Bob and Elay

New Layout!

// July 5th, 2011 // No Comments » // The Blogging Bride

Hi everyone!

It’s been a long time since I last blogged here. I swear  I have a lot of stories to tell, I just don’t know how to start on it. :) I’m happy that I’m still getting emails from you soon-to-weds, that means may nagbabasa pa rin ng blog ko kahit papano. Hehe!

Today is one year and one month since we got married. Nakakatuwa lang how different life is right now, it’s so hard to believe it’s been just a year. I promise I’ll revisit this blog and share with you how life has changed since the “I do” part in the church.

Happy preps everyone!

Love,

Elay

Why I Love Uly

// May 30th, 2011 // No Comments » // The Blogging Bride

I’ve said it a hundred times on this blog and I will say it again. I love Uly! I remember, when I was still scouting for possible Hair and Make-Up Artists, I got to talk to a lot – as in. But it was with Uly that I felt really accommodated. He replies very promptly, and he doesn’t have a bit of arrogance pag kausap mo siya. That, and a back-up of all positive comments from a forum, made me decide to get him as my HMUA.

Imagine, bago palang kami ikasal, nasubukan ko na ang powers ni Uly. He did our make-up for my sister’s graduation. Dun palang, I knew I was right in getting him. He made me feel confident with how I look, and the flood of compliments I got after is really heartwarming. The day of our wedding came and nakapagmagic siya ulit and everyone commented how great I looked at the wedding. Tapos siyempre, I didn’t hesitate at all to recommend him to my cousin’s wedding, and as usual – she, too, was flooded with compliments. Now, another special occasion is coming up and syempre, palalampasin ko bang wala siya dun? Ngayon, it’s not just because he’s my HMUA, but because I consider him a very good friend already.

I will never get tired of recommending Uly Sariego to brides out there. Trust me, sulit lahat talaga. :)

Bermejo-Tupaz Supplier Ratings

// May 18th, 2011 // No Comments » // Bermejo-Tupaz Supplier Ratings, The Blogging Bride

As promised, here’s the supplier ratings of my cousin’s wedding held last April 1, 2011. We tried our best to stick to our budget and yes, this is yet another budget-friendly wedding! With the two of us combined, I guess you’re pretty sure by now na anything’s possible talaga if you really just keep your eyes (and mind) on the budget. ;)

Let’s hear it from the bride!

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Ang Lapit na!

// March 25th, 2011 // No Comments » // The Blogging Bride

My cousin’s wedding is exactly one week from now! So far everything is in order, she’s just the usual one-week-away-bride, and despite her craziness, I can tell she’s totally fine. Yeah, I think so.

I mentioned before that this is another Budget-Friendly wedding, perhaps even friendlier than ours! :) Hers is now around 130k for 180, probably 200 guests. Yeahboi! It’s amazing!

So far here’s her list of suppliers on the wedding:

• Caterer – Martha’s Plate and Catering Services
• Reception – Marikina Hotel and Convention Center
• Photo and Video – Emage Photography
• Hair and Make Up – Uly Sariego
• Florist – Epie Flowershop

Bob did her invites design, with pictures taken from the prenup I covered for them. I told ya there were decent enough photos from the set. Haha!

Anyway, I can’t wait to blog about her wedding suppliers. I’ll keep you updated.

Coordinator-ish

// March 19th, 2011 // No Comments » // The Blogging Bride

I’m helping my cousin plan her wedding on April 1. It’s another budget wedding, and so far we’re pulling it off real good. Some of her suppliers are the same as mine, seeing how they performed well on our wedding was enough for us to trust them again. Martha’s Plate is a front-runner, Uly Sariego is also her make up artist. I recommended Uly talaga and won’t take a no for an answer! Haha! Syempre I want her really beautiful on her wedding noh.

