Joyeuses Noces de Coton

I am probably one of the luckiest people out there who actually met and married their soul mates.
Forever grateful and feeling blessed.

dress: Vera Wang

shoes: Jimmy Choo (get it here; I wore the champagne color)

 tux: Calvin Klein

shoes: Cole Haan

all photos by Gwendolyn Tundermann Photography

(sharing my favorite poem that my sister-in-law Lisa read during our wedding ceremony)

i carry your heart with me
by ee cummings

i carry your heart with me
(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it
(anywhere i go you go, my dear;
and whatever is done by only me
is your doing, my darling)

i fear no fate
(for you are my fate, my sweet)
i want no world
(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root
and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky
of a tree called life;
which grows higher than the soul can hope
or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder
that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart

(i carry it in my heart)
.
.
.


Joyeuses Noces de Coton my hubby!

xoxo,
Tey

CPB: Our Wedding Featured at Style Me Pretty - Florida

I am so excited to share this news with all of you - I have been holding out on posting our official wedding pictures by Gwendolyn Tundermann because the lovely ladies at Style Me Pretty - Florida is featuring our wedding today!

Photography by Gwendolyn Tundermann

Please feel free to check it out here and leave us some love =)).

my dress: Vera Wang / Photography by Gwendolyn Tundermann

Thank you SMP! We are very happy and honored to be featured in your blog today =))

Happy almost weekend everyone!

xoxo,

Tey

CPB: Mid-year Love!

It seems like we were just married yesterday but we are now half way through our 1st year wedding anniversary... still so blessed and so loved...

On me Vera Wang gown and Jimmy Choo shoes; 

On GG: Calvin Klein Tux and Cole Haan shoes

photographed by our friend Monic Allarey 

Have a great week lovelies!

xoxo,
Tey

The beginning of happily ever after...

Part 2 of The beginning of happily ever after... now posted on my I Thee Wed blog.

Jimmy Choo Lace in champagne from the Choo 24:7 collection.

Available at Nordstrom.

I hope you are all having a freat week!

xoxo!

And we lived happily ever after...

I was restless and very excited, dying of anticipation to see Gwen's blog for more of our photos.
Gwendolynn Tundermann Photography captured our wedding to a "T". All the emotions we felt that day were very evident in all her shots.

*unofficial from my sister Coco's camera

Head on over to my other blog I thee wed... for more on our wedding.

xoxo,
Tey VJ

Chronicles of a Pinay Bride: Officially Married

I had stopped blogging for a  while to focus on our wedding planning and preparations. I am happy to announce that I am now officially the "Mrs. VJ"!


Now that it is over, I will share more of the details and planning that we have done in my wed site/blog - itheewedevents.com. Wedding tips and lesson learned from my very own wedding planning experience.

In the meantime, please enjoy a sneak peak from our wedding through our wonderful photographers Gwen and Matt Tundermann of Gwendolyn Tundermann Photography.

xoxo,
Tey VJ

Chronicles of a Pinay Bride: Bridesmaids Dresses

I started looking for bridesmaids dresses 2 months ago online. There are several dresses I found that I liked but have not quite decided what they will be wearing other than the color.

So I gathered the girls and had a great time dress shopping with them.

We went to a local boutique and the girls tried on several dresses. By this time, I knew I wanted them to wear tea length dresses in midnight blue color.

My sister and matron of honor will be wearing this style from Bari Jay:

While all my bridesmaids will be wearing the following style from Jasmine Bridals:

Next stop, shoe shopping for the perfect pair to go with their dresses.

xoxo,

Tey

Chronicles of a Pinay Bride: the Wedding Dress

Now, here comes my favorite part about wedding planning - finding the wedding dress. I have envisioned my dress to be elegant and simple with a touch of drama.

I wanted the front of the dress to be simple for a reason:  I wanted me as the bride to be the focus of attention   and not my dress on my big day. I want to wear the dress and not the other way around. It also has to fit in with our venue and the tone of the wedding that we are preparing for.

Source: http://www.amsale.com/bridal/amsalecollection/100714/harlow.shtml

Source: http://www.amsale.com/bridal/amsalecollection/110105/naya.shtml

Source: http://www.amsale.com/bridal/amsalecollection/091231/alexis.shtml

I wanted all the drama to be at the back of my dress. Why? Consider this, during the wedding ceremony - which part of your dress do people stare at the most?

Source: http://moniquelhuillier.com/ 

My point exactly! It's the back and the side (depending on where you are facing).

Source: http://moniquelhuillier.com/

The color has to be ivory and not white. I just think it suits my skin tone better.

