Day 22: Interview with the Coordinator

I have finally decided to take matters into my own hands. I got tired of waiting for my fiance to find us a wedding coordinator through his friend. So I decided to meet with the coordinator recommended to us by Ms. Rose from our church venue and see if I liked her. I texted my fiance that I was going to book her on the spot if I liked her. Hehe. I am about to get very demanding. So, right now, I am trying to think of questions to ask the coordinator. Like any other internet dependent person, the first thing I did was google it. I typed, "Interview questions before hiring a wedding coordinator" in the Google search box. \

This is the most helpful link I saw:

http://www.herecomestheguide.com/wedding-party-ideas/detail/questions-to-ask-when-interviewing-potential-wedding-planners/

It's a bit too formal and a bit too in your face. So, I decided to tone it down and not ask too many questions. Here are the questions I have decided to ask:

1. How many weddings have you coordinated?
2. Have you encountered any problems during these weddings? How were you able to resolve them?
3. Are you very hands-on in helping the bride even if I only avail the OTD package?
4. Is wedding planning your full-time job?
5. Have you worked in our venues?
6. Can you work within our budget?
7. What have you learned in all of your past weddings?

So there. I am meeting her at 5 pm. I have to meet with my wedding gown designer at 3. Oh dear. Super busy day ahead. Wish me luck. :)

Day 13: Ideal Designer

I have been racking my brain on who to get to design my dress and my entourage. My mom told me to get a separate desiger for my entourage but I am a bit hesitant. Even though I want my gown to be unique from my entourage, I still want everything to look cohesive. Maybe I am just being OC or what, but I think it makes sense doesn't it?

For my wedding gown, I need someone who is good with structure. I want my gown to be fluffy like clouds underneath. Something similar to this:

As you can see, it looks like a lot of layering, so I need someone who can form that shape. Meanwhile, for my entourage, as you can see in my previous entry, they are all very flowy and draping is very much important. So, who do I choose? I actually have 2 choices:

1. Elizabeth Vy: http://elizabethvy.blogspot.com/

I love love her designs. She caters to the classic bride but at the same time, her designs are fresh and quite young... and I love the fact that her entourage gowns have a minimalist feel to it. Hardly any beading which means that her draping of the fabric has to be flawless. :) She is actually my first choice because her package is quite affordable and it is a plus that moms from ICA highly recommend her.

2. Cecilio Abad: http://cecilioabad.multiply.com/

Highly recommended in W@W... I saw his works and he seems to be excellent in wedding gowns that are very detail oriented. He was one of the top 10 suppliers last year at W@W i think. He is a bit pricier but I guess it comes with the territory since he is more well known and has been in the business longer.

My other choice for my wedding gown is Francis Libiran. If i do get him, I will have to get a different designer for my entourage dresses since I am sure he is expensive as he is the designer to the stars. :)

So, I have a looong time to decide. I am thinking that my deadline for my designer would be January next year. :) So, until then, I am going to not stress and just enjoy the holidays for a bit. Then it is back to wedding planning. :)

Day 10: Entourage Gowns

I wanted something very classy and beautiful for my entourage. I am not like one of those brides who make her entourage look like watermelon (bright pink and green combo. yuck) or make then wear huge gowns that make then look fat. I want my entourage to look elegant and sexy. :) So, here are some of the gowns I want them to wear. I want everything to be light and something that flows with them as they walk. They are going to be gorgeous! Of course, they must have a theme, so I want them to wear drapey minimalist gowns. You will get what I mean when you see the photos.

1. Maid of Honor- My maid of honor is pretty well-endowed so I know this gown will look good on her. Imagine this in rich chocolate brown with maybe a mocha accent? No quite sure how we are going to incorporate mocha into it but we shall see. :) I want the top to be a bit high though. The priest might not let her stand in front if it is too daring. Hehe. Also, the top with have more layers of crisscross.

2. Bridesmaids- for my bridesmaids, I chose for them to have straps. This will also be in rich chocolate brown with maybe a bit of gold accent. :) Maybe a brooch near the shoulder or something? As you can see, it is very light and airy.

3. Secondary Sponsors- Something a bit more complicated. It has a crisscross in front and shoulder straps. Again, very flowy. This is be in mocha brown. :)

Everyone is gonna look absolutely gorgeous. :) I will not post my wedding gown because I want it to be a surprise by I know it will be beautiful!

Day 4: Wedding Date, Church and Reception Venue

Yay. Finally, we now have a wedding date. :) My fiance and I are really excited about it. I know it will be wonderful. :) Hope we can stay within our budget though. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I actually made my wedding binder. I will take a photo of that and upload it next week. I am too lazy to get up and get it right now. So, we made a lot of progress last week. Here are some of the stuff we have accomplished!

1. Church: Shrine of St. Therese, Pasay City

We already made the 50% downpayment. The church is a bit pricier than the normal church. Manila Cathedral was only at 30,000. This one is more expensive by 10,000. But we thought it was such a beautiful church that we didn't mind the expense. Plus, they are pretty lenient with the rules like having flower girls and ring bearers below 5 years old and the throwing of flowers etc. :) Here are some pictures of our Church:

Isn't it pretty? :) Although it is quite a long walk for me but I think it will be fine. The Church fee comes with flowers from the in house florist which is Casa Fiore but we might not get their package because they are a tad bit too expensive and totally not worth it. 8,000 for purely aster for the aisle? no way. We might get them for our entourage bouquet since their prices for that is a bit more reasonable. I will talk this over with my dad first since he will give me good advice. :)

2. Reception Venue: Palacio de Maynila

Ever since my fiance proposed, I have always told him that I wanted Palacio de Maynila. It is spacious, fully draped and quite affordable. He was hesitant at first but when he saw the place, he immediately liked it. :) It's is going to be a beautiful wedding. We haven't paid the downpayment yet because fiance wants to wait for his parents to come home from Europe. :) But we are already reserved so everything is okay. Here are some photos of the place:

I know I might need to get a stylist to make everything look pretty. I have to look into our budget first. I am kinda nervous about it because It is sooo hard to plan when you don't know how everything would look like. Maybe I can just request for crystals hanging down and stuff. But I have to stay within our budget or else my fiance is going to kill me. :P

So there. That's we have so far. We have already pencil booked on a live band, as well as the lights and sounds. The rest, we will have to see. :)

Day 1: My Color Theme

I know it's strange that I now have a color theme, but I still have no wedding date. Being Chinese, my dad's pretty particular about wedding dates. We have to follow the good fengshui dates. I am the year of the ox, my husband-to-be is year of the rooster, both my parents are year of the rat and both of husband-to-be's parents are year of the goat. So we have to a good date for all 6 of us. I have been waiting for my wedding date for the past 3 weeks and I am getting frustrated. The wedding coordinator I wanted is slowly getting booked bit by bit and I am worried that I might not be able to get her.

Meanwhile, I have decided on a color theme. I wanted it to be brown, mocha and red at first but we changed the red to orange. :) So, our motif is Romance in Autumn.

This is me being very much an OC bride. :) I made my own inspiration board my gathering pictures with the color theme I wanted. Our wedding will have more browns, mocha than orange though. I couldn't find any pictures of more brown than orange weddings. :) Husband-to-be's only request was to have Chocolate brown as one of our colors in the palette so I just had to find a good color match. Mom suggested orange and when I told my dad, he loved it. He loves orange.

So, that's one thing to think about down. A LOT more to go. :) This is me hoping for smooth sailing wedding planning. I am keeping my fingers crossed.