Funny, the first post I’ll made after such a long hiatus would be this. But you see, something like this shouldn’t really happen — there are so many ways it could have been avoided, and yet, it still happened.

Last December, my husband and I attended the wedding of our friends, Aileen and Jay. As a guest, we were very impressed with the way their wedding turned out. Not surprising really, as Aileen and Jay were very hands-on in planning their wedding. Everything went smoothly, save for one: their bridal car did not show up.

Aileen and Jay hired Jack and Jenn Catering to service their bridal car needs. They were supposed to pick up Aileen from the hotel and bring her to the Church, but they never came. The couple desperately tried contacting the supplier, but they were not answering their calls. Aileen had to use the taxi she hired to shuttle things around. Imagine that: taking a taxi to your wedding! Luckily, it was a white taxi. But that wasn’t the worse.

We really had no idea that such boo-boo happened. Well, not until the end of the reception, that is. My fellow blogger friends and I stayed behind a bit after the reception during clean-up, and thank goodness we did. Because as it turned out, Aileen and Jay didn’t have a ride going back to the hotel.

Unfortunately, the old second-hand Toyota Corolla my husband and I brought to the wedding took such an opportune moment to break down (our car was a victim of Ondoy, so we had no choice but to use a second-hand car until the parts we ordered from Hyundai arrives). The break pads were shot while we were parking at the church, so my husband had to bring it to a nearly car repair shop and pick it up after the reception. But the problem was, the car wasn’t ready until the evening. Aileen and Jay’s reception was done by 2pm, so waiting for the car was out of the question. Luckily though, Juned was there to offer help: his spanking red Tamaraw FX delivery van.

Photo by Blogie Robillo

Juned and I thought that Aileen would be changing out of her wedding gown before we left the reception venue. We were shocked when she said her clothes were at the hotel.

So there. In the absurdity of the situation, we couldn’t do anything else about it but just joke around amongst ourselves as we escorted the newly-weds to their hotel. To add insult to injury, another pair of newly-weds got off their sparkling white bridal car right in front of us at the hotel lobby, while our wedding couple got off a delivery van.

I was lucky that when Marc and I got married, one of our principal sponsors volunteered her Mercedes Benz for our bridal car. We experienced some minor mishaps like some technical issues with the background music of the reception presentation, but nothing really significant. I don’t know what I could have done if I were in their situation.

What Jack and Jenn Catering did to our friends was horrible. Just imagine the stress and embarrassment the couple experienced. After the wedding day, Aileen and Jay were finally able to contact the supplier. The couple had to demand that supplier personally hand over their refund and meet with them. Their excuse was that a staff member had to take a sudden leave. But the thing is, they booked way ahead of time and Jay even followed up with them days before the wedding. You’d expect that even if somebody in the staff had to take a leave, adjustments should have been made. For more information, take a look at Aileen’s post on her wedding blog.

I have to admire Aileen and Jay for the calm way they handled the situation. No use ruining a wedding day for an incompetent supplier.

I review a lot of wedding suppliers in this blog, as its main purpose is to help couples plan their wedding in some way or another. And I definitely won’t recommend Jack and Jenn Catering.

With expected showers and usual rain problems, would you still have your wedding during the rainy season? I honestly don’t see why you shouldn’t.

So how do you make the most out of this otherwise “gloomy” weather? Simple. Have a “rain-themed” wedding!

Rainy color motif
Choose a color that would remind your guests of the rainy season… Blue is usually a good bet. You can have it in blue-green or aqua, but that could give the impression of a “summery” feel. Dark hues of blue with tinges of gray are better bets. Blue-gray, or navy blue probably—something that would remind your guests of rain clouds and showers.

Rain-themed decors
It’s usually the little things that make a big difference when it comes to decorations. Pay attention to the things that are usually ignored: table decors, flower arrangement accents, wine holder, cake cutter, etc. Other than a dark or grayish blue color motif, you can always add little accents such as tiny umbrellas. You can also add raindrop cut-outs, stick them on a clear nylon string, and hang them on the ceiling—making your guests feel it’s raining inside without getting wet.

Matching invitations and souvenirs
Invitations and souvenirs are actually two of the important design aspects of a wedding. Invitations set the mood of your wedding—it gives your guests an idea what to expect on your wedding day. The wording and the overall design (not just the color, but graphics and font usage as well) of your invitation can make or break your invitation’s outcome, so make sure to sit down with your invitations designer for a custom-made rain-themed design.

