Marissa
08-27-2007, 03:35 PM
I’d like to share my wedding day with you in hopes it will help you in your planning. Of course, pictures say it all, so you are all welcome to see our wedding photos on our wedding website. Please message me for the link.
Hair and Makeup
My day started quietly at the house of my makeup artist, Khanh Do of Makeup StudioS. We had already done a trial for hair and makeup, so I didn’t have to worry about anything except being there on time. I asked her to give me a natural look, but still enough makeup to show up on pictures. She achieved that beautifully, I felt very classic and natural, the makeup did not overpower my features at all. She also did hair and makeup for my mom and sister, who both looked amazing.
Transportation
Next, Skyy Limo picked us up at 10:30 to get to an 11:30am ceremony at the Immaculata Church at USD. They were prompt, and the driver was very polite. They rolled out the red carpet for us, and we toasted with some almond champagne on the way to the church.
Church
The Immaculata’s grandeur and beauty speaks for itself. But I will add that Amy the coordinator was great to work with. We didn’t have any decorations for the church, and she let us use their flower arrangements. It was also really awesome to walk down the aisle to the sound of a huge pipe organ.
Right after the ceremony, which took 1 hour since we did a full mass with all the traditional Filipino wedding rituals, we took photos on the altar with family and took huge group photos in front of the church.
After the Ceremony
My new husband and I took off with the photographers to take photos all around USD and downtown San Diego. We had a 5 hour gap between the ceremony and reception, so I rented out the restaurant in the King’s Inn Hotel in Hotel Circle for my family to hang out and grab a small bite to eat. All I paid for was $250 worth of appetizers from their menu, and they let us bring the rest of the food. Luckily, Filipinos love potlucks, and there was a ton of home-cooked Filipino food. I sort of wish we had stopped by to pick up some food, because we both forgot to eat the entire day!
San Diego Wedding Photographer
My photographers are amazing and we had so much fun taking pictures that afternoon. I was worried at first about having such a huge gap between the ceremony and reception. But now I am glad we did, because we got to take so many pictures, and then take an hour to relax before the reception. Hung C. Tran and Ty Sheow were our photographers, and they did both the slideshows on my website. They gave us a CD with every one of the pictures they took, which is awesome. You can see the slideshows on my wedding website (just message me for the link).
Reception
We checked into the Solamar Hotel downtown and rested. Then went to Balboa Park for more pictures and the reception. The reception was held at the Spanish Village Art Center, an often overlooked gem of Balboa Park. It only cost $1,500 to rent the entire area for our party. We were very confident in the vendors we hired, and rightly so, because the event was set up beautifully. My mom thought this would be just another picnic in the park, but it was a formal dinner reception under the stars. The weather was good to us, no one was cold, even though we rented 5 space heaters just in case. Aloha Catering took care of all the rentals, Jana was the person in charge of everything. She has an amazing calm about her and always made sure that we felt good about our choices and the costs. Anything we asked for, she found a way to get it for us. For example, we got an 8-foot red velvet couch for us instead of a sweetheart table. That was awesome, I wish we took more pictures on it.
Caterer and Rentals
Aloha Catering’s food was very delicious, or so we heard from our guests since we forgot to eat. For appetizers we had coconut shrimp, mango papaya ceviche, stuffed mushrooms, brie en croute, and fresh fruit. We also hired Cidney Corpuz of Shidoni Sushi to prepare sushi fresh on site and he was awesome! The sushi was a huge hit at the party, we are so glad we spent a little extra to have sushi there. For dinner we had passionfruit chicken, salmon in coconut sauce, and 2 roasted pigs (lechon). Luckily, the caterers were ok with us getting the pigs from a Filipino vendor, Maharlika. We could not compromise on the preparation of the pig. All in all, we wanted to make sure the food was not tended too much towards Hawaiian or Filipino, and they achieved that for us. The food appealed to everyone at the party. Dessert was wedding cake, chocolate truffles, and chocolate fondue and strawberries!
By the way, our total headcount was 260 people, which fit easily into the Spanish Village. And our total catering and rentals bill was $13,500! They are definitely the way to go for quality of food, the best customer service, and the most cost efficient. The roast pig was only $175 per pig. Jana also let us provide our own alcohol. So the final cost for open bar for hours and 260 guests was only $1,200!!! That is definitely a huge way to save money, bringing your own alcohol. And I'd be happy to share with you my sources for finding the best prices, since we checked all over town.
DJ
At the party, our DJ Rockin’ Robbie let us customize all the music played that night. While he was bombarded with requests from my guests, he still managed to keep the dance floor full all night. He also was cool with letting people sing to us during dinner, as well as letting my uncle play clarinet for us.
