Now, Meet Our Emcee and Our AE from Oasis

This was a long overdue post. The reason: my brother took a while before uploading the pictures. Anyway, during our short Pinas vacation, we also met with our emcee, Virma Magbanua.

Virma was our chosen emcee because I like how she talks when I called her up. She was nice and easy to talk to and she has a bubbly personality. We discussed the flow of our wedding reception and I love her ideas and her suggestions.

I really excited on how Virma will host our reception. I'm very sure that she will be very good and our reception program will be a blast!

Now, I'd like you to meet our ever "makulit" and "masiyahin" AE from Oasis, Sharon.

Sharon was the one who took over my account when our previous AE left the company. I must say, she did a wonderful job in covering everything. She readily replies to my emails and she answers them in details. The other day, she emailed me and she was asking if everything is OK with the wedding preps. Now, that's what I call "ma-alaga"!

I am really blessed that my suppliers are all cooperative. Thanks God for this blessing and I hope that everythig goes well on the day of the wedding itself.

Just Adding Something Wonderful

I've been thinking and thinking of an additional souvenir for our wedding. I searched endlessly in different blogs of what we can add. I want something cute, personalized and has a double purpose, meaning souvenir + place card or escort card.

And I found this:


PINWHEELS!!!

I love the idea of pinwheels as an added souvenir. It's colorful and easy to create. I'm planning this to be our DIY for the wedding. Since I will be in Manila a week before the wedding, I can occupy myself with doing 200 pieces of pinwheels with my mom, sister and other friends.

I also found this wonderful idea to add with the pinwheels, RIBBON WANDS!!!

My guests can wave these ribbon wands as we go out the church. This will look amazing in photographs and it can be fun to DIY as well.

I am very excited to start doing my intended DIY projects. If only I can find a place to buy round and smooth dowels here in Singapore. Oh well, kung wala, BBQ sticka nalang!

Great!

W@WSG Get-Together Dinner

Last Friday, Doms and I were Mr. and Mrs. Congeniality. We met with a lot of friends during dinner. First with our Weddings @ Work group then with my high school friends from St. Paul Pasig.

Here are our co-Wawies in Singapore @ 7,107 Flavors in Marina Square.

L-R: Jhedzzkie, Sai, Madel, Pia Reyes (Yes, the make-up artist), Pia's Cousin, Doms and Dindin, Rudy and Escie

Measurement Taking for Bridal Entourage

The other main reason why we went home last 30 July to 3 August was to be in Manila during the measurement taking of my dear members of the bridal entourage. This is one of the things I'm excited about so I made sure that Doms and I will be present.

The measurement taking became a family affair because we invited my relatives in the Tutaan side for lunch. So again, our house was jam-packed! Doms came with his mom and our flower girl, Friah.

Of course this is not my whole entourage, these are my cousins in the Tutaan side.

Concha of Concha Couture was to arrive at 2:00 pm for the measurement taking. Sadly, she was sick and not feeling well at that day so her mother in law, the actual dress maker of the gowns, was the one who came, which was OK for me because she was the "actual" gown maker. Just for short info, Concha's job in the business was to market the brand and get clients as well as do the pain staking task of hand-sewing the beads for all the gowns. Mind you, this is the hardest thing to do for me because Concha does it by hand. Concha = Super Woman! The actual gown maker was Concha's mother in law. So, just the same I was happy that they came.

I really wanted Concha to come so I can introduce her to my tita's who wanted a talented designer. I 100% recommend Concha because she is very nice to talk to and easy to communicate.

My mom being measured. I am very sure her gown will look fab as well as Doms' mom.

The one in pink is Sabrina, my bride's maid.

I am so excited at how my gown and how the ento gowns will look like! I will have my last fitting this November. I can't wait! :)

Manila Engagement Shoot

For our engagement shoot or popularly known as pre-nup pictorial, I am going to mention the 3 supliers that made our shoot a success.

Firstly, our ever talented hair and make-up artist Val Villarin.

We started our day last 2 August 2010 as early as possible. Our first stop was my trial hair and make-up with Val Villarin. We went to his condo cum office in Francesca Condo, QC. One bride was already there doing the trial make-up and I eagerly waited for my turn. When it was my time, Val led me to his parlor. I was amazed at how everything happens in that room. There was a big lighted mirror and a chair. I felt like a super star the moment I sat in the chair. Then, Val did his magic.

