Countdown: 18 months!

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Today, we're officially 18 months down to our wedding day. I just can't believe how fast time flies. It was last January when Adrin and I got engaged. By February, we were already busy attending bridal fairs and signing-up for food tastings. Back then, we felt that we're doing things really early, but still worked on having our major items/suppliers booked. We still have a long way to go and with that I realize that starting your preps as reasonably early as possible is absolutely an advantage. 

This wedding preps has been my biggest, longest, and most complicated project so far. Despite my OC image, I often find myself lost into it, spending hours and hours reading blogs, browsing pictures, and checking out possible suppliers. It takes a conscious effort to step back and channel some of my time, attention and energy into other activities. I must say, preparing for a wedding has been so addicting! Teehee.  

With that, let me give you a rundown of what we have accomplished in the past 5 months:

• Church: San Agustin Church
• Venue: Grandview Events Place
• Caterer: Josiah’s Catering
• Photo/Video: Ariel Javelosa Photography
• OTD Coordinator: Kiss the Girl Events

And here are the items that we plan to book or work on next:

• Bridal Gown Designer
• Groom’s Attire
• Blueprint for DIY Invitations
• Hair & Make-up Artist
• Flowers Supplier
• Engagement Shoot Moodboard
• DIY Accessories (Wedding Cord, Prenup Accessories and Props)

Exciting times indeed! =D

Now, if only I can devote 100% of my time to this. *sigh* ;P

Cheers!

Designer Meeting #1: Gretchen Pichay

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Most of the suppliers I check out are W@W finds, including Gretchen Pichay. As soon as I joined the group, I’ve been reading raves about her from satisfied brides and current bride-to-be’s. And since I don’t have any trusted designer or couturier, I made a mental note to check this lady designer once I start the hunt for my wedding gown.

Not long after, I came across W@W’s podcast called W@WChat and learned that Gretchen has an episode there. Since she’s popular in the group, I took interest listening to her episode to get to know more of her – like how she relates (is she shy or outgoing based on the interview), how she started, her expertise in wedding gowns, her signature style, etc. From there, I learned that she’s a fairly new wedding gown designer and that her rates are within our budget. I checked for her works online and they suited my taste. I found the dresses really elegant, beautiful, and clean. To confirm that she can do something like my pegs within the budget that we allotted, I decided to shoot her an email and requested for a quotation. After a day or two, I got a reply with a price range that I was happy to see. That’s the time that I seriously considered her an option. The only downside with her is that she lives so far from my place; coming from Cavite, it would take a lot of effort to go to her place all the way in Quezon City. 

Although a bit hesitant, the distance did not hinder me from actually meeting up with her. I know that if I scratch her off the list just because of that, I will forever have “what-ifs” on my mind. Since I want my peace of mind while doing this whole preparation, I’ve requested for a consultation appointment with her. 

And that day was last Saturday. Our appointment was at 1PM. Since I will be coming all the way from the South, I had to start my day really early. As it would be impractical for Adrin to fetch me since he’ll be coming from the East of the metro, we decided to just meet at Gilmore area before we headed to Gretchen’s place at New Manila.We found her place at 12:30PM, yet with our rumbling tummies, we decided to grab a quick lunch first and just return after. 

Once full from McDonald’s treats, we immediately headed back to Gretchen’s abode. We were led by a staff to her small but cozy office. Just outside that is where gown and dress production happens. Within minutes, Gretchen entered the room with a beaming smile. We introduced ourselves of course, and she in turn asked for our wedding details including our target budget for the gown. She looked at the pegs I brought with me and in an instant she’s already armed with a pencil and sketching some similar designs. With her hand at work, she is simultaneously describing the details she’s trying to reflect on that sheet of paper. We discussed her sketch, after which she moved to a clean sheet to draw another design. That cycled repeated 2 more times. She even drew me a totally different design from my pegs, which by the way I liked the best. 

In between those we interviewed her a bit as well. She mentioned that as much as possible she only gets 1 wedding per day and that she prefers to have a 1st fitting a bit early than most designers do. We also asked about the materials that she'll use and showed us some samples. After 4 sketches, we agreed that we’ll think about things first and just let her know as soon as we decide to get her.

Design #1

Design #2

Design #3

Design #4

In the car, Adrin and I discussed our take with Gretchen. I told him I found her okay and nice but I don’t feel convinced that she’s the designer for me. Probably because I’m not blown away by the designs she did similar to my pegs. Although to be fair, her original design looks really awesome and promising (I think that design is her forte), I just feel that it’s not for me. On the other hand, Adrin found her a bit pushy, and he feels that I will not be comfortable working with Gretchen. I agree with his second point actually. I feel that with her I cannot really speak my mind and share all my ideas and preferences. Not that she’s not pleasant, she actually is. She’s just maybe in a different wavelength from me. Oh well, I’m not completely closing my doors on her, decision comes after my meeting with another designer. 

Cheers,

First Take on Fabric Flowers

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I do not consider myself a creative person, nor do I have any penchant for the arts. I actually avoid it as much as I can, thinking that I’m not good at it. But during those times that I’m forced to work on artsy things, I tend to get engrossed on it and always find myself enjoying the activity. Despite my lack of creativity, I know that I love working with my hands. I even engaged myself in crafts (cross-stitching, scrapbooking, refashioning my clothes, decorating notebooks, etc.) when I was younger. Sadly I explored other activities, and coupled with the demands of work, my fascination with crafts was ultimately pushed aside.

Working on our wedding preps gives me a new opportunity to use my hands and come up with something. As early as day 1, I’m already positive that we won’t get through this whole wedding thing without a single DIY output.

Now that we’ve booked our major suppliers, we can already focus on our target DIY’s. I’ve yet to finalize the list and do the prioritization though.  By August, I hope we’ll already be in full swing ticking the first item in the list.

Given some free time today, I decided to try out some fabric flowers. We have several ideas in mind as to how and where we’ll use them, but I’m not sharing yet. Just hang in there for now; I’ll let you into it once we’ve started the actual work. *wink*

And so, after a long intro, I share to you the fabric flowers I was able to come up with today. This was not pre-meditated so pardon the materials used. I just scouted for scraps of fabric or wrapping materials that I’ve lovingly kept before. Yes, I’m such a junkie. I keep those in a box together with other thingamajigs with the intention to put them into good use someday. =P

This is my first output. The tutorial I found on the internet was easy to follow and this thing was easy to create. I'll probably try a different material next time.

Flower #1

Next I created this following this tutorial. Out of my 3 outputs for the day, this is the easiest to create. You can actually finish one in around 10mins. However it looks kinda plain and flat (lacks dimension) since my fabric was too short to create two layers of "petals".

Flower #2

My last output is this. After creating the first one, I looked for other versions where I can also use the extra circle cutouts. Found this tutorial, so I decided to try it out as well. Of the three, I spent the most time on this design because you need several petals and  it has to be sewn in one by one. It's puffy and has volume but looks a bit stiff. I'm sure it'll turn out better using a real fabric.

Flower #3

They look oh so pretty, don't they? =)

Cheers!