All other suppliers are okay in terms of dealing with them, etc. Well, except for one – her venue – Marikina Hotel and Convention Center which is giving her one heck of a headache. The full story will be on this blog once the wedding is done. I guess we’ll give Marikina Hotel and Convention Center a chance to make up for their incompetence before I make a blog about them.

Her wedding is just about two weeks away so wish us luck! :)

*Did I mention I’ll be her second photographer as well? Haha! Yeah, wish me luck.*

Quick Hello.

// February 24th, 2011 // No Comments » // The Blogging Bride

I don’t know if there any more visitors on this blog. But if there are, HELLO!

I do get occasional emails still, I swear it makes me happy knowing that there are brides out there who learned from my blog in one way or another.

I want to update this as much as I can, especially now that I’m helping my cousin plan her wedding – and I tell you it’s another one heck of a budget friendly wedding. I think we’re somewhere near 150k but it’s for 150 pax already! :) She’s not much of a blogger so I’ll have to ask her permission first before I do a post about her wedding. It’s coming pretty near anyway, so if she agrees, I promise to do a supplier rating here as well.

On another note, Bob and I are quickly approaching our one year mark. God, it’s been one year already. Around this time last year, I was a busy hands on bride. Now, I’m a happy and contented stay-at-home wife. Ack, there’s a lot of stories to tell, I realized just now.

What else?

Lately, I’ve been busy trying to learn how to use my first DSLR. I’ve practiced on my cousin’s pre nup. I was the one who covered their prenup, and thank God, at least there were decent enough photos. Haha! I’m thinking of offering free pre-nups for soon-to-weds, but I’d have to practice a bit more pa. Hehe! Siyempre nakakahiya pag pangit ang photos, but if you’re willing to be my “victim”, just shoot me an email at elay0207@yahoo.com. Hehe!

Anyway, I’ll just drop by again and again to check if there are any more questions on this blog. Usually, I reply via the email address you specify on the comment box, so make sure it’s legit! Hehe!

Thanks!

-Elay

DIY Projects

// July 15th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // The Blogging Bride

Just want to share the lovely DIY projects done by my cousin, Kristine Angela Tupaz. I can’t say anything else but, WOW. She did all of these by herself, no help at all. She started the night I told her I got engaged, and still worked her way out of it until few days before the wedding. She’s such an angel. :)

Our wedding invites

The design was done by my husband, Bob – but the rest of the stuff was Ate Tin’s already. Look at the following pictures and see how she made everything from plain to fancy. :)

Our Kissing Bells

It was dual purpose – it also served as name holders for the table. Guests find it so cute that they brought it home. :)

Our game prizes…

And… the cord used in the ceremony.. :)

Our teddy bears – they served as ring holders during the ceremony.

Now, since Bob and I want to share our blessings to other brides/grooms out there, we’re giving away the template of our wedding invites, and our monogram as well.

You don’t have to be best friends with Photoshop to use the template, you just have to type in the entourage, and voila. :)

Click to download:

JPEG Version -Blank Inlay

Or if you’re friends with Photoshop/Illustrator, here’s the source file:

Invites – Adobe Illustrator

It’s totally free, and you may wish to alter it anyway you want, just be sure to drop a comment below to let us know that you’ve downloaded the file and used it. Hehe!

Have fun!

Budget-friendly Wedding

// July 7th, 2010 // 13 Comments » // The Blogging Bride

I opened my email and saw that there were actually people asking me how I got to plan our dream wedding in a very budget-friendly way.

To be precise, our wedding was less than 200k. This, considering I have everything I wanted – Onsite videos, etc. In a modern setting, 200k is the MINIMUM budget for a wedding. I know of weddings that go as high as 500k or 1m.

So how did we do it? Let me summarize the basics.

