Wedding Series: Ceremony & Reception

The last and final installment of our wedding series is going to be a fun one - I'll be showing pics from our reception! But first, here are a few shots from the ceremony at Sta. Ana Church (WARNING: this is going to be a photo-heavy post):

Ceremony

Reception

entrance to the reception hall

first dance

ceremonial slicing of cake

prosperity dance

first dance with my dad

We wanted to have a laid back and relaxed program during the reception. Thankfully, we got our friend Brix to host the event for us. He did a great job of creating a lively but light-hearted atmosphere at the reception while still keeping it very intimate. We had games for the singles and a fun Q-and-A with the guests. We also had Zabadani Cafe cater the dinner for the guests and Sweet Advocate handling the dessert buffet station. We also hired an acoustic band to serenade the guests for a simple and romantic reception dinner for the wedding. 

There you go! I hope you enjoyed looking through these photos as much as I had fun recollecting the fun memories we made that day! 

Credits to Homebrew for the photos!

Wedding Series: Prep + THE Dress

For any woman or bride-to-be, we can all agree that the wedding dress is one of the most important detail in our entire wedding planning. At least, that was the case for me. Since we got engaged, one of the first things that we got to work on is to find my wedding dress. You can probably say that we visited every bridal shop in the city. I did have a specific style in mind even before I went shopping; however, that hardly made the search easy. I initially opted for a custom made wedding dress because I really wanted to own the dress after the wedding. However, I wanted to be practical too and the customized option is way beyond our prospected budget. Even if my fiance (now husband) was open to the idea of spending whatever it would take to achieve my dream dress, I wasn't going to let him. My dress is an RTW from David & Rachel Bridal Boutique but we opted to give it customized beaded details and adjusted for custom fit. The quoted price for the custom made dress was at PhP 40,000 (around 900 USD) and my wedding dress was only at PhP 20,000 (around 450 USD). It was such a great deal!

There are also two versions of my dress: the first one comes with a mesh insert with lace appliques. The other one is the sweetheart neckline strapless gown with mermaid tulle skirt. Naturally, I had to change my hairstyles to suit the dress. For the church version of the dress, I wore an updo and changed it to a wavy hairstyle for the reception to create a more relaxed look.

The groom, however, wore a custom made Armani suit from David & Rachel Bridal Boutique:

You can check out a few more photos from the wedding prep:

Groom and family

Bride and parents

The next update will be the final update in this wedding series. I will be sharing photos from the reception!

Wedding Series: Bridal Party

When we started the initial planning, one of the first few things we got into (aside from choosing our wedding coordinator) is our bridal party. Luckily, we both agreed to have a small bridal party just as we both wanted to have an intimate wedding. We therefore each chose very close friends and relatives to become part of the entourage. Mine consisted of my sister-in-law, my cousin, one of my closest friends from high school, and my former co-worker and best friend. For my husband, he chose his college friends and my brother to become part of his entourage.

We could not have asked for a better set of people to work with. They were all very game about the photo and video shoot; it actually turned out to be a fun and relaxing prelude for the wedding. I am speaking on behalf of my husband and I in saying thank you to our bridal party for making this event memorable. 

Browse along to see a glimpse of our bridal party in action:

And may I just take this moment to highlight my maid of honor. She is one of my bestest friends (despite only knowing each other for about two years) and I feel like she is the little sister I never had. She is also a rare gem - beautiful from the inside and outside! Love this girl to death!

That's it for now! I hope you stay tuned next time for a few more photos from our wedding day!

Credits to Homebrew for the photos!