Pictorials and the Reception

Right after the ceremony, Lourd started doing the necessary retouches to my makeup and he also fixed my hair because a few strands fell loose. Mimi and Karl had set up a chair nearby while waiting for Lourd to finish.

It was so much easier to pose with Danz around, although we still felt a bit stiff and were a bit serious during the pictorial. Mimi was teasing us that we were married already, so we should be happy!:)

The church actually has quite a breathtaking view, so we had a couple of shots with the mountains in the background. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy, but the view was nice just the same.

We had pictorials both at the church and at the reception area. I loved these shots at Balay Indang:

Mimi and Karl also did a great job of capturing the small details in our wedding...

The Place Cards - It was so funny because people actually used the place cards as name tags as well.

The Guest Cards - We had a blast reading the guest cards after the wedding. We used these 10 sentence starters that I found in Weddingbee:

1) When he snores you can always...

2) When she steals the blankets you can always...

3) Before going to bed you must always...

4) When you wake up in the morning always...

5) One advantage of marriage is...

6) You'll discover that real love is...

7) A great way to apologize...

8) The best relationship is the one that...

9) When things are going less than perfect...

10) Now that you are married you must...

The table setups by Kaye Cunanan:

The cake by Gervy Santos:

Cupcakes by Yumi Castrillo and Cream Puffs by Christine Galang

DIY Candle Arrangements surrounding the pool:

Our program was relatively simple - a couple of speeches, AVPs, a trivia game, and the dances. In between, our emcee read some of the funny answers to the guest cards and we also did the model a kiss.

Speeches:

Dances:

Model a kiss:

I managed to hold myself together throughout the day. But when it was time for us to say our Thank You's, I finally cracked! I know it seems a bit weird, but I was just overwhelmed with happiness because of all of the people who were there. As I said in my speech, it was the people who were with us that made the whole celebration meaningful.

The Big Day - Preparations and the Ceremony

I woke up at 7:00am to the sound of my phone ringing. It was Gervy, asking for directions to the reception venue for the cake delivery (apparently, she didn't receive my email of the map the day before). I gave her the directions then tried to go back to sleep, but I then received a message from Lourd around 7:30am that he was already near. I literally jumped out of bed to take a shower before he arrived.

It seemed surreal that the day we had been looking forward to for so long had finally arrived! By 8am, I was ready to start the day.

While waiting for the suppliers to arrive, I started arranging all my stuff so that all my bags were ready to be loaded into the car before going to the church.

At 9am, Lourd finally arrived (apparently, his message earlier meant he was already near Tagaytay...hehe!). He took a look at my hair and said "Girl, ang haba ng hair mo". Then he said to his assistant "May gunting ka?" and then let me sit down to cut my hair. It took all of 5 minutes for him to get the length (and style) he needed for my chosen hairdo. We then proceeded to having my hair set, then it was makeup time! We were just talking and exchanging stories while I was being made up.

Soon after, one of the coordinators, Marese, showed up. It was so funny when she arrived, because her husband was with her. And it just so happened that her husband looked a lot like Danz, so I was panicking because I thought Danz was on his way inside the house!

Anyway, I lost track of the time because I wasn't wearing a watch, but the suppliers started showing up one after the other - Playback, Mimi and Karl, Ria and her team, Veluz and Flower Stories. The house was pretty big, so things weren't chaotic. But every now and then I received a phone call from suppliers asking for directions or from my brother who apparently got lost in Canyon Woods. I tried to get a bite to eat, but somehow I couldn't eat more than a few spoonfuls of rice and chicken.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to get dressed. Veluz and Niko helped me get into my gown and shoes, while Mimi started clicking away. The pictorial was really hard for me since I didn't know how to pose, and I didn't do any research on what I could do. It's a good thing that both Mimi and Karl were very patient and tried to guide my movements.

I had to take a quick break after some of the portraits to get a drink because I was so thirsty by this time. Good thing Niko still had some Mountain Dew left! Otherwise I may have just fainted again!:)

We left Canyon Woods at 1:30pm and I was at the church by 1:45pm (Danz was actually outside the church when we arrived, and he hurriedly went back inside when he saw the car approaching). I was left alone inside the car, where I took the time to pray and rehearse my vows. Every now and then, some of my friends or relatives would approach me just to see how I was doing.

2:00pm came and went and I was still in the car because our officiant had not arrived! We were able to contact him though and he was already in Tagaytay. One of my Titos went to the car and jokingly asked me if I still wanted to push through with the wedding. The coordinator seemed to be more nervous than I was because she kept asking me if I was doing okay.

Finally, at 2:30pm, Bishop Ted arrived! So I was finally able to get out, and Lourd had to do some last minute retouches because my hair got messed up while I was in the car. Veluz and Niko fixed my veil, and I made my way up the steps to the Chapel. My Dad and I stood outside the church for a few moments, waiting for the chorus of my bridal march "Come What May". This was it!