Cake
The cake turned out so cool. We asked Linda Spears, of Uniquely Yours, to make us a Spanish Tile cake to match our venue. She said she’d never heard of such a thing, but was up to the challenge. She is a perfectionist, and did a beautiful job on the cake. We just did not want a typical looking wedding cake, we wanted it to be fun and we got exactly what we wanted. You can see a picture of it in the slideshow.
Dress
Lastly, I’m in love with my dress. Lyle Ibanez custom designed it for me in the Philippines this past February. It was scary because he just made it and sent it, only 1 fitting. The dress fit perfectly, with a need to just take it in around the bust area. It was made of pina, the traditional fabric of Filipino shirts called a barong. My husband and I had matching pina garments with elaborately stitched embroidery. I asked for a small amount only of beads and sequins, to keep the dress very simple and elegant. I’m so glad I went very traditional on the fabric and embroidery, but stayed modern with the design.
Videographer
We haven’t seen our wedding video yet, but Rey de la Pena of BSV Productions, was around us all day and night. He had 2 cameras filming at all times, and he is letting us choose the music for the film. He is also a perfectionist and actually cares about his product. We are confident this video will be very unique to our personalities, and not just a template video.
Flowers and Centerpieces
The flowers at the party were minimal, since the Spanish Village already had lights strung in the trees, and across the entire patio area. Our centerpieces were done for $12, we just had a vase with glowing blue rocks and a candle. Also 10 small candles surrounding it with a circular mirror on bottom to reflect more light. The lights really set the mood for the venue.
We hired Peggi Walker from Metro Floral to do our bouquets and boutennieres. Since I’m not picky on flowers, I just told her a bit about myself, and asked her to be creative. I was very happy with the purple and yellow bouquet she made me. The bright colors went perfectly with my bridesmaids, who wore teal.
Wedding Website
Lastly, I did my own wedding website. I know it’s not necessary to have a wedding website, but it’s so much fun to have. And it’s useful for out of town guests to have a place online to find information and see pictures of the bride and groom. You can find it by googling bestestweddingever.
Happy to Help
If anybody has questions or needs advice on anything, I’d be happy to help. I felt a little lost along the way planning this thing. But now I feel like a pro, and want to share the mountain of knowledge I learned along the way. I’d be happy to also share my budget with anyone, I love getting a good deal and am proud to help others to the same.
Thanks for reading! Email me for more on my planning process, just ask, this post is already too long.
Marissa
PS. We used TheBigDay for our honeymoon registry and it was very easy to use. They sent us a check for all the cash people contributed, so it's sort of a nice way to just ask for money instead of gifts.
Hair and Makeup
My day started quietly at the house of my makeup artist, Khanh Do of Makeup StudioS. We had already done a trial for hair and makeup, so I didn’t have to worry about anything except being there on time. I asked her to give me a natural look, but still enough makeup to show up on pictures. She achieved that beautifully, I felt very classic and natural, the makeup did not overpower my features at all. She also did hair and makeup for my mom and sister, who both looked amazing.
Transportation
Next, Skyy Limo picked us up at 10:30 to get to an 11:30am ceremony at the Immaculata Church at USD. They were prompt, and the driver was very polite. They rolled out the red carpet for us, and we toasted with some almond champagne on the way to the church.
Church
The Immaculata’s grandeur and beauty speaks for itself. But I will add that Amy the coordinator was great to work with. We didn’t have any decorations for the church, and she let us use their flower arrangements. It was also really awesome to walk down the aisle to the sound of a huge pipe organ.
Right after the ceremony, which took 1 hour since we did a full mass with all the traditional Filipino wedding rituals, we took photos on the altar with family and took huge group photos in front of the church.
After the Ceremony
My new husband and I took off with the photographers to take photos all around USD and downtown San Diego. We had a 5 hour gap between the ceremony and reception, so I rented out the restaurant in the King’s Inn Hotel in Hotel Circle for my family to hang out and grab a small bite to eat. All I paid for was $250 worth of appetizers from their menu, and they let us bring the rest of the food. Luckily, Filipinos love potlucks, and there was a ton of home-cooked Filipino food. I sort of wish we had stopped by to pick up some food, because we both forgot to eat the entire day!
San Diego Wedding Photographer
My photographers are amazing and we had so much fun taking pictures that afternoon. I was worried at first about having such a huge gap between the ceremony and reception. But now I am glad we did, because we got to take so many pictures, and then take an hour to relax before the reception. Hung C. Tran and Ty Sheow were our photographers, and they did both the slideshows on my website. They gave us a CD with every one of the pictures they took, which is awesome. You can see the slideshows on my wedding website (just message me for the link).
