labors of love

the demand for wedding coordinators has dramatically gone up in the past couple of years. nowadays, for most couples, the very first supplier they will look for is a wedding coordinator… and yet, here we are, just 2 months remaining before our wedding and we have yet to mention anything about them. bakit nga ba? eh madami namang advantages ang pagkakaron ng wedding coordinator gaya ng:

• hassle-free planning. most of the legwork will be done by the coordinator. from conceptualization to supplier sourcing to negotiations. almost everything except shouldering the bills (kung pwede lang sana. hehe). they can take care so much of the preparations that it is possible that you won’t even meet your suppliers before your wedding day. this can be very helpful to overseas couples and those who are just too busy and don’t have time for preparations.

• knowledge and experience. well, this is assuming that the coordinator IS knowledgeable and experienced. with such, they know what works and what doesn’t work. they know who the suppliers to approach and which ones to avoid. even the tiniest of details… they know (and they should). this is helpful for those who don’t know much about weddings.

• insider contacts. being part of the industry and having been working with different suppliers, they can negotiate for lower rates and/or special packages.

eh ok naman pala magka-coordinator, eh. so why didn’t we get one? basically, there are just 2 reasons, namely:

• too expensive. for full coordination, a wedding coordinator will charge around 30k-40k. that is a lot of money. we’re not willing to spend that much for something that we can do ourselves.

• we want the experience. nothing beats the satisfaction and fulfillment of building something out of nothing and witnessing it until its completion… more so if it is something that would happen just once in one’s lifetime. planning, deciding and experiencing the whole process together will only deepen our relationship towards one another… and that is something we wouldn’t want to pass up. besides, the wedding is the day of the couple so why let someone else call the shots?

that is why we didn’t get a coordinator and decided do this by ourselves. plus… there won’t be much to write about nor stories to tell if we had one. hehe.

just this month, we finally accomplished our very-first diy (do-it-yourself) project. it took us a while to finish this project. it all started with a simple design but was executed only a month or so ago. labor of love talaga. 🙂

this project of ours though is not totally ours alone… we had some help from our artist friend caz. we wanted a wedding emblem of sorts and we asked caz, an artist and a common friend, to draw us one. we just gave him an idea on how it should look like and he got it in one shot. 🙂

having an american backyard, spring wedding theme, we wanted to incorporate elements representing our theme hence, the picket fences (american backyard) and the blooming tulips (spring)… all done in a cartoonish way. 🙂

now that we had our emblem, we were now armed to continue on with our diy project. actually, what we did was a host of projects. it was supposed to be a single project (save-the-date card) but it branched to a few more projects. blame that to our “ka-arte-han.” hehe.

we wanted our save-the-date card to be simple yet unique. blessed with a few skills in photoshop, i drafted a few designs, with each one undergoing scrutiny and approval from my fiancee, selle. 😉 but even before this series of designs, i already had one in mind but it didn’t push through because we couldn’t get a shot of me that could match one of selle’s shots. hence this unfinished work:

ignore the left side of the design because that is just scratch. obvious naman, dba? hehe. we couldn’t get a shot of me with light coming from the right side of my face thereby creating dark shadows on the left side of my face. that would’ve created symmety with the shot of selle here. maybe on another project. 🙂

running out of time, i just browsed through our pictures and found an interesting one that what shot using selle’s cellfone. we could still remember the picture well as it was shot during those early days of her “new” (but not brand-new. hehe) cellfone while we were eating at our favorite pizza kiosk, red bell pizza. candid and full of life. perfect. 🙂

we now had a picture and an emblem. what else is do we need? of course we needed to incorporate our color motif of green and pink (spring colors, of course). add in a few basic details and here is how it all ended up:

this design had a total of 7 revisions. just a few tweaks here and there until we decided on this one. 🙂

but settling for just this is not unique enough for us (ang a-arte talaga, eh, no? hehe). we wanted our save-the-date to be valued by those who will receive one… and not just to be thrown into a drawer and collect dust. that’s when we thought of using magnets. this way, our std’s can be placed on a refrigerator, a cabinet or somewhere else. plus it would give our std a 3-dimensional look. 🙂

first step, get our designs printed. the easiest way we could think of is to go to the nearest photo developing studio and have them print our designs. our std’s were sized so that 2 designs can be printed in one 3R sheet. before printing, they checked the size in photoshop and it was sized perfectly… 5″ x 3.5″. they told us to return in half an hour. simple enough. there should be no problem, right? pagbalik namin, we checked the printouts and there was something wrong. bat parang putol ang isang side? so tinanong namin kung bakit nagkaganun? eh kasi daw hindi eksakto sa 3R yung size ng file. anong hindi eksakto? so tinanong namin kung ano ba ang size ng 3R.

ang sagot: 5″ x 3.5″.

so we asked them to check the file.

ang size: 5″ x 3.5″

eh d napahiya sila ngayon (kikipagtalo pa, eh. hehe). so ulit sila ngayon (at medyo galit pa, ha. sila na nga nagkamali, eh. salary deduction sila tuloy. hehe). pagka-print… aba, eh may mali pa din. ngayon… napaliit naman. nagkaron ng manipis na white strip border sa isang side. bakit ganun? ni-check ko maigi. yun naman pala ang kanila 3R sheet is not exactly 5″ x 3.5″. it’s more like 5″ x 3.4″. nye. hanlabo. kaya tinanggap na namin. no choice, eh.

each std is composed of 4 parts: white backing board, main layout, magnetic sheet & picture insert.

since the std is a bit complicated to assemble, it was the last to be done amongst our diy projects. what else were the others?