• First of all, we conditioned ourselves that our wedding won’t be in the “limelight” of weddings, we acknowledged the fact that for a budget this modest, we won’t be able to get high-end suppliers, those with talent fees starting at 100k is automatically out of our list, no matter how much we want them.
• But we did realize, for one, that the truth is – WE CAN FIND SUPPLIERS WITH THE SAME QUALITY, but not the same suicidal amount. The great thing about this budget is that we were able to work around it – and find people who do excellent jobs but not pay as much. We’re confident to say that our major suppliers – like photo and video – we got for a low price but their talents are purely exceptional.
• We knew, when we started the wedding that ours will be a LOCAL wedding. We chose a parish that’s near our place, we decided to have the reception at our very own clubhouse, and all other suppliers were our friendly neighborhood florists, etc. Also, take note that there were a lot of things DIY…
• The biggest discount in a wedding planning is having GREAT FRIENDS who willingly do stuffs for you, for free.

I think the common misconception about wedding planning is this – that you have to get “Insert Famous Photographer Here” to get quality photos. But we have to consider the fact that before “That Famous Photographer” got to where he is right now, he was also a newbie, and some bride just took a chance to get his services and voila – he became a sought-after photog.

Also, I think what we often miss is the whole point of the WEDDING – it is, above all means, TO GET MARRIED. No matter how cliche or how baduy it sounds, at the end of the day, it won’t matter if “That famous photographer” took a picture of your first dance, your first kiss as husband and wife – the point is you were able to do it in front of God. That feeling of happiness is the real essence of the wedding. That- knowing you have married the right prince after kissing all those horrible frogs.

Now, to be accurate, let me summarize what we got for our less than 200k wedding.

Photo and Video Coverage – Aqua Pro Digital Studio

• Two Digital Professional Photographers
• Full Digital Photography with unlimited shots saved in Photo DVD
• Best of 200 to 250 digital photos
• 40 pages of modern digital layout (11×14)
• Imported leather magnetic photo album with special casing.
• 8×10 digital Guestbook (leather type)
• 16×20 Blow up portrait in canvas and imported frame.
• Two Digital Storybooks for parents copy
• Use of 3ccd broadcast quality digital video camera
• Two digital professional videographers
• Full non-linear multi layered high-end editing in DVD Format
• Free Mini DVD master tapes
• Free TY Cards
• FRee Tarpaulin
• Free complete studio gallery set up
• Free prenuptial shooting and AVP in DVD Format
• ONSITE VIDEO

Food and Beverages – Martha’s Plate Catering Services

• Food for 150 pax
• Elegantly designed tables with centerpieces
• Couple’s table
• 6 viands + Free salad bar
• Cake

Hair and Make Up – Ulysses Sariego

• Airbrush Make Up
• Bride and Groom + 3 heads
• Unlimited Retouch (Church and Reception)

Lights and Sounds – RejectKrew

• SOUND SYSTEM
• 4 units kevler MRX15 professional speaker with stands (800 watts each)
• 1 unit behringer ep2500 professional power amplifier (1200 watts per channel)
• 1 unit lexus audio power amplifiers (500 watts per channel each)
• 1 unit allen & heath 16-channel live/pa professional audio mixer
• 1 unit kevler compressor gate limiter audio processor
• 1 unit phonic digital reverb effects
• 2 units trident 2 channel professional 31 band equalizer
• 1 unit kinetic audio 3-way active crossover
• 1 unit sharp mebius laptop with genuine windows xp and original pc dj software
• 2 units numark professional dj cd-player
• 1 unit phonic 3-channel dj mixer
• 2 units shure PGX series wireles microphones
• 4 units shure sm58/samson r21 microphones with mic stands
• 1 crate of 14 gauge royal cords w/ speakon connectors
• 1 sony 6-channel pro mic mixer (back-up)
• LIGHTING EFFECTS (mood lights, effect lightings, fx )
• 2 units lightsky 575HMI moving head effect lighting
• 2 units ace lite gobo projector special lighting effect
• 12 units par lights (with colored gel filters)
• 1 bubble machine effects
• 1 antari fog machine
• 1 unit electronic dimmer / lighting controller
• 1 unit DMX lighting controller

Bridal Gown and Accessories – Ikasal by Jerome Figueroa

• Bridal Gown + Complete Accessories
• Groom’s Suit + Complete Accessories (brief nalang kulang, haha)
• Entourage dresses (rental)

Entourage Dresses – Porang in Divisoria

• We got all bridesmaid dresses for 400 each. Ready made.
• Flower girl dresses for 350 each.

