Moo, Ondoy, and shipping

All from Moo

This is not a typical wedding... and we didn't want it to be. If we can deviate from the usual weddings that folks see every Sunday, the better it would be.

No, we will not break any rule... we just want something fresh. Something that people would remember. Something simple, yet elegant.

Nothing was spared in the quest to be different... not even the invitation.

Right. The invitation. It somehow starts the ball rolling. The invitation sets the pace and the mood for which a couple's wedding will be perceived. I think it is safe to say that our invitation set the tone for the entire event.

As noted above, we wanted something simple. We'd have none of the usual clutter that came with typical wedding invitations. A postcard-like invite with images in front and minimal text at the back would do.

This is where Moo.com came in. I have used Moo mini cards for personal consumption before and I thought Moo's cards were perfect for what we wanted.

All I had to do was create the image that would be printed in front of the postcard and let their online facility handle the rest, including payment by credit card.

We chose the standard shipping method for our orders since we had weeks of lead time allotted for the arrival. It was early August then and our orders are supposed to arrive in 10-15 business days if the Philippine postal gods were of any good.

As expected, they weren't.

It was already the last week of September and our orders haven't shown up yet. Our hearts were now beating twice the normal rates during these times and anxiety has already crept in. The RSVP date of September 30 was racing.

We decided to contact Moo's customer support in hopes of finding answers to every imaginable question we have. Moo got back to us and said that orders sent to the Philippines have taken as long as 6 weeks to arrive. I think I uttered a dozen WTFs when I learned this.

Furthermore, Moo said that if our orders still hasn't arrived after this weekend, it would be safe to assume that our invites were already lost in the post.

Then something happened during the weekend. Typhoon Ondoy happened.

If there were still hopes of getting our invitations, Ondoy quashed all of them. Virtually the entire city was up to its neck in flood water. If our invitations were indeed already the post office, they would've been submerged in murk.

We turned to Moo again and informed them that our invites still haven't arrived. We also told Meir, the heaven-sent Moo staff, about the urgency of our predicament.

Meir told us not to worry. We'd just have to re-order our invites and she'd do the rest.

So we did re-order everything and Meir took care of the shipping. This time, shipping is now express... with tracking... and all of this was done without an extra penny being charged to us. Heaven-sent Meir was, I told you.

Boom! After three days, our invites were delivered. We now have smiles on our faces and our dream wedding was definitely on. ^_^

Our single-page wedding invitation by Moo

Our Moo "Thank you" mini-cards that would be attached to our souvenirs

The custom Moo stickers that would seal the envelopes

Anything, and everything

The title of this initial post is actually two-pronged -- first, my fiancée is anything, and everything to me... and I do believe that it's the other way around too... or else I'd really be pissed. ^_^

Secondly, this blog would try to cover all the things that were involved in making this wedding a reality, and with God willing, an astonishing success. Yes -- anything, and everything about the matrimony will be included. Hopefully more.

To get things rolling, I'll start with the image on the header of this blog.

The images on the upper-right are photos of my fiancée and I that were taken when we were still toddlers. Judging from the hands of a giant clock and a flag pole behind me, you can say that mine was taken at the Luneta Park. I wore a Mickey Mouse shirt with matching red shorts.

However, unlike mine, my fiancée's photo was, admittedly, a bit boring (love you Labs), but it was more fun! It was taken at her grand parents' house in Quezon City. She was dancing with her back against a door when the image was made. Yup, boring... but fun, right? Well, we actually didn't have enough time to rummage through all her pictures that were taken when she was still a lass, so we didn't bother.

The images were slanted towards each other at the bottom to keep up with the layout's overall style.

The words "Sa Wakas", or as translated -- "Finally", were but fitting. We've been together for over a decade now, and this matrimony is the culmination of the level of our current relationship. The font used was "Scriptina"... I think.

The symbol on the lower-left was made in PS CS3. I wanted it to look as though it has been stamped -- similar to the symbols stamped on one's passport as he or she goes through customs. Necessarily, our names had to be in it along with the date. The logo of Fridays Beach Resort was added during the last minute to remove the awkward white-space in the middle. Besides, the logo reinforced the fact that we were getting married on an island that is considered to have one of the best, if not the best, beaches in the world -- the island of Boracay.

As with our photos, the symbol was slanted.

The faint image on the background (with the über-clear engagement ring) is a photo of our hands as I inserted the ring onto her finger. She wanted the ring to stand out (what lady wouldn't, right?), thus the need to make the ring clearer than our hands.

The colors. Well, I decided that, to maintain simplicity and cohesion with the wedding's motif, I would use earth-colors as the main hue. What color is more "earthy" than brown, huh?

So there. By the way, and I almost forgot to tell you this -- that image on the header? It's our wedding invitation. ^_^

Time check: It's ten days before the big day. I'm guessing that around this time, come that day, the mass would've ended and dozens of photos are being taken. :)