Hi girls!!!! I've posted in other topics but not on the one I would relate to the most: this one!!!
I'm getting married exactly a year from now, and honestly I got nothing. I've done a fair bit of research already and here's pretty much the overall plan:
Suppliers I Plan to Book (listed according to priority)
1)
Church - This is of course the top priority (nothing else matters if the place where we're getting married won't marry us! haha). My fiance and I already have a church in mind, and intend to book it in August (9 months before the wedding). Thankfully Hong Kong (the country we plan to get married in) doesn't have a lot of Catholic church weddings so we don't foresee any risks of losing out on our date. Oh, and the reason why we can only do it in August is because it's a long holiday where we're based so we will take a trip to HK to sort a lot of these things out.
2)
Reception venue & caterer - This is something we intend to book alongside the church in August. Wedding banquets in HK usually occur at night and we're having a lunch reception so we don't foresee challenges in this respect either. In any case, we're looking into potential venues as early as now and are looking to book appointments in the weekend we are there.
3)
Photographer & videographer - We will cover this too in the August weekend (we will start to contact the preferred suppliers and set appointments with them so we are sure we are comfortable with them and that we can clearly understand one another, literally and figuratively!)
4)
Entourage tailors & designers - While waiting for the August trip to HK, I'm actually doing this now. I've been scouting tailors and designers and hoping to meet with them when I travel to Manila next month. This is quite early but since most of my trips post-August will be mainly towards HK, I figure I better do it now.
5)
Preparation venue - When the church and reception are booked, I'll book the prep venues for the entourage for both the bride and the groom. Since it will be a fairly large party and there are only a few large suites in HK, I thought to do this earlier than later.
6)
Accommodation - This will only be for our immediate families (our wedding will be on a Saturday so we will cover their lodging from Thursday to Sunday). However if the hotel can offer a good package, we may be able to extend this to some of the guests (or maybe they can offer a guest-wide discount). In any case, we'll start speaking with our preferred hotels after items 1-5 are sorted.
7)
Car rentals - About 90% of the guest list will actually fly to HK for the wedding so we'll get transport for them too (pick up from the prep venue to the church then to the reception venue). While the reception venue would hopefully be accessible via most forms of public transport, the church might not so this might come in handy for some of our guests. This will be booked around the same time as the accommodations for family.
Hair & make up - Before you gasp at why my HMUA is ranking 9 on my priority list, I've already agreed with my sister that she will do my make up for me
And being my sister, I know for a fact she won't let me walk down that aisle na pangit hahaha She's only started studying how to apply make up professionally but that's also why I'm hiring a separate vendor: they will do the rest of the entourage's make up and maybe even help my sister out with me (baka nga I will need an army to make me pretty on my wedding day hahaha) The alternate HMUA will be booked in September/October (8/9 months before the wedding).
9)
Florist - I absolutely adore flowers and if pwede lang my flat will have vases of them in every room (parang Miranda Priestly lang hahaha) Unfortunately I do need to acknowledge which items from the wedding are necessary/nice-to-have/investments/etc and flowers have been relegated to 'throwaway items'. While I've been to weddings where gorgeous centrepieces are wrapped up and brought home, I don't think this will be the case for guests who are mostly tourists anyways haha My fiance's cousin actually makes nosegays and bouquets so I will look to her for the entourage flowers, boutonnieres, and possibly aisle flowers. Centrepieces for the reception will depend on the venue itself, but I intend to keep them as clean, pretty, and simple as possible (the goal is for guests to lean across the table to one another and just indulge in conversation
) So while my fiance's cousin has confirmed she will do the basic flowers, the florist for all other floral decor will be booked in December (6 months before the wedding).
10)
Wedding favours - Thanks to our sisters in a separate thread, I've already contacted a supplier who can help with leather luggage tags we intend to give away to our guests (this would be an awesome add-on to what could be a travel-themed wedding that guests literally travelled to, but alas we don't have the budget nor the baggage allowance to indulge this fantasy further haha). Anyways I will meet with the supplier when I travel to Manila next month so hoping this gets closed off soon!
11)
Wedding rings - Yes, this is quite low on the priority list even though this is really the most important symbol for marriage! The reason why this is ranking 11 is fiance and I intend to get the rings here, where plenty of shops provide plenty of options. Neither of us are looking for unique designs (although it might be hard to match the engagement ring he gave me). In any case, since we're getting it here we can wait until January 2016 (5 months before the wedding)
12)
Cake - I love sweets (my hips won't lie about that) but to be completely honest, the symbolism of cake cutting in a wedding is lost on me
In any case I just want a small cake that we don't need to cut but just feed to each other as what would possibly be our first bite of the day haha Thus very low priority item, I can probably order this 2 months before the wedding.
Suppliers I Purposefully Removed from Plan1)
Invitations & stationery - I will do these myself (if you could include these invitations in your prayers please do since my hands have not made anything creative since those paper mache projects from the fifth grade haha).
2)
Lights & sounds - Since it's a morning wedding and a lunch reception I do not see the point of a lights system (I will make sure to get a venue that has a good balance of bright and soft lighting). For the sounds, I'll have to check first with the venue if they already have an AV system.
3)
Wedding coordinator - I know! I know this is very important, but my fiance's cousin who's based in HK will help coordinate for me. She's already married and has helped all of her girlfriends with their own weddings so I have complete faith in her. We've agreed on how we'll go about it anyways: I do plenty of research and provide her with options. She then goes to these vendors, gets their quote and also contacts vendors who she thinks are similar to my pegs. Then she comes back to me and fiance and we basically make the decision. It's all based on photos and links and I'm very comfortable with it
(If you haven't noticed by now, I tend to be very anal so even if I hire a coordinator it's pretty much gonna be the same approach anyways haha)
4)
DJ / Band - I haven't been to a lunch reception which has a dance afterparty, have you? Haha Anyways while I am tone deaf, my brother is very good at understanding beats/rhythms/all that musical jazz (yeah, literally) so I'm leaving it to him to come up with a playlist for me and we'll go through what he's made during the Christmas holidays. I've given him one criteria: instrumental music haha
5)
Emcee - The weddings I've been to pretty much have the same program which the fiance and I intend to skip anyways (although it is fun to watch, I cannot think of a way to make the bouquet & garter toss/grab as painless as possible). In any case, not everyone in attendance will be very comfortable with English so best keep these parts to a minimum haha
6)
Event Stylist - I just intend for a very nice and clean looking venue that doesn't need a lot of sprucing up
Flowers (via yet known florist) are always a good bet for styling but I'll have a better idea on this when I book my venue.
So why did I bore all of you with this littany? Apart from being frustrated writer (haha) I need to know from you, my experienced GT sisters: is there anything I am missing or doing wrong?
