The Wedding Crunch pt 2

The wedding planning week continued with a visit to my hair and makeup team, Jessie Glova Style Studio. The atmosphere was fabulous and the team nice but maybe a little aprehensive to strangers. I discovered later, their all very diva and that’s probably it. I can readily identify that sort of diva after living in the gay village of Toronto for 10 years. Anyways, they were fun regardless. They started with my hair, putting it up in rollers for volume, and then moving to makeup, then finishing up to hair. Very important to have a good idea of what you want for hair. This has been my experience my whole life, so I was prepared. I showed him 1 or 2 pictures and explained what I wanted for hair and in all honesty, it came out exactly what I had wanted. I made sure to not be in awe this time, and spoke up at appropriate times, for example, requesting a little bit more volume and height at the top. Regardless, I had zero complaints for the hair, and at the wedding, it was exactly what I wanted.

For make-up, I also made it clear I did not want any pink colours and I liked looking natural. Again, Jessie did not disappoint. He did initially put a orangie pink colour on my lips, but promptly asked for something in a red with blue undertones. In the end we found a perfect lip colour. While I was there, I got a pedicure because I was in desperate need. I completely forgot that in the Philippines, pedicures do not automatically mean a "spa" pedicure, and there was not scrubbing of dead skin. Oh well.

The only major downside with this visit was that I had no idea how much the trial would cost. My coordinator didn't let me know before hand, nor her assistant and neither did any of the staff, until it was winding down that it was time for me to leave. Awkward to have one of his staff be like, "cough, cough, ma'am, did you pay Jessie?" and then to ask him how much it was. Luckily the studio was in the same building as a bank, so we were able to withdraw.

TIP: Always check if there is any cost to anywhere you were going to and be ready

Oh wait, I remembered something else! So I had fake lash extentions installed in Canada, which I loved. Jessie disagreed because they got in the way of the airbrush make up. He told me he hoped they fell off by the time of the wedding (which is apparently an improvement, since Tisha told me he once told another bride to take them off). Anyways, I KNEW you could not put mascara on them, yet did not yell STOP when did it anyways. As soon as I got home, I spent 30 minutes with my eye make-up remover trying to get the mascara off. Although, I thought I did, I didn't realize how difficult it is to get mascara off synthetic lashes, that my eyes became infected. WHAT HORROR, to wake up to itchy eyes and that my eyes, days before the wedding were red. I did drops for a couple days, and then came to the realization what it was, plucked out as much lashes as I could. Luckily after that, my eyes cleared up after 48 hours. On the day of the wedding, I didn't wear contact because of it, so at the reception you could see me with my nerd glasses on at some points.

TIP: Don't be afraid to tell a supplier no, regardless of how big their personality is. Especially if its just a trial!

I also met the Videographer, Joey of Digital Minds, that same day. Initially I was supposed to meet him at Ayala, but because of the time, he was kind enough to meet us at Jessie's studio. He was honestly, the nicest of all the suppliers I met thus far, and had a great attitude on the onset. The only thing I had let him know, was that we wanted this to be a family affair, so to equally include our daughter Isabela. Initially, I had thought I didn't want any "talking" in our Same Day Edit, but didn't let him know this. So he did include a clip of our vows, but it turned out awesome, so I'm glad I had forgotten that.

The rest of the week dealt with little things, so mostly shopping. I ended up buying another pair of shoes (which was the only pair I ended up wearing), Rodney had to buy a belt (which he didn't wear) and shoes for Isabela. We also had to purchase our fans, giveaways, boxes for the giveaways and bags for the welcome packs. Our coordinator took us to the oldest market in Cebu City, that’s known for a high crime rate. It was gangster. We were advised to take off jewellery, and anything expensive people could rip off our faces and ears. It was generally easy, and we found things fairly fast because our coordinator's assistance had done a scope out before hand. We got a fantastic deal for everything! Although, I would never go there without locals.

The only thing that we could not find was parasols. I had wanted parasols to be dug into the sand beside the chairs for people to use to block out the sun. We went to a umbrella place but they only had plastic umbrellas. The nice ones were wwwwaaaayyy to expensive at P500 each and at the amount we needed, I wasn't going to spend $400 worth on umbrellas. My coordinator wasn't sure where to find them, so we kind of decided to just forget it. I know they exist somewhere though, because I did see on Mark, our photographer's blog another wedding at the BE that had them.