If invitations give a “preview” of your wedding, souvenirs remind your guests of your wedding in the years to come. To make a lasting impression of your rain-themed wedding, choose souvenirs that would really remind your guests of the rainy season which you based your theme on. Soaps, chocolates, key chains, figurines, and glass art shaped like rain and clouds or umbrellas are some ideas. You can also get miniature umbrellas (toy umbrellas) as souvenirs (I think they sell these in Divisoria at toy stores, I just don’t know where exactly). If you got a little extra cash, you can always go for a real usable umbrella like those corporate giveaways we usually get from insurance and bank companies during Christmas. You can hire somebody else to make an umbrella design for you if you aren’t confident with your design skills—if it’s too tacky or has your picture printed on it, your guests might not use it and that would defeat the umbrella’s purpose

There are probably more things you can do with a rain-themed wedding than these things I mentioned. Let your creativity run wild—you might come up with more and better ideas for this theme.

Although rain-themed weddings are fun to plan especially in the decorations department, there are also some basic things you need to take note of.

Don’t forget that rains are usually an inconvenience to people, if not a hazard. Rainy season in the Philippines usually equate to clogged drains, flood, and roof leaks—not to mention the awful traffic that usually result from flooded streets. As such, you must also take into consideration the comfort and convenience of your guests.

Carefully select your Church and reception venues, make sure that the street where these are located don’t get flooded. Ask neighboring establishments or homeowners if there are floods there, or that going to the venues will require your guests to go through floods. This is important when planning a wedding during the rainy season—you wouldn’t want to burden your guests with floods or broken-down cars because of the floods.

I also strongly suggest to do away with a garden wedding. Yes, I know it’s romantic. Who wouldn’t want to get married under the stars and surrounded with nature? If it rains (which would probably be likely), you won’t be able to see much of those stars—and everybody will get wet. Just imagine your entourage and guests threading in mud! I’m sure they wouldn’t want your wedding to ruin their formal clothes

If you really want your wedding in a garden setting (admittedly, it does add to the rain design concept), make sure to rent a tent that would provide shelter to your guests. You can also rent flooring if the garden venue you chose doesn’t have a paved flooring (rain can make the ground extremely muddy). Make sure that going to and from the tables are also covered for the convenience of your guests.

Another option would be getting an indoor venue with a garden setting. If budget isn’t a problem, you can get Fernwood Gardens, The Glass Garden, or Fernbrook Gardens. These venues have the advantage of being fully covered (usually fully air-conditioned), but at the same time, have the garden feel that adds a more romantic setting for a wedding. You can also try gazebo-type of venues such as The Oasis’s The Pavillion or Gazebo Royale’s Phoenix Avenue, which are basically set outdoors but has fully-covered areas.

The trick here is to make the most out of an otherwise inconvenient situation. It’s a bummer going out during the rainy season, but you can make it worth your guests’ time and effort—just make sure that they would actually enjoy the rains (your wedding) and not get pissed by it (floods).

Congratulations to all July brides!

What I mean by elaborate is, well, everything just seemed so… Fussy. The flowers (geez, her bridal bouquet looked like it weighed a ton), the gowns, the make-up, the headdress.

I’m not a fashion expert or anything, but it really seems that “simple and minimal” is the “in” style nowadays.

I couldn’t help but put my bridal photo and my mom’s side by side to compare. I’ve seen gowns with ruffles (you know, the more daring designs) and brides who actually wore them (they don’t look bad anyway if not overdone), but I’ve been seeing floral crowns less and less. The only time I’ve seen one is probably at my friend’s parent’s silver anniversary sans renewal of vows. Other than that, I haven’t been to a wedding or encountered a bride who told me they’d wear an elaborate floral crown.

Nowadays, I’ve been seeing a lot of brides who would opt for a simple flower on their hair (like, just one or two), beads, Swarovski accessories, or little tiaras. I, for one, had a tiara when I got married. I’m not really into the “princess look,” but my hair and make-up artist advised me that it would look nice (and it actually turned out quite pretty). If I had a Christmas-themed wedding, I’d probably want to put something a bit more unique, like a Poinsettia perhaps But our theme was modern Filipiniana, so the tiara worked just fine.

How about you? What would you like to put on your hair when you get married?

CREDITS: Photo by Tri-Color Studio.

Nothing changed when I was searching for the perfect gown. Although some of my high society relatives insisted on it, I didn’t really see the need for having a designer gown. Besides, my budget couldn’t afford it.

Being the artist that I am, you really couldn’t help but want to have your entourage’s gowns be color-coordinated—and the same. My husband-to-be and I at that time didn’t have much to spend with. I was about to accept the fact that my entourage’s gowns will probably just be similarly colored (but not uniformed), until an aunt reminded me of the gowns in Divisoria.

