and family, that's not young. That's way too young. It took a while before my mom learned to accept the idea --- I think she's pretty much still in the process. 

I was married December of 2006. We began the planning December of 2005. I did not really have professional help with the planning, by that I mean no professional wedding planners, event stylists and the like. That was my first rule to getting the wedding that I want without spending my life's savings.

I had a wedding diary. Nothing fancy, just a Starbucks 2006 planner I got from buying what must have been a thousand liters of Frappes in a month. I made sure my wedding diary was thick enough to handle all the notes and sturdy enough to handle all the post-its and would last a year until the wedding day's last minute reminders. 

My wedding theme was pretty generic. 1940's America. There's this convenient store in a gas station my husband and I go to for a late night snack. We always see a line up of classic vintage cars parked in the station's lot every Saturday night. That one night we asked the gasoline boy what was up with that and ended up with a name of some guy who leads a club of vintage car collectors. The guy (whose name was Charlie) does not really rent out his cars for events such as weddings. But to ours, he said yes. PHP10,000 for a "His and Hers" 1939 Jaguar. That's 2 cars -- in the price of 1. If that's not a bargain then I don't know what is!

My wedding's master of ceremonies was a friend who worked as a professional DJ for a radio station. We were classmates in graduate school. Instead of monetary compensation, I gave him a Ralph Lauren cologne from my honeymoon shopping. 

One thing i did not scrimp on was food. My husband and I did taste tests to 3 different caterers and came down to a decision to choose a caterer called Auffrance. Not only did they have good food, their packages were reasonable, too. We came down to 7 dishes exclusive of the desserts. We had 200 guests and everyone had tiffany chairs in silver. They gave me a wedding cake. 3-tiered fondant and even let me choose the color. Take note that this cake was given for free. I chose a plain white - all white cake and just had my florist put flowers to it. It looked amazing.

Photographers and videographers were also chosen by me, personally. I let them take care of the ceremony's photos while candids and shots during the event, the dancing, the drinking and laughing, were all taken by my friends. I asked everyone I could to bring a digital camera and shoot away. They gave me the pictures in CD form while some emailed them to me. I edited some myself, making some black and white, others in sepia (aged brownish color). This way, I was able to choose the cheapest package since I did not need them to take as much pictures as they would if I chose the expensive package.

All the other details of the wedding I had the help of my friends on. Such as choosing flowers and the right florist (referred by a friend) and choosing designers (a good friend of an uncle and therefore got a good discount). I let my bridesmaids choose their own gown designs, as long as the design fit into the color motif of the wedding (silver and baby pink). My gown, on the other hand, has been designed in my head since I was twelve so I encountered no problem with that one.

Picking the church was a breeze. It was the only air-conditioned church nearest to my home. It made it easy for my family to run back and forth the venue. Reservations were done as early as February. 

The reception was held at this place called The Big Tent, also close to where I live. They accept reservations for different events. It ran around PHP45,000. I considered doing the reception in a hotel, but i figured everybody does that, plus it drains out the pocket! So I thought of renting a venue that allows caterers to get in.

All in all, I'd say planning a wedding is extremely exciting and exhausting. But as all newly weds say, it's all worth it. Our best man said "Think of your wedding day as the day you loved each other the least. And everyday after that, you love each other more and more." 

We strive to make wedding days as unforgettable as we possibly can. And as you plan it, remember that weddings lasts but a day. Marriage, on the other hand as they say, lasts as long as you both shall live.