Better late than never.
I missed almost half of my blogging life last December. As you all know, I was extremely busy preparing for my “Big Day”. There were days weeks that I almost cried myself to sleep because of fatigue and lack of rest. I chose not to hire a personal wedding planner due to some reasons;
First, as a Bride I wanted to have no regrets of not being hands-on in my own wedding. I wanted to somehow have a personal touch in whatever I do so I decided to plan my own Church wedding, of course with the help of my friends, bestfriends and family. Thank you guys!!!
Second; I was quite afraid to be disappointed in whatever the outcome will be. Some brides were disappointed on the outcome of their wedding especially if it was not the one that they have in mind. At least, in my case I don’t have anyone else to blame but me. (But thank goodness it turned out to be perfectly fine.)
Let me share with you my experience in planning for my own wedding. There are also some realizations and suggestions that I can suggest in case you plan to be a hands-on Bride like me.
There are major things that you need to consider if you plan to get married, particularly if it’s going to be a Church Wedding. You need to have the following things in mind:
- Church – For us,
wemy Mom chose St. Maria Goretti Parish in Pope Pius XII in UN Ave. Manila. I wanted to have a small church, well not small as in small. At least the invited guests can fit in. Plus it’ll look good in pictures because there will be no empty spaces. Yun nga lang, the aisle is not that long so if you really wanted to have your own moment to savor walking in the aisle di ma-aachieve yun sa small churches like St. Maria Goretti and Paco Church. BUT, there’s a but! You can walk slowly para medyo matagal..kaya lang in my case nagmadali yata ako.. haha! Sabi nung pianist ko hindi pa daw niya na-pplay yung chorus andun na ako sa may altar. Lol Wala, edi tinawanan ko na lang. haha! Ako kasi si madali ng madali e, kala mo lagi may hinahabol.
The Church’s painting is very awesome!!! Napaka ganda nya sa pictures believe me, kasi bagong renovate so the background effects, ay te! Winner! I’ll show you the pics on my next post ha?
- The Reception. Ayaw ko na paglakarin and ipabayahe ng malayo yung mga guests namin so again, my Mom suggested to have the Reception in Pope Pius’ Function Room. It was just located at the second floor of their Main building. Malaki yung place but it’s pahaba.. so dulo to dulo talaga kami ng mga guests ko. Medyo dark din yung lights na ginamit, hindi sya yung lights na pang-wedding and pang intimate occasions. But, then again it was a blessing in disguise. Alam nyo kung bakit? It was raining cats and dogs during my wedding day and I was hearing Alanis Morissette singing at the back of my head “It’s like Raaaii-iyyyheeeeen on your wedding day! It’s a freeee riiiiide when youre already paid.. ♪♫♪” lol it was the week kasi when the typhoon Nona hit the country so umulan talaga.. as in napaka lakas na ulan este bagyo! Ganern, ganern daw kadami ang blessings na mapupunta sa amin. So thankful na din kami na we chose a reception which is just near the church at least the guests won’t have a hard time going there diba?
- Catering services – It’s very important to have a nice and cozy food on your wedding day. Though the couples won’t be able to savor every moment of it kasi nga busy kung busy talaga ang peg. We had Precious Events Catering Services for our food. It includes na 4 main dishes, Amenities, Sound System and lights, plus also the yummy cake. They have Wedding packages na that can suit your budget but you can also customize it. Jaimee is our contact person, and she owns the business. According to her it was just a hobby before, until she decided to pursue it to a family business. She’s mabaet and very approachable. Napaka professional din kausap so I will really recommend her to you guys. And the food? 4.5 stars! The cake is also yummy, it’s a two-layered cake and the icing is the sugar icing. I prefer kasi sugar icing kesa fondant so naubos din sya ng guests. Sa sobrang sarap, natikman lang naming sya during the slicing of the cake. Oha! Pero it’s okay. As long as the guests are busog and happy we’re totally fine with that. I’ll show you the pictures pag na-upload ko na. For the meantime, here’s her contact information.
- Photo and Video Services – We had JPC Photoworks for our Photo and Video Coverage. Nung una, I did not really want to have video kasi nga naisip ko a lot of people nowadays have good camera phones and they can just upload it through Instagram or FB, sayang naman ang bayad. But nagbago ang isip ko. So sabi ko mas maganda sana if there will be a professional photographer and videographer na kukuha sa amin. Some take note, only some of the photos turned out to be very nice. You can check their website, they edited some of the shots and so it turned out to look so nice pero other shots na nasa DVD copy hindi ko masyado nagustuhan. Parang wala masyado emotions and also the edited video? I’ll give them talaga 2.5 stars lang! I expected kasi na maayos talaga sya, pero kung ako mag-eedit nun di hamak na mas maganda talaga ang kakalabasan. Parang minadali na ewan yung results ng edited video. I don’t know if kulang ba sila sa tao or hindi sila magaling mag-edit. Tapos they did not inform us pa na the DVD that they will give to us is not going to be compatible sa DVD player. Pang computer lang sya mga bakla! The file is not compatible pag sinaksak mo sa DVD namin. I return to the original contract and it says there:
1 Dvd copy of all shots taken
1 Dvd copy of Highlight video. (4-6mins)
Yung highlight video na 4-6 minutes daw, wala pang 3 mins yung nsa amin! We paid 10K for their service pero I wasn’t really happy with the results. Sana nililinaw nila diba? When I talked to them ang sabi sa akin, the DVD daw is USB type where we can just transfer the file. I was like, “Huh? Wala naman yun sa contract te. Hindi yun ang naka-indicate sa website ninyo at sa Kontrata.” Di ko na lang pinatulan kasi nakapagbayad na kami and nonsense na makipagtalo.
But wait meron pa, when we checked the video. WALANG KUHA ANG GROOM NA NAGLALAKAD SA ALTAR.
P*%$@$!& !!!! diba?!
Mapapamura ka talaga e. Ang sabi sa akin, late na daw sila nabigyan ng signal nung nag-aassist. Ano, kasalanan pa nung nag-aassist? Diba?! Kayo yung photographer e, dapat alam nila kung kelan sila pupunta sa unahan. Juiceko Lord, sabi ko sa inyo sumakit ang bangs ko.
Lesson? Make sure to set the right expectations to your photographers and videographers. Etong mga nakuha ko kasi medyo mga bagets pa e, so feeling ko freelance freelance lang. Kumbaga hobby lang nila to tapos napagtripan gawing business. Ganern. Hay, nasasayangan talaga ako sa 10K ko. Feeling ko it was not worth it. I had to do the editing all by myself para mas magmukhang presentable yung wedding video ko.
So there you go guys, ayan na lang muna ang i-share ko sa inyo for the meantime. For my next post isunod natin yung DIY’s namin and also the gowns pati souvenirs and invitations. My wedding journey isn’t done yet.. more to come!
Disclosure:
My opinion in this blog entry is based on my personal experience as a Bride and a Client. There is absolutely no intention to put down or criticize the abovementioned Organization and Suppliers.
Let my Mommy hands do the talking 