Reception
We checked into the Solamar Hotel downtown and rested. Then went to Balboa Park for more pictures and the reception. The reception was held at the Spanish Village Art Center, an often overlooked gem of Balboa Park. It only cost $1,500 to rent the entire area for our party. We were very confident in the vendors we hired, and rightly so, because the event was set up beautifully. My mom thought this would be just another picnic in the park, but it was a formal dinner reception under the stars. The weather was good to us, no one was cold, even though we rented 5 space heaters just in case. Aloha Catering took care of all the rentals, Jana was the person in charge of everything. She has an amazing calm about her and always made sure that we felt good about our choices and the costs. Anything we asked for, she found a way to get it for us. For example, we got an 8-foot red velvet couch for us instead of a sweetheart table. That was awesome, I wish we took more pictures on it.
Caterer and Rentals
Aloha Catering’s food was very delicious, or so we heard from our guests since we forgot to eat. For appetizers we had coconut shrimp, mango papaya ceviche, stuffed mushrooms, brie en croute, and fresh fruit. We also hired Cidney Corpuz of Shidoni Sushi to prepare sushi fresh on site and he was awesome! The sushi was a huge hit at the party, we are so glad we spent a little extra to have sushi there. For dinner we had passionfruit chicken, salmon in coconut sauce, and 2 roasted pigs (lechon). Luckily, the caterers were ok with us getting the pigs from a Filipino vendor, Maharlika. We could not compromise on the preparation of the pig. All in all, we wanted to make sure the food was not tended too much towards Hawaiian or Filipino, and they achieved that for us. The food appealed to everyone at the party. Dessert was wedding cake, chocolate truffles, and chocolate fondue and strawberries!
By the way, our total headcount was 260 people, which fit easily into the Spanish Village. And our total catering and rentals bill was $13,500! They are definitely the way to go for quality of food, the best customer service, and the most cost efficient. The roast pig was only $175 per pig. Jana also let us provide our own alcohol. So the final cost for open bar for hours and 260 guests was only $1,200!!! That is definitely a huge way to save money, bringing your own alcohol. And I'd be happy to share with you my sources for finding the best prices, since we checked all over town.
DJ
At the party, our DJ Rockin’ Robbie let us customize all the music played that night. While he was bombarded with requests from my guests, he still managed to keep the dance floor full all night. He also was cool with letting people sing to us during dinner, as well as letting my uncle play clarinet for us.
Cake
The cake turned out so cool. We asked Linda Spears, of Uniquely Yours, to make us a Spanish Tile cake to match our venue. She said she’d never heard of such a thing, but was up to the challenge. She is a perfectionist, and did a beautiful job on the cake. We just did not want a typical looking wedding cake, we wanted it to be fun and we got exactly what we wanted. You can see a picture of it in the slideshow.
Dress
Lastly, I’m in love with my dress. Lyle Ibanez custom designed it for me in the Philippines this past February. It was scary because he just made it and sent it, only 1 fitting. The dress fit perfectly, with a need to just take it in around the bust area. It was made of pina, the traditional fabric of Filipino shirts called a barong. My husband and I had matching pina garments with elaborately stitched embroidery. I asked for a small amount only of beads and sequins, to keep the dress very simple and elegant. I’m so glad I went very traditional on the fabric and embroidery, but stayed modern with the design.
Videographer
We haven’t seen our wedding video yet, but Rey de la Pena of BSV Productions, was around us all day and night. He had 2 cameras filming at all times, and he is letting us choose the music for the film. He is also a perfectionist and actually cares about his product. We are confident this video will be very unique to our personalities, and not just a template video.
Flowers and Centerpieces
The flowers at the party were minimal, since the Spanish Village already had lights strung in the trees, and across the entire patio area. Our centerpieces were done for $12, we just had a vase with glowing blue rocks and a candle. Also 10 small candles surrounding it with a circular mirror on bottom to reflect more light. The lights really set the mood for the venue.
We hired Peggi Walker from Metro Floral to do our bouquets and boutennieres. Since I’m not picky on flowers, I just told her a bit about myself, and asked her to be creative. I was very happy with the purple and yellow bouquet she made me. The bright colors went perfectly with my bridesmaids, who wore teal.
Wedding Website
Lastly, I did my own wedding website. I know it’s not necessary to have a wedding website, but it’s so much fun to have. And it’s useful for out of town guests to have a place online to find information and see pictures of the bride and groom. You can find it by googling bestestweddingever.
Happy to Help
If anybody has questions or needs advice on anything, I’d be happy to help. I felt a little lost along the way planning this thing. But now I feel like a pro, and want to share the mountain of knowledge I learned along the way. I’d be happy to also share my budget with anyone, I love getting a good deal and am proud to help others to the same.
Thanks for reading! Email me for more on my planning process, just ask, this post is already too long.
Marissa
PS. We used TheBigDay for our honeymoon registry and it was very easy to use. They sent us a check for all the cash people contributed, so it's sort of a nice way to just ask for money instead of gifts.