I would always compare wedding planning to a graduating student's Thesis or a Board Exam review. I was totally wrong! My two (as my ex-boss would say) amateurish comparisons were definitely the understatements of all time. (geeky quote zooms-in my face “with great power comes great responsibilities”...in 3D text!). Okay! I got it spidey, now shooo!
READY. Sums up the Ghandi-like virtues one can think of and practice in order to pull through those two major achievements on one’s younger (ouch! But true!) days. Am I? Is he? Without a doubt! YES, has been the only answer for both of us.
Yey! we are getting married! ...wedding preps commencing...
I have concluded some unnecessary (for some) but necessary (for me) pointers while planning our BIG day! which might be helpful to some brides-to-be as well. Though my primary purpose is to keep every bit of memory fresh out of the 12-long-months of wedding preps.
It was exhausting(ly fun!) -- specially a week before the wedding, goodness, had it not for the photos and vids and more photos and vids we wouldn't have recalled what happened!
It was frustrating(ly fun) too, we could have gotten ourselves a trip to Italy or Greece or Maldives or USA heck! We could go anywhere we want, with the budget we put aside for the wedding but nope! We would not trade THAT one day for any trips in the world, not even to the moon besides that, there isn't anything to see in the moon anyway (hardy-har-har tickle me)!
But seriously, it was just fun preparing for that one special day! Shopping for rings, shopping for shoes, flipping through magazine pages, doodles and sketches that you later realized it looked horrible so you have to do it again, conceptualizing the theme, decor ideas, cake designs, dress designs, spying (hehe!) on online wedding vids -- some are cheezy, some are cute, some are heartwarming (ours, we have decided to let experts do their thing!), surfing for other people's wedding photos (we sooo loathe too much HDRI's and lomo-like shots! I mean come on! Use a lomo cam then! Instead of your D90 or EOS7D or 5D, that's just ridiculous!).
*sigh* I already miss those days (and nights). This is the real once in a lifetime experience that sadly, not everyone had the privilege to share and talk about. So! here goes my few documented pointers during the wedding preparations.
1. Are you both READY? Are you sure? -- you know what the answer should be.
2. (This is reeally necessary) "THE" Plan B, as sometimes this can be way better and exciting than plan A.
3. Bridal Magazine - Lots and lots of it! You can never have enough. One mag more often than not just have one inspiration that is clip-worthy. Trust me!
4. IDEAS! And I mean original ideas. No one can stop you from admiring someone’s wedding but take note, there is a HUGE difference between admiration and imitation. You don’t want someone describing your day as “very much like so-and-so’s wedding” or you don’t want to hear someone saying “wow! This is all so familiar, remember our friend’s wedding?”. That would be awkward and – what’s the word? “Yucky?”
5. Great and Talented Vendors. Ahhhh...I’ve been dying to blog about this.
I was given a heads up by a friend who got married in Bacolod last September 2008 that SOME local vendors in Bacolod are quite non-responsive over emails. Lo-and-behold, I had my own taste of a snail's pace work ethics of some vendors. After 3-4 weeks ( even longer than that) of waiting -- I got replies that usually begin with “SORRY...”
“I was busy with my other client...”. Talking about business ethics, I have never, not even once said this to my clients and would never say this, ever!
“...Our computer was down” – OMG! I actually don’t know what say except, Soooo? No back-up plan? Some experienced vendor huh???
“ the staff-in-charge went AWOL” -- I shall quote Miranda Priestly “details of your incompetence does not interest me”
And many (I’d say) other LAME excuses...
It’s as if you, as a client would have to beg them to be your vendor. Yes! You got that right – YOU(client)-BEG-THEM(vendors). Well in our case, nope! That’s not how it works. Too bad they were not able to work with the easiest client on earth!
No offense but I'm just stating my own opinion based on my first hand experience.
Though there were two vendors I really admired! They were the perfect examples of working like pros!
Ysabelles' Bridal, Tita Lynette Villanueva was very accommodating and keeps you posted for any changes or better suggestions she might have! hence many loved my gown and the ento dresses! In fact the ento dresses were not according to my original design due to some constraints on the , cut, hems and other tailor whatchamacallits but turned out more prettier and more original besides that the ladies who wore the dresses were already pretty!
Honey Grace Cakes! (Thanks Ivz!) Honey Grace herself attended to me and patiently answered all my innocent queries! As I have zero know-how about cakes! The moment I stepped into her store, I haven't left till way beyond closing hours till all queries and doubts were settled! She even took time to do the mock-up of the cake layer set-up as my idea was kinda experimental but we later on pulled it off! By the way I later found out she is one of the local TV personalities in Bacolod. How cool is that?!
So bride’s-to-be out there, better have someone whom you can really ask to do things for you if you can’t be physically around on the early stages the wedding planning. Had it not for my dearest sis Vannie (she is indeed the real maid-of-honor!) and bestfwend Ivy (my own personal Bride’s maid), I could not imagine what the output would be. You guys can actually start a wedding coordination partnership!
Albeit some internal mishaps during the wedding day, we pulled it off! There is no such thing as the perfect wedding anyway. Everyone loved and enjoyed the whole event and that’s what matters. Looking back, it seemed like it was all dream, so surreal that we even ask ourselves
“How on earth did we do it?!” -- here goes the answer...
...and the most important tip of all time...
6. Leave it to the experts! They know better best! Quit being the all-knowing-yet-knows-nothing "expert"!
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