A little over a month ago I had the pleasure of photographing Kayce & Dearen’s wedding in Red Deer. After the wedding I sent off a few questions for the newly weds to answer, in hopes they might have some advice for future brides. Heres a few of their responses:

Tell us a little about you both, where you are from and how you met.

Dearen was born and raised in Belgium and moved to Canada with his family when he was eleven years old. I was born and raised in the Philippines and moved to Canada when I was six years old. We both graduated from different schools in different cities. We enjoy watching and playing sports! We’re absolutely avid Flames fans! We have a little dog name Iggy! She’s named after the Flames captain, Jarome Iginla!

We met in February 2006 at a country bar called Billy Bob’s through our friends who were dating at that time! Let’s just say his “country dancing skills” are what hooked me in! We started texting each other. Those texts then turned to phone calls for hours, which then turned into a relationship that started in July of 2006.
Here we are, over five years later… Married and growing stronger each moment together. We’re best friends and we’re so blessed to have found love in each other.
Why did you choose this style for your wedding? What inspired you?

My absolute favourite colour in the world is green. I had always known that green would be the theme colour for our wedding. Somewhere along the start of the planning process, I also fell in love with the deep, eggplant colour of purple. We are a simple couple. We kept our décor and theme simple and crisp all around the colour green and purple.

We are both Catholic and we chose to get married in the church that I grew up going to. It’s a beautiful, one of a kind church! We chose the Capri as our venue because of the beautiful brick walls and gorgeous chandeliers. Also, they have fantastic food there!

My inspiration came from many wedding blogs on the internet! There are so many great blogs out there now and brides are so fortunate to be able to have easy access to all the wonderful ideas out there.
Did you have any DIY elements and can you tell us more about how you did them?

Yes! I made all the invitations myself! It took a lot of hours but I absolutely loved doing them! The invitation is the first thing that gave our guests the feel to our wedding. I found the perfect green coloured paper at Michael’s and bought transparent paper. Dearen and I found a short poem that we adored and added that to our wording in the invitation. It was elegant, yet simple with a perfect combination of green and purple accents in the writing and the bow.

Dearen’s idea of doing a magnet invitation was great! Instead of an invitation, we made Save-the-Date magnets that we sent out with our invitations instead of ahead of time. It’s a great way to remind our guests of our upcoming special day every day because they’ll have it placed on their fridge! Also, we created a label and seal to put on the invitation envelopes! Both the label & seal and magnet are from the absolute great MagnetStreetWeddings!

I had my seamstress make my veil. I then took a lot of time to bead it myself. A veil from the bridal store was out of budget for me. I gathered coupons from Michael’s and had my bridesmaids and my mom come with me so we each could buy a package of Swarovski crystal beads for my veil. After 8 hours of beading, I finally had the veil I absolutely loved. It was simple, yet elegant with a line of crystals that glittered in the light.

The centrepieces were a simple idea that I had thought up and had our wedding coordinator put together that day. We bought simple vases from the Dollarama and tied green and purple bows around them. We bought white hydrangeas from Costco. A friend of ours gave us curly willow branches to use with the pieces. I also made table numbers, the card box and the pew bows at the church. I also put together our guest book. I laid out our engagement pictures by Drew Gregory and dedicated calendar months so our guests can write down their birthdays, anniversary, contact info and well wishes.

Do you have any budget management tips?

I highly suggest making a spreadsheet of all your vendors, decorations, and all other expenses. It is really helpful to get a visual of how much you have spent and how much you have left to pay and how much of your budget you have left. It’s really important not to ignore your budget. Keep updating it as you spend money towards your wedding- doing this will help keep you on track with the budget.

What did you enjoy the most about planning your wedding?

I absolutely loved looking through all the wedding blogs! I made it a daily thing to browse all the different blog sites at least once a day. I loved the time I got to spend with my husband planning our special day. Seeing his excitement when he got involved was great! And of course, shopping for my dress was absolute fun! I got to share that experience with my best friend, my mom, grandma, aunt and cousin!
What were your favourite moments / any surprises on the day?

My favourite moment was walking down the aisle and seeing Dearen for the first time that day! I was filled with so much joy and love. I was smiling and crying, I couldn’t hold it in! That moment was ours and ours alone. Our friends and family there as our witness of our love!

Dearen’s favourite part was the dancing and photobooth! Our DJ was such an awesome find! He was so entertaining! Also, the photobooth was fantastic! Knowing that all our guests were having a blast thanks to both the DJ and Drew with the photobooth made that day even more special! We had an amazing day, and it was great that everyone else had a blast too!

What advice would you give to other couples planning their weddings?

Make sure to do your homework about your vendors!!!

I found our DJ through looking at someone’s wedding blog. They’re honest and true review is what got me to contact the DJ. Talking to him just sealed the deal and he was the best DJ we could’ve ever asked for! Make sure to establish a relationship with your photographer! Your photographer will be with you all day! Once you have found someone whose work you love, make sure you do your part and get to know them too! Become acquainted with them! By doing so, the connection you’ll have with your photographer will show in your pictures!!

If it is in your budget, I highly suggest you invest in a Wedding Coordinator. They’re not there to plan your wedding, but rather to help you carry out your plans on your wedding day! Julianne from Julianne Young Weddings was ours and she was one of the best investments we made! Her and her team worked the day before and the day of to make sure all our planned details were done exactly as we had discussed! She was there to calm me down when I was stressed about something with the wedding! Again, not only did we have Julianne there to make sure everything go smooth, but we gained a friend!

Soak it all in and have fun! Enjoy the moments! It’s such a special time. You can get so wrapped up in making your wedding unique, one of a kind, one for websites to blog about! I know at times, I felt so stressed trying to making everything so detailed that I lost touch of what that day is really about. It’s about you and the love of your life. It’s the start of a marriage- day to share with your friends and family. Thinking back to the planning and some of the stressful times, I realized how much I really didn’t need to be pulling my hair sometimes.
Anything else that helps to tell the story of your day?

Dearen and I both lost a parent since we have been together. All day, we felt their presence with us. We honoured them during our ceremony at church and through our speeches and dance during the reception. Such tragedy was not at all forgotten that day. We made sure to have them be a big part of our day. We didn’t focus on the sadness that they weren’t there in person. Instead, we accepted the blessing of the love that both had given each of us and our family and friends. Even in the simplest ways, we felt it was so very important to honour them and we did.

Dearen and I have the most amazing, magical day that we could’ve ever asked for! We felt all the fun each one of our guests had and that made our day even more amazing! After everything, we just knew we made the best choices in each vendor we chose! They were all awesome and that played a huge part in making our day so successful and so much fun not only for us, but for everyone!