book i: pre-production

us

Love of Photography

I had never taken any form of photography class all my life.  I don’t have a top of the line kick ass monster camera.  I probably would never.  I do not have the desire to.  And while these seemingly negate what I am about to write.  It is true.

I love photography. 

I love images.  It may be a single frame from a movie clip.  It may be a polariod.  It could well be even in instagram.  Or a still from a dream—an image in my mind.  

Love.

I love looking at pictures.  Good ones.

I maybe, can spend an afternoon just taking in the beauty in frames.  I sometimes get lost looking at images.  There had been times when I just could not stop looking.

I don’t consider myself a photographer--far from it.  But I’d like to think that there are times when I am thrown a carrot.  All the elements come together and I am allowed to capture that moment perfectly.  And for me, those moments are enough.

I am an enthusiast.  Not a professional.

My Love

My husband and I hardly have any photos together.

Sometimes, a birthday goes by without one photo taken.  This bothered me. 

I think about the lack of photographs, but it had always been a constant struggle--taking photos seems to pull us away from the present.  It gets in the way of now.  

It breaks my heart, the thought of not having something to remember us by.  I mean, if we are going The Notebook here, how would I remember?

Our Love, Captured

In celebrating our love, through the sacrament of marriage, my husband and I knew that we had to find the team who could give us what me don't have, in a form that is raw and pure. 

We wanted a team who sees us--and puts us in a frame in their artists' eye. 

It almost seemed like a quest for a love.

A Journey of Love

We looked. 

Everywhere.

We looked at so many websites that it was exhausting.  I personally, was close to feeling spent.

I contacted friends who got married the last couple of years and asked them for their shortlist. 

Maybe, I thought.  Maybe we will find them there.

And just when I thought I had seen everyone, my husband sent me a web address.

Look at this.  He wrote.

That was all.  

Look at this.

It was lunchtime.  And I didn’t have the energy to look—given our track record.  I decided to wait till evening. 

Love at First Sight 

Jeff and Lisa. 

I had not come across them before.  Their names were not familiar.

But I typed into the URL and looked.

Saw.

Loved.

The images that drew me to the husband-and-wife team were not that of a wedding nor a couple.  It was a series of portraits of a young family taken in their home.

I could feel the love.  Really.  Truly. 

Pure.  Innocent.  Bliss.

I could never forget how real those images felt.  Happiness immortalized. 

The way the sunlight went through the windows, refracted by the motion of the curtains. 

The curve of the children’s feet. 

The smiles.

The imperfections of day to day life; the perfection of unconditional love.

Perfect, imperfect. 

Reality. 

Then, I knew.

New Age Love

I asked my husband how he felt about their work--Jeff and Lisa’s.

He said that when he saw it, he had a feeling I would like their style.

I contacted Lisa and set an appointment.

That meeting just validated what I already knew, the search was over.

Perhaps, this is how modern love grows.  Digital touch points.  Virtual connections.

Love Blossoms

We met Jeff and Lisa personally in Manila when we went home to attend a friend’s wedding.  By then, Lisa and I would have already exchanged long emails wedding and non-wedding related.

Meeting her in person was really exciting for me. It was like I was meeting an old friend.

The couple walked into the veranda of the café all smiling.  I bet that even if I didn’t know how Lisa looked like, the giant smile she had on her alone would have told me, it was her.

The Lovers

I can say that I like Jeff and Lisa even when they are not Jeff and Lisa, husband and wife photographers.

I like them as Jeff and Lisa, husband and wife.  Just the same.

You spend time with a couple and you get a good feel of how they are.  How they deal.  How in love they are.

This is not to say they are lovey dovey.  They are professional and appropriate in every way possible.  But, you see their love.  I think love can’t be hidden by formalities and professionalism.

And I think this love reflects on their work. 

And I think they are truly the people you want to be around you on your wedding day.

Believers.

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Note: This is the first instalment.  More entries to come as I sort though the box of photos and a flash drive full of images from our big day.   

Wedding Suppliers: first things first

After getting over (just a little bit) the high of our engagement, my husband and I decided on a date--range.

Our wedding date would be one year from our engagement date.  Not for any reason except that we felt we needed a year to plan our wedding.

We soft set two Saturdays in our minds and decided that the estimate would be a good enough gauge for the next few weeks when we would start talking to suppliers and booking big ticket items.

What are we talking about here?

Church
Reception Venue
Photographer
Videographer
Wedding Gown (Custom vs. Off the Rack)
Wedding Coordinator
Wedding Bands

Okay.  So maybe wedding bands arrangement was not really something urgent, but it was something I wanted to look into early in the game.

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I would probably write separate entries on the stories of each supplier.  Who we booked first, which suppliers we contacted--maybe I will omit some names.

Maybe I will share a lot of back stories.

Maybe. Maybe.

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Going back to the story, we later took on a wedding date that was not exactly one year, but very close to the anniversary of our engagement.

As the only thing we were sure of was the reception venue.  We immediately contacted the hotel.  As we were early, we had a free pass to choose any date from the month that we selected.

We were so eager to get the paperwork done so the date would be ours.  However, we were surprised that the events coordinator was being cool and overly relaxed to secure our deposit.

It won't be until we selected our wedding coordinator that we found out that things ran differently in Cebu.  It was not as cut throat as far as booking places and suppliers go in Manila.  People were generally more comfortable securing dates and bookings based on verbal agreements and personal relationships.

Long story short, while our reception venue was the first thing we wanted to book book, we had to rely on a verbal yes (not a contract, not even an email) that the venue was reserved for us.

If you know me, you would know how this would sit uncomfortably with me.  But in planning our wedding, I needed to trust our suppliers.

Trust me, I kept insisting that they take our money.  They wouldn't.  Instead, they reassured me that we were pencil booked.  And that was supposedly solid.  I literally asked them if I could get it inked.  They ignored me.

I was not too happy setting dates with the church and other suppliers with our reception venue not inked.  But like I said, when in Rome....

Needless to say, the pencil booking in Cebu, truly holds.

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This is where a side story comes into play.

Conversations with my brother and sister in law brought about another venue in Cebu.  It would be rare for either one practically beaming about a place that would suit the wedding they felt I had in mind.

They spoke of a quaint resort in Cebu that they had grown fond of.

As much as I trusted their opinion, I thought maybe to make things simpler, we should just stick with our first choice.

On a separate occasion, we were talking to our Wedding Coordinator (WC) about our vision of how our wedding would be.  Eyes sparkling, she said that maybe we should also look into another venue because it seemed perfect for what we had in mind.

What venue?  You guessed it.  THE SAME VENUE my brother and sister in law were talking about.

At this point, my husband and I could not longer ignore the obvious.  The other venue needs to be considered.  We had to check it out.

Long story short, we loved the other venue.  However, there were too many constraints.  In the end, while it was a good contender, our first option won. 

Note:  In hindsight, I know we made the right decision.

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It was only six months later that they finally agreed that we were ready to sign a contract.  Alleluia.  

And that is as exciting as our wedding reception venue booking story could go.

Photos to follow.