Sunday, April 29, 2012

My Wedding Checklist - Your Wedding Theme (Seasons of Love)

Here's the checklist that we used for our big day:

  1. Pamamanhikan
  2. Set the DATE of the big day!
  3. List of Godparents, Sponsors, and Entourage
  4. Your Wedding Theme: Color Motif, theme concept/idea, your wedding dresses - groom, bride, entourage, immediate family and sponsors 
  5. Your Wedding Ceremony:  Church Venue, Officiating Priest/Officiant, Required Documents, Ceremony Proper, Misalette, Choir/Quartet/Mass Songs, Paraphernalia, Wedding Vows
  6. Your Wedding Reception Venue: Caterer, Reception Menu, Reception Program, Your Wedding Cake Supplier, Reception Songs, Your Audio- Visual Presentation, Tokens and Favors for sponsors & guests, entertainer/s, program host/s, other wedding traditions
  7. Save the Date and Formal Invitations, Your Wedding Website
  8. Your Guest List
  9. Your Wedding Rings/Bands
  10. Important Wedding Suppliers: Florist, Photographer & Videographer, Designer, Stylist & Make-up Artist, Wedding Coordinator, Cake Decorator, Choir/Quartet/Entertainer
  11. Round of Parties: Bridal Shower and Bachelor Party, Engagement Party, Despedida de Soltera, Rehearsal Dinner
  12. The Honeymoon 
  
Choosing from hundreds of wedding themes and ideas may seem overwhelming at first. But carefully brainstorming on the theme, motif and over-all look of your wedding is worth all the effort in the end!  After all, your wedding will most likely be one of the most important events of your life, and the beginning of your journey as husband and wife!  A theme makes this most important day unique and memorable for you, your spouse and all the special people you choose to share this day with.  It makes all the wedding elements cohesive and ties everything together... and ultimately makes the planning process easier!!!

Here's a quick initial rundown of great wedding ideas that you can draw inspiration from:

Seasons of Love

As the popular song goes, "winter, spring, summer, or fall... all you have to do is call!"    Draw inspiration from the 4 seasons:


WINTER WONDERLAND
 

The winter wonderland wedding theme can be romantic and simply magical especially during December peak months!  Think snowflakes, snow balls, and anything sparkly and nice.  Colors you can play with are light blue, silver and white.  Use furs in your wedding dress and entourage outfits.  Food idea:  ask your caterer to set up a hot choco station to the delight of your guests!  Why not give coco mix in special jars or mugs as wedding favors? You can use faux wooden trees with hanging tealights to recreate a winter forest look! 


 SUMMER FEVER

Summer does not automatically translate to the beach and sand.  Think Bold, Bright and Fun for a truly unforgettable summer wedding.  Solid and bright colors like orange, pink and greens make summer wedding cheerful and light!  You can choose an outdoor venue for your ceremony and reception. Just make sure that you have an indoor back up venue in case it rains though! Colorful paper lanterns, ribbons tied on trees in different lengths, and candles in paper bags create that whimsical and romantic feel.   Instead of the traditional bouquets, you can use parasols for the entourage and provide fans as wedding favors to your guest.  Hire an ice cream cart from trusty old "manong" down the street to cool the heat away.  Instead of the traditional cocktail drinks, serve thirst quenchers like lemonade and mango coolers.




SPRING WALTZ

New Life, rebirth, new journey... what better theme than spring for a perfect start of your life as husband and wife! Stay clear from heavy and dark colors like browns, blues and blacks.  Choose pastels instead... Popular color motifs that you can use are pink-green-purple and pink-aqua-lavender.  Dress your entourage with chic, below-the-knee cocktail dresses instead of floor length gowns.  Add floral touches  or a sweet ribbon as an accent to your floral gown.  You'll never go wrong with decorating your venue with flowers. I love this theme and pulled off some elements from the spring wedding theme into my own wedding.  Sharing with you some spring detail pics from my very own special day:
Inspired by veggies, Eggplant and Lime, these were the color combination that we used for our wedding.  Used the color combination in as many details as I wanted... The flowers you see at the top-right picture are actually pens we used when we signed the marriage contract.   Bought this bells at a textile store and tied organza ribbons.  Each table had bells which had a note that said "Ring the Bell for a Kiss!".  Our guests had fun ringing the bells all throughout the wedding and my hubby was all too happy to oblige to their requests!  Bride was kilig din of course!


Since we called each other hunny, we gave out honey favors to our guests... :)  Lemme know if you want to order any of the above wedding details!




In keeping with the spring theme, I didn't want a pure white bouquet so I requested my florist to give me an assortment of flowers in different varieties and colors... I liked the effect of handpicking in the garden so I chose the hand-tied bouquet (see top leftmost bouquet).  But my florist was super kind and made 2 bouquets for me instead... I had a pure white bouquet (see lower leftmost pic) which I used for the church, and my requested colorful hand-tied bouquet which I used for the reception.  2 Bouquets for the price of 1!!!! Yay!!!  Will ask if my florist if he has a website for his "artworks" and will update this post once I have the go-signal.

We had these cute hand-painted pails for our flower girls with flowers and bears instead of the traditional flower basket.  Our flower girls looked like little flower fairies.  Sooo cute!!! 


This is our cute wedding cake... Simply accented by clusters of flowers in every layer and the highlight is of course our cute cake topper!!!!





Place a variety of flowers in different colors, sizes as centerpieces.  Use fruits like green apples, oranges and grapes placed in clear vases too as eye-catching centerpieces.

FALLing in Love!

Color palettes for an autumn-inspired wedding theme are usually orange, brown, red, gold, bronze or copper.  Think mother nature when you plan for your fall wedding.  A bronze sash on the waist breaks the all-white bridal gown.  Serve pumpkin soup and roasted calf/lamb to your guests.  Maple syrup in cute jars can be given as wedding favors to your guests.




These are just some random ideas to start you off in planning for your wedding theme.  Brainstorming on my wedding theme took a lot of time and effort on my part (I involved hubby only during when I shortlisted my top 5 pics so he won't get exasperated and confused!).  But it was all worth it.  Everything came together perfectly because of a very well-thought out theme.

Will share other themes that I have been toying with in planning my wedding in my future posts.  But hope the Seasons of Love helped start you off!!! :)