Our Intimate and (Mostly) DIY Kind of Wedding (worth 30K)

(This is Our Wedding Journey and Budget)

Date Written: January 16, 2021

Hi! I’m officially Mrs. Regaspi and this is our wedding journey. 

We’ve decided to be practical yet still fulfilling our dream wedding so most of the things we need for our wedding was DIY and some were even sponsored. Thank you, loved-ones!

Current global crisis and a bit of a hard financial situation made us do it this way. He-he!

We got engaged last July 2020 (our 12th year of being together) and had our wedding in December 2020. It was a five-month preparation and we’re happy with the outcome. After all, we consider that being content is one of the keys to stay happy.

Here’s the list of things needed for our Special Day and how we did it:

Requirements

Legality needs papers so basically, it’s the first thing that we processed. Due to the pandemic, most of our transactions were done online. Same with getting our documents. 

These are the basic requirements needed (for a civil wedding) 

1. PSA Birth Certificate of the couple – 1 copy each

2. PSA CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage) of the couple – 1 copy each

These documents were delivered to us in two weeks right after we registered and paid online. 

Wedding Officiator

We looked for a wedding officiant on-line and luckily, we found Reverend Jay Arvin Mangilinan. He’s the one who processed all our documents. We just gave him the original copies of our birth certificate and Cenomar. Marriage License/Marriage Certificate will be just delivered to us after the wedding. Hassle-free it is. Yes. 

Wedding Theme/Motif

Well, my favorite color is orange so most of our stuff during the wedding was in this color. I just mixed it with white to be neutral. We requested our guests to wear any semi-formal with a touch of orange and white. And we required our entourage to wear white. White long sleeves and black pants for gentlemen while white, knee-length dress for ladies. We just provided orange suspenders and bow ties for men and orange head dresses for ladies as accessories. 

I am also fond of Baybayin, an original Philippine alphabet system so we’ve decided to include this on our wedding theme.

Wedding Venue/Catering

We looked for the most affordable but still with high quality catering services. We’ve found Lin’s Catering! This was recommended by a close friend of mine. They also offer free use of their venue for three hours so we eventually grabbed their promo package. Their venue also has bridal rooms that we can rent. We rented one room. 

Here’s the inclusion of our package: 

• Food (of course, He-he! 1 set of vegetable dish, chicken, fish, beef, pork, juice, rice and salad) – buffet style for guests and plate served for Principal Sponsors

• Free use of air conditioned wide venue for three hours

• Basic sounds and lights system

• Wedding cake and wine

• Tables and Chairs following our motif

• Basic table design with flowers

Our add-ons (with extra charge) 

• Lechon – sponsored by my Mum

• Rental of Bridal Room for 24 hours

• Rental of projector for the AVP

The venue is located in Sta. Ana, Manila. Our bridal and groom's prep, wedding ceremony and reception all happened on this event place.

We were only 30+ pax.

Venue Design

Venue styling was provided by our catering service. We just requested for a white and orange theme. And we just added some designs. 

Souvenirs for Guests and for Principal Sponsors

Some of my friends sponsored this. I personally requested these to them as their gifts for our wedding. 

We gave heart-shaped alcohol spray for guests and wine for principal sponsors as souvenirs. I just designed and printed the Thank You note with Baybayin words and we just bought ribbons to match our wedding motif. 

Gown and Suit

One of our Principal Sponsors gifted us my wedding gown. Thank you, Tito and Tita! 

For my heeled shoes and earrings, they were all borrowed. Thank you, Ate Joy! I still bought flat shoes because I am more comfortable in wearing flats. 

For the groom’s attire, we borrowed his suit from a friend. My mum bought him his long sleeves and blue handkerchief. We just bought his black slacks and white shoes. We also bought his orange bow tie and dried flower boutonniere

Wedding Ring

To follow our wedding theme, we ordered a personalized ring online with Baybayin words at a very affordable price. They were set of black rings with Baybayin words engraved to it on top and our wedding date engraved on the inside. We skipped a fancy ring as of the moment and we’ll just get it next time once we have the funds. 