The doors opened, my veil was flowing and I finally made my walk towards Danz. My Dad stepped on my gown twice and I had a hard time walking because the floors of the chapel were uneven.:) At the middle of the aisle, my Dad commented out loud "Bakit lahat kayo nakatingin sakin?" (Grrr!) But I just smiled and kept walking.:)

When I got to Danz, I had no idea what to do! Do I hold his hand and let him lead me to my place? I decided to go to my seat on my own, and at this point I was thinking to my self "Do I keep holding my bouquet or do I put it down?" I ended up holding it up to the homily.

The ceremony was very light-hearted, especially because of Bishop's jokes during his homily. He skipped a few parts of the ceremony, like the Unity Candle and our exchange of personal vows, but it was fine with us, since these weren't really discussed fully with him.

When it was time to light the nuptial candles, my friend Bless informed me that there were none! So she and my brother Francis had to improvise and used the candles that were supposed to be for the Unity Candle ceremony. It didn't fit properly though, so they had to wait for some of the wax to melt so that they can somehow make the candles stand.

The rest of the ceremony went perfectly well. When the veil and the cord were placed on us, I whispered to Danz "Don't move, the cord might break!" He in turn whispered to me "My knees hurt!"

It isn't obvious in the pictures, but I was perspiring for the most part of the ceremony! I could feel the sweat gathering on my forehead and trickling near my ears.:)

Anyway, when the mass was over, it was time for the most awaited moment. We were looking at each other because Bishop didn't say it right away. He explained to us, "Lets sign the contract first before the kiss ok?". Haha, I guess he sensed our eagerness. So when we finished signing, he finally told Danz "You may kiss the bride"

Pre-Wedding Happenings

The weeks leading to the big day were extremely busy! From the distribution of the invitations to attending different parties (I had 4 bridal showers) and fixing all the details. Things were so hectic that both Danz and I got sick a week before the wedding!

November 9
Our anniversary! This year, we celebrated by having dinner at Tony Roma's. Danz then told me that we were going to Manila Pen for some much needed rest. But little did I know that my sister (the Maid of Honor) had planned a surprise Bridal Shower for me, so it was another late night for me.

November 13
My gown was ready for pick up, so Danz drove me to the shop of Veluz. However, when she and Niko saw me, they commented that I seemed to have gained weight and insisted that I try on the gown again. It's a good thing that they were satisfied with how it fit, otherwise we would have all probably panicked by then.

In the afternoon we met with our coordinator and the band to finalize some details.

November 14
We went to Sta. Clara to offer eggs for good weather (this really works!)

November 15
We headed to Tagaytay to submit our church requirements. It was raining so hard so we decided to get tents for our reception. Luckily, our coordinator was able to find a supplier for us at the last minute.

Here are some of the photos we took during our trip. It was so foggy (and super cold!), it felt like we were in Baguio.








We didn't stay too long in Tagaytay because we still had so many things to do - printing of the guest cards and place cards, finalizing the seating and packing all our stuff. We went to sleep at around 2am, with tons of stuff left unfinished.

November 16
We woke up early to look for a church where we could have confession. Our first stop was Don Bosco Makati, but we just missed the morning mass. The next confession was scheduled during the 12:15pm mass. So we headed home and I made deposits for the payment of our cake and videographer. We had planned to leave at 10:30am to make sure we would make it to the mass on time, but my manicure and pedicure took so long, and we ended up leaving the house close to 12:30pm already. We raced to the church, and we were lucky to make it there just in time.

Our next stop was Glorietta to pick up Danz's sister and to email the seating to our coordinator. By 2:30pm, we were finally able to leave and go to pick up the cupcakes I had ordered. At 3:30pm, we were off to Tagaytay!

We arrived at Canyon Woods at around 6pm. My brother, his girlfriend, sister-in-law and nieces arrived shortly after. We all had dinner at the house where Danz and his family were staying, then later went to our house to start unpacking all our stuff.

When everything had settled down, I proceeded to work on rounding the edges of our guest cards and putting together the place cards. My sister and her boyfriend arrived around 10pm and they all helped me assemble everything. By 12am, I was finally satisfied with everything and was exhausted! We all got ready to go to bed, though it took a while for me to finally relax and fall asleep.

The Other Invitation

We decided early on to have two sets of invitations - a formal one for our relatives and a "fun" one for our friends.

Danz's brother Chris was the one who designed these invitations. We didn't have any mockups done for this...we just approved the caricature design and Chris did the rest. I loved it so much, and actually felt insecure about the invitations Danz and I made. Too bad we only had a few of these printed.

Front

Expanded

Map (at the Back)