Flowers – Jackie and Julie’s Flowershop

• This is exactly what I meant by friendly neighborhood florists. Please take note that the following package I got from her cost me 3.5k only.
• Bridal Bouquet + Throw Away Bouquet
• Hand tied Bouquet for all female entourage (6 Bridesmaids, 2 MOH, 9 Ninang, 2 Parents, 3 Secondary Sponsors) — ang dami!
• Basket with flowers/petals for the flower girls
• Buttonaires for Groom and all male entourage
• Bridal Car Bouquet
• Headpiece for all flowergirls

Church – San Antonio de Padua Parish, Antipolo

• Red carpet + Flower Decor for 5k Only
• Choir (they sang all throughout the mass and even after the wedding – during picture taking.)

Reception – Mission Hills Clubhouse

• All day reservation + after event swimming
• No extra charges (Electricity)
• Very lenient

On the Day Coordination/Emcee – Artist Gallery Events Coordination

• Well, at least they tried to “coordinate” our wedding. Haha! They got low ratings from me in w@w because of their poor performance on our wedding.

So if you can see, we got pretty much what we wanted to have for the wedding. At the end of the day, when Bob and I were at the hotel, we had the onsite video on loop and we were able to upload it agad on Facebook for those who didn’t get to see the wedding. Ours was a modest budget but it covered everything we wanted and more.

I really believe that a couple should not postpone a church wedding because they can’t afford to do so. Church weddings aren’t supposed to be expensive.

You don’t pay for God’s blessing.

For the brides out there – take a minute to assess what you really want for the wedding. Is it something you’d like for all the GUESTS to remember, or is it something you’d look after to all the years of your life – with your HUSBAND.

It’s true that weddings are once in a lifetime experience. If you have the money to spend for it, go. But if you don’t and you still want a wedding, just be realistic… and try to stick to the budget.

I hope this post helped in some way, and were able to answer the questions you may have right now.

Just remember,

It’s your day. No one else can make it more special than the one waiting for you at the end of the aisle.

Step-by-Step Guide on Requirements.

// July 5th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // The Blogging Bride

So you got engaged, Congratulations! And after the hype has slowed down, you get to the reality, “OMG there’s so many documents and requirements to pass!” You probably don’t even know where to start. Just like I was when we were preparing for our wedding. But anyway, let me try to enumerate the basics and some experience as well.

For this guide, I’ll divide in two: Legal requirements and Church Requirements.

Legal Requirements – this is to obtain that much awaited Marriage License. J

• Birth Certificate of both parties – I didn’t want to wait in line, so I requested for an NSO Copy of our birth certificates from Census Online. (http://www.ecensus.com.ph/) It says on the website that it takes as much as 8 days for a delivery, but in our case, it arrived 3 days after I paid for it at Banco De Oro.
• Certificate of No Marriage (CENOMAR) – This, I also got from ECensus. Arrived with our birth certificates.
• Parent’s Consent/Parental Advice – Parent’s Consent is for 18-21 years old, Parental Advice is for 22-25 years old. In my case, since I am 23, I only needed Parental Advice. At first, I didn’t know what it was, I thought it was even crazy to ask for this, coz yes – before we got engaged, we asked advice from our parents, obviously. Haha! So actually, there’s a form you have to fill up – and have your parents sign it. But since my parents are both abroad, I had my tita sign it for me, but we had to get a notarized affidavit saying she’s my legal guardian and all.

