The Worst Procrastinator of Them All

Date of last post... February. Geeez! I know I should have posted something couple of months back.  Most of the invitations have been distributed and most of the DIYs have been finished. The not-so-new job, house move, endless YFC activities and wifely duties kept me so busy for months that I have totally abandoned this blog.  Heck, I think I have forgotten how to blog. =(

So... according to our wedding website, we have exactly 78 days to go before the big day.  Yes, we have a wedding site up and running. It's been out there for several months now for the sake of our guests who will be traveling and for my sanity when bugging people to RSVP. Without further adieu, here are some of the things we've accomplished for the Manila wedding...

Wedding Invitations

I had these letterpressed 7x7 invites made in the Philippines by TwentyOFour. They are the easiest people to deal with plus they are probably the cheapest, good quality letterpress printer I have found.  Actually, I got a referral from my coordinators (Jets & Rhona Battung) so I pretty much got a good deal on these invites.  I designed the draft invite and TwentyOFour created a similar design that would look better on letterpress following my initial draft.  It just took us a week from the draft invitation to final approval of the design. Printing took another week and several days after, the invitations were delivered to our home in Manila (TwentyOFour is based in Cebu).  Two thumbs up for TwentyOFour for the awesome letterpress invites and hassle-free transaction.  Extremely highly recommended!  Btw, the envelopes for the invitations were the ones I bought online.  I created a post about it here.  I thought it was too plain so I created envelope liners from a gift wrap that I found at walmart. I think it was $3 for 2 rolls. Just got lucky to have found gift wrapping paper that are in our wedding colors (blue and green) and theme (stripey!).

Arrhae

I initially thought of ordering the coins from W@W (weddings@work) but then my husband showed me a dollar coin couple of months back which was my first time to see a dollar coin!  They usually come in paper bills.  Several months later, I realized that maybe we can use dollar coins for our arrhae. They are gold and slightly bigger than a quarter and smaller than a Philippine 5 peso coin.  While stalking some shoes and purses on ebay, I found this cute vintage silver trinket box.  It was perfect for our arrhae!  Coins is $13 and the silver box from ebay is $7.50.  We only spent $20.50 for our unique arrhae!  With the current exchange rate, it's even cheaper than the coins from W@W. Lol.

Ceremony Matches

If I remember right, I got these HomArt wood matches from ebay sometime in January.  These are long, decorative matches. I like the fact that the tip of the matches are blue. Yes, that was my only reason for buying these! Haha. I got them for $7.90 for the 2 boxes plus free shipping.

Invitation Envelopes

 Lookie what arrived in the mail today...

The invitation envelopes are here!!! Yehey! Thank you letterpresspaper.com! You guys are awesomely fast and very efficient. Really appreciate the extra care you put in packaging my invitation envelopes. They arrived perfectly fine!

Now, I can continue with the rest of the invitation diy. Will keep you posted as I progress.  Night!

DIY #3: Favors

Remember the movie line "it's so fluffy I want to die"?  I made something extremely, annoyingly cute today.

I have been searching for a very affordable favor to give to our guests. When I say affordable, I meant dollar store cheap! Lol. Well, we are already hiring a photobooth for the wedding so that's mainly our wedding favor but I know traditionally, we have to hand our guests something.  I have waited for several months for clearance sale and coupons just to augment our dollar buying power aka. just being kuripot. Hahaha. Until 2 weekends ago, we found what we were looking for.

Hubs wanted to go to Tempe Marketplace to look at something. Being the shoe addict that he is, I already had a hunch he just wanted to check out some new kicks. Lol.  I told him, why don't we go to Arizona Mills which is an outlet mall. In my mind I was thinking, OUTLET = CHEAPER..... NOT!!! Hahaha. Well, in dollar buying power terms, yes maybe. But if you are like us who go gaga about sale and often hoard stuff, we almost always end up spending more. Anyways, we found some super, super, super cheap pocketbac at Bath and Body works. The greatest thing about that was the pocketbac was in our wedding color. Hahaha.  And so I told hubs, we should get those and make it our wedding favor.

The frustrated artist in me thought I cannot hand these pocketbacs to our guest as is, without packaging. And so, I had to squeeze out the remaining creative juices in me to make these....

Aren't they "it's-so-fluffy-i-want-to-die" worthy? Hahaha. I thought I could put some fun facts about me and my hubs on the favor so our guests would get to know him.  Yes, most of our guests are either MY friends or MY relatives. Lol. Tell me it's a brilliant idea! Following the striped motif, I did the layout for the fun facts and printed them on iron-on transfer paper.  I bought some small muslin bags and ironed the design on to the bags. I also added the same fabric label that I used for the DIY pocket tissue holder on the side of the bag.

That's it folks! Hubs said I really should start selling stuff on the next bridal fair. Lol.

Barong VS Suit

Since my husband was born and raised here in the US, he barely knows people back in the Philippines. With this said, most of the groomsmen will be coming from here.  He initially wanted to wear barong because of the heat but since it would be more difficult for his groomsmen to find barongs here, we have decided they'll just all wear a suit.  

While shopping at the Las Vegas premium outlet the day after Christmas, we chanced upon these perfect ties for our groomsmen. Best of all, they were on sale! Yehey! Also on photo are the cufflinks we got from Manila.

