If it looks familiar, it`s because it`s the same process Rajo used for Rica`s wedding gown`s cobweb overlay…

WE did a little Q & A with designer Rajo Laurel, who recently collaborated with F&C Jewelry for an interesting weddings-related project (which you will see here soon)

WE: How did you come up with Rica’s wedding gown design?
RL: I did Rica’s debut. So I actually had this played already, what she wanted. That particular history makes it easier for me to understand what she’s looking for in terms of the wedding dress. So, I knew exactly what she wanted when she texted, “Rajo I wanted something barefoot.” What I meant was she wanted a barefoot wedding. She wanted it easy, not fussy, but at the same time different. In fact I was very surprised that she agreed to wear my cobweb piece, which as you know landed on the cover of WWD (Women’s Wear Daily). Not the same thing though, but it’s the same process.

`When I brought to the table the idea of the deconstructed overlay, she said, “Yes, yes, yes! I really love it.” So natuwa ako kasi not all brides would want something like that for their wedding dress. I was so intrigued by the fact that she likes that idea. So from there it was just easy. I wanted something covered for the ceremony, something open for the reception.

The whole concept was really all about a very beautiful lady that got ship-wrecked on a deserted island. So, that’s parang a fantasy, a fantasy that we created for her, like nothing was sort of like too precious. We used sort of like rough edges on the hem, frayed and deconstructed an overlay and used mother-of-pearl beads.

Everything was connected to something from the sea. Something that was beautiful, but at the same time relaxed.

WE: How about the materials used?

RL:The overlay is made from silk jersey, which we shredded. The base dress is actually made from silk chiffon and then it is beaded with mother-of-pearl shells, capiz and crystal beads. It has a belt that is seamed back with Swarovski crystals

WE: Aside from the concept and inspiration, what other things did you take into consideration?

RL: We wanted something that is essentially transformable. Something that we can change into a party dress after. We also wanted something very modest. You know Rica has a very strong Christian faith. She didn’t want something to be overtly sexy. ‘Yung very simple lang, minimal lang. Ayaw nya masyadong sexy.

Photos courtesy of Lito Sy and Teena Barretto

News on Rajo Laurel on WWD courtesy of www.spot.ph

1. Rica Peralejo`s wedding gown
2. Rica Peralejo`s (onsite) wedding video
3. Rica Peralejo`s wedding styled by Beth Amat

WE all want a small (er) waist don`t we? Especially if the process involves:
No surgery.
No photoshop.
No magic camison
No `oatmeal only` diet (but that works too)

Find out how Ciara got the size 22 waistline from our little Q & A with Mich Dulce herself

WE: Ciara Sotto went from a waist-size of 26 down to a 22, how exactly did this happen?

MD: Actually on her actual wedding day her waist was cinched to 20.5 inches. The 22 inch measurement came on the first day she tried on the corset, a month and a half before her wedding. After corset training (a.k.a wearing it every day for that period) it became 20.5. The corsets mould your body shape and basically compresses the body fat. It`s the same theory behind the stories before of old generation Chinese who bind their feet so that they won`t grow.

WE: Where does the waist-bulge go?

MD: Depends where you want it to go. Upon consultation with my clients, I ask them which parts of their body they would like to play up. The corset is cut to push the bulge into whichever area works best for you. For Ciara we pushed everything up to the bust area. In the Mangored photos you can see her cleavage c/o corset

WE: How good is this for a plus-size bride-to-be? Is it better as an underwear or worn outside of the gown?

MD: It`s for anyone who needs to shape their body (which is possibly everyone from skinny girls with no defined waist or boobs, or bigger girls who need to pull in and flatten their tummies. It can be used as underwear for the bridal gown but, in the case of Ciara’s dress, I made a corset that is designed as outerwear. She basically has 2 corsets – the corset she wore to train before her wedding, and the actual bridal garment which has the corset built into it.

WE: You were formally trained in period corsetry, how do you explain in simple words , the difference of your corsets to brands sold in department stores?

MD: My corsets are period corsets, they are historically accurate and are built like the ones you see in period films like Marie Antoinette ,etc. They are made of steel boning and are designed to sculpt the body. Also I make them to order based on the requirements of each of my clients and the body type they have, which really makes a load of difference since you can control which areas you really want to cinch.

WE: Anything else you’d like to say or we need to know about corsets?

MD: It is necessary to corset train, so if you plan to wear one for your wedding you must come in at least 3 months before the wedding so that you can get your training corset a month and a half before. Your gown designer also needs to be advised about the corset because the measurement and fit will change drastically based on the corset.

