Entourage Runaway..

And as every couple preparing for a wedding knows.. There's no such thing as a perfect wedding. And definitely no such thing as a perfect wedding preparation!

As our excitement of coming home in the Philippines arises, the height of the stress we had with our entourage also went up. Two weeks prior to our flight to Manila, one of Noel's groomsmen advised that he won't be able to make it to our wedding.. Good thing is that the invites wasn't printed yet when he informed us.

Alas, we thought the dilemma is over and so we proceeded with the printing of our invites. But then October 27, which is also the day of my first gown fitting and supposedly second gown fitting for my entourage.. My supposedly Maid of Honor and Veil Sponsor didn't show up for their gown fitting. I didn't worry at first because I thought maybe they're busy with their schedules. Anyhow it's still three weeks before the wedding so we can still adjust the dresses for them.

Bu then.. when I checked my Facebook account that night, messages of apologies was there informing me that two of the girls won't be able to make it on my wedding day!

One year of preparation, one year notice, one year of emails and calls, one year of checking out the dresses and trying them on! All gone and vanished.. Noel & I were heartbroken.. Most especially me.. (-_-)

first print out made

too bad we have to reprint this..

And so in spite of our busy schedule we looked for replacements and prayed that everything will be fine and that we'll have enough time to have the entourage card reprinted.

As it turned out we were only able to distribute wedding invites 5 days prior our wedding day. Waste of time and waste of money.. But at least Noel & I became stronger because of this trial.

We selected the set of our entourage by their roles and importance in our lives. But then, you can't really be sure because just when you needed them most that's when they will decide to turn their backs on you.

Nevertheless, no hard feelings on our side. Noel & I always believe that "All things work together for good to those who love God." - Romans 8:28

-Ces (^_^)

Trial with Ann

Just like the dress, you have to plan your hair and make-up look and ensure to have a trial.

I had my hair and make up trial with Ms. Ann De Leon-Perez and her hairstylist Jacky last November 5, 2012. I booked her a few weeks before we arrived in Manila. She was recommended by my fellow w@w sis Pia Dysangco when I was looking for a good HMUA supplier that won't have me rob a bank. (*_^)

I actually already booked another supplier prior to that but due to budget constraints we decided to look for another supplier who is equally good yet fits our budget.

Ann's work was featured at www.bridalbook.ph and I so love her works.. Here's the link: 

Make Up by Ann de Leon-Perez

We agreed on 11:00 am hair and make up trial and they arrived on time at my brother-in-laws condo unit in Taguig. Even though this is the first time I met them I felt at ease at once as they're so nice and easy to go along with.

 Here's the peg I showed them.

bridal look inspiration from Lazaro Brides

I showed them the peg I want to achieve and we started immediately since I will also have my final fitting for my wedding gown at 3:00 pm that day. Afterwards, it turned out the look I want doesn't suit me very well.. Although I felt I was so pretty after Ann and Jacky completed my look. (^_^)

Good thing I had my trial because at least I was able to realize that the look I want doesn't suit me. I sent email to Ann and we were able to discuss options on my hair and make up for our wedding day. Ann is really cool because she's really so flexible and nice.

love the way Ann did on my eyes and lips

too bad the hairstyle doesn't suit me.. I looked like Imelda Marcos! heheh :)

-Ces (^_^)

The dress

After months of email exchanges with Garrey of Jose Domingo Bride, I finally met him. He was a w@w find (Weddings at Work where I am a member), so I trusted him even though I haven't personally able to meet him. Since I wasn't able to come home to the Philippines in the middle of our wedding preparation Garrey agreed on letting me have my first gown fitting three weeks prior our wedding day and final fitting a week prior our wedding day.

After our venue ocular, still October 27, we went straight to Garrey's shop in Wack-Wack for our 3:00 pm schedule with him. Even though Noel & I only had two hours of sleep after a long 8 hours flight from Dubai we were still very energetic!