Bridal Bouquet

I ordered it online. I bought two bouquets (one for me and for the bouquet tossing) and one boutonniere for my groom. It was affordable and the seller is very kind and accommodating. Shout to Ms. Mina of Fiorella by Mina. Thank you so much for the beautiful arrangement I personally requested. It was a preserved flowers bouquet!

Photographer / Videographer

We were so grateful to my cousins who served as our personal photographer and videographer! 

But we still looked for a photographer for the ceremony. Thank you, Snaps Ave! We hired Ms. Fil for two hours. 1 hour for the prep and 1 hour for the ceremony.

Hair and Makeup Artist

Shout out again to one of my cousins who made my hair and make-up for free! She’s also one of the bride’s maids. She even did my mum’s make up. 

Thanks, Shan!

 Event Host

One of my best friends since college served as our event host and he’s also one of the coordinators. 

Thanks, Bessy! You’re the best!

the one who's holding the mike. He's our host. ha-ha!

On The Day Coordinators

Two of my cousins served as our wedding coordinators. While my brother’s girlfriend played the projector and sounds during the wedding march. Thank you, Girls!

The following list are the things that I personally planned, designed or created.

AVP / Projector and Sounds 

Aside from the program flow that flashes on the screen, I also created a slideshow of our journey as a couple. We also compiled some video greetings by our friends and watched it at the event. 

Songs to Play

I personally chose songs for the wedding march and directed it to our coordinators. 

Song for Entourage: I Was Born In Loving You by: Tori Kelly

Song for the Bridal March: Sa Bawat Daan by Ebe Dancel

My mum and bro walked me down the aisle

Program Flow

By searching online, I found a program flow and some traditional wedding activities for the wedding. I used it as an inspiration to do our own program. We actually fit all the activities in three hours. Shout out to my best friend Marky aka our host who helped me with this plan.

Here’s the program flow that I made:

Time	Program
5:00 AM	Wedding Prep
	Photo op  (Pre-Wedding, Prep)
9:00 AM	Couple Photo op at the venue
10:00 AM	Arrival of Guests
	Seating Arrangement of guests - care of Coordinators
	Guest List / Dedication Book
10:45	Wedding March
11:00 AM	Wedding ceremony
	Exchange of vows and ring ceremony
	The signing of the marriage contract
	Presentation of the newlyweds
	Bridal kiss
	Photo Op per group
	Newly Wed Exit
	(post photo op - bride and groom)
12:00 NN	Wedding reception
	Welcoming of guests by the host
	Acknowledgments of the following: Reverend, Parents, Principal Sponsors
	Acknowledgment of the newlyweds, their brief history, etc. (with MVR)
	Re-entry of newly weds
	Words from parents (done during the ceremony)
	Speech of Bestman and Maid of Honor before the toast
	Wedding Toast
	Cake-cutting
12:30 PM	Prayer before meal; Serving of food/buffet line up
	Newly wed’s rounds for the photo op per table
	(distribution of money pin)
	Song number for the wedding dance – live song by the maid of honor
	Father’s Dance with the bride - (we skipped this)
	Couple's First Dance and Money Dance
	Souvenir distribution - care of coordinators
	Well-wishers - Principal Sponsors / Video Messages from family and friends
	Couple Game (Who's the Most)
	Bouquet passing game
	Garter passing game
	Speech from the newlyweds
	Closing remarks by the emcee
2:00 PM	End of Program

Wedding March

Here’s the wedding march order list that I made:

• Wedding Officiant

• Bestman 

• Groom Parents (stop in the middle – wait for the groom)

• Groom 

• Principal Sponsors (by pair)

• Secondary Sponsors (by pair)

• Bride Parents (stop in the middle – wait for the bride)

• Bride

We skipped the kids (flower girls, ring bearers, etc.) in the entourage as it is still pandemic.