The type of parasols I wanted.

Anyways, I sort of regret not persuing it because the day of the wedding was hot as hell. Seriously, it was like the hottest day of the year. Our guests were fanning themselves like crazy, and were using the fans to block out the sun. Maybe I should have discussed this more with my coordinator before leaving, so that I could have just brought from Toronto's Chinatown the ones I wanted.

TIP: stick to your guns when it comes to details that are functional.

I forgot - Our Rings! Tisha had connected us with one of her friends who is a jeweller and met us, actually, at Bernardo Flores' shop while we waited with him. Rodney decided on a little complicated design, that in the end turned out beautifully. I had just wanted a simple band with diamonds. It had to be next morning, or maybe even that night, I texted her and had a different idea of what I wanted for our rings. Again, Linette was so accomodating and met us as soon as she could, at the mall, the next day. She was able to show us the actual diamonds, so we were able to get an idea of size and points and all that jazz as well. I was glad we met up a second time because then I could really firm up what I wanted for the rings. Now the rings are really modest because of our budget, and it pains me when people ask to look at my ring and expect more. I didn't receive an engagment ring because we were already common-law and decided the extra money would go to the wedding itself. Anyways, I love how our rings turned out and how easy it was to work with Tisha's contact. Will probably go to her again in the future, when we come to renew our vows.

Then we had one last day that dealt with venues. Finally we got to visit the Shangri-la. Tisha accompanied us and was gracious enough to pick us up. The Shangri-la is beautiful, no question about it and the service for guests, excellent. However, going to visit for the day for a meeting, means you get followed by people asking if you are a guest. When we finally got the clear that we can be there, we were able to see the grounds and loved it. Did I mention how I regretted not doing an engagement shoot? Because the Shangri-la during the day would have been a perfect location for us.

We were really impressed at our tasting and enjoyed all the food, so were really excited about the food at the wedding. Unfortunately, when dishes are made for 2 people the quality is a lot higher than when they are making in bulk. At the wedding, I was a little disappointed that the food wasn't as mind blowing as it was at the tasting. Also, the food they served us at the tasting, was not the food they plated for us. So I had to ask them for some of the things I tried at the tasting.

TIP: if you are doing a tasting for a buffet, and are going to plated, clarify WHAT you're going to be platted.

We also wanted to taste some of their mixed drinks, but were not able to do that day. They ended up scheduling our drink tasting for the night before the wedding. The drinks were amazing, but we did have some suggestions. Another disappointment, the suggestions we gave the drinks did not come through. In fact, when we ordered the mixed drinks some of them did not have any garnish at all. There was a whole issue with the bar, but I will talk about that when I talk about the reception. So the lead up to the wedding and all the arrangements at the Shangri-la were excelled and we were excited about the reception. I'm sad to say that, if I was to rate different aspects of the wedding, the reception at the Shangri-la was the least up to our expectations.

Tasting the drinks and making recommendations... that didn't materialize at the wedding!



Now the BE resort, was the complete opposite. Everything to do with the wedding ran smooth sailing with the BE, but their treatment of guests is the worst. But on the day of the wedding, the ceremony was perfect and everything ran, generally smoothly as planned. Course I'll get to that in my ceremony talk!
Now the day before the wedding was the last day to do whatever I needed to. Which for me, meant some grooming. We went for some waxing that my coordinator recommended in Ayala because they also did eyebrows. Now, here's another instance when I should have been listening to some signals but I got up on that waxing table and let a 70 year old woman wax my legs and eye brows. It was devestatingly painful and the result were awful. She had to wear what appeared to be jewellers goggles to see the hair! Luckly, I was smart enough to veto waxing some more sensitive areas and went somewhere else.

Now the second location I went for waxing, had a way nicer atmosphere, but again the staff, not as knowledgable. She essentially used 3 different kinds of wax and paper before figuring out what would work for my hair type. And by then, it was already 45 minutes later, and I had calls from the driver, my coordinators assistant and my friends looking for me. So for P800 I got half a brazillian.

TIP: set aside a whole DAY for grooming. Seriously.

Now about the wedding itself....