Wedding Prep: Lessons Learned

(Source: The Wedding House)

 It's already one month since the Big Day. That magic-filled day that bound my Beloved and I to a lifetime union. I can still feel the tension thrill as if it just happened yesterday.

I have a lot of stories to tell about our wedding preparations. We met a lot of people, from suppliers (of the various kinds) to helpful friends. We even met someone who immediately offered her help as our wedding coordinator for free despite that it was my first time to meet her.

But before I tell all those stories, I want to first share the lesson that we learned as we prepared our wedding. I believe that it will be very useful for the soon-to-be-wed readers of this blog.

Here are some of the lessons that we learned:

1. Write Everything in Paper

Deals with wedding suppliers should be in black & white. This means that every freebies, promises, add-ons, booking price, deliverables; as in everything must be written clearly on the contract. We encountered one supplier who promised many add-ons during negotiation. The problem is that she didn't write those promises in the contract. The result is that the boss of that supplier didn't honor her promises because it was not written in the contract.

The boss insisted on what's written on the contract and we couldn't do anything about it.

2. Use Regionalism to Your Advantage

We were asking for freebies but our florist didn't want to give in until she discovered that she and my wife came from the same province. Thus, we got plenty of add-ons and freebies and that's only because they speak the same dialect.

Suppliers are easier to negotiate with when both of you (or your spouse-to-be) have a sort of “common ground”. Aside from coming from the same province as the supplier, other “common ground” may be a common friend, same alma mater, and being in the same college org.

3. Never Pay in Full for Unsatisfactory Job

This is the lesson that we learned from our mananahi. The wedding gown that she made was not good and my bride even had to fix it by herself. The dress for the bridesmaids and our mothers were also unsatisfactory. It seems like this mananahi doesn’t care about quality.

The wrong thing that we did is that we paid her in full even if were not satisfied with her work. Since then, the mananahi was never seen again. She never answered our text messages. My bride was so irritated of her gown that it added stress to an already stressful wedding preparation.

4. Avoid Middlemen

Our wedding coordinator informed us that most of the gown suppliers in Divisoria, particularly in the shops along Tabora Street, are middlemen. They just send the dressmaking jobs to various dressmakers. I think that it is better to go directly to the dressmaker instead of dealing with middlemen. You’ll pay less and also you’re dealing with the person who is actually making your wedding gown or dress.

5. Ask for Help from Your Bridesmaids and Groomsmen

Our wedding preparation was stressful because we received minimal help. Me and my Beloved did everything, from searching for suppliers to arranging the entourage before the wedding ceremony began. We managed to pull everything off but we experienced hell.

So, to make your wedding preparation easier, I suggest that you ask help from your bridesmaids and groomsmen. These people are not just members of the entourage, they should be helpers of the bride and groom. This is true especially for the maid of honor and the best man.

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These are just few of the many lessons that we learned during our wedding preparation. I will be talking about our experiences during our wedding preparations. So please read my future blog posts for more tips and lessons.

Before I end this post, there’s still one lesson that I want to share and that is to have fun while preparing your wedding. Yes, it is stressful but it doesn’t mean that it should not be fun. Remember that wedding preparation is not only a preparation for the wedding ceremony but also a sort of preparation for your life as husband or wife. At the end of the wedding ceremony is the rest of your life together and that fact can be the source of fun in this hell of a situation.