top 12 tips for soon to be brides

for all the wawies who visits my site and leave wonderful messages, this one is for you...

(in no particular order)

1. plan early - i couldn't reiterate how lucky we are that we planned early. we managed to save a lot (threelogy, alex franco, 1Esplanade, SOJ). it was amazing what a year or two can do. trust me.

2. research about your suppliers - before we even booked our suppliers (and even after we did) we made it a point to learn as much as we can about them - their niche, their achilles heel, etc. that's one of the reasons i keep visiting the blogs of my suppliers - i wanted to find out more about their work and try to base my expectations from there. :) another thing is i learned iwhich supplier worked well with which supplier and i tried to hook them up on our wedding, the end result? total riot! :) hahaha...

3. trust your suppliers - a lot of times, i left the decision making part to the suppliers - from my gown, to the choice of songs for the avp and onsite video, to my entou's bouquet, wine, styling, etc :) but it all went well... i believe that there's a reason why you chose a particular supplier and if you dont trust them to do their work, then you shouldnt have booked them in the first place. plus, letting loose of the leash (or so to say) will give your suppliers a lot of room to work with :) dont constrict your suppliers - let them do what they do best - their job :).

4. set your priorities straight - is it the gown, the church, the food, the reception? know what you want and stick with it. you cant have everything (well, unless you have the moolah to go with it) for us, our least priorities were the invites, the bouquet, the souvenirs, music (hehe), entou gowns, bridal car, church flowers... these are the things that we think we can live without really. our main priority was the photo and video... the tangible stuff :) so that goes with the gown, makeup hehehe. anything that will show in the pics - thats why i really regret my decision in getting mang boy (well a bit coz i was a bit disappointed) hehe.

5. set a budget - do this even before you start your preps. but set a buffer (for the nice to haves hihihi). we did set a budget - and a realistic one. there is no sense in setting a budget that is way too low. it will only cause you stress. set a realistic budget that you can work with. assess how much you have and how much you can let go without feeling the pain. :) in our case, we went a bit over our budget BUT we made sure that we can do it without sacrificing the security we have after the wedding. meaning we should have more than enough cash to live by. (DO NOT SPEND ALL YOUR SAVINGS ON YOUR WEDDING!)

6. look for sponsors - we managed to save a bit by asking some of our close relatives if they can sponsor parts of our wedding (please refer to the THANK YOU blog). it helped a lot and it gave our relatives the chance to be part of our wedding :) mind you, some of them will be more than happy to help - you just have to ask nicely.

7. prepare your tips beforehand - :( i think this is one of the areas that i really really really failed :( i totally forgot about the tips and i feel that i miscalculated some (apologies to that really). i only remembered about the tips on the day of the wedding when we were about to have lunch, so i quickly dragged my mom to the restroom and we began counting money and putting them into red envelopes. i really didnt have any idea on how much to put. uuuwaaahhhhh.... i was really in a panic, i can hear the suppliers outside shouting "where is the bride" "where is kends" and people kept knocking telling me "ma'am are you okay? kain na po" sighs... i really really am sorry to all the suppliers. i hope i did not offend anyone...

8. trust your insticts / take risks - we women have good instincts so use them :) hahaha... there were a lot of time that i decided on a whim (clique, balloons, suppliers) but i never regretted anything

9. visualize your wedding - that is one of the things that i did for the wedding. i tried, as much as possible, to visualize how i want the reception to look like, from the program to the setup to everything. i always visualized it as simple yet elegant. and i guess, we pulled it off :)

10. when in doubt ask - we are all lucky that we have w@w. you can ask as many questions as you want and you'll know that someone out there, in different parts of the world, will answer your question :)

11. enjoy your preps - i enjoyed our 2 years of preparation until the very last moment. :) i loved it. if i can be a coordintor i would but i cant hehehe... but i am willing to help out anyone, just ask and you shall have an answer (if i know the answer hehehe)

12. be nice to your suppliers!!!! - i can never reiterate this enough to lui hahaha. he can tend to be a bit aggressive/rude at times so i always tell him that he has to be nice to the suppliers. come on, lets all admit it - suppliers can make or break your wedding. the fact that you are paying them does not give you the right to be mean to them. be nice. they are only human... the nicer you are, the more willing they are to help. but please, dont be plastic. they'll know. hahaha. i love the fact that i managed to gain some friends over the course of our preps - niko dear and baby jenn, i love you! mimi and karl - thanks for enduring my kakulitan in our chat sessions. haha pati na din si ms v na laging busy lol :) and syempre ang pinaka love kong si mama benz! mwaaahhhsss! love you all! xoxo

well, that's it. there are so many things i want to write pa. like walk slow and savor your walk, eat eat eat, guestlists are important!!!, etc

i really hope that this entry will help all the soon to be brides out there :) hehehe to the nawies, feel free to add more tips :)

OH! and one more thing, do remember to thank your husbands for enduring through it all. lol :)