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The Wedding Part 2: J Franco Digital Films

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I promised a dedicated post for our photographer and videographer, so here it is!

Photo/Video:  J Franco Digital Films
Rating:  ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Cost:  💰💰💰
This team made miracles for me, and I can never thank them enough for it.  Really.

One of the downsides with having a long distance engagement is the fact that all your pre-wedding frills are put to a hold until your partner is with you.  Le Mari arrived in the Philippines three weeks before the wedding, and being December, it’s obvious that Fritz and his team are fully booked the entire month.  Want to know when we shot our pre-nuptial photos?  December 26.  Yes, this team woke up probably hung over from Christmas celebrations and marched off to the Joya Residences at Rockwell, Makati to give us an amazing time and well, needless to say, amazing photos.

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They made the most of the entire space.  I swear, this photo set does not even begin to describe how well they captured our coupledom.  They were patient and caring, they helped us ease into the shoot.  Le Mari is very shy, so being in front of the camera is not really his cup of tea.  (When he realized that we’ll be taking so many photos, he started to explore the possibility of not being in so many of them.  Seriously.)  But Fritz was able to put him at ease!  The photos turned out so great.
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Come wedding day, they were so early and complete.  It was a very relaxed atmosphere because of them, and my personal favorite would be the female photog, Cha (if I recall her name correctly).  The team was accommodating and on point all the time.

I do regret though not having that many photos of just me and Le Mari.  We did steal away an hour to drink at the nearby Bugsy’s just to relax before the formal reception, so we did steal from them precious time with precious lighting.  Nonetheless, we love the selection and we still owe them the final picks for our album.

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There were some problems with lighting, looking now at the raw pictures.  But Fritz and his wife Mayette are more than reassuring that everything will be properly edited and adjusted to our liking.

I swear, everything that we paid for with this team is absolutely worth it.  Book them.  Seriously.

Oh and did I mention the divine same-day edit video?  If this is already this awesome, I am so excited for the final edit.  I almost wanted to change the song, but I am so happy that Fritz talked me down and that I relinquished control.  This is just perfect.

You must MUST consider them for your next event.  :)

More supplier reviews to come later! ❤️

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First, The Wedding Part 1

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Being in a long distance relationship that transitioned into a long distance engagement only meant one thing:  planning the wedding alone.  Up to this day, I still don’t know how the whole wedding happened, but I know I got a lot of help from people and online resources.  We had a budget and in this day and age when blogs are popping left and right with insane wedding pegs and styles you JUST MUST HAVE, it’s quite difficult to stick with that budget.  But we did.  And we did it because we worked hard.  Hahahaha.

Let me just give a rundown of our major suppliers and my review.  Please note that our wedding happened in the Philippines, where US$1=PHP45 at the time, so prices are adjusted accordingly.

Introducing, our monogram.  Thank you, Printsonalities (more on them later).

Church:  Iglesia Ni Cristo, Bel-Air Chapel
Rating:  ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Cost:  NONE
Seriously, we didn’t spend anything on the church.  We just had to inform them ahead of time since our wedding date was right after New Year’s.  We requested for an English-speaking minister, and they gave us Bro. Felipe Naguit.  The church was clean, organized, and we had the best choir ever.  It was perfect.

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Hotel:  Fraser Place Manila, Bel-Air Makati
Rating:  ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Cost:  💰💰💰💰
This cost us quite a lot, but it was absolutely worth it.  We booked two two-bedroom suites that were so huge, each room hosted over 8 adults and 4 kids.  It was spacious enough to have two hair and makeup stations in each, and the photo-video team even had enough space to gather their editing stuff.  Did I also mention it had a washer and dryer?  Perfect for those emergency wash and dry the night before (which happened).  The staff was amazing too.  Since I forgot to book a car for my husband (SORRY MAJOR SLIP), they had a car waiting for him to take him to the church.  They were soooo accommodating, from extending our check out hours, to entertaining our suppliers as they come.  It was the best buck spent.  Each facet of their service was personalized, the best way to start the year really.

To know more about Fraser, click here.

