Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Photos from our wedding reception
Here are highlights from our wedding reception. Thinking of slicing all these highlights to single blog posts just to make sure we don't forget this memorable yet blurry day.
Photos from our wedding ceremony
The day of our wedding was a complete blur to both of us. We were under the weather that day and spent so little time with our guests, we didn't know what happened after everything has settled. Thanks to the 7000+ pictures of our photographer, Raymond Fortun, we get to relive these moments. Here are some pictures from our Eucharistic ceremony.
Photos from Wedding Preps
It took two weeks to get all these pictures synched to my computer. I feel guilty for spamming our Facebook feed updating the albums just so our families and friends can see the craziness that day. Here are some highlights during the preps.
Creating our own videos from our raw files
Aisle 1401 provided our raw video files the day after our wedding. Around 300GB of video files to play with, I studied how to edit a video using Final Cut Pro. Here are the results:
Highlights from Liz' wedding preps using The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson
A retelling of our wedding using some clips from our prenup with Kris Allen's beautiful song, Better With You.
This was an awesome weekend project and we get to feature shots that weren't shown from our other wedding videos.
Highlights from Liz' wedding preps using The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson
A retelling of our wedding using some clips from our prenup with Kris Allen's beautiful song, Better With You.
This was an awesome weekend project and we get to feature shots that weren't shown from our other wedding videos.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Gangnam Style Video Stills
If you haven't seen the video, here are video stills for you to preview. Unfortunately, you can only watch it through a non-mobile device (ie. no smart phones allowed). So if you're on your desktop or laptop, fire up your browser and head to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIJK_-U-ozg.
The Last Time (Groom's surprise song to Bride)
The night before our church wedding, the weather was gloomy and my voice was also MIA. As in I can't say a proper sentence without sounding like a teenage boy cracking. I needed my voice for this surprise number during the reception. At the same time, we also wanted a good weather.
At 6am on Sunday (3 hours before the wedding), the rain poured heavily and my voice was still on vacation. It felt frustrating but these are things we couldn't control. So I asked the universe... just to give us what we need... to totally get rid of my voice so the sun could show its pretty face between 8-10AM. At 8am, the rain stopped and the grounds were wet. Fair enough universe… the church wedding turned out well-attended. But after we exited the church, we only had one set of photoshoot outside the facade of San Agustin because the rain decided to return… in full force.
Then suddenly, my voice stopped cracking.
I guess the universe wanted me to give this song to Liz, I was still hoarse throughout the reception but had enough juice to sing Eric Benet's "The Last Time".
An ok weather and a non-cracking voice… that's a tradeoff we can live with.
Growing Up video
One of our goals in our wedding reception was to avoid boredom at all costs. Everything in the program proper must be tight and can cater to people with short attention spans (read: me). With that in mind, we created a growing up video and the story on how we got together in less than 8 minutes! Each song is no more than 3 minutes and were packed with lots of pictures to distract wandering minds.
When choosing the music, we opted for songs that triggered our childhood. It's a growing up video after all. Jason Mraz' "The Rainbow Connection" has always been the template on which direction we wanted to go. The song is part of the CD "For the kids" which features contemporary artists singing "Meow Meow Lullabye," and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" among others.
One of the tracks was Nathan's "My Favorite Things". The song featured in the classic musical "The Sound of Music" fit perfectly to the growing up years of Liz.
Tying everything for our story is one of our favorite Disney songs "I Won't Say I'm In Love" from Hercules. This last song was only decided a few days before our wedding. We were supposed to use "Without You" by The Piano Guys but it didn't fit when you put all three together.
We stitched the songs and the pictures using iMovie and the rest was history.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Supplier Ratings
Once they're shortlisted, we contacted them via email and whoever answered first was in front of our consideration queue. First impression lasts and the content of the supplier responses influences our final choice.
It also helped that my mom is an events specialist and this is her first time dwelling on weddings. She was the one who jumpstarted in getting the venue of our church and shortlisting hotels that offer lauriats.
We always read how other people's weddings were perfect despite of things that do not pan out as planned. We didn't believe at first but after everything has settled, we truly had an amazing wedding despite weather, health, and lights/sounds issues.
The meaning of our ratings:
1 = Needs improvement
2 = Met service requirements but needs improvements
3 = Met service requirements
4 = Highly recommended
5 = Excellent all-around
A rating with a .something means "almost to the next rating but didn't quite make it." We'll try to explain as much as we could if it's unclear.
