#DaleRiaWedding

One month til the wedding and no invitations yet!!! LOL! I think some of my friends have been wondering if they are invited or not. :)) So I asked my brother to create save the dates and I sent them to all those invited. :) More than a month to go and still many things to do! Cheers to the last stressful month of my life! Haha! :)

This is one of the things I was looking forward to last September! But like the wedding, it was something I don't know what to expect. We did not have any plans on how to do this, no idea what to wear, where to shoot, what we liked, the theme or all those stuff!! All of the ideas were sort of came from whatever comes first hahaha!!

On birthdays and events, one thing I look forward too are the photobooths! Haha! It's fun to take photos and have them printed afterwards. :) So for our wedding, ofcourse we need to have this too! Hahaha! As we went to some wedding expos, we saw so many types of photobooths that you can see below (and I posted pictures too!):

This may be a boring post but really essential- a guide to Catholic Marriage Requirements here in the Philippines. :) I got this one from this site . Planning a wedding can be both exciting and exhausting at the same time. After setting the date and booking the venues for the ceremony and reception, comes the legal matter: the required documents to make the union possible and valid. A couple of legal age who wish to marry should first secure a license to get married. Then, there are other documents needed to complete the set of requirements and they vary for every religion, nationality, and status of each individual.

One of the things that matters most- my wedding dress!!! Hahaha! I'm not much into details of the wedding stuff and I told Dale I care about 2 things on this wedding- my dress and the rings. HAHA! So here's one that I'm really excited about but I don't know what to choose I think? One of my friends, Merie, has been helping me out in finding the dress style that would fit me best. She's also a blooming designer and would help me out in my bridesmaids' dresses. You can check her out here . We also went to Divisoria and asked for prices and tried on dresses that will suit me best. Gowns there ranges to P10,000-P60,000 - way cheaper than the Designer gowns. I remembered my debut gown that I wore just one time that costs around a little less than P30,000. So I promised not to spend so much on this. Here are some guides for the dresses, again from my Pinterest reposts. There are sure helpful when you don't know what dress would fit you best!

Until now we haven't booked our reception venue, I KNOW!! When we booked Hizon's, Irin panicked that until now we hadn't decided yet with the venue. Initially, we wanted North Forbes Pavillion and our minds was set to it. But because we took too long to arrange the booking, by the time we actually went to the office, it was already booked. Anyway for Makati weddings, you can check them out.

We booked our photo and video way back last Themes & Motif's wedding expo. Before the expo, Sheila made us a list of photographers to check out that will be at the expo. She made the list that would fit in our budget since we really had a tight one but we do not want to compromise the quality. Truth be told, I did not check the list at all (haha!) but Dale did! He already like Ralph's best and when my husband chooses something he likes, there's a low percentage something can still change his mind. Hahahaha! So we went to the expo and booked Ralph. :) Here are some sample shots he did: Pre-nup photos Wedding Photos So today's my first time to check Ralph's work. Hahaha! And it's pretty good nga. Haha! Here is our booked package: 2 professional photographers Unlimited shots using Digital SLR Camera Proofs to be stored in DVD 40 pages  10”x10” album all pages in digital layout approximately 200 images ...

So finally, a major step accomplished! We booked our caterer yesterday- Hizon's Catering . :) We have been through LOTS of food tasting since October. We checked out Tamayo's Catering, Juan Carlo Catering and had two sessions with Hizon's. Hahaha! What I liked best about Hizon's is the set up, gorgeous!! They have different themes you can choose from. Our coordinator told us that the best seller is the Silver and White because whatever your motif is, the silver and white will make your colors stand out. But we'll still be checking other colors. Here are some pictures of the theme: Centerpieces and table set up. Pretty and elegant right? I could imagine my wedding motif standing out. They can customize table cards and have a menu on each seat. This is already an add-on during the last wedding package they offer it for P5,000. During last October, this can be selected to the amenities instead of the Wedding Emcee or Bridal Car! Also an option are Inv...

One of the most stressful details on the wedding, the motif. I dread this blog. Hahaha! One of my bridesmaids is pressuring me to already select colors for the wedding. But I feel like I still don't need to finalize it yet since dresses and other details with color will be finalized month before. But anyway, I think I'm in love with blue and gold . Haha! Here are some of the color palettes I am looking at: Coral , Mint and Gold This one feels light and refreshing. :) Although I feel these colors are not easy to find and it's too perky? Indigo , Blush and Gold This one I really really like!!! It looks classy and elegant. :D   Blush and Navy The blush for me and navy for Dale. Refreshing but not too light. Silver , Midnight Blue and Grey This one feels winter-ish. I wanted to have a winter themed wedding since it will take place on November end already. But mom said it feels like we'll start the marriage "coldly"...