Photo Ops Order

Since this is DIY, I also made some photo order that our personal photographers can follow: 

Wedding Preps

With Bride

Bridal HMUA and prep

With Matron of Honor

With Cousins and Friends

With Family

With groom

Groom Prep

With Bestman and Friends

With Family

Ceremony Photos

Wedding March

Couple Photos, Vows, Contract Signing

After Ceremony, group photo

Couple Photos

Couple with Reverend

with Family - Lain's side

with Family - Rish's side

With Principal Sponsors

With Friends

With Relatives - Lain's Side

With Relatives - Rish's Side

Reception

Introduction of Newly Wed

First Dance

With Parents

With Principal Sponsors

With Bestman and Maid of Honor

Cake and Wine

Games

Couple with Friends and Family

Group Photo

Reception

With Couple per table

-end of photo ops list-

Prenup Shoots

Our prenup shoot was done in BGC. It was mostly street and park photoshoot themes. Shout out to my cousins and friends who served as our make-up artist, stylist, photographer and director.

Guest list

We opted to have a maximum of 40 guests only. And for the wedding day, I made a scrapbook like a guestbook wherein guests can write their wishes for us. 

Wedding Vows

The day before the wedding, we wrote our vows on this handmade card made by yours truly. 

Invitation

Shout out to Canva for the available templates and designs that I used for our digital invitation. I just printed one set for photo ops and remembrance as well. We have just sent this online to our guests.

Breakdown of Budget 

Here’s the total breakdown of expenses that we had for the wedding. We initially allot Php 30,000 as our budget for the wedding but we actually exceeded. He-he! 

Description	Amount
Requirements	1,500.00
Wedding Officiant	5,500.00
Food, Venue, Bridal Room	44,000.00
Personalized Wedding Ring	2,000.00
Bouquet/Boutonniere	1,000.00
Wedding Attire:
Black Slacks	500.00
Long Sleeves	500.00
Men's White shoes	500.00
Bride’s Flat Shoes	300.00
Entourage Accessories	1,000.00
Photo and Video	2,800.00
Prenup Expenses:
Prenup Shirts	600.00
Grab and Food	2,200.00
Wedding Transpo	900.00
Photobook	540.00
HMUA	-	Care of my cousin
Wedding Gown	-	Care of Tito and Tita
Souvenirs	-	Care of Friends/Cousin
Grand Total	63,840.00

PS. My mum sponsored a total of 19K; My hubby’s family sponsored a total of 10K. 

So all in all, we personally paid Php. 34,840.00

We still have stuck to our initial budget! Wow. 

Thank you, Fam and friends! We all love you!

So, there you have it. 

Additional Tip: Make an Excel File for all your plans and checklist. It helped me a lot!  

Message me if you want a template. I can give it for free! From list of guests, things to buy/prepare, needed stuffs, budget (especially), program, updates, etc.; Excel Sheet is a life-saver! 

Our intimate wedding was far from perfection but we loved it just the way it was. It was simple, nothing fancy, nothing costly, just pure love and joy.

And what truly matters most was our promise and commitment to each other plus the fact that we celebrated it with our closest family and friends.

We wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

To my now husband, here’s a short message for you. 

I love you, my better half. Thank you for letting me reach one of my dreams and that is to marry you in the presence of the people we love and who love us. 

On this day, we honored our parents with our vows to each other. 

On this day, we fulfilled one of our dreams together and that is to marry each other. 

On this day, we celebrated with our closest friends and family. 

On this day, I saw you with tears of joy as you saw me walk down the aisle. 

On this day, we strengthened  our bond. 

Thank you and I love you, my forever roommate, housemate, ex-boyfriend, dream buddy, best friend, husband and lifetime partner.

Insert song of Ebe Dancel, “Sa Bawat Daan”. This was my bridal march song. 

Sa pagkumpas ng iyong kamay

Aking landas, ginagabay

Nag-iisang tiyak sa isang libong duda

Silong sa iyak at pagluluksa

Kung puso ko ay imamapa

Ikaw ang dulo, gitna't simula

Nahanap din kita (Kay tagal kong naghintay)

Nahanap din kita (Kay tagal kong naghintay)

Ohhh

Maligaw man

At mawala

At umikot man

Sa kawalan

Sa bawat kailan

Sino't saan

Ikaw lamang ang

Kasagutan

Bawat kanan

At kaliwa

Kung timog man

O hilaga

Ang bawat... daan ko

Ay patungo (ay patungo)