For a year I kept the design of my wedding dress secret to Noel because I want it to be a surprise for him. (Ang arte ko lang! heheh!) So I refrained on posting about my wedding gown even though I very much wanted to (*_^)  During my fitting, only our coordinator Nemalyn (we call her Mai) and I went to Garrey's shop while the boys are sleeping in the car at the parking area.

Garrey's sketch of my wedding gown

with Garrey and his assistant

love this side view (^_^)

I love the feel of the dress.. It's so comfortable and flowy just as I want it to be.. I wanted to have a second look of having the straps removed after the ceremony. Garrey said ok but then this didn't happened.. (-_-)
I'll post the story on my suppliers rating later on.

front view without the laces and beadings

back view with the veil

-Ces (^_^)

Hello The Cliff Royale!

The next day, October 27,  after two hours of sleep we went to The Cliff Royale Subic Resort to have our first ocular visit. We were invited by Ms. Victoria Montecastro-Benabaye to have a Filipino breakfast with them at the resort.

We arrived there at 08:30am and the weather was really pleasant that day plus our host was really accommodating as well.

(from left) Ms. Victoria, Ms. Nemalyn our coordinator, me and Noel

                           

our chosen ceremony area

cocktail area will be beside the ceremony area

our chosen reception area

The place was really great and the staff of The Cliff Royale Subic Resort were very accommodating. During our ocular we learned that there are actually three resorts located at The Cliff - namely The Cliff Seagrapes, The Cliff Subic Resort and The Cliff Royale Subic Resort where we will be staying.

We had two more visits afterwards and I must say that the staff of The Cliff Royale Subic Resort were the friendliest and incomparable than the rest. We have high hopes we will receive the same service on our wedding day. I'll post a review of this place post wedding day very soon. (^_^)

Flight to forever

Woohoo! And our big day finally passed.. It's been a long one year wedding preparation but we totally enjoyed every day and night of it kahit kaka-stress talaga.

I wasn't able to update this blog for quite a while, but as the saying goes.. "It's better late than never". So I'll start my kwento from our flight going home to the Philippines (^_^)

                           

 

We woke up at 4:00 am to catch the 05:30 am complimentary shuttle bus from Chelsea Tower in Dubai going to Abu Dhabi International Airport provided by Etihad Airways.

The bus trip going to Abu Dhabi was smooth and fast. But prior to that we got really pissed with the service provided to us at the bus waiting area. When we checked-in our luggage the day before our flight, we were instructed by the Etihad Airways colleague who checked-in our bags to be at the bus stop exactly at 05:00 am in order for us not to miss the shuttle bus because she gave us the last two seats. But then when we arrived there at 04:45 am, the security officer who was facilitating the boarding of passengers to the bus told us to wait for the 6:30 am bus because the bus is full and that we have ample time to be at the airport since our flight will leave at 10:15 am. Imagine the frustration we felt that time!! We woke up very early because we were told to come early then when we arrived we were told to wait for one hour?!?

But thank God the security officer noticed us and listened to our explanations and afterwards allowed us to get on the 05:30 am bus.

Arrival at Abu Dhabi International Airport

We were welcomed by a pleasant morning weather in Abu Dhabi

Our ticket going home!

I was thinking "after 8 to 9 hous we'll be in the Philippines " (^_^)

Our flight left early at 09:45 am Abu Dhabi local time and arrived in the Philippines at 11:00 pm last October 26, 2012 three weeks prior to our wedding day. Yipee! We're finally home after two and a half years (^_^)

Mano po Ninang

Here's a sneak peak of our gifts to our Ninangs (Female Principal Sponsors). What's inside? Secret! You'll find out on our wedding day :))

For the Word of God

For what it's worth, we finally found the perfect vessel for our wedding Bible. (^_^)

Noel and I was actually planning on making our own Bible cover but have no idea on how to do it. But God is really great, He is always guiding us. Yesterday when we we're out looking for boxes to put our gifts to our Principal Sponsors we found this lovely book style box! Yehey! Hope our Bible bearer will like this (^_^)

the design definitely fits our theme

Let's have some tea

Since our wedding theme is centered on wine and tea elements, Noel and I have decided to have tea as our wedding favors. However, I found that boxes for these would cost more than the price of tea itself. So instead I decided to make our own way to wrap them. I stumbled on a site one day sharing steps on how to make tea bag sachets out of gift wrappers however I forgot to bookmark the website :(