When you have all of this ready, you go to the City Hall. One of you has to be a resident from that municipality to be able to get a license from them. In our case, we filed for license here in Antipolo. As soon as you get there, look for the Civil Registry desk, or just ask them where to file for Marriage License. The person in charge will give you a form, and you have to fill it up. After that, she’ll give you documents you have to photocopy, like a blank form that announces your engagement to everyone. Hehe! Also, you have to photocopy everything, make three copies of each document, just to be sure.

After that, she’ll ask you to attend a Family Planning seminar, the schedule depends actually. Ours was scheduled on a Friday, from 12nn to 4pm. After the seminar, they will give you a certificate, please don’t forget to ask for that, and you’ll submit it when you pick-up your license.

The processing of license takes 11 days from the day of submission. And the cost is approximately 350 pesos.

While waiting for the 11 days – there’s a lot that you can do.

Some churches don’t allow reservations unless you have at least one or two requirements ready. Some even required all of the documents, so that’s a hassle, right? But since you’re just waiting for the marriage license, it’s time to process the church requirements already.

• Baptismal Certificates – It has to be specifically marked “For Marriage”. Of course, you get this from the church you were baptized in. The office hours of most churches are 2pm-5pm, Tuesdays to Sundays. In our case, we were able to get the baptismal certificates on the day itself. You just have to wait at least 30 mins before you get them, well, it depends. Bob’s baptismal certificate cost 50 pesos (he got it from Cabanatuan) while mine was 100 pesos.
• Confirmation Certificate – this is a must. Again, has to be marked “For Marriage.” In Bob’s case, he already went thru the Sacrament of Confirmation, so he was able to get his certificate at once. In my case, since I was raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, I wasn’t able to undergo the Sacrament of Confirmation and had to be scheduled for one. There are many churches that allow Confirmation, especially for the soon-to-weds, but the most ideal is to have it set on the church where you’ll get married, it’s easier.
• Certificate of Attendance – Aside from the Family Planning seminar at the municipal hall, there’s also another series of seminars from the Church. I don’t have any advice on this except to enjoy the seminar.
• Marriage Banns – I think this should be a priority especially if you’re already a few months away from the wedding. Marriage Banns take 3 weeks to process. You’ll need this if you’re going to get married outside of your parish. The Church where you’ll get married will give you a letter, give it to the parish you belong to and pay the fees, 300 pesos I think (it varies). Then for 3 weeks, they will announce your engagement to the parishioners. Have an ID Picture ready, they might ask for it, 2×2 is fine.
• Canonical Interview – this one, a one-on-one talk with the officiating Priest. Enjoy it, it’s really nice to get to know the Priest and have the Priest get to know you too before the actual wedding day.
• List of Principal Sponsors – they will ask you for this, too. Some churches only allow a maximum of 5 sponsors, so ask them about it when you go there. Ours were a pair of 9 sponsors, but luckily, the church didn’t impose a fee or something. I know some churches do charge a fee per extra sponsor.
• CENOMAR – I don’t know about other churches, but our church got the original copy of our CENOMAR. So you might want to have this ready too.
• Let’s not forget about the pictures. 2×2 or 1×1 will do. I think most churches require 2×2.

I guess the key to having a smooth processing of requirements is to have everything ready when you go there. And don’t forget the small things, like ballpen, paper and well, lots of patience.

And one more piece of advice for the soon-to-weds, join online groups, like weddings at work, they made everything a breeze for me. And I got to meet new people, made new friends as well.

Sagun-Pabico Supplier Ratings

// June 15th, 2010 // 8 Comments » // Our Wedding Team, The Blogging Bride

Hello everyone,

First of all, thank you so much w@w for all the help during our wedding preparations. Some of my suppliers are w@w finds, and they performed more than expected on our wedding.

For the bride-to-bes out there, I really hope that my supplier ratings will help you plan your wedding. All in all, we spent 150k in our wedding of 130 guests.

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