Looking Through The Eyes Of Brides

Is it just me or do all brides see every beautiful dress as a potential wedding dress? And it doesn't end there-the rest of the pieces from that collection can be part of the entourage. You can't just get enough!

This is one of my Brides



And this is the Maid of Honor



And the Bridesmaid

All images from www.lovenia.com

Teehee! This is fun!

Do I Have To Wear Satin Shoes To My Wedding?

Maybe not. Your shoes can greatly tell what kind of bride you are. What kind of bride are you?


You can DIY the bows and put them on plain peep-toes. Shoes by J. Crew, image from http://kenziekate.blogspot.com/



Printed matter. Shoes by J. Crew, image from http://kenziekate.blogspot.com/



I heart you! Shoes by Alexander McQueen, photo from www.notcot.org



For the beach bride. Thongs by Stella McCartney, image from www.net-a-porter.com



Froufrou! Aren't these Louboutins lovely?! Image from www.net-a-porter.com



Style = comfort. Stella Luna flats



Deadly deadly weapons! Stella Luna




I'm in love! Shoes by Omelle

The Effortlessly Beautiful Bride

A woman looks more beautiful when she's comfortable in what she's wearing. What's even bettter is when she looks like she didn't put so much effort on how she looks.

That's how I want to be on my wedding day. I don't want to look like I was totally transformed into another person. No curly hair, no heavy makeup, no 50-lbs. dress that will hold every move I make. Just nice, easy and fabulous!


photo from www.lovenia.com

What Makes A Wedding Intimate

One of the discussion threads we had in W@W asked us to define an intimate wedding. For an average Filipino family, having 200 guests IS intimate!

What makes a wedding intimate? Here's my take:

1. Primarily and technically, it's about the number of guests. A wedding with
50 guests (or even less!) is what you can call intimate. In our culture where we have huge
families, you can consider 100 guests intimate (read: impossible!).

2. The look and feel of the wedding. Having your wedding ceremony and
reception in a place where you commonly have family gatherings will give your
affair an intimate feel. This place can be your family's ancestral home or a
hotel or restaurant where your family would usually go for birthdays and
anniversaries.

3. Lastly, for me, the intimacy of the wedding greatly depends on how closely
the couple can interact with their guests during the party.

For our wedding, we are skipping all pictorials. The more time you allocate
for pictorials, the less chance you get to entertain your guests. My brief for
my photographer: capture images of emotions and connections and people. I
don’t want you art directing us the whole time. Just let things happen
naturally and let us enjoy our wedding and our guests.

We are also avoiding the big trend of having a grand entrance at the
reception and proceeding to the first dance. Instead, my fiancé and I, together with
our parents, will be at the entrance of the dinner hall to personally receive the
guests.

We won't have our own table at the reception - the one that separates the
couple from all the guests. I'm referring to the elevated table for the couple
that caterers/restaurants/hotels usually set-up. Para kayong nasa altar! Di ko talaga yun feel. My fiancé' and I want to sit with our family and friends.

What do you think?

Michelle and Oshine as featured in snippet and ink, Aregrayline Photography


Just the 2 of us: Their only guests were the photographers. Donna and Kevin as featured in snippet and ink


Amanda and Matt as featured in snippet and ink. Photo by Jessica Johnston

Hair and Makeup for the Recessionista Bride

It's wonderful to find suppliers who genuinely understand brides. My makeup artist is one of those suppliers. What do I love about her - I'm at my most beautiful in her makeup. I look like myself, only better. She doesn't change me into her own definition of beautiful. And the best part, I can dance around, drink up and stay up late and my makeup still looks fresh and fabulous. I don't retouch when I'm wearing her makeup.

My job allows me to be made up by the different makeup artists. From all the looks I've had, my fiance picked the makeup/look he likes best. That's how I decided on who to get for my wedding makeup. :) Pretty cool.

Now I have great news for recessionista brides. The Makeup Den offers makeup for bride plus 2 for only P9,000! Check out other offerings below. Click on the link to learn more about The Makeup Den.

The Makeup Den uses products from MAC, Shu Uemura, Chanel, Krayolan, Dior, Makeup Forever, Lancome and Prestige for eyeliners.

http://makeupden.multiply.com/

Martha Stewart Weddings Philippines - March 2009

Finally!

Do we really have to wait for 6 months for every issue of Martha? I'm supposed to get a free copy of this from the office. But I can't wait any longer so I bought my own copy. It's worth every penny. I found some ideas I can apply in my own wedding. I'll blog about them separately. Get your own copy now!

How Far Can Your Color Motif Go?

Our initial peg for our color motif was the interiors of Stella Luna in Rockwell. We fell in love with the deep hue of plum combined with silver. But like any bride (or should I say woman?), my mind kept on changing. I couldn't pinpoint the exact shade of plum/aubergine that I wanted. I also realized plum would look well with gold too. I also didn't want my entourage to look like the cast of Barney. I wanted to stay away from the tradition of having your entourage look like they're wearing a uniform. Every person in your entourage has a distinct personality. You should let her wear something she'd feel good with.



Then one magical day (yeah that's really how it seemed to me: magical!), I saw these color palettes in Perfect Bound (http://perfectbound.blogspot.com/2009/02/reem-acra-fall-2009.html). So I emailed my designer:

Is it possible to have a color scheme this wide and this rich?! Sigh… Ignore me. I’m just dreaming. ;)

Color palettes from http://perfectbound.blogspot.com/

He didn't ignore me! Watch for my post on the dresses of my entourage. ;)