How to Plan for a Beach Wedding (Our Dream Beach Wedding)

It’s been two months since we did our dream beach wedding! It happened on May 5, 2023 at 5PM, dusk, my fave time of day. Happy 2nd Beach Wedding Monthsary to us! My blog is on US Time Zone but it’s July 5 now in the Philippines. I’m starting a beach wedding series and this would be my first blog post about it. If this is your first time to get to know me, you can go back to my previous post about our pre-wedding film which would also connect you to a series of my wedding engagement posts. I’m sort of an OC kind of person and I just want the documentation of my memories organized. This is in case I get Alzheimer’s in the future (I hope not!) and honestly, just doing it this way makes me so happy. It’s like I get to relive each moment as words pour out of me… Teehee. So, let’s start…

A LITTLE BACKGROUND…

When I was 20 years old, I remember attending a wedding of my 2nd cousin and I remember how I had nothing to wear. I remember going there, just wearing a simple black and gold sleeveless dress and being in awe of it all, seeing how grand it was, and feeling pity for myself knowing that I could probably never have that kind of a wedding. I grew up with this poverty mindset and as a scholar on my 4th year in college and Asian crisis looming in the horizon (the year was 1998), I just couldn’t see myself in the future being able to have that dream wedding any normal girl dreams of. I was 20 and I was just trying to ace my subjects so I can finally graduate and prove to my grandparents that I can maintain 100% scholarship in one of the best and one of the most expensive universities in the Philippines. They were against my Ateneo education — they wanted me to become a UP state scholar which I almost did coz I passed the UPCAT and went there the 1st day of registration but decided to enroll at Ateneo de Manila University instead since I passed the ACET too and was offered a full academic scholarship) That feeling of not being worthy of something as beautiful as my cousin’s wedding stuck with me, maybe that’s why my own dream beach wedding never happened for a long time, even during my 1st marriage. So much money had passed through my hands but I always wondered why it never happened. It even became one of the major reasons that triggered my 1st marriage’s breakdown (long story short, I was planning and saving up for it, my ex wasn’t).

Okay, enough drama (haha!); we’re both in our respective happy places now… Going back to the topic, how does a couple plan for their dream beach wedding? The 3 major steps below might help. Read on…

1. DECIDE WHAT KIND OF WEDDING YOU WANT IT TO BE

The Harbour, Chateau by the Sea, Mactan, Cebu

It took a year of meticulous planning for my dream beach wedding to materialize. Mahal is okay with any kind of wedding but I don’t want a church wedding. I’m not religious like that. For us, God is everywhere there is love and the more beautiful the backdrop of our wedding is, the better for us. We considered having it at our mini resort like some sort of a beautiful garden wedding since Oslob New Village is lush with bamboo, coconut trees, shrubs and other greenery so we can save on costs. You saw the pre-nup photos taken inside our mini resort. It’s really very doable and it would have been really lovely.  But I think in the ten years that I‘ve lived with Mahal, my dream of having a beach wedding slowly rubbed off on him until he wanted one too! So we scratched the idea of a garden wedding. Hihihi!

Hence, after our engagement in Shangri-la Mactan last year (April 24, 2022), we considered Shangri-la as our venue. Too bad, they do have a nice beach but they don’t offer it as an exclusive wedding ceremony and reception venue. If you’ve watched my vlog about Shangri-la, they have a cliff overlooking the sea for a wedding venue, or a garden, or a triangular chapel. We didn’t like any of it and so we went ahead and scouted for other various possible venues in Mactan like beaches and resorts we’ve frequented over the years — Crimson and Plantation Bay. We also considered Sumilon Island in Oslob. But nothing screamed “Try me! Try me!”  LOL! 

Since we have a year to plan the whole thing, we set aside the venue first and decided to get a coordinator to help us plan. At least, we already have some tentative venues we can re-consider later on.

2. LOOK FOR A WEDDING COORDINATOR

Sometime May 2022, we met with Mae Rosaldo of Hasol No More to give our down payment…

To find a suitable coordinator that is within our budget, I’ve posted a shoutout on all Cebu Facebook pages I know. I got numerous recommendations and started chatting with all of them to narrow down my options. I made a spreadsheet of the pros and cons of each one but ultimately followed my gut feel. We then met with Mae Rosaldo of Hasol No More. She was at Bayfront Hotel in Cebu City at that time and was preparing for a debut party. We liked the decors they did. But we didn’t decide yet if we’ll get her. Before our first meeting, she also recommended a good beach wedding venue, Chateau by the Sea, which we visited right after our Shangri-la stay since it’s just nearby and we immediately fell in love with the place.  The following month (May 2022), before we went to Camotes island for our 2-week engagement honeymoon, we felt that she would be the best coordinator for our dream beach wedding. So we met with her again to give a down payment and formalize the commitment. 