Airbrush make-up really made wonders in my face. It enhanced my skin color, removed my blemishes and most of all, it erased my eye bags. I love my make-up and hair style that day! I am so excited how Val will make me pretty on my wedding day.

Next stop was our first engagement shoot venue, KaffeCaffe.


KaffeCaffe is owned and managed by Anj Ferreria, my closest high school friend. I wanted to get a feel of a coffee house so I asked Anj if we can shoot in her shop. She readily said yes. Thanks Anj! We enjoyed our shoot in your cafe. The place was gorgeous! By the way, KaffeCaffe is also our supplier for our wedding coffee catering.

Next, let's pave the way for Vignette Photography led by our main photographer Boggs Ignacio.

During the Wedding Congress in MegaTrade Hall, the Saturday before our pictorial, Doms and I specifically went to the Vignette section for our second payment. Boggs was manning the long booth so we met him there. He was still young! We reminded him of our prenup shoot and he said he will be there.

The day of the shoot came and he arrived with Ryan, the lights man. He took our photos just the way we wanted him. We were amazed by his ideas and he was fun to be with. It was a whole day of posing and smiling for us it was really unforgettable.

Lastly, our second prenup location, Pan de Amerikana.

Pan de Amerikana has the "boho"feel that I've been searching for. I was happy we got to have a shoot here. The place was great and the food was cheap and nice!

All in all, this engagement shoot day was really fun and I am happy to share some of our pictures.

Hizon's Detailing Meeting

For our vacation, I made sure that Doms and I will attend at least one detailing meeting with our caterer together. Last December, I had a food tasting but Doms was not with me. So, last 30 July 2010, I was so thrilled to go to our caterer's office because I was with Doms and with my whole family.

Our chosen caterer was Hizon's Catering because this catering company was well recommended by my friends and other family members. We also have a lot of first hand experiences with Hizon's so there's no point of looking for other caterers.

Chrissy Sajonia was our contact from Hizon's. She very nice! What I like about her is she replies to my emails. Being an overseas bride, I made sure that my chosen suppliers reply to my emails. Mind you I have a lot of questions! Makulit for short :)

Anyway, Chrissy started with the detailing meeting. I like her style because she has a lot of pictures to show me. She gave me discounts and she was there to give her advice about the wedding reception.

Here are the add-ons that we added for the wedding:

• Added pink roses for the couples table and fermosa leaves in the couples gazeebo like the image below but our tablle runner is pink.

• Added orchids for the PS tables and decided to get the rectangular table instead of round.

• Additonal waiter for the PS and Couple's table.
• 4 Scoopers for the buffet line.
  
• Carving Station for the lechon that we will order from Lydia's or Elars.
• Upgraded guest tables with Zen Sexy flower arrangement.

We also decided to get their package for kiddie meals and kiddie tables. I find this very good because I wouldn't want the kids to be seated in the guest tables eating "adult" food. I could add more guests instead of the kids. So far, we have 20 kids in our guest list and I really believe this is a great idea.

We also had a food tasting on that same day. We were presented with the buffet food that we chose intitally. Everything tasted great! My mom just gave the comment to Chrissy that the BBQ Chicken should be well-done.

We were there for about 2 hours and we were able to discuss majority of the stuff about the reception. We were really happy that we had the time to do this detailing meeting. I am now excited for our next and final meeting with them this November.

Written in Ink Wedding Invitations

I have a lot of things to blog about because Doms and I went home to Manila to take care of the wedding. It was a very short vacation but I am happy we were able to accomplish a lot of things.

I am going to start of with our wedding invitations. Initially, Doms wanted to create our wedding invitations. He has the means and the talent to do it but our only problem is the printing. So, we decided to just have it made in Manila.

During the Wedding Congress in Megamall last Saturday, 31 July 2010, we chose one wedding invitation that caught our attention, Wink!

Wink or Written in Ink has great designs for wedding invites suitable to our taste as well as accommodating people to ask questions during the fair. Their invitation prices are also within the budget and their invite designs are great!

Here is the pattern of our wedding invitation:

Our invites will basically look like this but we changed come parts like the colors and the paper quality. We will also added some sparkles in it to make more eye-catching and unique.

I am really very excited about our invites already! I hope Jocelyn, our contact person will reply to my email already so we can discuss the wordings and the layout of the invites.