Wedding Update: A Slight Panic Attack + 8 Months Left!

Hi, everyone! It’s only the 17th day of the year, and already 2019 has been filled with stressful truth bombs that’s putting a lot of pressure on me—not that I’m about to break down or anything. There are just so many things happening all at once, and it’s honestly quite overwhelming. But that’s alright! I know I can get through this. Wedding planning has actually been the least of my stressors, and ever since we booked all our major suppliers, I’ve been sleeping better at night. Haha!

But then this morning, I got an unexpected e-mail from one of our suppliers regarding a certain situation, and even though there were really good solutions to it right away (in fact, I shouldn’t be worried at all!), I started getting a weird panic attack in the middle of an event I was attending. I couldn’t breathe right, I started feeling like I was being suffocated, and I guess the added social anxiety made me feel even more uncomfortable. But I’m okay now, I’ve calmed down, and to put me even more at ease, I decided to write!

The last wedding hurdle we had was even worse than this, so I’m hoping there will be no more panic attacks after today. But just in case some of you were wondering where we are in our planning (going through this helps put me at ease as well), below has been my/our process!

Helpful Apps Used

The Cupcake and I prepared a Google Drive for all files related to our wedding—including contracts, deposit slips, receipts, and even visual decks or style guides that I made (this is similar to the cover girl decks I always put together for Calyxta). We also have a master file on Google Docs that includes tabs on our Entourage, Guest List, Expenses or Budget Sheet, Invitation List, Master List of Wedding Suppliers, Venue Comparison (back when we were still comparing notes for each venue we considered), Giveaway Ideas, Music Worksheet, etc. Pinterest has always been my go-to for pegs and references, but to really trim down everything and make my vision even clearer (to help suppliers understand it more), I created visual decks and style guides. Lastly, and I know I mention this in my Instagram stories a lot, is Trello. Some have even asked me what Trello is! My life literally depends on Trello—I have a board for Calytxa’s Content Team, a board for our Creatives Team, a board for Greta’s Junkyard, and of course, a board for our wedding. It’s a project management tool that is both web and app-based (so you can easily sync everything) and that helps keep track of all tasks and deliverables. It seems simple enough, or even similar to a planner or to-do list, but trust me—it can do sooo much more. There are different ways that you can apply it in your life, and I’m glad I got to apply it in mine. It helps keep me organized, efficient, productive, and most importantly—sane.

Wedding Theme/Motif

I don’t really know what our theme/motif is. Cupcake jokingly calls it the Greta’s Junkyard theme, because it’s true—there will be dusty lilac somewhere in the color palette. Haha! But in my style guide, I wrote that I wanted our wedding to have a simple and sophisticated feel—clean and crisp, light and bright, with a touch of florals.

Ceremony

If you’ve read the update on our first wedding hurdle, you’ll know that after finalizing our date, the first thing we booked was our church. We’ve decided to get married in the church where the Cupcake grew up, which makes it really special for us.

Reception

We’ll be having a Metro Manila wedding to make it easy and hassle-free for our guests, and so we decided to have our reception in this new and modern hotel that’s literally just 10 minutes away from our church! What I love about the hotel is how it really complements my whole modern minimalist vision.

Photo and Video

The third and fourth major suppliers we booked were our photographer and videographer. For our photos, we really want them clean and crisp, and to have a very natural and timeless feel. Same with our videographer—I didn’t want a cheesy or romantic feel. I don’t want to have to act either—I want the Cupcake and I to have fun, be candid, and just be natural in front of the camera. And because I work for an online magazine that does a lot of editorial videos, I kind of want our video to have that sophisticated touch as well.

Wedding Coordinator

I’d like to think I’m pretty organized, and since the Cupcake and I are quite hands-on with our wedding, we decided to get just a partial coordinator. We booked someone with a lot of incredibly positive reviews, and who was highly recommended by three different friends (who don’t know each other).

Stylist and Florist

Out of all the major wedding suppliers so far, I think I reached out the most to different stylists and florists. It was so hard to find someone who could execute my vision, but within our budget. Everyone was just crazy expensive! Until I came across this Instagram account that I instantly fell in love with. I showed them my style guide deck and they gave me their rates AND genuine recommendations, and from there, I just knew I wanted to work with them. Super small world that she’s friends with my wedding coordinator and one of my bridesmaids!

Wedding and Entourage Gowns

In my other wedding update on Custom vs. RTW Gown, I mentioned that I had already met with the designer who will be working on mine. She’s a good friend of mine and the Cupcake’s, her works are breathtaking, and I can’t wait to see what she’ll be putting together for me. Meanwhile, the designer working on the gowns of my entourage is, small world again, a friend and college block mate of the Cupcake’s brother—Baby Cheng! I love that she understands how I want my entourage gowns to be chic and minimalist. We’re actually meeting next weekend to finalize color swatches and material!

Hair and Makeup

It’s quite funny because since I love doing my own makeup so much, the first question that people would ask me about the wedding is, “Who’s going to do your makeup?” And as much as I do enjoy creating my own looks, the Cupcake highly recommended I just book someone instead—so that I don’t have to stress at all during our special day. I already know who I want as my bridal makeup artist (it’s someone I’ve worked with several times for Calyxta, so I really trust him) and though I haven’t booked him yet, I already mentioned it to him. Same for my hair—it’s someone I’ve worked with countless times, and I love that he’s both really good and works really fast.

Invitations

It truly warms my heart that my sister agreed to design our wedding invitations and collaterals. She already showed me a glimpse of her draft, and I am so freaking in love with it! The printing, I already have a couple of suppliers in mind.

Engagement Photo and Video Shoot

Originally, the Cupcake and I didn’t consider doing an engagement video shoot anymore, but because of the generosity of our supplier, we’ll be able to have one! I have separate decks for our photo shoot and our video shoot, and I can’t wait to see how it’s all going to turn out.

Entertainment

Just yesterday, we booked the supplier who will be playing at our ceremony and reception. I’ve been watching their videos on YouTube a lot, and I’m so, so excited to have them play all the songs we like—especially since the Cupcake and I are both super into music (he’s been wanting to start a band—with him as the guitarist and me as the keyboardist. Hahaha!). Not to mention—we’re into all things geeky, and part of fandoms like Star Wars, Harry Potter, WWE, Jurassic Park, Nintendo, Back to the Future, etc. And this particular supplier can play songs from those fandoms! Hahahaha!

Pre-Cana Seminar

Just yesterday, we also booked our slot for our Pre-Cana Seminar—an important requirement for church weddings. I’m really looking forward to attending this with the Cupcake!

Others

Other things we still have to do would be to book minor suppliers, have our wedding rings made, and of course, complete all other requirements to acquire a marriage license (which we’ll probably start in March).

So that’s just a random wedding update that I wanted to get out of my chest. Right now, the Cupcake and I are pretty chill since we’ve more or less booked all our major suppliers. We’ll start working on things again this March, so I’ll try to write an update by then! If you want to follow our wedding chronicles, I created a new category on the blog that focuses on it. You can check it out here.

Wedding Update: A Slight Panic Attack + Less Than 8 Months Left!