Confessions of a Do-It-Yourself (June) Bride

Soon after our engagement, we prayed for just as a small and private wedding. By saying that, we started liaising for event coordinators that could offer most of the services we need. Since we both wanted to save our holidays mostly for the post-wedding occasion (Long honeymoon sounds better, of course!), I know it’s going to be something we can tell over and over again – our wedding preparations side dished with the odds of distance for the very last time.

In less than a month, we agreed on getting BC Events to do everything for us. But the quality of service we initially got from them was not up to par at least from what we have expected. The lack of responsiveness to our emails prior to the very last conversation about our venue caused much disappointment that made us consider discontinuing the services we’re getting. It's challenging enough that Stuart and I would be doing the legwork apart for the next few months but we thought it would be harder to handle stress and worry about how things would go without proper communication built between the coordinator and us to begin with. (For the sake of anonymity and to protect our interest, shoot us personal message if anyone wants to know more information about what happened.)

Short of saying, we ended up deciding that I’d be a DIY bride. Yes! Do it yourself bride – that’s exactly right. With dozens of decisions – both big and small – on the horizon, creating a fine-tuned budget, laying out a well-planned timeline, paying extreme attention to detail and taking advantage of great friendships for human resources were the keys to success, believe me. And since this would be my first time organizing such a large-scale event, it's easier than I'd think to fall prey to the pitfalls of wedding planning. Although I consider myself just a fine line away from achieving obsessive compulsive disorder (exaggeration intended),  still, even the most vigilant bride can be steered off course.

Days quickly unfolded and before we know it, it has already been over a month ago after we said the sweetest I DO’s. It was overwhelming! My Groom and his crew were very handsome, and let me call myself the loveliest too on that day with my own line up of beautiful ladies. Although most of the guests, family and friends had a wonderful time, our wedding was not at all perfect – there are a million and one things to think about, so it’s not surprising if we missed something out, and we can actually laugh about some of the mishaps now!

1. Flowers for the entourage came at the hotel an hour or so late. Since I know these flowers were meant to be part of the photo and video shoot in the morning, I turned like a crazy Bridezilla on the spot! My makeup artist was one of the people who calmed me down and encouraged me to leave everything to my friend, Des, our wedding preps on-the-day coordinator. There was a small misunderstanding between the florist and my Mom when she first stopped by to get the flowers for the bridal car too. They ended up commuting to the hotel just to deliver the fresh flowers.

2. The lenses being focused on us from morning to night was a total fright. Knowing that the wedding photos and the video recording will be some of the only tangible things we’ll keep from this special day added to the stress of making sure we’d look absolutely perfect. Just the thought of looking stressed out was enough to stress us out! Because we have but awesome photo-vid team, I’d say that the maximum number of outputs was close to perfect! But alongside was a fair share of (my) photos that I never wanted to keep. They still look unbelievably amazing for my Husband, though. (Haha!)        

       

3. Some important things were left behind at the hotel – reception gown and cash payments for suppliers. Did I say before that I succumb to obsessive compulsive disorder? We were at the bridal car with my sisters and all I did was recount things that should be taken to the venue. I was in total shock when the girls went blank as I mentioned about the gown and payments. For a second, I thought of asking the driver to pull over and I go running back to the hotel. It was raining and that kind of drama on my head was ridiculously impossible! Geah, the person-in-charge for all those, rang my Uncle for the money, and Des, rang the makeup artist to carry the gown with them when they go to the venue for my second bridal look retouch. Case solved! Although I died for like 5 seconds in the car on the way to the events place!

4. The projector board didn’t work right on time. Being visually incapacitated, I have long planned about how I’d make a graceful strand towards the altar without tripping on the floor from scattered cable wires and scrunched up red carpet. I intentionally bought a pair of contact lenses for that reason and also to be able to read the lyrics board for my entrance song. Rats! It wasn’t working at all right when I was the one singing. Minutes before, I saw lyrics for other singers already flashed in front so I wondered what went wrong. I prayed in silence, stared at my handsome Groom for a second, deeply breathed, and sang anyhow! It was only by God’s grace that I finished the song with correct lyrics and made my way to altar without heart attack!

5. My wedding gown was bigger, heavier and tighter than any other dress I’ve ever worn! This is rather a realization than a whinge. Some of the random on-the-day photos posted by friends showed how extra challenging it was for me to make a step forward. Let alone holding a microphone at the same time. If I wasn’t singing – trying to divide my attention between gracefully walking down the aisle safe and getting to the altar alive, maybe the gown’s gross tonnage won’t be much of an issue. I fell in love with it from the very first time. In fact I never took a photo of me with it on because I’d always end up wanting to send it to Stuart and spoil the surprise. It did fit me well and the length of its train was just regal.

6. The backdrop monogram was in a wrong order. I remember our OTD coordinator, Joy, asking me about the letters few days before and I’m so sure she got everything right. Except that on the wedding day itself, the events place manager rang me and offered another version of the backdrop which she said would be better. I agreed in a heartbeat for what was described to me as more elegant. Well, it really was but it should have been N&S and not the other way around.

7. Ring Bearer ran into the Flower Girl. Given my nephew's extra source of energy, having his mom and nanny endlessly run after him was what we really expected. He’s not the type of a young boy who’ll just hurt someone deliberately. So yes, it was a total accident and my friend’s little girl was cheerful enough to get back up on her feet quickly and perform her duties with cuteness and grace.

8. We were asked to stand up with the wedding cord still looped on our necks! This was actually captured in our same-day-edit video. It was but a funny blunder! Ours was the first wedding officiated by Pastor Jun as a licensed minister, so taking some tiny slip-ups aside, for me and Stuart, it was very special. So much special that my Husband thought of giving him an acrylic plaque of appreciation which we’ll try to share separately sometime.

9. Not all our wedding madlibs were filled out. This was a bit of heartache because it was a personal choice to have the forms as additional sign cards from our guests. It’s intended for fun too but we fully understand how everyone was also preoccupied taking photos, crying with us and eating on that day. Out of about 60 pieces, only 24 returned to us – which as of writing, by the way, are beautifully arranged on the scrapbook given to us by another friend.

10. We weren’t able to announce the winner on the Human Bingo game! Speaking of preoccupied, I have to admit being responsible to this. Agreeing with the emcee to decide on the winner while showing the guests our SDE video, I completely lost track of it minutes after. It wasn’t much of a downside after all because Stuart and I witnessed the most genuine exuberance in the crowd while keeping an eye on "which refers to whom" on each bingo card. It made some people a celebrity too having to draft their signatures for each guest who’d walk to them. Oh and the prize for that was actually the best chocolate wafer in the world that I bought from Robinsons, Eastwood. (Haha!) We have them instead distributed to kids that following Sunday in the church.

Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. Bottom line, we made the most of this day. We enjoyed God’s blessings pouring out on our wedding, cherished it and will always remember everything with gladness in our hearts. Whether it’s the fact that crap do happen – in the end – it really won’t matter anymore. It’s all about the Bride and the Groom – us – in love and celebrating that bond with God and our closest friends and family with smile on our faces despite the world’s imperfection on this most perfect event.

Posted in: answered prayer,unveiled wife