This affair is answering all of my light-filled wedding fantasies. Dreamy is another adjective that comes to mind and it’s woven into everything, from the adorable DIY elements incorporated into the day to the images by Foreveryday Photography. It’s a happy collaboration of color, smiles and a rainbow of heels. See so much more in the full gallery!
From the Bride…After Nev and I got engaged in November 2011, I didn’t jump on the wedding planning mode immediately like most brides-to-be. Though we knew we wanted to get married the following year, we didn’t have any planned dates yet; we just wanted to enjoy the engagement bliss. But months went by so fast, and the next thing we know, we’ve been engaged for 8 months and had 6 months left before the year ends. So we finally decided to get married under the cool breeze of December and that’s the only time planning started.
We wanted to have a relaxed and cozy wedding with a handful of people we dearly love. This was the focal point of our whole planning, so everything we did was centered on making our guests feel our love and gratitude to them. We chose a small Catholic church for our ceremony, and found a big house with a bare garden and a great view of the famous and scenic Taal Volcano. The bare garden was perfect for all the DIY styling I had in mind; and the natural breeze, the hilly surround, and the laid-back and dainty feel of the place was the right fit for our countryside theme.
With the help of friends and family, we planned our wedding and gathered everything we needed. Weekends and lazy weekday afternoons were spent doing DIY décor, from the makeshift chandeliers to the wooden panels to the hanging lights to the pompoms; and even the invite, which I worked on w/ Nev’s brother, who also luckily happens to be a freelance graphic artist! Some weekends, Nev and I will go to flea markets and buy small decorative items, while our families went on a mission to collect recycled bottles and jars, as well as create hundreds of paper flowers. He also took me to his grandma’s place, which was just filled w/ amazing furniture perfect for our theme, and she happily let us borrow them. We also talked about our ideas to our suppliers, and even had a DIY dry run of the reception setup at home for our caterer to see! I would buy flowers, arrange them, take photos and send them to our caterer, who did a great job in translating our vision into reality. We, together w/ a couple of our siblings, were at our reception venue three days before our wedding to make sure my vision becomes a reality, and up to the night before the wedding, we were setting up and making sure the place looked pretty.
We had a very short program, something atypical in a Filipino wedding. After a couple of speeches the first dance, we spent the rest of the time just chatting with guests and letting everybody have a good time. The setup of the venue definitely helped put everybody at ease. We placed cocktail tables on one area, a bench on another, and tables under a tent under the night sky. We think it’s safe to assume our guests really had a great time. When we left the venue, our guests stayed to enjoy the breeze, the hand-picked bottles of wines, and the company. In fact, when we went back to the venue the next day, our friends and family were still there cooking breakfast!
We love our wedding to bits! All of the details we incorporated enhanced the overall feel and mood of the occasion. Now I have a bunch of mason jars and photo frames at home, and the beautiful photos by Foreveryday Photography, which all remind me of the day when I married the man of my dreams.
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Photography: Foreveryday Photography | Floral Design: Yho-An’s Flower Shop | Event Design: DIY | Event Planning: Once a Bride Weddings | Ceremony Location: Chapel on a Hill | Reception Location: Tagaytay Estate | Invitations: Jonathan Manaois (design), Amis Print (printing) | Catering: K by Cunanan | Entertainment: Serenata Strings | Ceremony Dress: Percy Barillo | Reception Dress: Tammy Tan | Shoes: Pedro | Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Tammy Tan | Groom’s Suit: JC Ulanday | Makeup: Mickey See | Hair Stylist: John Valle