Ay pabalik (ay pabalik)

Sa 'yo

Kay tagal nang lumulutang

Walang pupuntahan, walang dahilan

Parang ulap na, walang dalang ulan

Kamang walang kumot at unan

Bihag ako ng pagtataka

May saysay ba ang paglalakbay

Ngunit

Nahanap din kita (Kay tagal kong naghintay)

Nahanap kita (Kay tagal kong naghintay)

Ohhh

Maligaw man

At mawala

O umikot man

Sa kawalan

Dahil sa bawat kailan

Sino't saan

Ikaw lamang ang kasagutan

Bawat kanan (Kay tagal kong naghintay) at kaliwa

Kung timog man (Kay tagal kong naghintay) o hilaga

Ang bawat (Kay tagal kong naghintay) daan ko

Ay patungo (Kay tagal kong naghintay)

Ay pabalik (Ay pabalik)

Sa 'yo

Sa iyo

(Kay tagal kong naghintay)

Ooh ohh

Kung ang puso ko ay imamapa

Ikaw ang dulo, ang gitna't simula

Ikaw...

Ikaw...

My Reflection on the Book, “3 Things Successful People Do” by John Maxwell

February 6, 2021 

Goals may give focus, but dreams give power. – John Maxwell

credits to owner: BestQuotesofTheDay

I am almost done reading this book and I’m happy! First done book for the year. Yey! I am also eager to apply it in my daily life.

Reaching our goal in life - which is to be successful in whatever path we choose, will never be easy. There will be a lot of challenges along the way. We will quit, we will restart again, we will fail, we will succeed. That’s all part of life. 

Here are my take-aways after reading the book: 

Know Your Purpose. This is so important to have our direction or so called road map in life. This will also lead us to our goals or our target to achieve. Knowing our true self will definitely let us also know or discover what our purposes are. 

Your Purpose will lead you to your dreams then goals. Once we establish our purpose, we will begin to build our dreams. And to reach our dreams, we will set goals. 

Plan to reach your goals. Setting little plans will help us reach our goals. Like in basketball, our goal is to shoot the ball in the basket ring. Plans will be the process on how we will be able to shoot it. 

Put action into your plans.  Personally, I love writing down my plans then checking it one by one if I was able to do it. it may be a daily or weekly or even monthly basis. It all depends on you. The most important thing is you do it, you tick check your list. 

About Fear and Failures. Fear and Failures are just detours along your journey. Don’t let it stop you from moving forward towards your destination. Fear will always be felt when we are not comfortable. Failure doesn’t define us but our ability to go up and do it again. 

Good attitude leads you to success. Next are skills and talent. 

Build a strong relationship with your family. No matter how successful you will be in life, if you are alone, it’s nonsense. Tag along your family and closest people whom you trust on your journey. 

Take worthy people with you. Learn with them. Help them as you go up along. I personally define this as they say, ‘Pay it forward’. When you’re already there, share it with deserving people. Blessings are better when shared. When someone helps you, help others as well even though it was yourself who helped you.

One Hour Everyday. Allot at least one hour to do for your self improvement. Success has sacrifices.

There is growth in changes. 

Mentioned above were just a few of the things we can learn from this book and I highly recommend this to people who at some time were feeling lost in life, like me. 

One of my goals in life is self development. I still want to learn more and be better as I’m still searching for my true purpose in life. This book is a great help.  

After reading the book, here’s a checklist that I want to do as an application of what I learned from the book.

My To Do List after reading the book: 

> Collect and reflect worthy quotes from the books I read. 

> Give myself at least one hour a day to study or learn things that will help me improve. 

> Embrace changes. Feel the fear but do it anyway. There is growth and learning in every failure.

> Establish plans to reach our goals. And stick to it. 

Looking forward to reading more books as helpful as this.

My Lockdown Journal (2020)

We can all admit that 2020 was a very challenging year. As everyone experienced around the globe, we all took a pause. Lives were changed, many lost their jobs, some lost their loved ones, and in a snap of a finger, we can't hug everybody. Our homes became our comfort box. We were afraid and paranoid to go outside. We were scared to meet other people. Travel became a dream. 