• prayer points. given to our spiritual brothers/sisters to intercede for us during the preparations

• principal sponsors invites. this will be given (along with an std) when we formally ask them to be our principal sponsors.

• bridal entourage invites.

of course we made sure we had one of each to serve as our own personal souvenirs. 🙂

the whole process went like:

• design
• printing
• cutting
• assembly

most were done together, as if we were in an assembly line. why did we decide to do this ourselves?

• it is economical. invitation suppliers charge relatively high.

• it gives a personal touch to our invitations.

• quality time together. 🙂

• the number of std copies were limited due to budget constraints. we decided na ang bibigyan lang namin are the principal sponsors, members of the bridal entourage and our “volunteers.” guests will be given std’s through email na lang para tipid. 🙂

can’t wait when we make our invitations… don’t wori… guests will have a copy this time around. 🙂


going solo

speaking of invitations, we plan to have ours, at least the main invite, to be professionally printed. i-de-design namin tapos pa-pa-print na lang. as for the inserts, we’ll probably print those ourselves (or pa-print sa iba… basta hindi na sa professional printer). that is why we are now in the hunt for an invitations printer.

we scheduled one weekend to go invitation printer hopping. unfortunately, selle got sick. 😦 not wanting to let the weekend pass without any accomplishments, we decided that i go solo.

saturday and off i went to megamall. there were supposed to be 2 invitations supplier there (actually 3 kaso late ko na nalaman yung pangatlo. hehe) which i could check out. i entered the shop of one supplier (actually, more of digital printing company sya talaga and not solely invitations) and checked out their rates. masyado mahal kaya d na ako nagtagal at umalis na lang. searched for the other supplier but couldn’t find it. i just then decided to research more about invitations suppliers at the net.

after a while, i was supposed to go to printed matter but decided against it kasi nahihiya ako. hehe. i felt like na pag pumunta ako dun, ako lang customer, eh parang off… kasi ala partner ko. i went to dapitan arcade instead.

dapitan arcade? may supplier ba ng invitations dun? actually, wala. hehe. souvenirs naman habol namin dito… materials for our souvenirs to be exact. hindi pa final kung ano ibibigay namin souvenir pero nag-ca-canvass na kami para malaman na which amongst our choices will turn out the cheapest (hahaha). ang barat, eh, no?

dapitan arcade is a haven for handicrafts. we heard about it first from kaye, our caterer. nagpupunta daw kasi sya dun to buy stuffs. then heard about it also sa w@w community. eh, since nahihirapan na kami maghanap ng materials na gus2 namin (endagered specie ba to? hehe), eh we decided na we (na naging i na lang kasi nga nagkasakit selle) should check dapatin out kasi meron daw dun nun. teka, ano ba yun? d na muna namin i-divulge para may onting element of surprise naman. hehe.

anyway, took a cab from megamall going to dapitan. malayo-layo pala yun. hehe. at naligaw-ligaw pa kami ng taxi driver pero nakarating din finally. mainit at masikip. d ko ma-imagine na ang aming stylish caterer na c kaye ay nagpupunta d2. hehe. umikot-ikot ako sa mga stalls. pero hinahanap ko talaga is stall 22 (ang lupit talaga ng w@w sa info. hehe). at nahanap ko naman agad. nakita ko ang hinahanap namin although hindi exactly ganun. i was kinda surprised by the price also. feeling ko kasi dapat mas mura pa dun. hehe. tanong-tanong ako dun sa bantay at umalis na din… taking note of the price. we’ll decide later if i-push through namin yun or not.

nag-ikot-ikot pa ako sa arcade. nakakita din akong mga items na pwedeng gifts for sponsors. nakakita din ako mga items na pwede magamit for the wedding. at ang dami-dami pa ko pa nakita… all the while i was doing realtime reporting to selle (hehe. reporter).

after dapitan, i went to intramuros to look at a bridal fair. baka sakali kasi merong mga suppliers ng invites dun so madali na mag-inquire. besides, on paper, the bridal fair seemed interesting kasi may mga talks, talks din. pagdating dun, aba, eh bat parang ang luwang… i mean, parang ang onti ng suppliers. anyway, punta akong registration. ang labo ng nasa registration table. since pre-registered kami thru the net, check na lang nila name ko sa list nila. after nila kunin pangalan ko, aba, sabi, “sir wala kayo sa list”. eh, d nagtaka ako. cnabi ko uli pangalan ko pero this time, tiningnan ko na din ang list. eh, kaya naman pala hindi mahanap pangalan ko, eh… eh sa column ba naman ng brides hanapin ang name ko. sabi ko tuloy, “eh talagang wala ako dyan, ms… groom ako, eh.” namula dun yung nasa registration. hehe.

that bridal fair visit must be the quickest bridal fair visit i’ve ever experienced. grabe, alang kalaman-laman. sayang. todo-todo pa man din pag-advertise ng organizer dun. tsk, tsk. parang naawa nga ako sa mga exhibitors, eh. ang onti lang kasi talaga nila. lalo ako naawa sa nag-ta-talk. laki pa man din ng stage pos ala masyado tao.

wasted day? not really. the dapitan trip was productive. the bridal fair visit though was a waste of time… but at least time ko lang na-waste. mas pangit kung dalawa kami na nasayangan ng oras, dba? hehe. i got to research about invites suppliers which we have contacted already since. bottomline though, if we were together that day and none of our activities produced anything, it would still be better because we still spent time together… we still experienced things together… and that is why we decided to do things ourselves.

hanggang dito na lang updates for now.

til the next one…