One of the things I'm most excited about if the Wedding Vow. Well I'm not even sure if personal vows are allowed at St. John Bosco, haha! But I'm excited to write one. I was looking at Facebook when I came through this article . It was a blog about revising your own vows you made during your wedding, something more realistic. She said, " Yes, marriage vows are meant to be idyllic and inspiring, to remind us that true love still exists, to bring an entire room to tears. Our wedding day promises are about love and hope and how we'll come from our best, not about housecleaning or self-development or what to do when we feel like murdering each other. Imagine the nervous laughter (or horror) if someone vowed to only hate her husband for short periods of time? None of us can possibly know at the outset what our marriage will bring or what tools we will need. Marriage has challenged almost every assumption I had about myself and my husband. It has asked me to stret...

Earlier on the wedding timeline, it's a must to have the money talk for the groom and bride. Your dream wedding is planned maybe one you have since you were a little girl. But of course, you would not want to spend hundreds of pesos for just one day that will leave you penniless on the next day. Haha! Dale and I started saving up since last year, after the proposal. We decided a budget and then we deposited monthly on a bank account and started saving up. Since after the wedding we will be moving in together and Chloe will start school, we decided to Spend Less. After all, I do not want to spend so much in a 5 hour event. Haha! Below is a worksheet brides can use to plan for the wedding. Tip is to decide where you want to invest in more. For example, after the wedding, photos and videos will be the memories that will be left behind, so be sure to get a photo / videographer that fits the budget and is pretty good. But for the entertainment, you do not have to hi...

One of the crucial things on the wedding planning is counting the guests to invite. Having too many friends from different parts of my life made ​​listing guests too hard! On Dale's side, he was closer to His family meaning he wanted to invite lots. Hahaha! This map from Pinterest helped us in Considering people to invite: Guest count so far reached 200 + from my, Dale's and mom's side. We are expecting 10% of those will not come, mostly on mom's side. Hahahaha! So we are expecting 180 guests to come to the wedding. I'm actually the kind of person that I want the people in my wedding to be somebody I still talk to after leaving the comfort zones I have not used to those I have not talked to for years. These people are the one I want to witness this victory of us, the people who loved us, stayed and cared for. :) It's a tough decision who to invite. But I suggest that invite people closest to your heart, especially if you're working on a budget! It...

The biggest piece of them all, where we say "I Do". Dale and I were both Thomasians. So of course, we wanted to get Married and the UST Church. There was no second thoughts at first, we dropped by as early as September 2013 to book the Church. But admin people told us that they'll start reservations for November 2013 after the semestral break. So we waited.

As we started to plan for the wedding, I thought I needed to start somewhere. I am not an event planner (quite the opposite actually haha!) but it's my wedding so yeah, plan. Haha! So here are some of the tools that helped me a lot:

Dale's proposal video he showed me when we were at Cowrie Island and Puerto Princesa, July 2013. :) I wanted to share this to everyone and have it here on our wedding blog. ;) <3

The first thing we needed was the wedding date. Since I gave birth to Chloe on 11/11/11 I would like a special date as well. When my mom reminded me about 12/13/14 (are priority falls into a perfect Saturday), I immediately panicked and started to look for our Church because I know people would book as early as October for this! We started looking by the 2nd week of October but to my demise, Churches were booked on that day. : (  We wanted to book the wedding to a date that we would have ample time to prepare (and most importantly save!) so we really wanted to have it on the 4th quarter of 2014.  We looked for Churches and fell in love with one. When we inquired, we found out that the only available date was on November 15th. But a friend of mine already booked their wedding on that date. Fortunately (or fate interfered) a Chinese couple were booked on November 29 But they have not submitted requirements and were given the deadline. If they did not submit within the week, w...

I guess if this is a wedding blog I need to have a sort of timeline here. Haha! So Here's a Planning Timeline from my Pinterest . I'll be posting how Eventually these things are checked off the list. Here's to a masipag Ria on planning! : P Since he proposed , of course some of things were already booked. But I'd still like to share the things we have done and researched for. :) Hope this helps the bride-to-be's!