But I had a slight problem. Our theme, as defined as it may sound, is actually quite vague, especially if you’ll consider that different parts of the world conjure different images of the term ‘country-style’. British country-style depicts an English countryside landscape with its cottage houses, floral gardens and courtyards, with tea and teapots and bread pudding on the table. American country-style, particularly those in the Southern regions, paints the picture with a barn or a farm or a river view as the backdrop, complemented and accentuated with materials you would commonly see in these places. I’m sure other prominent cultures like Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Spanish, etc have their own take on what is ‘country’ for them.

So my challenge was to define a country-style wedding in Philippine setting. And the Filipino culture being so diverse and multi-faceted doesn’t help that much. I also had to go easy with ‘Filipino details’ so as not to cross the line between a Filipino country-style and a Filipiniana theme. To find ideas to work on, I had to revisit old memories of childhood summers spent in the province, because the province is where lies the true heart of a Filipino countryside. And what was I reminded of?

I was reminded of fruit-trees growing in the backyard; of potted plants lining the front yard; of pieces of furniture and home decors and almost everything inside the house made up of native materials such as wood, wicker, rattan and Capiz shells; of grandma’s laces and pearls and jewelry boxes; of oil lamps and wooden picture frames.

Warm, homey, laid-back and rustic notes dominate my memories and I want the same to resonate during our wedding.

It was 10 p.m. on the eve of our wedding and I was holding the unfinished craft on my hand, thinking whether or not I should spend the next two or three hours to finish it or sleep.

I decided to sleep. But before I did, I just took a picture of what I consider as my most ambitious DIY project. That didn’t make it on our wedding day.

Here they are:

Our DIY wedding cord made of faux pearls, metal beads (rose, Celtic, etc) and featuring

the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal that I wore all throughout my high school years.

Our Spanish lace secondary veil that I ordered from eBay and got for less than P300 (shipping included).

Our wedding treasure boxes that served as our ring and arrhae holder.

I fitted them with foams wrapped with excess fabric from my bridesmaid’s gown.

For the ring box, I sew an organza ribbon onto the foam to hold our “treasure”.

This is our gift for the bridesmaids. Bought them for P100. I thought they looked too simple

so I decided to glam them up with pearl bracelets (P5) and rose and feather pins (P30).

And declared that they were “made with love”.

Each pouch bag contained mint, facial tissue and matching compact mirror.

Bought these totally adorable compact mirrors for P10 each. Fab find, wasn’t it?

Our gifts for the groomsmen: A stainless keychain with their names engraved on it.

Keychain costs P55 and engraving, P20.

To be consistent with the color motif, we wrapped the boxes with green silk ribbons.

Our gifts for the principal sponsors. Pink for the females. Blue for the males.

What’s inside? This chic candle holder.

Male principal sponsors also got wines as gifts that came inside these Buri wine bags. My mom bought them from Bicol for P10 each. Ribbon doesn’t suit most males so I fashioned a ‘neck tie’ instead. Our female sponsors got fruits baskets but I wasn’t able to take pictures of them. Baskets were also bought from Bicol for P25 each.

Our cute gift for the flower girls. Took advantage of the holiday sale at a toy store and bought them for P150.

This hat was supposed to be a headdress for our flower girls. But they looked so lovely on the teddies. Bought these nylon ribbon hats for P10 each and decorated them with DIY green silk rosettes and white ruffles.

Because the hats were taken, I made this instead. Glued sequin flowers on an ordinary headband. Sequin flowers were P5 each and headband was P25.

My mom tried one on. So pretty!

We used Kenshin and Kauro action figures as our caketopper. But we have 3 extras

which we gave to our bearers.

And lastly, the brown paper bags that held our wedding favors:

the money-tree plant.