Photos courtesy of MangoRed Photography

1. Ciara Sotto in Mich Dulce
2. Rica Peralejo`s wedding gown
3. Reem Acra Spring 2011 Collection

Here with Rica are Teena Barretto- her wedding planner and Rica`s niece Nika

WE can`t wait for later when Rajo Laurel, together with F&C Jewelry (which WE featured in our January to July 2010 issue) collaborate to create ‘couture translated into new form’.

Watch for it here =)

Photos courtesy of Lito Sy

1. Rica Peralejo`s (onsite) wedding video
2. Rica Peralejo`s wedding styled by Beth Amat
3. Rica Peralejo`s gown by Rajo Laurel

Here`s an interesting read by LA Times entertainment reporter Leslie Gornstein on how Katy Perry (or celebrities wanting a media-free wedding) can keep the media off her wedding to English actor Russell Brand

Katy Perry has discussed her wedding plans with the media, including her No. 1 priority, which is keeping her wedding plans secret from the media. Go ahead and read that sentence a few times if you need to. Nobody said celebrities have to make a whole lot of sense.

Perry has told Us Weekly she may even elope if that’s what it takes to keep her wedding private, special, and, presumably, exclusive enough that the photos can fetch a decent sum from OK! magazine.

If Perry is really all that worried about keeping her wedding to Russell Brand quiet and exclusive, Perry is a silly, silly girl. Almost every celebrity wedding has basic security to keep out the media and curious passersby, but it doesn’t end there.

For years, celebrities have been pioneering the art of Keeping Ordinary People Far Away, particularly for weddings. (Why, yes! I did write all about it in my book!) The tools at Perry’s disposal are many, they are varied, and they range from the innocent white lie to full-on, Tom Cruise-level black ops. Here are some options for Katy Perry and her wedding planner — assuming she has one — care of some other celebrities and their very real wedding secrecy tactics:

Pick a spot with a helipad. When one recently married singer-actor pair was scoping out wedding spots, they were considering one venue with a helipad. The benefit to having a venue with a helipad: You can put a helicopter on it, and then turn on the motor. Flight regulations strictly limit how close a helicopter can come to another running chopper — and that includes paparazzi aircraft.

Don’t tell your vendors anything. Seriously. Tell them nothing. Vendors who have worked one triple-A-list wedding told me they had no idea whose event they were working, where they were working, or even exactly when they would be working until just a few days before the wedding. Instead they were asked to block out several weeks of time and then wait for further instructions. Certain, very specific details, like the precise venue, were only revealed a few hours before the event. (The same principle can apply to a wedding gown. Just before Renee Zellweger’s ill-fated wedding to Kenny Chesney, the actress asked her friend Carolina Herrera to make her a white, floor-length dress. For just, you know, a mystery event.)

Buy out your neighbors. Celebrities who don’t might find overhead or long-lens shots of their nuptials all over the magazines. When I covered Gwen Stefani’s wedding, I saw that paparazzi were able to bribe caretakers of nearby buildings for bird’s-eye views of the church courtyard in London.

Just ask your vendors to lie. When Christy Turlington married Ed Burns in San Francisco, she had her reception at the Asian Art Museum. The same Asian Art Museum that swore up and down that week that it didn’t host wedding receptions.

Make the locals do house calls. Julia Roberts didn’t head over to the local county municipal building to get her marriage license; she had the administrators come to her house, on the very night of the wedding.

Photo credits: Russell Brand and Katy Perry and Russell Brand photo grabbed from Us.com , Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney and the “secret” dress from this link

1. DoT explores the Japanese wedding market
2. In the News: NY-based designer Robin Tomas wins Supima Award
3. Former presidential daughter Chelsea Clinton to wed this Saturday

(Photo by Lito Sy)

I first heard about Ms. Beth from a colleague in the paper I used to work for, who was a former editor of a bridal magazine in the 80`s.

That editor, whom WE`ll call J., explicitly told me to look for a florist whose name she forgot, but who had a flower shop at the basement of the Manila Pavilion because, she was very, very good.

As J is one to trust when it comes to style (and substance), I told her I`d go find her. Several months after, I remember driving to Manila Pavilion, and walking down to the basement alone, to look for this very, very good florist.

To make the long story short, I didn`t find her- or any shop for that matter, there that day.

Weeks later, Ms. Beth, whom I had worked with for a bouquet story, invited me to her newly renovated shop, at an upper floor of a hotel in Manila

WE: Ms. Beth, do you know a florist who had a shop at the basement of this hotel in the 80`s
Ms. Beth: Basement? Of Manila Pavilion?

WE: Yes, in the 80`s.
Ms. Beth: The only flower shop I know in the basement was mine.

That was in 2005. 5 years after, Ms. Beth continues to make beautiful wedding set-ups and is still, very, very good.

(Photo by Lito Sy)

(Photo by Lito Sy)

So good that actress Rica Paralejo tapped her, to execute the theme she has so wanted for her once-in-a-lifetime wedding.