Most of my blog posts here were about my travels and adventures and since we can't travel yet, I filled my journal with my almost everyday routine. 

Sharing with you some of my journal entries from March to December 2020. These were my random thoughts that I had the chance to put in writing. 

Putting it here also so someday I can look back on what I have been through this year of 2020. 

By the end of 2019, I looked forward to a better 2020 and I claimed that this would be my best year but my expectations failed me and it's alright. I just believe that this was just a pause and we can still continue. Life goes on and we will get through this. Besides, there were happy moments that I have still got to experience this year. 

Happy reading!

My Grateful Thoughts When You Walked Away

Date Written: March 21, 2020

It was painful but I was grateful.

It was sad but I found new source of happiness.

It was dark but I discovered new light.

My world has been shattered but I have explored the other side of it.

My heart was broken into million pieces but I became unbreakable.

I thought I will never move on but I have moved forward.

At first, I don’t know what to do but in the end; there’s a lot of things to do and I can still do!

I thought that half of me was lost, but in reality, I was more of I can be.

Thank you so much when you chose to leave, thank you when left me broken and lost. I’ve got another chance in life that I never thought that I can have.

It is really true that when we got our heart broken, we will try to do different things and we will go to different places that we have never been yet. We will also have the courage to meet new people and to escape out of our comfort zones.

When the love of my life left me, I finally had the courage to dare myself to do what I really wanted to do.  All of those things were just on my bucket list and I have found the very perfect timing to one by one tick it.

Here’s some of the things I have done while healing my heart:

-        To volunteer. I went on a slum community, to feed hundreds of kids, to teach poor children and to give love, happiness, care to those in need. It wasn’t easy. I got scared to go alone. It was scary to go to place I am not familiar with and to meet other people.

-        To meet new people.  I have discovered that outside what I was used to, there’s a lot of people who grew up differently from mine. Their norm was different from my norm. Their lifestyle and family background differed from mine. But even though we all came from different walks of lives; I was fortunate to befriend some of them. It was such a fulfilling feeling to befriend strangers, to be an extrovert once in a while. I have also learned that people will really come and go into our lives. Some will stay but most of them will just pass by.

-        To go to the places, I have never been yet. Travelling nowadays is the latest trend. Most of the people my age as young as they can be, invested on travelling. Experience will always be better than material things. Beaches are my greatest escaping zones.

-        To conquer mountains but actually, it is myself that I am conquering. Hiking also became a hype. From weekend night clubs into mountain summits just before the sun rises. People switched to hiking and camping instead of partying at bars. Views from the mountain top are better than disco lights. I was fortunate to hike more than 30 mountains as of this writing and I thank God for always protecting me whenever I go to another adventure. Through hiking, I also got to meet new people and some of them even became my friends.

-        To travel alone. This is scary but I was happy that in this lifetime, I’ve tried it. It is really scary but thrilling. And at the end of the day when you got home, you will be proud of your self and be thankful for everything.

-        To write more. When I was broken, I was able to write more stories and it was even got approved! I have regularly updated my blog as well. Through writing, I have expressed my true feelings and thoughts. This has been the best tool that I had when healing my heart.

-        To cherish more people who are around me. It is true that when someone leave you, you will more appreciate those who chose to stay for you. We are more than lucky by having friends and family whom we can run and will never ever leave us. We can also share our griefs with them to lighten the burden we are feeling.

-        To learn new things like the Korean language. Crazy enough, I enrolled on a Korean class. And because of this, I have learned their alphabets and can read it. I may not fully understand yet what I am reading because it takes a lot of time to memorize their dictionary but it felt proud that somehow, I have learned a new skill.

Dear My Love,

Thank you for leaving me as I was able to do things that I thought I will never do and meet new people I thought I won’t have to. I’ve been to places I didn’t imagine to go without you. I’ve also got to experience life from another perspective. I thought my whole world was you but I’ve discovered that you were just a small part of it and there’s more to it. I’ve grew up! And became a better version of myself.

I will be forever grateful.

Yours,

Diwata Blog