this was taken on my way to the church. i remember the guy who drove the vintage Jaguar Mark V i was riding in. his name was Romy and i must say, he was really a fun last-single-moment companion. he sure knew how to handle a bride right before she entered the church. he even asked me if i needed to go to the restroom before going in, or if i wanted a glass of water. he's obviously been driving brides around for a long time!
mister small.
as you can see, we opted to have the aisle carpet removed. the only carpet color i wanted was cream or dark plum but since those weren't available, we just kept things in their natural state. the truth is, i wanted the church to be as plain as possible -- no flowers or any sort of styling. since the ceremony is supposed to be solemn, i wanted to keep things as simple as possible. but elder women prevailed on me to have some styling, hence the floral and twig arrangements you see here. i make special mention of this because they totally ruined my one supposed shining moment walking down the aisle. when the doors opened, i couldn't see anyone! nor could anyone see me. so i vowed to myself that as a wedding planner, i will never let this happen to any of my brides. for all of you planning your wedding, unless you really intend not to be seen, please make sure you talk to your stylist in detail about the height of the flowers along the aisle. they shouldn't hinder people from seeing you walk down the aisle nor block your view of everyone.this moment made up for my somewhat disappointing walk down the aisle. when i arrived at the front (which i now refer to as the "clearing"), marc was crying so hard that i started to tear myself. when we finally came together, i was just so happy to see him and i had to fight hugging him right then and there.
oh and a tip to all you brides who may find this useful: i had hidden pockets built into my gown because i hate carrying bags. my pockets came in really handy -- it's where i conveniently kept my vows during the mass, and any money envelopes that guests handed to me during the reception. most of all, because i didn't need a bag, i was free to walk all over the reception floor all night without having to worry about where i had left a bag.ballroom styling c/o robert blancaflor.
our theme was Wine in Winter (well, more of a deep plum than wine really). some tables were covered in white foam tablecloth to create that snowy texture, and accented with all-plum flowers including huge cabbage roses. i love flowers that look more like plants or vegetables because they create a fresh look that's not so common. they can be romantic without having to look cheesy.
alternatively, other tables were covered in deep plum tablecloth with a silky sheer organza top layer just to add sparkle and elegance to the overall look. these tables were accented with all-white flowers, just a reverse of the white tables.
this was one of the long VIP tables. robert suggested having one of his in-house artists copy and paint our invite design on to large canvas panels to line the walls of the ballroom. that's what you see here. it's not an exact replica -- the ones on our invite are actually white snow icicles while the ones they painted turned out to look more like leaves. but even then, it still reinforced and unified the theme.
our winter wedding cake! i opted for buttercream icing instead of the usual fondant because i didn't want the design to look too "clean" or "smooth". i wanted a more natural and rustic feel to it -- closer to how snow actually looks. lucky for me, not only is buttercream yummier than fondant (and more "true" to a cake as far as i'm concerned), it's also so much cheaper. the cake is one area where i felt i could achieve what i wanted without having to spend a lot of money. thanks to Layers & Layers, i was right!
we wore sneakers at the reception because we surprised our guests with a hip-hop dance (segueing from the usual slow first dance) to Rihanna's "Hate That I Love You". everyone was floored! my sister even cried because she knew i was not the type to risk doing something that might lead to my own downfall haha. looking back, i realized i did it because Marc was with me. i don't think i would've agreed to do it with anyone else. the dance was a hit, and we ended up wearing our sneaks throughout the entire reception.
as i was working on the reception program, i was shocked to find that as unconventional as i am, i actually wanted to keep a lot of the traditional reception ceremonies. so what i did was to put a twist to those that i wanted to keep, just to make them more personal and meaningful (and also less boring for the guests).
i wanted to dance with my dad because i'm really a daddy's girl. but instead of just dancing with him (and worrying that guests would be bored after seeing us sway back and forth), i asked my mom to serenade us while we were dancing. she sang Moon River, which is my song to my dad. that way, the moment was not anymore just about me and my dad, but about me and both my parents. also, the guests were so touched by my mom's awesome singing. it just made everything so much more heartfelt.
on our wedding day, it was really important for me to show Marc that my love for him could make me do anything. he didn't exactly have the easiest time growing up, so i wanted to reinforce the message that he didn't have to worry anymore, that he now belonged to someone.
i thought long and hard about what i could do that would totally blow his mind. i contacted the guys from The Totally Rad Show, one of his favorite american podcasts. i asked if they could video themselves giving Marc a congratulatory wedding message. luckily, they not only agreed, but they even recorded it in such a way that it looked like one of their regular shows. they sent me the video clip, and i secretly inserted it into the wedding video Marc and i made.
this is Marc in utter disbelief at the whole thing. thanks again to the folks from The Totally Rad Show!
i didn't want my single female friends to get the uncomfy feeling that somehow lurks when it's time to throw the bouquet. so we wrote down the names of ALL our eligible friends -- female AND male -- and put them into a small container. then we raffled the bouquet. we felt our guy friends had just as much right as the girls to receive some luck in love. true enough, the winner below now has a girlfriend who happens to be another friend of ours who was also at our wedding! it works!
there's so much more i can share about my wedding, but i don't want to bore you to death. i do hope though that you enjoyed looking through some of the highlights and maybe even got new ideas. happy wedding planning!
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