From Rica`s pegs of what she had in mind for her dream wedding

Theme pegs

Tent peg

(Pegs courtesy of Rica Peralejo- Bonifacio)

Ms. Beth was able to interpret it to this:

Here`s a little Q&A WE did with Ms. Beth regarding the concept behind Rica`s wedding theme and set-up:

WE: Carla (Rica) had a beach wedding yet her pegs for her set-up was clearly autumn. How were you able to merge it?

Ms. Beth: When Joe and Carla (Rica) showed us the pictures of things that they liked, we were a bit challenged to come up with a theme. There were pictures of autumn leaves, bark, a cake with earthy patterns. Given those images, and the fact that the wedding was to be at a beach, we weren’t exactly sure of what they wanted at first. “Not tropical” is what I remember them saying during our initial meeting.

But as we were doing our research, I remembered a movie called the Nanny Diaries. In the movie, there were scenes of families retreating to their favorite beaches in the South Hamptons. Non-tropical beaches. And then an idea sparked in my head.

So I started looking for things that would take us to the beaches of North Eastern USA, especially Nantucket Island. What I found were weathered pails, drift wood and twigs, of course sand, shells and lots of candles. It fit the bill perfectly.

The thing about these elements however, is that they drown out into the surroundings. They could go unnoticed, which is something we really didn’t want. It was a good thing the Joe and Carla (Rica) were looking into fall colors. So we spruced the flowers up with oranges, reds, yellows and greens to brighten up the otherwise drab elements. We used sunflowers, pomelo roses, green belles of Ireland,etc…

WE: Speaking of flowers, how many types/ dozens were used for her wedding?

Ms. Beth: Around 40 dozens each of 10 different kinds.

WE:How was it working with a celebrity like Carla (Rica)?

(Beth Amat showing Rica Peralejo what a warm, but`non-tropical` beach theme would look like for her reception tables)

Ms. Beth: Unknown to many, Carla (Rica) is artsy-fartsy at heart. A peek into her home showed us that she loves to create things. To bring this side of her into the wedding decor, we detailed each table with rustic looking crafts. Since the couple wanted to add a personal touch and at the same time, let others in on the fun, they commissioned close friends and family to create the little trinkets.

(Wedding planner Teena Barretto checks out the hand-painted pots to be used for the table arrangements )

We coined the term Nantucket Rustic for the theme because it brought together non-tropical, laid back beach with art-inspired nostalgia. It’s the perfect theme for this wedding because it`s who Joe and Carla really are. Joe as the easy going and reflective one, and Carla as the warm and creative one. Two seemingly opposite personalities but actually perfect together.

(Photo by Lito Sy)

Check out Beth Amat`s `Classic Filipiniana` set-up in Wedding Essentials magazine January to June 2010 issue.

Available at leading magazine stands and bookstores nationwide.

Beth Amat/ Eve & Co.
(63) 919.717.1230; (632) 831.8326

Photo Credits:
Mock-up meeting photos courtesy of Teena Barretto and Beth Amat.
All wedding photos of Joe and Rica Peralejo- Bonifacio courtesy of Lito Sy

1. Rica Peralejo`s (onsite) wedding video
2. Rica Peralejo`s wedding gown
3. Rica Peralejo`s gown by Rajo Laurel

Carla (Rica) Peralejo and Joe Bonifacio’s Same Day Edit from Jason Magbanua on Vimeo.

All photos below courtesy of Boyet Versoza/ Josaih`s Catering. Thank you for sharing your behind the scenes pictures with us tito Boyet!

When asked about her dream wedding, Rica’s only reply was, “Barefoot,” hence the beach wedding explains her wedding planner Teena Barretto.

Teena shares further that`Rica was always amazed at how God would ask people like Moses, Joshua and Isaiah to take their sandals off at certain moments to show reverence for the holy ground on which they were standing. In the same way, the couple consider it holy and sacred when God joins two people together and make them as one, and leaving the shoes behind on this day symbolizes their desire to leave what is unnecessary when basking in the presence of the most holy God`.

To be continued…

Next up: Why the main photos taken by official photographer Lito Sy (almost) always include the rock formation by the beach at Kawayan Cove.

Happy Sunday everyone! =)
Cheers!

Related posts:

1. Rica Peralejo`s wedding gown
2. Rica Peralejo`s wedding styled by Beth Amat
3. Rica Peralejo’s Wedding

From ABS-CBN New

1. Rica Peralejo`s wedding gown
2. Rica Peralejo`s (onsite) wedding video
3. Rica Peralejo`s wedding styled by Beth Amat

Here`s another version on Showbitz

All videos from ABS-CBN News

1. Rica Peralejo’s Wedding
2. Rica Peralejo`s wedding gown
3. Rica Peralejo`s gown by Rajo Laurel