ImagineNation Photography by Noel Salazar, Shayla Sanchez, and Richard To Beljot
Rebellious Bride Ria guest blogs here in RB to tell you about their simple wedding. Yes, the wedding seems rebelliously simple but read her write-up to learn a thing or two about restraining from becoming a "HOARDER BRIDE" -- a term we'd like to use for brides who have the tendency to hoard all the ideas they see, and have the tendency to get all kinds of suppliers just because they've come highly recommended. On a sidenote, this is one of the reasons why we DON'T recommend going to wedding expos because it's too overwhelming and you get the tendency to book suppliers impulsively. We'd also like to note that despite the wedding being seemingly simple, we think that Ria and TL's wedding invitations are one of the BEST ones we've seen so far for the brilliant reason that they refreshingly created details on the envelope flap itself and kept the actual invites as simple as possible.
Rebellious Bride Ria writes:
Being the only girl in my family and the first to get married at that, I did not have the slightest idea on what to do and where to start with the wedding planning. So, like many other giddy, newly-engaged, bride-to-be, I spent countless hours online looking for inspiration, tips, and resources for the most important day of my and my fiance’s life. With all the available data online for brides- and grooms-to-be, the wedding possibilities are endless that it becomes too easy to lose one’s individuality in the world of themes, colors, quirks, and other what-have-yous. I realized then that the real challenge in wedding planning is really restraint and the ability to stay true to one's personality. Fortunately, early on, I came across this slogan on Pinterest that said, “make it simple but significant.” That became my motto since and I used it as guide in all our wedding-related decisions and details.
1. Wedding dress: by Tammy Tan, who was one of my best wedding “finds”. I’m really just a simple dresser and I never wanted my wedding dress, or my entire wedding, at that, to deviate from that “style” – my style. My thought bubble was, if I’m going to move around in a dress all day, with all eyes and cameras on me, that dress had better be very, very, comfortable. Tammy understood my body issues and knew exactly what to do with them.
2. Invites: we had two sets of invites – one for the more traditional family members and close relatives and a less formal one for our friends and workmates. To make the formal invite “ours”, we DIYed envelope liners using one of our prenup photos. For the less formal postcard-inspired invites, we also used one of our prenup photos.
3. Bridesmaids’ dresses: I trust my maid of honor’s and my bridesmaids’ taste in fashion so I chose infinity dresses for them and gave them the liberty to style and accessorize them as they please.
4. Reception table Props: We are both lawyers so perhaps it doesn’t come as a surprise that we are drawn to John Grisham novels. Over the years, we have accumulated Grisham books, which we plan to put in the library of our very own place someday soon. For the mean time, we decided to put them on display on our reception.
5. Giveaways: Ask any of my husband’s friends and they will go on and on about how he is such a sweet tooth, making the personalized candies perfect giveaways.
6. DIY Madlibs: Most of our common friends are either writers or lawyers. Either profession entails wit when it comes to choice of words. The madlibs provided for a fun diversion for guests while they waited for us at the reception venue. They also doubled as non-traditional guest books. To ensure guest participation, we gave away prizes for the best entries.
7. Music: My husband is a big rock music fan and I really, really wanted to reflect his personality by the music we played in the wedding. For my bridal march, my husband chose the first three minutes of Dream Theater's Best of Times; for our grand entrance at the reception, we played Skidrow's Remember Yesterday; and for our SDE, was Avenged Sevenfold's Warmness of the Soul. Most people who do not know us well find our music choices unconventional or even unromantic. But those who know my husband well enough said that our music choices made our wedding " very TL", just as my choice of dress was "so me."
Getting generic adjectives as wedding compliments i.e., beautiful, special, awesome, is too easy these days considering all the available data we have. For us, the best compliment we ever received was that the wedding was "us" --- that way, we are assured that our special day is not like any other.
As a blog, we know that we can easily become part of the viscous cycle of inadvertently causing brides to keep hoarding ideas for the wedding. But if you are empowered enough to know what YOU want, then you should be able to use blogs at your advantage. For instance, when I was doing my own wedding preps, I didn't read blogs to get ideas--in fact, I started looking through blogs AFTER we were done finalizing our wedding ideas. Actually, I visited wedding blogs/sites during the remaining months waiting for the big day just to keep the positivity and excitement going...but I was never ever tempted to keep adding new elements because I was confident enough that the way we planned our wedding was already unique on its own. Try this kind of exercise in your own wedding preps and see how you can have more peace of mind when you learn the art of restraint.
Happy wedding preps!
CREDITS: Photo: ImagineNation Photography by Noel Salazar, Shayla Sanchez, and Richard To Beljot. / Gown: Tammy Tan / HMUA: Rae Venturanza-Salazar / Infinity Dresses: Cheesecake / Formal Invitations: Wink/ Giveaways: Twisted Candy / Reception: Father Blanco's Garden, Intramuros / Flowers: Notes and Flowers / Caterer: Henry's Catering
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