With the venue all settled, we could finally loosen up and be able to focus on other parts of our wedding. I've started compiling and discussing our inspirations and mood boards to our coordinator so they could also get started with sourcing some of the suppliers we needed help with.
Our main color motif was pastel blue and light peach. We chose this as it immediately screamed "beach!" which was our theme. Then from there we chose other complementing colors for the clothes of the principal sponsors and our parents. The options were overwhelming, but we had fun trying testing colors out to see what we liked best.
Image taken from Arabia Weddings
Below was our original color palette for our entourage clothes. We later removed the groom from the beige palette to make him standout from the others.
For my girls, I wanted their gowns to be printed. No beads and embellishments, just a light weight gown so we can play around and enjoy ourselves during the day. In line with that, barefoot sandals! Jus the perfect footwear for the beach. As for the guys and bearers, the classic suspenders and bowtie combo would do the trick. We wanted our party to still appear dressed-up, not too relaxed like wearing short skirts and shorts, but much more toned down than being up-tightly formal.
For the venue styling, we preferred something simple. Since our ceremony and reception would already be held outdoors, the sun, mountains and the sea were beautiful backdrops already, and they're free! This was one of our not-so-priority suppliers. We did know of famous stylists such as Gideon Hermosa, Badang Rueda, etc., but we just don't feel like spending so much on styling, with excess expense on logistics and transport. Good news was that Ms. Monina also offers venue styling, called Monet Event Styling, packaged together with her coordination services. What convenience for us having to just talk to her about all our inspirations and not have to worry about miscommunication since they would also be the one to set them up?!
Our clean and crisp ceremony setup inspiration
We also requested for something unusual. Veering away from the usual welcome signage, we wanted to take advantage of the beach. So, what's more fitting than a sand signage?
For the reception, we just searched for table arrangements, lights and simple decorations. I guess this was an advantage of outdoor weddings, you can scrimp on styling and the venue would still look fab.
We preferred low setup for the tables so there would be no distractions when facing and talking to each other. At the same time, it's expected to be windy outdoors at the beach, so it's also to avoid any accidents.
For the venue itself, we just wanted to fill the area with hundreds of fairy lights to light up the night.
We also preferred a simple cake, what with being in a destination wedding and all, there would definitely be challenges in logistics and spoilage if it's a complicated cake. It's also not one of our priorities. Plus! The resort actually included it in their package to bake us one. We just requested it to have an additional "X | C" topper.
One of the first pegs I fell in love with instantly was this bridal bouquet. My decision did not change throughout planning. Instead of the conventional round or flowing arrangement, I preferred tall ones. I thought it would be different, and it would suit my theme wonderfully. I'm also quite tall so this was not a problem for me.
Another inspo we were fixated on was the invitation. I long wanted my invitation to have a certain impact once it's received by our guests. So the classic invitation cards in envelopes was not an option. I wanted message-in-a-bottle type since we want to stick with the theme, but downsides to that was it's too bulky for us, and also generally smaller in size based from what we searched online. Thankfully, I came upon a good alternative, replacing bottles with test tubes! Light, narrow and easy to carry or to deliver, it was the ideal option.
For my bridal gown, I was in love with this Berta Bella dress. I did actually visited an authorized Berta distributor, Audella Bridal House, during my trip in HK, but they did not have this in display. I did try other similar gowns there but it was just not the same. Also, I wanted to customize it a bit so I could have different looks for ceremony and reception, which led me to decide seeking a designer was the ideal option.
The Berta Bella dress
For the reception, I wanted a short skirt so I can dance easily dance in it, especially when we planned to have choreographed dances. An idea suddenly came to me. I was a huge fan of Giambattista Valli's puffy skirt collections such as this dress:
Oh I loved that skirt! That's why I planned to have my designer design my dress with detachable ceremony skirt so I could change into this style of skirt for reception.
For my shoes, of course I'd also be wearing barefoot sandals like my girls, bridal edition!
My hubby doesn't really have pegs, he wanted me to be in charge of his attire. So we decided to wing it and just searched for a good suit tailoring shop and decide from there. We just knew it has to adhere to the theme and also make him standout as my dashing groom!
Other pegs we discussed was the reception entrance and ending. We wanted to have that classic sparkler-filled entrance, and to end the day with filling the skies with sky lanterns.
However, we were long aware that sky lantern might not be possible, as it's also harmful to the environment and can generate litter to the seas. We just inquired this with the resort, found out that it was indeed prohibited. So, we no longer pushed this and decided on fireworks instead. It was also a good decision altogether. We don't really want to be guilty of littering the beautiful waters of Coron just because of our wedding.
For HMUA, we simply relied on who Ms. Monina could best recommend as it's also not our priority. For emcee, we required Chinese language and singing talents and provided some names for her to inquire, such as:
1. Max Tiu
2. Jerome Go
3. Darlene Tan-Salazar - though we just knew later she can't speak Chinese. We just assumed because of the surname. Our bad.
4. Jeffrey Yu
5. KV Golamco
She also recommended Carolyn Batay, so we included her for inquiry as well.
I mentioned in Chapter 1 that early on the planning we already had a highly preferred P/V team in mind, which was Mayad Studios. No works from other studios seemed to amaze us as much as Mayad did. Without second thoughts, we booked them last April 2019. We initially wanted to have King as our director, but he's already going to focus on managing the company and will no longer be doing shooting. So, we settled for the equally excellent Carmela as our videographer. For photographer, we got Mico who was also our first choice. We were really happy to have successfully booked them even with just less than a year to go. I wondered if it was just luck, since they were usually fully booked too.
These were the pegs we discussed and started with during the early stage around April 2019. For other suppliers and pegs, we just searched for them as needed or when we thought of it. It was actually a challenge to be really faithful and stick to the pegs we had as there were overflowing ideas and inspirations online that could confuse us and think they could be better. We always have to remember that there's no best or better. All ideas are beautiful in its own way.
It's important not to get carried away. Inspirations and pegs are just that, references. We should not totally expect our suppliers to fully replicate the exact output, except if we availed from the original supplier of the inspiration itself. Differences in results are to be expected, it all depends on their creativity, skills, experience and resources. Sometimes, you might never know, our suppliers could actually pull it off better than the inspo.
***All my posts are in no way sponsored or paid. I narrate our wedding planning adventure like a diary, with only actual facts and experiences.***
Chapter 4: Our Wedding Inspirations and Pegs
Days to go: 10 months
Wedding Planning Progress: 20%
Wedding Planning Team:
1. Bride & Groom
2. Wedding Coordinator: Monina E Events & Marketing
3. Venue: Sunlight Eco Tourism Island Resort
4. Event Stylist: Monet Event Styling (packaged with coordinator)
5. Photo / Video: Mayad Studios
Comments