In terms of the packages she offers, we didn’t exactly pick one from her offerings. Since ours is quite unique (we’re only expecting to invite a few people and we’re not even sure if we can do the traditional ceremony), our wedding became a fully customized one with updates and changes that happened every step of the way until the big day. 

3. LIST THE DETAILS OF THE WEDDING (BEFORE, DURING & AFTER)

Our photo with wedding suppliers, assistant coordinators, photo & video crew, emcee, etc…

Now that we have a wedding coordinator, it became so much easier since she already had a timeline and list of things we can just follow and customize to our own unique needs. Since we had a year to prepare, we were able to spread out everything that needs to be taken care of according to priorities. I am the type of person who likes doing things DIY style but doesn’t like to get rushed because rushing makes me super stressed. So I’m really glad Mahal agreed to my decision of doing the beach wedding a year after our engagement. We won’t feel so pressured and we’d have enough time to decide what to add or take out of our nuptial celebration. 

The items below were the details we meticulously planned for. It’s up to you and your fiancé how simple or grand your wedding will be. Ours started out as a plan for a simple intimate beach wedding good for only 10-20 people max because we hated the idea of hassling anyone to come to our wedding. Most of my family and friends are old and live in Manila. We now live in Cebu. So it will really be costly, tiring, and time-consuming for anyone to come attend our wedding and we didn’t want to impose. We were prepared for our beach wedding to just be us and a few close relatives and friends who live in Cebu if push comes to shove that no one from outside Cebu will be able to come to our wedding. But God blessed us so much with kind-hearted family and friends that we ended up with about 40+ guests and decided to add some more things that will make our dream beach wedding out of the ordinary. It was an almost all-expenses paid  kind of wedding celebration because we took care of most expenses for our family, entourage and sponsors as a thank you for their willingness to come all the way to Mactan for our wedding and to Oslob to do the after-wedding tours. We took care of their hotel stays, food, transportation, & tour packages. The only thing we didn’t shoulder were their fares from their place (Manila & Cagayan de Oro) to Cebu and back.   

Again, these were the items on our general wedding list that we meticulously planned for:

  • Perfect date for our beach wedding based on numerology
  • Bachelorette and Stag Parties + exotic dancers
  • Pe-Wedding Hotel Stays
  • Wedding Ceremony & Reception Venue
  • Wedding Theme
  • Wedding Color Motif
  • Wedding Invitation
  • Wedding Cake
  • Wedding Souvenirs
  • Wedding Ceremony Officiant
  • Wedding Dresses and Robe
  • Wedding Shoes
  • Wedding Accessories
  • Hair & Makeup Artist
  • Entourage
  • Entourage Attire
  • List of Primary and Secondary Sponsors
  • Guest List
  • Photographer
  • Videographer with SDE (same day edit)
  • Ceremony and Reception Decors
  • Ceremony and Reception Lights
  • LED Dance Floor
  • LED Wall
  • Pre-Wedding Music
  • Entourage Entrance Music
  • Bridal March Music
  • Reception Entrance Music
  • Wedding Program & Emcee
  • DJ and Lights
  • Grazing Table for Snacks
  • Wedding Dinner Buffet
  • Wedding Desserts Buffet Table 
  • Unlimited Cocktail Mobile Bar
  • Doves
  • Firework
  • Singers
  • Speeches
  • Dance Numbers
  • Photo Booth
  • After Wedding Party Buffet
  • After Wedding Cocktail Mobile Bar
  • After Wedding Hotel Stay
  • Mactan-Oslob-Cebu City Van Transport
  • Weekend Tour Packages for Guests
  • Weekend Hotel Stays and Accommodations 
  • Meals for the Duration of the Wedding Tours

I basically plotted these things on my calendar and talked to my wedding coordinator about them every chance I’d get. There were times I would panic and/or get so excited and there were days when everything feels so overwhelming that I’d catch myself catching my breath! Lol!  …as if I was hyperventilating! Or maybe I was hyperventilating… hmmmm… Anyway, it was really a roller coaster ride! As the months passed by, more and more things on my extensive list got accomplished and the only thing left to do the last few days was to pray so hard for a very good weather. Because all these would be a total waste and disaster if we’d get rained upon on our dream beach wedding day! Well, I’ll tell you more about it as I continue with this wedding blog post series. 

On my next post, I’ll detail the items I mentioned including the expenses we incurred. It might help some who are planning for a similar kind of wedding and who are a bit OC (obsessive-compulsive) like me. 

Til my next post! ^_^

UPDATE: Here’s the next post — How Much Does An Intimate Destination Beach Wedding Cost?