BridalBook: wedding planning made easy

Marriage Preparation: Find All Your Wedding Needs Here

Planning for your wedding just got easier with our listings and guide articles.

Posted on: 12 May 2010
Author: Betty Tianco

Getting ready for your wedding takes a whole lot of planning–and the wide range of ideas, choices, and suppliers available makes it that much harder! Like many brides-to-be planning their big day, you may have a wedding or events planner to help you out, or you may not–either way, we’re sure you want to stay involved in the coordination and organization, from the initial stages of planning your overall theme, to settling on a church and reception venue, to choosing the menu and the mementoes. Add to all this your own concerns as a blushing bride and future wife–choosing (or designing!) your rings, and planning your honeymoon activities (though we’re sure you know what you’ll be spending most of your time on)–and you can get easily overwhelmed way before you have to walk down the aisle!

That’s where BridalBook.ph comes in. BridalBook not only gives you a broad listing of all the suppliers and contacts you’ll need to plan a successful (and affordable!) wedding, it also gives you inspiration and ideas through its many photo galleries of real weddings, with detailed photos of gowns, invitations, centerpieces, giveaways, floral arrangements, and the ceremonies themselves! The site is also geared towards soliciting content from its users, which means you can get honest evaluations and reviews from those who have been in the (wedding) trenches and know what things matter most to a bride-to-be.

To cap everything off, BridalBook also has a collection of articles that provide quick tips and tricks on everything from getting the most out of your budget to booking your honeymoon flight.

Whether you’re a bride-to-be, a veteran of your own wedding adventures, or just a wishful thinker visualizing plans and dreams for your own future match, check out BridalBook for bright ideas and the best resources for brides-to-be.

The “FIRST” Step in Planning a Wedding (IDEALLY!) – Telling your Girlfriend’s Parents!

The title says it all. First step in planning a wedding is telling the parents of both sides that you’re getting hitched. Ideally, that is. I decided to, umm, take the unconventional route. Start our planning, and then tell Kay’s parents.

Ask any soon-to-be-wed guy, or any married guy for that matter. It’s not as easy as it looks. Sure, rapport has been established between you and your bride’s parents, considering you’ve established yourself as a household fixture already. But the thought of delivering this kind of news, the “Hi Tito/Tita! I’m marrying your daughter and taking her away from you already” kind of news, is pretty unnerving. Especially if you have a future father-in-law with a very intimidating presence. There’s just no way you can totally prepare yourself for that situation.

Kay and I originally targeted December 8, 2009 as our “moment of truth.” But the death of a very dear family member 4 days prior held us back.  We decided not to specify a date anymore, instead, agreed to get it done and over with before December 26, 2009, her  kuya’s wedding.  BUT, more unforeseen events happened so our “moment of truth” kept on getting pushed further, and further back. To cut the long story short, we only got to let her DAD know about our plans last January 20, 2010 (Kay told her mom about our plans earlier, in the hopes of having her prepare her dad for the “big news”). Here are some snippets of that conversation with her dad.

TJ: “Tito, niyaya ko na pong magpakasal si Kay, at pumayag na po siya.”

Kay’s DAD (with her mom watching on): “Ma, tama ba narinig ko? Ikuha mo nga ako ng cotton buds.”

TJ: “Hehe (nervous laugh). Opo, tama po.”

Kay’s DAD: “Kelan niyo plano? Handa na ba kayo? Handa na ba kayong magka-pamilya?”

TJ: “Sa December po. Handa naman na po kami.”

Kay’s DAD: “Wala naming problema sa akin yan. Ang sa akin lang ay yung request ng mama niyo.”

Our conversation went on for a few more minutes, with dad asking a couple more questions about our plans. In the end, Kay’s dad was really cool about the whole thing, thanks mainly to Kay’s mom who prepped dad beforehand. All I can say about that whole experience is that all my uneasiness and sleepless nights leading to that moment were actually unnecessary, BUT normal for any guy asking for the blessing of his girl’s parents. A little tip to guys out there planning a little rendezvous with your fiancee’s parents: Relax. Haha! Showing your future in-laws, that you’re nervous might give them a negative impression about your readiness for the married life.

So with that behind us already, our planning “officially” started. A couple of suppliers in the bag, but more of that on our future posts. Ciao.

Key to a Succesfull Wedding = Planning Together

Let me start this entry with GREAT news! Fr. Jboy Gonzales, SJ just confirmed his availability to officiate our wedding ceremony. 🙂 We’ve been fans of his inspiring homilies and natural wit since his days of service at the UP Chapel and so we wanted him to be our priest. His confirmation caps the major preparations for the wedding! THANK YOU, Fr. Jboy. You really made our day.

Going back… perhaps you’ve read several tips and do’s and don’ts from several wedding magazines, if not from the latest W@W Wedding Primer. It’s 10 months before our day and midway through our preparations and I’ve learned the single key to a successful wedding: PLANNING TOGETHER.

I know some brides are swimming over magazine piles, searching the Internet on weeknights, braving flea markets on weekends while the men just give them the pennies. I beg to disagree that weddings are just a girl’s thang and I have a very wedding-eager fiancé to prove this. Keep in mind that your husband-to-be’s opinions and preferences are just as important as yours.

Decision making is a lot easier if you plan things together. Besides, we’ll probably be doing this for the rest of our married life so we might as well practice on this during the wedding preparations. In our case, here are the few first steps we took together:

1. Set the budget – TJ and I agreed on the budget early on and swore to never go overboard. We opened our joint account last year and that’s where we both put our savings. Yes, even saving up is a conjugal effort! It makes us both responsible not only for the wedding but our future.

2. Research – Looking for potential suppliers was a lot easier with two minds working. While TJ got info on the net and templates from friends, I frequented Filbar’s for back issues of wedding magazines and read group mailers. After putting things together, we discussed and picked out the best choices.

3. Set the calendar – TJ got me a Starbucks planner during the Holidays and I decided to make it our wedding planner where all events are plotted. This lets us keep track of our accomplishments. We’re both custodians of our wedding planner and notebook. Whoever feels like writing on them can do so as much as he/she likes.

4. Go on field trips – We go as a team in appointments with suppliers and in doing errands. It’s easier to create relationships with suppliers if they get a quick grasp of you as a couple. Our first impression of the suppliers also weighed a lot in making decisions. It’s funny how we know the final answer just by looking at each other!

Our wedding can be the single most tedious day of our lives but planning together makes it a lot easier and more fun. It serves as our weekly bonding activity and our weekend date. In less than 2 months we were able to book our major suppliers, which we’ll share with you on later posts.

I’m plain lucky to have an equally excited groom! So if your guys aren’t curious at all, kick them with some girl power and find a way to make them involved. It’s both your day anyway.