Source: http://www.verawang.com/wedding/all-gowns/

And my last criteria was budget. It has to fit my wedding dress budget. So, during my search for the dress, if it falls outside my budget, I did not even bother trying it on so as not to go overboard and regret it later. =)

With these in mind, we went to Sharon Batten to find that perfect dress that not only speaks "me" but that meets all the criteria above.

So on our quest to find the perfect dress for me - I found 3 dresses that I really loved. The first one was from Amsale - Ivory tube top with a full skirt and even though I am a very girlie girl I thought it was a little too much for a 30 something bride to wear.

Here is the second dress that I loved from Monique Lhuillier with impeccable bead work. The back has covered buttons all the way down to the hem. The color was just too stark white for my skin tone.

As much as I love the beading in front, the back lacks the drama that I was looking for.

Then I tried the Vera Wang dress. It screamed "me" the moment I laid eyes on it. It was available in the Ivory color I wanted. It falls within my budget. The front was simple but the back was full of drama! I guess it is true what they say, you'll know when it is the right perfect one for you. I can't wait to wear it on our big day and see my Gg's face when he sees it!

Sorry, you too will not get to see "the dress" until our big day!

Have a great (almost) weekend lovelies!

xoxo,

Tey

P.S.:

Head on over to our friends at Smarter.com's Fashion and Beauty Blog for a chance to win $100.00 Urban Outfitters gift card by clicking here. The contest ends on March 1 at 11:59 PM PST.
Good luck!

Chronicles of a Pinay bride: Save the Date

The past year had been very hectic it went by so fast. The other night I was looking at my electronic calendar and it dawned on me that we are now less than 9 months away from our wedding. Panic stricken, I had to put my bride hat on and resume planning. It's time to send our save the dates to give enough time for our family and friends from outside the country to make plans to attend.

We had ordered our Save the Dates from the Wedding Paper Divas and we finally got them in the mail!

I had to blur out some of the details for privacy but this is the actual pre-invite.

Love the texture of the paper and the subtle colors.



Have a great week!

xoxo,

Tey

Chronicles of a Pinay Bride: The Colors

I have been in hiatus (again) because I have so much going on right now. Work deadlines, travel and wedding planning of course. It is a matter of juggling a balance between all that's going on. It can be very stressful so I want to get as much of the wedding details figured out as early as possible so I do not turn into a Bridezilla!

GG is as much involved as I am in the planning. He comes with me to appointments and does his own research for some of our vendors. I originally planned on having pink and orange colors for our wedding since we originally planned on having our wedding in the summer.

*image from StyleMePretty

But after experiencing how hot it was this year on the date we originally picked - it is not going to be fun for an outdoor wedding. So, the we decided to move the date sometime in fall. Thank goodness our venue and photographer are available!

Considering it will now be in fall, orange now seems very "Halloween-y" for me. Plus, Gg does not like that color anyway. ;-)

*image from StyleMePretty

me: "What do you think about just having pink for our color?"
Gg:  "Navy blue and gold will be nice - the navy colors!"
me:  "No, we are not having a nautical theme in a French country estate venue. I like pink." batting my lashes...
Gg:  "Navy blue and gold - perfect combination. Pink is too girlie."

So, I paused and thought for a while. Hmmm... This will be a long discussion but I do like blue and I also thought of gold as an accent color. So thinking I was doing a compromise that will work to my advantage... 

me:  "Ok, if I  agree to navy blue but with accents of pink would you let me style our wedding the way I want to?"
Gg:  "Yes."
me:  "Deal! Navy blue with pink accent it is!"

*images from StyleMePretty.com

Now Gg is a very manly man - your typical naval officer. So getting him to agree on pink in the color scheme, to me, was a success! So, while I was basking in joy from my "pink" and designing freedom accomplishment, he blurted out -

Gg:  "Baby, I would have agreed to just pink. I was just giving you a hard time!"

Then, winked at me and left the room with a big grin!

I hope you are all having a great week!

xoxo,

T

Chronicles of a Pinay Bride: Our Engagement Pictures Part 2

We got our official Engagement picture disks yesterday and we are so happy to see the complete photos from our session.

Check out how cute the package is in Gwen's signature black and pink colors... and check her ad in the new issue of Get Married magazine!

Here's a few more from our session...

You will not believe how much people were there that day at the beach from these pictures!

It looked like it was taken from a studio with a back draft but I assure you it was not...case in point - our hair is messed up from the breeze =)

Isn't this one gorgeous?

Uh, yes, the cameras are still clicking...

Yes, yes, I know, I noticed where my hand was too lol

And no, I will not tell you what he whispered that made me giggle this much ;-)

It was such a blast working with Gwen and Matt as you can see in our pictures.