Here are the links to our ratings to all our suppliers:
At the Church
At the Reception
Preps and Coordination
Gowns and Suits
Wedding Cake by Hearts and Bells
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| Photo by Joffre Conui |
Rating: 5
We finalized the design of our cake on the road going to Lucena. It was one of those decisions that we almost overlooked because we already chose the cake a long time ago. But because of the theme prominently focused on travel and we were re-using the Eiffel tower as stage backdrop and wedding giveaways, we asked Hearts and Bells to design something similar for us. If we didn't see the Eiffel tower in their catalogue, we would've stuck with the common three-layered cake.
H&B sent us a design of a huge tower that we said yes to. We just told them to change it to non-debutante colors.
But they sent us another design that we liked more than the original. However, the colors were black and white... colors that are not in the motif.
As my dad drove through traffic going to Quezon, me and Liz were photoshopping the cake to change the colors.
It's amazing how this diagram translated beautifully in real life. For an order that I think was short-noticed, Hearts and Bells delivered.
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| Photo by Allan Nacion |
Thanks to their fondant, it didn't spread to my face when Liz decided to smear it on me during the traditional cake cutting.
The flavor was also spot on. They do not do chocolate mint as a regular flavor and ours was considered as a special order.
H&B got a 5 because of the fast response time for a very short notice.
Hello Pose Photobooth
Rating: 5
Disclaimer: Our family partly owns this Jeje-sounding photobooth.
Our event was actually its second client. But because we can work closely with Hello Pose, everything that we wanted were followed. From the quality of the photo paper, to the template, to the props, and the ribbon backdrop.
Hello Pose (in this case, my parents) wanted to create the ribbon backdrop that we wanted. When we discussed this with Inah of Full Blooms, she volunteered to create it for us as a gift. That meant a savings for us and an epic background that guests can play around with.
Hello Pose is a newbie in the photobooth business but I am proud how our prints turned out. And yes, the rating is very biased. Love your own :-)
On the day coordination by Kiss the Girl Events
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| The FAs of Flight Louis and Liz (Photo taken from Kiss The Girls' Facebook page) |
Rating: 4.9
Another W@W find, KTG was one of the two suppliers we were looking at. What made our decision to stick with them is the fact that they didn't have to charge us for costumes that we wanted them to wear during the reception. As our wedding revolves around the travel theme, we pictured our OTD coordinators in Flight Attendant outfits.
Abby was the one handling our account. From the start, she was very proactive in letting us know what we still lacked. She's also very quick in replying to any of our queries. Again, another important factor for us overseas. She had a lot of inputs in the program flow and can advise on where we can save money (e.g. crew meals, party poppers, etc.). I knew my mom could do a good job in putting everything together but we wanted her to also enjoy the event. With KTG on board, my mom delegated some of the control during the event.
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| Arbee and her umbrella |
As a plus, these girls also DIY'd their FA hats which made our wedding reception more special. They were also game during our Gangnam Style parody.
The lack in a perfect score is due to the small blip with our lights and sounds supplier. Other than that, Kiss the Girls is an excellent choice for your coordinating needs.
Groom's Suit Maker and groomer
Groom's three-piece suit by Mang Renato
Rating: 5
Who would believe my suit was just fabric 7 days before our wedding? When we arrived the week before our wedding, we headed to Glorietta 5 to meet up with Mang Renato, a retired tailor who did the suits of my bestmen and my dad. My mom was confident about his work so I wasn't worried about my photo-finish suit.
True enough, five days after Mang Renato took my measurements, I was able to do my fitting. He promised me during the measurement that everything will be precise and no more adjustments were required. I don't know what sort of magic he has but my suit didn't need any refitting. I took home everything except my suit which has to be stitched up permanently.
I'm recommending Mang Renato for his fast hands and very affordable and winning pricing. My three-piece suit is only P5,200. For that amount, I could only buy a jacket that I still have to alter.
I'm in the process of ordering more long sleeves and office pants from him. That's how I'm at awe of his work.
Groomed by Ronnie of Headzone Trinoma
Rating: 5
This wasn't supposed to be here but I want to tell this story. I was with my best man and he wanted to get a haircut. I wanted too but I didn't want my haircut to look so cut... I just had it cut a couple of weeks ago. So when I explained to Ronnie that I need my cut not to look cut, he understood. And since he only trimmed a few millimeters , and knew about my wedding the following day, he offered a shave on the house!
After the shave, he styled my hair and put some products. I knew the haircut and shave was worth it because my bestman complimented it and asked for my cutter's name.
I wasn't able to pull off how he styled it but my hair looked cleaner that Sunday albeit it didn't look freshly cut.
