plotting the budget

last sunday, tonton and i discussed the wedding pointers and came up with an initial draft (in excel file) of our budget allotment. this will be our basis of preparation for the nuptial details. i never imagined that this is one of the complex parts of planning (whew!). i sent the file to zendy yesterday and she gave few suggestions regarding the reception part (i.e. we have to give more budget to catering). oh well, we anticipate that there will be more adjustments on this file in the future.

my dress

i wanna wear something like this while walking down the aisle :)

how we envision it...

we imagine our big day as one that is well-organized yet spontaneous and fun :) we would love to see our guests being comfortable and enjoying every moment with us. though, we have not finalized the wedding's theme yet, but i guess what's more important is that how we want to foresee the ambiance and the mood of the people involved. and turning it into reality will be one of our biggest accomplishments.

get the moments on film

for every special occasion in our lives, captured moments are one of the most important things. and well, we want our wedding photos and video to be something that we can be proud of and cherished by us, down to our great, great, grandchildren. hehe, exag ba? but no, seriously, isn't it nice to have something that you can go over and remind you that very special day in your life?
tonton and i are really having a hard time to choose from this list:

• imagine-nation (highly recommended by zendy)
• fotogra (googled)
• mangored (highly recommended by michelle dagooc)
• shinephoto (googled)

we still have to inquire about some stuff (such as packages, prenup shooting) before committing. and of course since we want the best, being ridiculously meticulously choosy is a must!

planning is fun...

some may say that planning a church wedding is quite tedious. but you know what, i think i find it exciting, challenging yet fun... oops, not because i am the bride. i guess what really excites me is the essence of producing sweet and happy memories out of the occassion. well, of course along the way we will encounter "out of the blue" moments. but those would be i say are the "spices" of the event.

so ok, where are we in the planning stage?
well, last monday i asked one of our colleagues, zendy marcelino, to be our wedding planner/coordinator. tonton told me that zendy has been telling him that she wants to try to coordinate/plan wedding for her friends and eventually turn it to a career (hehe, clever girl). actually, we just really need someone who we can help us in planning and can do errands for us while we're still here in melbourne. good thing, zendy is an experienced planner already and agreed to assist us. thanks, zends :)

she gave me 12 initial pointers for me and tonton to talk about first. since we are targeting May 5 (same as our civil wedding) next year as the date which will fall on monday, we still have to include it in the preliminary list of items to decide on. and here's the list:

• venue/date
• motiff
• wedding's theme
• ambiance
• reception
• souvenirs and invitations
• entourage and sponsors
• caterer (budget per head)
• videographer/photographer
• make up artist
• songs for the wedding (request), singers, band or chorale
• bridal car

as much as we would like to take it one at a time, we should probably do it in batch to save time and effort. and as early as now, we have to think about these preparations for our big day.

It all begins with one step...

The journey of a thousand miles begin with one small step. (I don't know who said that but I think its very appropriate for any wedding plans)..

You have the following to plan:

Entourage
Catering including food
Wedding/Reception Location
Invitations
Seating arrangements
God Fathers/Mothers
Attire

Now during the planning, and I say this with the utmost respect, you will butt heads! I guarantee it.. even in the smallest of things.. tempers will flair and pressures will build. But hey, its all natural.

A wedding is not something that should be trivialized (even though some people do), we all want things to be perfect on that very special day that we take the sacrament of marriage. We want to have the fondest of memories and don't want any unforseen situations occuring. we all want things to work according to plan and schedule (we do have to pay for the reception area).

But if I may say so, its all worth it. When we turn old and gray we'll be able to look back and see ourselves during one of the most memorable moments in our lives. As they say the hard part is only momentary, the end result is what is remembered. :)