all photos by David Hanson Photographer

From Myhra...

Before getting exposed to Style Me Pretty, I absolutely had no idea how to throw a wedding party. I thought, as long as I had a dress, there were venues and we could provide food, that was already it. But Style Me Pretty and InStyle Weddings Magazine showed me that there are so many options out there, so many themes to choose from, and it's so much fun to plan for a wedding. Our wedding turned out more than my husband and I expected it to be. It was such a fun and relaxed wedding! Not to mention downright affordable (we only spent about $8,000 total for the wedding). All your DIY features and inspiration boards had given me ideas I could never come up with, on my own. And your blog has inspired me to make our wedding memorable, and not lacking in character.

We only had 80 guests, so our venues were small and intimate. We are Catholic so our ceremony had to take place in a Catholic Church. We chose a small, white chapel in Tagaytay (a small high place 45 minutes away from Manila that has a breathtaking view of the Taal Volcano) for our vows, and a Country-themed inn for the reception (www.discoverycountrysuites.com). Our motif was Cerulean blue, with gold and textured off-white as accents (think brocade). We infused traditional Filipino elements like using Pineapple fiber for the fabric of my wedding dress (Piña, as we call it, has a nice Ivory shade to it). My husband's aunt made and embroidered it for us. We also gave traditional Filipiniana fans (embroidered Pineapple fabric on rich, dark Narra wood) to the members of our female entourage. To make the look cohesive, we monogrammed our stationeries (menu cards, misalettes, gift tags, table numbers) and seals. We also wrapped our giveaways -- $1.5 shawls from China, a gift from my sister-in -law -- in Cerulean blue wrappers and tied it in a gold ribbon (my mother-in- law I did this two weeks before the wedding).

There was also the labor of love. My sister and I designed the dresses for the female entourage. We bought the fabrics and had the dress made by a local dressmaker. Total cost is $25 per dress. I designed the Mint-to-Be wrappers in Photoshop and had them printed in a local digital printing store. My colleagues and I packaged the mints ourselves (on a sidenote -- and with pride -- I wrote the ingredients on the Mint-to-Be's: a spoonful of love, a sprinkle of magic, a dash of hope, a cup of respect, a slice of commitment, a drop of kindness and patience and a daily dose of endless hugs and kisses!). My sister and I printed the menu cards and misalette covers using her Print Gocco machine.

Our biggest expense was the food, we wanted our guests to go home full and happy. Since we only had 80 guests, we could afford to serve them a seven-course meal and to end it with a dessert buffet.

My cousin and his friends from www.mayadstudios.com, produced for us a video that you can see here.

Again, thank you so much Abby. Your blog is an online bible for all bride-to-bes. Style Me Pretty has made me realize that "style begins where budget ends" is full of hogwash. All brides deserve the wedding of their dreams, but they definitely do not have to pay the high price of executing it. Your blog is a testament that elegance and style need not be expensive.

The oh-so-cute bride, Miya, has offered to share some of the details from her wedding as well as little tidbits of advice that every bride will love...

When we first got engaged, we thought a lot about the kind of feel that we wanted for our wedding.  Essentially, it came down to the fact that we wanted a wedding that people would be excited to come to, and where we would have a chance to hang out with our friends and families for the weekend.  Since our families and friends are dispersed across the country, we wanted to find a place where people could spend time together without feeling like the wedding was overshadowing everything.  I also wanted to showcase my home state (California): this meant bright colors, a laid-back attitude, western and Asian influences, and, of course, concern for the environment. 

During the planning process, I was fairly adamant about my belief that an event like a wedding shouldn't be an excuse to abandon environmental ethics.  We used only 100% post-consumer content recycled paper, and we kept our paper consumption to a minimum by having people RSVP by email, and instead  of sending information about the area via mail, we replied to RSVPs with a guide to the wine country that we put together as a pdf attachment.  We also chose a venue that served local and organic food, and served fish and vegetarian options. That said, you can never make an event to this scale as environmentally friendly as you want, but you can certainly make little tweaks here and there (use soy candles instead of paraffin, use recycled or cotton paper, cut down on the paper that you use, use local and/or organic ingredients, rent from local companies) that can, added up, make a big difference. 

