A Special Wedding Post...

I am kind of back in the swing of things and doing nothing this weekend sure helped with that.  Chris and I didn't even finish unpacking.  We just chillaxed and watched Tyler Perry movies the whole weekend.  It was a much needed "staycation".

Now that things are almost back to normal, I'd like to share with everyone on how my special day went.  I don't have professional pictures yet, so for now, only pics taken by family and friends will have to do.  But overall, I'd say that our day went perfectly!  I really can not complain much about anything...but here are a few things I'd like to highlight:

To-Do's
I can't stress how important a to-do list is for this occasion.  I'm typically someone that never writes anything down.  I just happen to always remember what I have to do in my head.  But days leading up to the wedding, and on the wedding day itself, we made schedules and stuck by them.  Brides get stressed because they feel that there are still a lot that need to be taken care of, even the night before their wedding.  I was able to delegate a lot of stuff off to friends and family.  I made a document detailing out everything that needed to be done at the venue to a family member who was helping me that day.  I made sure to sit down with her days prior to go through everything with her so she would get her questions cleared away.  I also provided this document to my matron of honor, who was my main contact person for the day...so that I didn't need to answer calls while getting ready. 

Wedding Day Schedule
Miraculously, we followed our day-of schedule pretty closely.  I err'd on the side of conservative and left extra time in between everything so that we weren't "running late".  The ceremony started promptly at 4:35 pm...only 5 minutes late.  I had a great wedding party and family members were actually on time!  I couldn't have asked for more.

Photographer
I believe my wedding photographer is the best out there.  Technically, he's great!  But what made it so special for me was his professionalism.  When I say professionalism, I really mean how nice Erwin Wijanto is.  He arrived on site on time and started working right away.  For some reason, he just knew what I wanted at all times.  He's so respectful to me, Chris and our parents.  And during our reception, he was able to put up a display with his macbook and ipad of the pictures he's taken up to that point of the night.  I couldn't believe he already edited them and started to show the guests a taste of what to come.  I didn't notice at the time, but after seeing some of the wedding video taken by a friend, I noticed how him and his assistant never left our side.  And that's how it should be.  If anyone out there is looking for a terrific wedding photographer, I'd highly recommend Erwin Wijanto.  He's truly amazing!

DJ and Venue
If I could rant a little bit here, it'd sure make me happier.  :)  My venue, as you can see from the pictures below, was gorgeous!  This is the only New York style loft wedding venue here in the Seattle area...and they sure know it.  I haven't said anything up to this point on my blog, but working with Pravda Studios was a nightmare!  I am not sure how this company is managed, but they can not seem to retain any of their employees.  During our year of planning, we've gone through SIX venue coordinators.  It seemed like every time I contacted them, another person would respond back, knowing NOTHING about our wedding.  We had to meet with several people, on several occasions to catch them up on what was going to happen.  Not to mention, they never respond back to emails or phone calls.  A week before the wedding, after emailing them about their audio speakers and hearing no response, Chris had to arrive on site for a surprise visit.  Seriously, that was the only way to get ahold of someone at that point.  Also, they couldn't promise us our rehearsal slot time until numerous attempts from me asking them if it's finalized.  They wanted to leave that slot open in case there were other events that'd bring in more revenue.  And during the rehearsal, the owner of the Studio was there, giving me a hard time for arriving a little early because I had only paid for an hour.  This was after I confirmed with his assistant that it was ok to arrive earlier to drop off some liquor for the wedding.  The venue is great, but I think looking back, I would much sacrifice the New York vibe for better customer service.  I don't regret having the wedding at Pravda...but it sure would have saved me a lot of headaches.

The DJ was also an issue.  Through our whole wedding planning process, we talked to a guy named John Jr.  John Jr. was great!!!  Friendly and seemed to know what we wanted.  John Jr. worked with his father, John Sr...and on the day of our wedding, only John Sr. arrived.  John Sr. said to us that John Jr. had an emergency wedding he needed to DJ for his wife (who was a wedding planner and last minute her client's DJ backed out).  I was so upset because John Sr. was not prepared for us.  The cueing of his music from the procession to the recession were all wrong.  My matron of honor had to shout her speech to all of us because John Sr. couldn't get his mic to work.  And during the dancing part, he kept playing music off of the list we spent hours preparing for them.  This didn't ruin the night for me, but CrossSound Audio will be receiving a bad review on Yelp from us. 

Veil
I had a beautiful veil I purchased but believe it or not, I forgot it during the ceremony!  I had it with me, but just forgot to put it on.  I didn't notice this until afterwards, but I was a little sad about it.  I'm sure this does not happen often...and only to me!  Haha.  I had a flower clipped in my hair, so others didn't notice either.  At least Erwin was able to take some photos with me in it while we were still in the hotel room.  Aww well!  :)

So...without much further ado, here are some pics:

Here's the wedding venue right before the ceremony

Our guest book turned out great!  We got so many nice messages on it and can't wait to display it.

Chris is Filipino, and what's a Filipino party without a whole roasted pig! :)

Our cake was simple, but beautiful.  And very yummy!  I had so many single girls asking me where it's from so they can take notes.  :)

Ceremony...right before reading of the vows.  See...no veil!

No tears yet, Chris was simply moving a piece of hair out of my eye.

Me reading my personalized vows to Chris.

Continuing to read my vows.  Maybe right about this point, Chris broke it and started tearing.

The exchanging of rings

And he sure did kiss the bride!

Our first dance

We made sure we visited every table during dinner and chatted with every single one of our guests.

And here's me with four of my closest high school friends, three of them bridesmaids.

And finally, this is a sneakpeak posted by Erwin.  We decided to sneak into the Fairmont Hotel before the ceremony to take some pics there.  Erwin was freaked out, thinking we couldn't be there, so from where he was, on top of the stairs, it was hard to hear what he wanted us to pose and do.  But amazing as he is, he took this shot.  Beautiful! 

Thanks for stopping by!  I had a blast of a time.  All you bride-to-be's out there, make sure to enjoy your day...cause I sure did!  Stay tuned for a honeymoon special entry.