So instead I made a trial and error tea bag sachets using bond papers and finally decided on how to make one. To make tea bag sachets we used these materials:

-Translucent, transparent or tracing paper
-scissors, stapler, puncher
-clear double sided tape
-ribbons

Here's the step-by-step procedures:

cut paper in half

put clear double sided tape on one edge before folding

 

fold it in three

fold it again in half and make one more fold leaving few centimeters from top

And after hours of cutting and pasting with Noel, here's the finished product:

By the way, I downloaded the tea tag from Wedding Style Guide's website. It's a free printable that I printed and manually cut with sharp scissors then Noel stapled it through the ends of the ribbons. We also printed the monograms made for us by Monogram Hub on sticker papers for the labels.

Gratitude is sweet

After long thought of how to show appreciation to our suppliers on our wedding day without getting us bankrupt ;) Noel and I have decided to buy assorted chocolates and wrapped them. I bought some fabrics and had it sewed by one of our tailor friends. Then I found some printable tags at www.ilovemstudio.com for the labels.

So here it is:

I manually wrote thank you notes behind the tags

sweets for our dream makers (^_^)

Cork of Art

After being hiatus for a while I'm back with updates on our wedding preps. On my previous post I shared our DIY wine cork table numbers. Pero the usual me di not get satisfied sa outcome nung first na gawa namin so I decided to make a new one.

I forgot to take pictures of the step-by-step procedures I did but more or less it's the same as the previous one. I just removed the use of carton letters and didn't cut the corks anymore. I hot glued all of them together. But prior to doing that, I already arranged the cork and planned on how it will stand and where to glue them. So here's the product:

wine cork table numbers

Ring of love

And we finally bought our wedding rings (^_^)

We we're both so happy that we were able to find the rings we both 'loved at first sight' and didn't cost a lot. Actually, we have been canvassing for wedding rings since February but then decided to wait some more time before buying. This very ring that we both loved last February is still the same ring that we found and bought now! And the cool thing is it is the last pair (^_^) Seems like it really waited for us, our destiny wedding rings. Hehehe!

So here's our wedding rings (^_^). We chose a simple design with two tone, white gold and yellow gold and something not too thick as both our fingers are thin.



The best thing is! It's looks very nice with my engagement ring (^_^) If I'm wearing them together in one finger it looks like it's only one ring.

Shop were we bought our wedding rings at Gold Souk Dubai

Mr. Raj who was the salesman who assisted us during our selection process was so kind and very accommodating enough to give our requests and of course gave us a very good price. We asked for it to be engraved and resized, and it was done perfectly within a few minutes. One tip: this shop is actually owned by the same person who owned the buildings where the other shops are renting, so their prices are little less expensive than the other shops.

In front of the shop

took more pics while we're waiting for the rings

at the Gold Souk Dubai

walking at the Gold Street (^_^)

Three more months to go!

-Ces (^_^)

Let's go for wine cork

wine cork table numbers

Finally our first ever wedding DIY, a do-it-yourself table numbers made out of wine corks.

Since our wedding theme comes with wine and tea elements, we have decided to create something unique and of course something that will not cost us much. And because Noel is working in a wine bar and have unlimited resources for wine corks, the creative light bulb came to work (^_^)

So here's the materials for making a wine cork table number:

corks, cartons, glue gun, cutter and ruler

lots of wine corks!!

Here's how to do it:

cut the cork in two with cutter

cut carton numbers then glue the corks in the pattern

Noel was so into making these table numbers that he did most of the cork cutting and pattern making. 

labor of love

so serious eh?

And my close friend Debby also came to help! (^_^)

chopping board and knife? why not!

my dear friend Debby

I'm very excited to see these table numbers in action! Happy wedding preps! (^_^)

Ces (^_^)