I totally forgot about it. You see, there’s this one-floor building (the Yangco building, to be more specific) beside Ilaya Street in Divisoria that’s so saturated with wedding and debut gowns, you’d think you’ve died and gone to gown heaven. Each booth is lined with the prettiest gowns. And read this: the gowns can go as cheap as P1,000.

You can get this RTW gown from FNB Boutique (in Pasillo V-II of the Yangco Building), at around P3,000 (not sure though, but I do recall it’s not more than Php5,000). Pretty, isn’t it? How’s that for a $60 wedding gown?

The trick in getting the best deal in Divisoria is knowing how to haggle. I’ve tried to canvass for the best price, but they’re basically the same (not surprising, since these stores probably have a standard price). But if you get lucky (like we did), you’d get a dressmaker willing to lower the price for you. However, in order to do that, you have to “buy in bulk.” Meaning, the entire entourage.

Nice, don’t you think? Even the guys’ Barong Tagalog are aqua blue. It was quite a sight seeing them go marching down the aisle.

For about P35,000 (around $700), I was able to get these custom-made: blue Barongs for my hubby’s bestman and groomsmen, a child’s blue Barong for my ring and coin bearer, gowns for all three of the women secondary sponsors, gowns for my maid-of-honor, bridesmaids, junior bridesmaids and flower girls, as well as the Barong for my dad and the motif gowns for my mom and my mother-in-law. Oh, don’t forget my husband’s Barong Tagalog made of finest piña, and my elaborate cut-work wedding gown with an intricate beadwork. Hard to believe we spent less than a thousand dollars for all these? Well, believe it. That’s Divisoria fashion for you, baby.

Oddly enough, I could have gotten it cheaper. If I opted for the ready-to-wear wedding gown (I’m too scientific to take the pamahiin of getting bad luck if you try on your bridal gown before the wedding day seriously), I probably wouldn’t have spent more than $500 for the entire thing. But I wanted it prettier. And made use of my own designs.

I printed out a photo of my dream gown (which I got from the Net), and have FNB Boutique copy it. Not exactly though, I wanted it to have a Filipiniana touch. I did the same thing for the women in my entourage, but I modified the samples a bit in Photoshop so the printout will look exactly as I pictured them. They’re not designer gowns, but hey, they’re pretty and cheap anyway.

If you want to get in touch with the couturier who made my entourage’s formal wear, you can try FNB Boutique. Look for Nita Blanco (she’s the owner). You can reach her at 309-31-82. You can also talk to one of her assistants, Rona (she’s the one who took care of my account), through mobile 0921-975-42-34. Just tell her you got their info from one of their clients (Gail Dela Cruz-Villanueva), and she might actually give you a better deal.

For one thing, you’re going to be a real torture for your guests: imagine the terrible traffic they’ll have to go through. Couples usually go out on Valentines’ day to celebrate their love, so you can just imagine the frustration you’ll be putting your guests through just to nab a parking space.

Another issue I have with a Valentines’ Day wedding date is the fact that you can’t be sure it would fall on a weekend. Unless you don’t want guests to attend your wedding, it’s better to set the date on a weekend. Like this year, Valentines’ Day falls on a Wednesday (Manila time). It’s the middle of the week, the peak work day for most office-goers. Taking this in mind, your guests will really have to love you that much so they’ll take time off work or school just to attend your wedding. That’s the hassle of having it on a weekday—your guests usually have work or school.

Good luck with the flowers. It’s Hearts’ day. Thoughtful boyfriends and husbands buy their loved ones flowers on that day. It’s either you get charged extra by your supplier for choosing the highest peak of their peak season, or you get lucky and nab a generous supplier who do not mind getting flowers when prices are doubled in the name of love. Flower stylists usually get their supplies early in the morning of the event to keep the flowers fresh (my mom used to run a flower shop). And when they get it on Valentines’ Day, you can be sure that the prices would be doubled—maybe even more. The demand for flowers on that day is high—what did you expect?

But if you’re really bent on having the romantic, fairytale Valentines’ Day wedding, I would really suggest you start booking a church (if you’re Catholic) and a reception venue as early as now. For a wedding next year. I’m not kidding. I may be a total spoilsport when it comes to romantic stuff (God must have forgotten to put a romantic bone in my body before I was born), but most women aren’t. You will definitely have competition with that date, sister. So book early!

Fine. Biases and practical reasoning aside, it would be pretty cute to have the big day on Valentines’ Day. I have my gauge of what romantic is (wedding on Valentines’ Day is an overkill for me), but then, to each his own. If you’re really bent on having it on this day, by all means, go ahead. But you will be in for a wedding planning roller coaster ride—it won’t be easy.

What about you? Would you want to get hitched on Valentines’ Day? Why?