Easily a 5 for the free shave and suggested styling.
Flowers and Event Stylist: Full Blooms by Inah Anupol
Rating: 5
Full Blooms by Inah Anupol was referred by my dad. Because of the connection, we were able to get a good discount. Ms Inah was present during the food tasting so we were able to picture what our table setting was going to be.
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| Photo by Allan Nacion |
She was very accommodating and tried to help us cut costs for the styling of the ballroom. Aside from helping us with the photobooth backdrop, she lent us her Eiffel tower structure that we used at the stage. The little details in the tables gave our wedding reception a cozy feeling.
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| Photo by Allan Nacion |
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| Photo by Allan Nacion |
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| Photo by Allan Nacion |
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| The stage setup Photo by Allan Nacion |
I contacted Inah one late evening for a favor to deliver 2 dozen roses for Liz while she does her preps. She told me to just pay for the flowers and she won't charge for the arrangement. Because of it, I upgraded the bouquet to 4 dozens. I initially requested for red roses but she suggested to use the blue roses that was the same colors of Liz' tulip bouquets because the red ones will be used for the centerpieces.
That bouquet was offered to one of the churches in Manila since we can't carry it back to SG.
Raymond Fortun and Zye for Raymond Fortun Photography
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| Zye, Liz, Louis, and Raymond |
Rating: 5
Raymond Fortun is known as THE attorney for a lot of VIPs in the Philippines. Photography is his passion and has made a name for himself in the wedding biz as one of the top photographers in the industry.
There was no harm in trying to contact this seemingly busy man but he responds very fast. When we knew our date was still open for him, we booked him immediately.
We met RF in Sofitel for our prenup photo shoot. It was also the first time for me and Liz to be in a photoshoot so you can just imagine how tensed we were when we first met him.
RF's most important asset is his expertise in encouraging his clients to be the best they could be in front of the camera. We didn't shoot right away when he arrived. He sat us both and talked about the process of getting married. And as a side joke during that pep talk, he also offers annulments, "just in case". He then proceeded on the process of the photoshoot: the flattering angles, the right lighting, the poses, etc.
The weather cut our prenup shoot short and so we decided to fly back the following month to do a reshoot. This was where we met Zye. She was the Yang to RF's Yin. A very bubbly girl and as encouraging as RF too. We totally felt more relaxed in this session compared to the first one.
Most of the shots we featured in our guestbooks came from this shoot. We didn't imagine it to be so magical but it really was:
And as promised by RF, he captured the essence of our relationship in our moment shots. It makes us happy when our photographers like Zye are excited for us. It pumps us to smile more and be natural.
During the wedding, the gloomy weather dampened our hopes for a shot outside the Sofitel premises. But still, they were able to deliver beyond our imaginations and captured our important day so wonderfully. I know you're just reading adjectives but here are results of that shoot.
A lot of photographers can create jaw-dropping images. But we think that RF's team delivers more than a photo service. They offer something we don't see in their package features. Outside the Lumens, unlimited shots, processed images, AVP fusion, RF offers COMFORT. It's an immeasurable feature that cannot be priced.
We're happy with Raymond Fortun and his awesome team. They gave us something that we can really look at years from now be proud of it.
As an aside, we decided to book RF and Zye to do an outside shoot in Sofitel using our wedding attires. We felt our attires in Sofitel's setting needed a closure from our prenup session in the Cobonpue pieces.... That, or we are just so excited to work with them as soon as possible.
Church and Our Solemnizer
San Agustin Church
Rating: 4.5
San Agustin was the church that had an open schedule on September 16. The date was originally October 20 but after consulting for auspicious dates, we moved ours earlier.
The church had a reputation of being strict but when we dealt with them (through Ma'am Belen), there was no evidence of the strictness.
We had our precana at San Agustin and it only took half a day to complete. Usually, these seminars lasts for two days and being non-residents, this half-day option is very much welcomed.
The rating is still highly recommended but the things that led it to not get the top marks are the not-so clean red carpets, and the pricey add-ons for opening the door and getting at the balcony area for the aerial shots. Both are priced at P1000 each.
The rating is still highly recommended but the things that led it to not get the top marks are the not-so clean red carpets, and the pricey add-ons for opening the door and getting at the balcony area for the aerial shots. Both are priced at P1000 each.
Solemnizer: Monsignor Oracion
Rating: 5
Monsignor is a family friend of Liz and we decided to get him to officiate our union so we can tailor the rites to our liking. He also suggested on where to save time for more picture-taking opportunities.
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