We also found neckties for the fathers on sale at Kohl's.  Are we lucky or what?!? =)

 

Groomsmens' attires... Check!

Wedding Shoes

If there are three things in this world that I would not mind spending on, it would be food, car and shoes. My husband and I share the addiction to shoes... maybe that's one of the reasons why we get along. Lol. For a guy, my husband owns too many shoes. Unbelievable right? He's definitely not the one sneaker, one leather shoe kind of guy.  I think he owns more pairs of Jordans than the number of pairs of shoes I have here at home and in Manila combined. Those are just the Jordans, mind you... there's a lot more other brands of shoes in his closet.  I would sometimes joke him that I am going to sell his Jordans on ebay if we run out of wedding funds. Lol.

He still finds it funny when we Pinoys call sneakers or basketball shoes as "rubbershoes".  Yeah, never ask a mall saleslady for a pair of rubbershoes!  It's sneakers, kicks or more specific usage of shoes such as basketball shoes, running shoes, crosstrainers, etc. but never "rubbershoes"!

So... imagine how long I searched for the perfect blue wedding shoes. I initially wanted a Nine West pair because they make super comfy heels that I sometimes forget I am a "tsinelas" and flats kind of gal.  I went to several stores but never found the blue pair that I wanted. They even ran out of my size online. =(  When I went to the Philippines in November and had to meet-up with our photographer at Rockwell Powerplant Mall, I chanced upon a store and found THE SHOES.  It was instant love!  It was the last pair on my size so I thought, it's probably meant for me so I bought it.  Wedding shoes... Check!

DIY #2: Pocket Tissue Holder

Besides programming Java and SAP, making project plans and tinkering with my laptop, I also have crafty skills. Lol. I know my husband was kind of surprised to find out I know how to operate a sewing machine. Thank you to the T.H.E. classes in an all-girls Catholic school. haha.

During the Thanksgiving sale last year, I was able to snag a $50 Brother sewing machine at Walmart. Super great steal since it normally costs $100+.  I never really planned on doing any sewing project until I saw a nice tutorial online of a pocket tissue holder. I originally planned on making just one for myself and then later realized it would be a great accessory for our wedding ceremony because I am 100% sure my mom is going to cry. Lol.

Presenting, the product of my blood (yes, I cut my finger in the process), sweat and boredom after I resigned from being a consultant end of last year...

Aren't they cute?  No, I am not planning to give this out as our wedding favor for the 150 guests.  I only made a few for the guests who will be coming to the ceremony and will get teary-eyed. And besides, I don't think I can summon the inner Martha Stewart in me to make 150 pocket tissue holders. Too much work is bad for my aching back.

I created the fabric label using iron-on transfer and twill tape. Snazzy right?!? I got my nice navy striped fabric and the ecru lining from Ikea (not cheap!).  And then I chanced upon a half inch striped ribbon with our wedding colors at Michael's.

My husband was impressed with my sewing skills. He even said I should take those to the bridal fair and start selling them. Hahaha.

DIY #1: Save-the-Date Postcards

As what my husband would tell me... we made "tipids" on the save-the-date cards by using the postcards we bought from Manila. We planned of only sending them to our guests here in the US so they can start looking for a cheap flight to Manila, apply for their vacation leave from work, and decide if they can make it to our wedding.

On to the DIY part of this post... we utilized my ever dependable 3-year old Canon multi-function printer to print on to the postcards. I just did a template and did a test print on scratchpaper having the same size as that of the postcard. Took me 10mins tops to do this. Check out the photos below.

Early January, we finished compiling the addresses of our guests here in the US and we were able to mail the STDs. Thank God for a dependable USPS!

Post Manila Visit Progress

Oh boy! It's been too long since I updated this.  *me hits myself on the head for procrastinating*

Anyway, after the very quick visit to Manila to meet and book suppliers, here are some of the wedding essentials we've booked so far...

1.  Church -- San Sebastian
2.  Reception Venue -- The Pergola
3.  Photographer -- Raymond Fortun
4.  Videographer -- Chug Cadiogan
5.  Bridal Gown -- Zandra Lim
6.  Caterer -- K by Cunanan
7.  Emcee -- Missy Ferrer-Litao
8.  OTD Coordinator -- Jets & Rhona Battung
9.  Photobooth -- Baicapture
10. HMU -- Hairshaft/Lucy Britanico Salon

Other stuff that we've bought/paid for:
11.  Groom's Suit -- Onesimus
12.  Groomsmen Accessories - Calvin Klein
13.  PS Gifts -- G.H. Bass
14.  Favors -- Bath and Body Works

Work in progress...
15.  Bridesmaid Gowns -- Waiting for mom's friend to give me a quote
16.  Cake -- Waiting for family friend to give me a quote
17.  Mobile Bar -- Considering Juice Box Mobile Bar
18.  Transportation -- Looking
19.  Invitations -- Considering Twenty O Four or DIY
20.  Hotel Accommodations -- Considering Manila Diamond or Sofitel or Century Park
21.  Lights & Sounds -- Waiting for Rejectkrew to reply
22.  Reception Entertainment -- Waiting for uncle to confirm
23.  Flowers -- Considering Vatel

Not so bad Lisa! Less than 10 months to go, almost halfway there!