How to have a decent wedding with less than PhP100,000 budget

We intended it to be a DIY but we were surprised to find our friends and relatives more than willing to extend their help in any way.

I have nothing against grandiose weddings. I myself adore such weddings but for several reasons I and my husband chose to go practical. I believe that it is not about being “Kuripot” but, it is actually more about setting priorities. To put it in another way, I’m just applying my Economics 101 – the efficient allocation of resources. 🙂

Our wedding was quite done hastily as we anticipated for the turnover of our house, which we invested in as a couple, in the last quarter of the year. I literally ‘forced’ my husband that if he really wanted to marry me, we should do it as soon as possible before we get preoccupied with improving and dressing our house. While planning for the big day usually takes 6-12 months, we only started ours in the early days of March. Thank God, we’re so blessed with friends and relatives who had gone the extra mile to make this wedding possible and memorable.

We could have spent all or most of our savings for the big day if we were to subscribe to the common excuse to go extravagant -“you’re only getting married once, so give it your best.” But, I love my husband’s response, “hndi kaya, may silver, may golden at diamond wedding pa kaya tayo; may renewal of vows pa tayo every 10 years.” My bestfriend’s remark “hndi na uso ngaun ang bonggang kasalan, bonggang marriage lang,” solidified further my decision to pull together a simple but solemn wedding. After all, matrimony is not only about the bride and the groom but it’s first and foremost about glorifying our Creator and the Author of our love story. Civil wedding is probably the most practical way to get married. It was an option but my long-held principle that Matrimony, a practice started by God Himself, should be performed with a man of God weighed in. We approached Pastor Bob and we were blessed to have him agreed to officiate our wedding and the rest is history.

So, what’s the key to having a decent wedding with limited budget? Don’t be afraid and be humble enough to ask for help. Knock, and the door will be opened. Seek, and you will find. Ask, and it shall be given to you.

What made our wedding really memorable is the surest proof of labor of love of our friends and relatives. With all its imperfections, I am so proud that our wedding was not only a showcase of our love and commitment to each other as a couple but was also a showcase of skills and talents. We will forever be grateful for the following people who have generously shared with us their talents, skills and resources:

1. The best prenup crew a bride could ever have (from left to right): Lee Anne , Judy, Hannah  – our directors; Sean Dara – photographer; and Cookie -hair & make-up artist.

For complete list of prenup shots taken at UP DIliman Lagoon and UP Diliman Tennis Court: please refer to this link.

2. Wedding Invitation and Logo design by Lee Anne and a certain friend of hers named Gilbert. Lee Anne is my assistant at work, but became my boss during my wedding planning.:-)

 3. My bridal gown’s crocheted top by Lourdes O. Pilar of obra et alima. TaLudz (as I call her) is an expert in crocheting but this was her first attempt to design for a bridal gown. She was hesitant at first but eventually gave in to my persistence. Full story at https://acersinlove.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/wearing-a-crocheted-wedding-dress-is-a-risk-worth-taking/

**she’s sexier than me 🙂

4. On-the-day Hair & make-up by Cookie

** My friends Lovely and Marianne  also contributed for some make-up materials.

*** photo bomber Joana .. haha!

5. Handmade floral bouquet for me and my bridesmaids  and boutonnieres for my groom and his groomsmen by Judy of jandjcraftworks.

*The rubber-like material used for the flowers complemented my handmade bridal gown.  I’m glad that my bridesmaids loved the flowers too, which in a way served as my tokens of appreciation for them for agreeing to shoulder the cost of their gowns. We just provided some pieces of cloth and let them find their own dress makers. Avie (rightmost), remarked that she got no problem with the arrangement as it allows her at least the chance to choose the design for her gown.

 This is awkward – tall Judy pinning the boutonniere on my husband’s suit. They look like a mother-and-son duo. haha!

And oh.. this cute Liam asked if he could have Judy’s flower. Of course, who would dare say ‘no’ to this little cutie?

I am not really sure if the groomsmen loved the boutonnieres but finding them posting a selfie on their facebook page highlighting their attire lifted my heart up. As with the bridesmaids, we didn’t spend for their attires. We just asked them to wear white long sleeves and black pants. We provided the bow ties and suspenders.

Our entourage…

6. Beautiful chalkboard handwriting by Judy.

7. Pieces of gold jewelry lent to me by my Aunt-Ninang Cora. I am not fond of wearing jewelry and hence buying some pieces of jewelry that I could probably use only during my Big Day is already extravagance.

8. Wedding cake by Maryfe. A decent 3-layered cake would probably cost at least PhP5K minimum in the Philippines but Maryfe gave this to me on a huge discount.

**Maryfe also loving the handmade floral bouquet.

8. Tennis-inspired wedding accessories and floral arrangement by Kuya Allan. My brother-in-law never fails to exceed our expectations. We just provided him the materials and a quick brief of our ideas but his creative mind produced better results.

The collection

The altar

The aisle

flowers for the couple’s table

Brother-in-law at work

coin bearer

egg couples

flower baskets for the flower girls

ring bearer

10. Huge discounts on photobooth. Ate Love, our office manager and owner of Art of Love Photobooth only asked me to pay for the printing cost. I love its superb layout! Our guests also like the net background.

Ate Love also took it as a privilege for her pretty daughter Thea to become one of our flower girls. Similar to the bridesmaids, we only provided her some pieces of cloth. Her 8-year old daughter was so thrilled that she designed her own gown, unfortunately her dress maker failed to follow it. I can just imagine the frustration from this future fashion designer.

11. CMG Events Team as my wedding coordinators

Julie, our events manager, served as our on-the day wedding coordinator, Marianne was the sound’s operator, Cookie (the hair&make-up artist), and Dennice as the registration officer and operator of LCD projector. Julie, who just arrived from her Singapore trip, just took a brief rest and went straight to our venue. Dennice and Cookie who are living in Bulacan and Antipolo stayed at Marianne’s house in Bacoor the night before our wedding just to make sure they’d make it in our venue three hours before the start of the ceremony.

12. My assistant Lee Anne and another office mate  Aianne served as the Masters of the Ceremony.

13. My sister, who served as my matron-of-honor, sponsored the photo coverage.

Lastly, I and my husband also had our own shares of art work.

I did this DIY guestbook

  and the tokens of appreciation

 My husband did the tripod picture frame stand.

It is also worth mentioning that while my brother-in-law designed for the egg couples, it was my husband who drew the cute emoticon faces.