Venue:  The Blue Leaf Events Pavilion, Taguig City
Rating:  ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Cost:  💰💰💰💰
I have to admit, I wasn’t ready to spend this much on a venue.  But Le Mari saw Blue Leaf online, and he was enamored.  There was no changing his mind, and I’m now glad that I didn’t.  Our event coordinator Mikee Reyes assisted with everything:  caterer, hotel, car, styling.  She was the best.  The venue too was great, but I already knew that, having attended a couple of weddings and corporate events in the same place.  Blue Leaf is like a semi designed canvas — just add little touches and it’s already awesome.  Our hours were only supposed to be until 10, but because my friends decided to clean out the bar, we stayed till almost midnight.  They didn’t even turn off the air conditioning till 30 minutes before they closed.  No extra charge.  Amazing.

To know more about Blue Leaf, click here.

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Caterer:  Josiah’s Catering
Rating:  ❤️❤️❤️
Cost:  💰💰💰
I have a love-hate relationship with this caterer.  Love, because they have catered to almost all weddings in our family.  Hate, because their service flat out sucks.  We booked them as part of a package with Blue Leaf, and from the moment I tasted their food, I knew I was right.  They’ve also improved a lot on their styling, based on their portfolio, so in my head, I’m in good hands.  That is, until the final tasting day.  First, the account executive made us come at noon only to make us wait for over an hour before finally tasting the menu.  She wasn’t even the one who accommodated us, it was the head chef at the time.  When we did taste the menu, everything that I said shouldn’t be there was there.  From peanuts to appetizers and desserts I didn’t like during the initial tasting, it was all there.  I have made all the details of the menu clear on the day we finalized the styling details, but it was such an epic failure to not even try with the menu.  Plus, she wasn’t there 80% of the time!  It was the head chef explaining to us what we were tasting.  Le Mari was so infuriated that he called for the sales head and demanded that that person be replaced immediately.  Take note, we only had two weeks before the wedding.  Le Mari was so angry, he actually said if that AE is at the wedding, we will demand a full refund of the service charge.  He also included that if all the allergy triggers are on the food, Josiah’s will pay for the medical expenses.  I think it was such an unusual thing to happen, to be so disappointed with the service that the sales head just agreed to everything.

Anyway, fast forward to the wedding, with the new AE, everything was good and well.  The guests even told us the food was great.  It wasn’t until I looked at the wedding photos did I notice that a lot of the styling cues we decided wasn’t followed.  For one, I hate the mirrored runner.  I wanted the continuous and flowing floral runner.  But they used the mirror and there were barely any flowers.  Same goes with the guest tables.  So lesson learned:  HIRE A STYLIST if you are particular with how you want your event to look.  Thankfully, they performed well food-wise.

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We stocked the bar ourselves, so we just requested for a staff to pour the drinks.  He put out a small jar for tips.  I wish he asked us first if he can do that, because we really didn’t want our guests to shell out anything, but I guess it was just for the trouble.  We tipped all the waiters in the end, so he didn’t really need that jar.  Good thing is all the alcohol was consumed and nothing was brought home by the staff.

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I would love to post a review for our photographer and videographer but I’ll save that stuff for the next one.  With the work they did, they absolutely deserve a post of their own.

Please stay tuned!  More wedding details to come.

Exactly 12 today

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In the movie This Means War, Chelsea Handler plays best friend to Reese Witherspoon who, after a major heartbreak, dove back to the dating pool and ended up with two amazing men to choose from.  This is the best part of the movie.  In a very rare opportunity, a chic flick dished out the realest and truest advice.

This Means War

Twelve years ago today, he kissed me in their basement, just by the light switch.  Vacationing without my best friend and sister Marga was something I was not so eager to do, but it lead me here today, living in the same house where that basement was.

2004 Carla Allan Wedding Paper Divas Thank You Cards

Back then, all our pictures looked like we were the only two people in New Jersey.  I don’t think I’ve ever had someone look at me the way he did.  I was all he saw.  And my eyes never left him.

It has been exactly 12 years.  I bet no one saw this coming, not even him.

carlallanwed

I have spent so much time revering poets and lyricists with their fantastic works of art and music, but today, I have to give it to fate and Le Mari because without him believing that we are destined to be together, I won’t believe it too.

It has been such a rollercoaster ride since he came back in my life.  He came at a time when everything was at its wrong place, and I was losing faith.  He helped me regain it, and I couldn’t be more thankful.  Some may say that is an exaggeration, but only he and I would really know the truth of the matter.

And I’m so grateful that after all these years, we now have more pictures together.  Better, we have family and friends with us too.

