Being brought as "Ilocana", I wanted to squeeze out our budget and spend below our means. With only a month of preparation, we managed to bring all things together. And I can say, I owe it a lot to God who gave us the talents and wisdom to make this event a wonderful celebration, with just a few dirhams to spend.
The internet has helped me a lot for my preparation. Before I left UAE , I browsed the net to get ideas of a wedding that I wanted to be. To make things easy and within the budget, I had with me a notebook and pen. I wrote down everything I wanted - from wedding dress down to give-aways. There are not much wedding suppliers in our hometown, so I had to go to Baclaran to avail the less expensive wedding dress and entourage.
And the moment I stepped out of Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the show begun. We went straight to Baclaran prior to heading off to Zambales. And there, I found most of the stuffs I needed.
Below are some of the items that we personalized, and I hope will give you ideas.
Wedding and Reception Program and Venue:
I did it all by myself. Thank God for the training I have in CGPMI - the church where we are attending. I am the program coordinator of the church events for the past 6 years. The whole concept came from the creation of man and woman in the book of Genesis. Since the first Sunday of 2013 fell on January 6, and on the sixth day God created man and woman, I based the program to God's creation. With beautiful music accompaniment, the program turned out pretty well.
Family, Relatives and Guests' Assignments:
To make everybody busy, each guest has his/her own assignment; I assigned my brothers and their wives/girlfriend as ushers, secondary sponsors for the light, veil, cord. I asked my close friends to be ushers as well. One friend couple was in charge of the gifts and give-aways. My other close friends who have kids, I assigned them as ring bearer, bible bearer and flower girls. Most of our visitors have their participation, not just guests but they played small or major roles in the wedding.
Wedding Invitations and Give-aways:
My husband is an artist. He made one photo from our pre-nup shots in Abu Dhabi as the cover photo for the wedding invitation. I prepared the invitation thru powerpoint and set up into an invitation format. To make it more appealing and elegant, I bought laces which projects our wedding motif of olive green and gold. I browsed all the printing shops in our town, and good thing, my brother brought me to this printing shop nearby the town.
For the give-aways, I used the same photo from the wedding invitation to be printed in our give-aways. I found a gift shop in Baclaran and saw their little mugs as give-aways. I ordered 50 small and 14 big mugs which served as our give-aways.
I got 50% off for my wedding dress. It was perfectly on time when I came to the shop because they were on sale. For the sizes of the dresses and suits, I became the model for the bride's maid and my younger brother became the model for the groom's men. Thankfully, the dresses and suits all perfectly fit with the secondary sponsors.
It's one of the major expenses in the wedding. We found one from Subic with a decent price package and had it in an installment basis. Since we already had our pre-up shots in Abu Dhabi, our deal was to cover for the wedding event and post-nup pictorials which happened in Punta De Uian Resort next town.
Food and Beverage:
Food and beverage were catered by the hotel. We only added lechon as the main attraction. I really wanted to have a surplus of food because I wanted to share them with our other relatives who were not invited in the wedding.
These are some of our expenses for our wedding celebration. Thank God that we spent only the budget we set in for this event. What matters is a life-long journey with the person whom God has given you for the rest of your life.
And now, we are building our own family; our first child will come soon by Q4 of 2014. Our life insurances are in place. Our target emergency fund will be completed by the end Q2 of 2014. We started investing in the Philippine stock market for our future. We are starting to venture into a business in the Philippines. And we are in our journey towards financial freedom!
As Proverbs 16:9 says, "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps".
next stop... my wedding! yippee!
ReplyDeleteAwww.. oh yes! Definitely.
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