I also included a lot of DIY touches...I sewed the panels for the canopy that we were married under, I made the groomsmen's and bridesmen's ties, I made the jewelry for the bridesmaids and groomsmaid, made my veil, and designed and printed the invitations, programs, and favors.  My dad made the structure to hang the panels for the canopy out of bamboo that had grown in the front yard of my childhood home.

Though ceremonies are often overlooked, ours was very unique and very DIY.  Our great friend, appropriately named JC, agreed to marry us, and spend enormous amounts of time helping us plan the ceremony.  We wanted to honor the fact that marriages are not just between two people, but occur within a network of family and friends. Instead of having readings on the meaning of marriage, we had our family members speak about what they had learned in their marriages. We had advice from couples who had been married from less than a year to over thirty years.  Then, one at a time, they stood up again, and asked us whether we promised to uphold the advice that they had just given us.  For example, my parents' advice was...

"Continue to make time and space for fun in your everyday life together - keep looking for ways to be playful, as often as you can, and laugh until you fall over.  Be courageous for each other and together.  Remember that small, daily personal  acts of courage build a foundation to fall back upon when life gives you a choice requiring a lot of courage.  Be kind to one another.  Be generous in your offers to bring coffee in the morning and to give the first foot rub at night.  Bring home ice cream for no reason.  Hold your tongue if you are tired an cranky.  And remember that we are all just doing the best we can, even if it is hard to tell sometimes.  Most of all, just continue to be your wonderful selves and continue to believe in the mystery of love as it unfolds in its various forms for you over the years."  

Then the vow that they offered was...

"Do you promise to laugh until you fall over, to be courageous, to be extravagant with small kindnesses, and to trust in the mysteries of life and love as they unfold?"  

If I were to give one piece of advice to brides who are planning their weddings, it would be to think about what feel you want, and what your priorities are.  Once you nail these two things down, you can start to let go of the little things that people spend hundreds of hours obsessing about.  The feel that we aimed for was laid-back Californian, and our main priorities were that people feel at ease, and for the wedding to be fun. Once we had established that, the choice to hire a Hawaiian band to play before the ceremony and during our croquet/bocce cocktail hour was clear, as was the choice to forgo fancy napkins and crystal or not to have my hair/ make-up done. 

Once your feel and priorities are nailed down, you can also think about where to hold your ground and where you can be more flexible.  We received, as a wedding present, a photo booth for the reception.  There were more than a few people who thought that this was a terrible idea, and that we should be registering for as much china and for as many kitchen goods as we could.  The truth is, however, that we live in a tiny one-bedroom in Manhattan, and that we really have no use for china and kitchen goods past a certain point. I am glad that I stuck to my guns on this one, because the photos from that booth will be the first thing that I save if my house ever burns down. 

Nailing down a feel for your wedding and priorities also lets you pick vendors who will make your wedding spectacular.  I was very lucky to find Traci for a florist- she has a similar aesthetic as I do, and executed everything perfectly without me having to worry about whether her work would be right.  The minute I saw her portfolio, I knew that she would achieve the organic, fun vibe that I was aiming for. I was also drawn to the style of my photographer, Randy Parsons, as she tends to focus on the people at the wedding rather than the details.

The other thing that I would tell brides to be is to  remember that once you have a date picked, no matter what disasters happen leading up to or on the day of the wedding, you end up married at the end of the day, and that's pretty much the best thing about any wedding anyway.  Of course, everyone wants to have a perfect wedding, but if you just remind yourself that your marriage matters more than your wedding, then your wedding will seem perfect no matter what happens.

Miya has a great blog that you should check out when you have a minute. And, definitely spend some time perusing Violet Designs site, as Traci has created some absolutely beautiful, completely inspiring designs.

And for those of you that are looking for some of the sources that Gloria used, here is a list of her vendors...

It seems like every detail was thought about, meticulously crafted and executed to perfection. The lovely petifores, the delicate cherry blossoms, the petite flags that give guests a glimpse into the personalities of the bride and groom. I know that Gloria handmade so many of these thoughtful touches, which is pretty incredible.

I have a few more really lovely detail shots, as well as a list of the vendors that they used to come, so stay tuned!

This wedding was sent to me by the incredibly talented Lisa Lefkowitz, whose work I have always admired. She has been sweet enough to share some of the details with us...

Gloria, the beautiful bride, was inspired by the simplicity of Asian aesthetics, along with the opulence of French culture. She looked to the 1920s for inspiration on how to blend the two styles.