Twelve years.  Who would’ve thought?

I love you, Allan.  <3

It is on.

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Le Beau and I are lagging when it comes to the physical preparation for our wedding.  And by physical preparation, I mean getting into shape, looking good and feeling great.  Although our engagement was pretty much solidified over New Year’s, it wasn’t until recently did we really take notice how much we are not improving ourselves healthwise.

Don’t get me wrong. I love him in every form, and he loves me too. But when you can barely finish a flight of stairs without panting or groan whenever you pick up a slightly heavy load, it starts to become embarrassing.  I’ve not really been the most active person ever, but I used to be fitter than this.  This has to be the worst shape I’ve ever been in.

So the No Meat Challenge comes in.

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Earlier in the year, my good friend Adah already started doing this. I couldn’t join her mainly because work commitments would put me in situations where food consumption (of each kind, too) is required, like client calls, business lunches, et al.  Now that we have roughly six months left into our planning, I have no other excuse to postpone it.

There were some blogs that defend why they don’t want to lose weight for their wedding and I absolutely respect that opinion.  I agree with it too.  To me, because I am marrying the love of my life, I want to be at my best. This is not it.  Besides, for me, it’s not that much about losing weight.  It’s more about feeling good, being able to keep up with the things I want to do with my husband-to-be.  This form will not be able to do all those things.

There are only two rules to our No Meat Challenge:

1. No meat except fish.  I wish I can say we can exclude that, but there really is no way to not consume sashimi and sushi.  There really isn’t.  And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one feeling this way.

Sushi Sashimi

2. No rice.  As an Asian woman (lol), this would probably be harder than skipping meat altogether.  This rule require us to be more creative, so you can count on us stocking up on cereals, whole wheat bread, and other carb alternatives.  I managed to pick up a good bag of vegeroni pasta, too.  I’m not sure how veggie is this vegeroni but I’m trusting my gut on this one.

No Rice

Of course, just like any other fitness trainer would advise, the diet will not work without proper exercise. Early in the year I have committed to complete at least four (4) hours of exercise.  Off the top of my head, my favorites would easily be yoga and HIIT.  I might be able to squeeze in some running and biking too, when given the time.

I’m actually excited and nervous at the same time for this challenge: excited because I now have a compelling reason to duly follow through, nervous because I am a sore loser.  I have a feeling Le Beau will kick my butt on this one.

There is no goal weight.  There is only a goal feeling.  And I mean that too.  I intend to spend a long life with this man.  A VERY VERY VERY LONG LIFE.  I want a very very long life with this man.

Even though thousands of people already do this, I’ll do my best to keep you posted of my progress.  On Friday, I’ll post my meal plan for this week.  Hopefully as the challenge progresses, I’ll have a set grocery list to share with you.  Mind you, items that will be listed on the list are all sourced from the Philippines.

Wish me luck! And if you have a fitness goal, I wish you so much luck too. <3

 

Photos from Ditz Revolution, Atlantic Seafood Market, Clueless Curl

Floating on flowers

/ iamsupercarla / 1 Comment

What wedding update?  There is none.  Hahaha.  I kid, of course.

With everything thrown in the air — school, work, family — I myself am surprised that we managed to nail some key items for our wedding.

Church.  Check.
Venue.  Check.
Caterer.  Check.
Photo-video.  Check.

That’s it.  Hahaha.  I have organized weddings in the past, so I am well aware how far I still have to go.  But with these essentials already locked down, it is already guaranteed that there’ll be a ceremony, some food, and photos to remember it by.

I do know one thing though.  I want to be surrounded in baby’s breath and daisies.  Something about the two just screams pretty to me.  They’re small flowers, always beautiful together, and they’re the friendliest flowers, as Meg Ryan would say.

And they kind of make the whole place seem like floating.

They make the most ethereal bouquets.

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When you put them together, the backdrop looks like a batch of clouds.

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I’m not really a big fan of garden weddings, but having these babies lined up and down the aisle makes everything simpler and dreamier at the same time.

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Because I’m getting married at the busiest time of the year, I have to admit I’m having a hard time finding an available florist.  But once I do find one, I will absolutely insist on these flowers.

On my wedding day, I want to be floating.

Le happy sigh. <3

 

If you own one or some of the photos above, please send me your link so I can properly credit you.  Photos sourced from Google Images.