Church Wedding Vendors Thanksgiving
This is a compilation of my Instagram individual thank you posts directed at our convalidation vendors (with added words that couldn’t fit in IG’s 2K word limit). I originally wanted to thank them in separate posts to give each one the limelight they deserve. To be honest, the very reason why I didn’t need to join bridal groups is that most of these vendors are people my husband and I know personally. They were family, friends, students, and some were shops we repeatedly order from. We wanted an intimate celebration that’s similar to our civil wedding, so we wanted “the project” to be as personal as possible, to the point that some of the vendors are also part of our 20-something guest list.
I’m compiling all of those IG posts into this one at the request of a few close friends who just got engaged.
An overview, just to summarize all of them:
Church: San Antonio de Padua Parish (Nasugbu, Batangas)
Preps and Dinner: Vera Farm Resort (Alfonso, Cavite)
Photography: Heartcrafted Stories (Cavite)
Makeup: Rae Venturanza Salazar (Cavite; she’s my cousin, I did my own hair)
Videography: Cupcake Cinema (Cavite)
On-the-Day Coordination: Hello Diaries (Cavite)
Cake and Favors: Harties Kitchen (Cavite)
Ceremonial Accessories: Beads and Bows PH (Laguna)
Attire: Lazada, FB Marketplace
Dress Modifications: Alterations South (Parañaque)
Dried Flowers Bouquet: Prima Flora (Lazada seller)
Notice that bulk of the vendors are based in the same area as the church and venue. So for those who are asking me about budgeting, this is actually a very important tip. If you’re having your wedding out of town, getting vendors from the same area removes out-of-town fees.
The Church: San Antonio de Padua Nasugbu
I actually have a LOOOOT of words to say in thanks to SAPP Nasugbu, they just couldn’t fit in the 2K word limit. First off, you guys know I’ve been annulled both legally and via the Catholic tribunal. When you check the list of requirements for both Metro Manila and Cavite churches, those lists seemed nearly impossible for someone like me to accomplish. (Why would you ask me for my previous Catholic marriage certificate? The Catholic annulment papers are here! Isn’t that more important?) But since my previous marriage was held in Caleruega, which is under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Lipa (they’re quite efficient and tech savvy), having the convalidation in a church under Lipa’s territory made the process easier. I love this church, and our fated accident of discovering it.
Incidentally, I recently learned that St. Anthony of Padua isn’t just the saint you pray to when you’re looking for missing items. Apparently, he is called Santo Casementeiro because he is also the patron saint you pray to when you’re looking for The One. That’s really cute.
The Venue: Vera Farm Resort
Funny story: Cams, the original AE, is basically a neighbor (her house is walking distance to my Dad’s farm in Alfonso). So I did give her one picture as peg, because I didn’t want to think about it too much. I even told her that I’m ok with the default plastic white roses they use for birthday parties, but I think this horrified her too much. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the table centerpieces were fresh baby’s breath flowers. (I haven’t shown her the bouquet I bought at the last minute, but it seems that they coincided, too. Turns out that the dried small flowers that surrounded my dried rose were also baby’s breath.)
I was, however, very intentional with the menu. (My husband doesn’t really care, as long as it’s good, lol.) The event was out of town, why would I pick chicken cordon bleu when our own school cafeteria serves that? Of course I will pick dishes that are NATIVE TO THE AREA. I also had to balance out a variety of flavors and textures, and my mom (who’s also very particular about reception food) praised me for it, haha. Their chef is an international cruise chef, so I wasn’t surprised when my MIL and aunt, both expert home cooks, gave us some trivia about what they were eating. That means that they were pleased enough to share knowledge, like telling me and hubby that the specific ingredients used were premium etc.
Oh, going back to my mom, this was one reason why I was adamant on having the venue also provide the food (besides not wanting to talk to another set of vendors): she hates it when reception food is cold when served. It’s also one of the reasons why we didn’t have a program (well, we’re also not the type of couple that loved participating in programs, we just like to spectate). If the kitchen and the function room are in the same area, your food will not be cold.
Cake and Favors: Harties Kitchen
On top of this review I wrote, our photographer, my cousin-in-law Noel, said that he liked the cake so much he went back for a second serving. And he loved the cupcake favor, too.
Ceremonial Accessories: Beads and Bows PH
Make Up by Rae
Photography by Heartcrafted Stories
Videography by Cupcake Cinema
Coordination by Hello Diaries
Instagram has a 1-minute limit on videos so I only included the intro of the not quite SDE. Haha. Here’s the link to the full video, if you’re curious about their film treatment.
To add to the IG post, the thing about seeing the final edit of the video (which a lot of people mistake for the SDE, so I’ll just probably call it SDE anyway haha), it amazes me how natural my husband and I and seemed during the event. We attribute it to the fact that we PERSONALLY KNEW the vendors surrounding us. Comparing our civil wedding video to our church wedding’s, not only was it a really huge difference in skill level between videography teams, but it was also because it helped that we weren’t so stiff and formal in the latter anymore.
Dress Modifications: Alterations South
I find the modifications to be more important than where I brought my dress, so I’m not even going to link the Lazada shop that sold my dress. To be fair, it seems that the Laz shop has gotten good reviews for many of their offerings, maybe they just made a mistake with me. It’s just that I find it irksome when someone replied to my review by saying that I look better in the UNMODIFIED DRESS (you’ve seen the photo, it’s so bad!!!) than the expected dress. So I posted a follow-up review on that shop’s listing to show what Alterations South did to rescue the dress.
Anyway, these are the short list of vendors we booked, and to be honest, even if we weren’t very excited about the convalidation (compared to our civil wedding), they made us thankful that they were there to help us appreciate the event. They made us see the event in a new light.
The next post is a special request from two pairs of soon-to-be-married couples: logistics and budgeting for out-of-town weddings. It’s actually not much different from the Hermit’s Guide to Budget Wedding Planning I wrote back in 2017, with the exception of the venues. I need to update that anyway, since inflation has made things 3x pricier.
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