Next, deciding on what to do for the Save the Dates...

xoxo,
T

Chronicles of a Pinay Bride: Our Engagement Pictures

A few weeks back, GG and I had our engagement pictures taken. We were very nervous and a little shy posing in public. Yes me! Yes shy! ha ha It is so different posing in front of a timed camera for my lookbook shots. But Gwen and Matt made us feel so at ease! Actually, too at ease that we sometimes forgot we were on a photo session with them and that there are other people around us!

The Casa Marina and Jacksonville Beach are very memorable for us. It was where we went on our second date. The date that confirmed our feelings - that we were meant for each other and that we found our soul mates. So, we wanted to document that day by having our engagement pictures taken there.

Jackie Neal did my makeup. She was so nice and she made it look so natural! I didn't feel like I was wearing any at all!

Gwen released a sneak peak of our Engagement Pictures on her blog. I am so excited to share some of my faves here and be sure to check the rest of the pictures in her blog and say hi!

I love how my GG is still taller than me even with 4 inches heels on!

Credits:

Photographer: Gwendolyn Tundermann

Makeup and Styling: Jackie Neal

What I was wearing: 

Beach shots: Ann Taylot LOFT maxi dress, Michael Kors sandals, BCBG cuff bracelet, gold hoop earrings

Date shots: Banana Republic linen dress, DKNY platform heels, Antropologie necklace

(Both dresses were gifts from GG - isn't he sweet!)

Have a great 4th of July weekend my lovelies!!!

xoxo,
T

Youtube Wednesdays: My Waffle Wife

GG and I will have a traditional wedding with the traditional vows. I am afraid I will forget what to say or just faint from nervousness (that may be a little too extreme). Seriously, we try to tell each other every day how much we mean to each other. So, technically, we say our vows everyday.

Here's one example of how pressure and excitement and everything else can turn your vows to be a little comedic...



Tell me lovelies, did you write your own vows or did you go with the traditional vows?

xoxo,
T

Chronicles of a Pinay Bride: The search for the wedding photographer…

So, we have a date, we found the reception venue (and backup ceremony venue too – to explain why we need a back-up ceremony venue requires a different post) ,   and the next most important thing in our to do list  is the photography.

We, brides, spend a lot of time preparing for the big day. Meticulously planning the details of our wedding from the seating cards to the decorations, I know I want everything to be captured perfectly so when everything is done and over, we can look  back and relive every moment of it.
We have families who reside in different countries – Australia, Canada, Europe, Asia – you name it, and those who reside in different states. Unfortunately, not all of them will make it. This is another reason why photography is critical for me. I want the moment to be captured as it happens. So that when we share the pictures with them, they too will feel like they were there.

What were our criteria for hiring our photographers?

1. Clear photographs
We’ve interviewed a few photographers and noticed that the pictures were clear in their 5×7 samples or albums, but the blow up samples of the same pictures were blurry. Our conclusion – they were shooting in low resolution format.

2. We both like the photo-journalistic style of photography. I do love to pose and I like pictures that look like they came straight out of a magazine. But, I also love the candid shots. Those shots that you would have missed had they not captured it in camera.

3. I researched and viewed tons of websites before I contacted the photographers to meet with them in person and to view more of their printed work. It was very important for GG and I to meet them in person before hiring them to see if we will “click” or feel at ease with them.  How can you smile in the camera if the photographer is obnoxious? And of course, some of the guests are shy and so it might take someone with a fun personality to get them to smile.

4. Budget is also a factor. Although photography is 3rd in our list of priorities, we also have a limit set in our budget.

5. Credentials, references. I interviewed one photographer who bragged that she is a member of the PPA and is insured as well. When we got home I checked her out and did not find her there. Why is this important for us? PPA members’ works are reviewed by other photographers before they are admitted into the association. Who can be a photographer’s worse critic? A fellow photographer.

6. Insurance. Let’s say during the day of the wedding the camera fell and got submerged into the pond. All the pictures have been destroyed. If they are not insured, your pictures are gone!
So, after seeing tons of work. We had found our photographers! Yay! Our choice:

Gwendolyn Tundermann Photography 

This husband and wife destination wedding photographers are just amazing!!!! Their work are gorgeous and their personality – awesome! We met with them over coffee at Starbucks and we ended up chatting and talking for 3 hours!  It’s like we have known them forever!
Gwen and I also have too much in common – we both love photography, we both love accessories and shoes! Now, how awesome is this – she gave me  one of her lens that they have not used for a while! Who does that?! Seriously! Soooo happy and excited to try it out!

We can’t wait for Gwen and Matt to take our pictures!
Check their awesome blog here.

xoxo,

T

***Reposted from http://www.itheewedevents.com, 24 May 2010