For me and my husband (Marc), food tasting was the best part of planning our wedding. Why? Free food, of course! But, as we’ve found it out the hard way, depending your lunch on a food tasting event is bad idea if you have a big appetite.

The food servings given at events like these are only small portions—basically, just enough for you to have an idea of how their food tastes like. And because there are a lot of people going to these events, you won’t be able to see the actual table arrangements (they’ll show you photos of real weddings for those). Sometimes the caterers go all out on decorating their buffet tables (like Josiah’s Catering did on a bridal fair I attended), but there are also times when the setup is just simple (not the real thing in weddings, obviously). Read more »

It’s quite common to have relatives and friends abroad. It’s easy to send them invitations via mail (though you got to go the extra mile and cash to pay for the delivery), but it’s really not that easy to get them here in the Philippines to attend your wedding due to time and budget constraints. But what if you’d like to share with them what will happen on your wedding day?

The easiest (and cheapest) way to do this: get a wedding website.

A lot of people already have access to the World Wide Web, and what’s better than taking advantage of this technology? With a wedding website, you can show the progress of your planning and share wedding info with relatives who can’t be physically with you. Face it, brides have a tendency to want to talk about their wedding plans to anybody who would listen (I know I did!).

There are two ways you can acquire your own wedding website: sign up for a free account, or hire a professional. Read more »

It is almost customary to include an RSVP card in wedding invitations nowadays. Actually, it is customary already, in addition to the Bridal Entourage insert. Those, plus a location map, are what you typically get when you receive a wedding invitation.

Yep, RSVP cards weren’t the usual during the time of my parents. I’ve taken a look at my parents’ and my uncle’s wedding invitations (for research when I was doing my own), and they didn’t include inserts other than the Bridal Entourage.

The RSVP card was actually one of the issues my dad and I had when I was planning my own wedding. He said that he understood why we wanted to specify the reserved seats for each guest, but we do have some old-fashioned relatives who would actually find it offensive. Weird? Yeah, I thought so too. But I guess you really can’t blame them. It’s not something that they’re used to. Read more »

I was looking through my parent’s old photo albums (no, not the online kind), and had the pleasure of seeing their wedding pictures. Aside from amusing myself with my dad’s pointy collar and my mom’s ruffles, I can’t help but notice how elaborate her wedding was compared to mine.

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.

Prior to her stroke, my mom had been a rabid shopper. She wasn’t a spend-thrift, mind you. She was smart. She bought our clothes and what-have-you’s in Divisoria at really low prices. I guess that’s why I always think that if you need to get something cheap, you can get it at Divisoria.

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. Read more »