Just had another food tasting with Hizon's today. Even though we booked them already, we went to the food tasting today to check out the venue.... The venue is called the Light of Love, located along Santol Street in Quezon City. I came with Christian and Sharleen.. the place is extremely close to my parent's house!!! Literally close!!!!

The place is really really beautiful... It is pricey but I love it... Christian loves it as well... It is a convenience for us and to my family as well since most of them don't have their own vehicles...We are keeping our fingers cross that this is the one... The place is over our budget for the venue but we planned to forego with some stuff in our budget list... maybe twist and turn some suppliers that we are looking at the moment and go with the more affordable packages... we will definitely do not need to book a hotel for the wedding preps since I talked to the person from the venue and said that we can make an arrangement to have the preps at one of the bridal rooms in the venue itself for a minimum fee. I have asked my mom to check out the churches near the area since that will definitely set our budget for the church at a minimum for some of the churches there are not the really big churches.... We really want this venue....

Just check out the pictures below:

Tree-lane drive towards the venue.... wet road due to the hard downpour during the day.

Entrance to one of the halls.... Perfect place to put the cocktail bar and the mobile bar for cocktails once the guests arrive from the church ceremony.

Pictures of the Atrium... it can accommodate 120 guest, perfect for our needs. Just look at the pillars, pretty good to go with our wannabe Greek theme. The place reminds me of the courtyard in 300. How I wish Leonidas will pop up. Just check out the ceiling, we can still have the outdoor feel under the stars but keep ourselves dry.

Shar just clicked and clicked away with her camera phone. Taken in one of the tents within the venue where the Hizon's food tasting took place.

Some of the bridal rooms available in the venue. There are three rooms altogether. All are spacious, clean and they have a pretty big closet as well as nice bathrooms as well.

One of the other venue, it leads outside to the balcony. They say it can accomodate 150 guests but I am not keen of having the shiny floors.

If you want to know more about the place, check them out at 1163 Santol Street, Quezon City. It is near to SM Centerpoint and Araneta Avenue. Numbers are 714.7989/714.3871.

Wedding Congress - Megatrade Hall, SM Megamall

My w@wie tag that we received this week... the ids from teh congress, the w@wie pin and the primer!!! Can't wait for the next bridal fair

I went to the Wedding Congress in Megamall yesterday with Lynn, my officemate who hails from North Carolina. There were some stuff that I enjoyed looking at the fair... Need to canvass for photographers, videographers, invitation suppliers and ring suppliers. Even though this is my second bridal fair, I can get the feel that there is no turning back for our wedding this coming April.

During the fair, I was able to picked up my W@wie pin... hehehehe!!! Making me a certified w@wie addict. Also, one good thing is that I registered for this congress because they gave away free wedding primer from w@w. Another piece of stuff that I can keep and read.

We got to try the photobooth from fotoloco... but Lynn kept the photos as souvenir. She said that Filipinos do their wedding differently from their American wedding. Just like the invitations as she pointed out. Our Filipino invites are very long that it looks like their wedding programs already.... LOL!!!

Well, I enjoyed the fair very much... till the next bridal fair next month and September... I have already wrote down the things we need and the suppliers that we need to look for.

Our take on the photobooth by Fotoloco!!!

a brave DIY attempt!!!

I wrote before that I am DIY challenged! However, I wanted to test myself if I can create something for our wedding. I decided with doing our save-the-date cards and special cards for our principal sponsors and entourage.

Aside from fooling around with facebook and reading updates in the w@wie community, I came across Scrapblog. This site made me try out if I can do something that is decent. Here are some of what I created so far.

I sent out this one to my 1H family... Since most of them are lawyers, I am assuming that they are all so busy and I hope that 9 months notice is enough for them!!! Since that is my one wish, to have most of my beda friends at our wedding.

Love the beach!!!! White sand bar in Camiguin!

This one will be for our principal sponsors and entourage. We will hand carry this one and deliver it to them.

I really tried to incorporate our color motif in the STD cards. Good thing, I know stuff already about the hexa codes and all that crap about colors because of my work now. I am pretty impressed on what these came out as. I will try to incorporate the church and reception venue once we booked them before the end of August.

Choosing our monogram

I am not a creative person. I cannot stand doing DIY stuff. I will always have my mother do my home economics and art projects. I am just not gifted with a good hand for the arts!!!

Thankfully Sis Ri from the W@w community shared her talents with us and created some monograms for us to choose from. I am simply overwhelmed how they look. You can be the judge.

This is our favorite!!! We might be using it for one of our souvenirs for Christian's groomsmen.

I have the idea of using this monogram as a guide for our guests to go from the church to the reception venue.

Looking for a venue...

I am already getting annoyed in getting the venue for our wedding reception. I even have my mom calling out churches and different halls. When I talked to her today, I guess she is right in saying that it is not hard to find the place since there are tons of venues out there. The main issue is the budget constraints. I guess I should let go of my ideal place to get married and stick with the budget and look for a suitable place. I will just have to ask Christian about the budget that we can work out to get the venue and the church already.

You can check this out:


I hope you guys can read it. It is so hard to look for a venue and church. since we want the church be near the reception hall. We are keeping our fingers cross to find the one! If you are looking for your own reception venue and church you will need to ask these information:

Church
Availability of schedule
How much ang fee
What are the inclusions
Reservation fee

Reception
How many hours your basic package
May ingress or regress time
Accredited caterers
Electricity charge
How many guest they can accommodate

Good luck to our search!!!

I defintely want a dress like this one

After visiting the church, we pass through Trinoma on our way home. This is my chance to take a picture of the dress I saw the other day at the same mall. OMG... I really really love the details on this dress. I wasted no time to snap photos of it. This will definitely be the inspiration dress that I will have for my wedding gown.

I only wish that I can afford the designer... but no... a basic wedding gown by him costs Php 80,000!!!! That will already be the cost of our food.

Well, I can dream right!!! And I can have a dress patterned against this one.

But i really really love this dress! After searching the internet about the creator of this lovely piece of art, I got some pictures of dresses that can be inspirational as well.

I love it .. love it ... love it...

Still on the search for the church and reception venue

Yesterday (July 4), me and Christian went to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cubao. I told him that I will like to see the church after seeing some pictures online of the church's altar. Unfortunately, the church was closed but we were able to inquire about the rates that they have.

In all fairness, it is affordable compared to the other churches that we inquired at. We also asked about the hall that they have. The church offer packages that will fit the budget of any engaged couples. Their price list is as follows:

• First class - Php 9,000 - includes mass, organist, soloist, flowers and carpet
• Second class - Php 6,000 - includes mass, organist and flowers
• Ordinary - Php 2,000 - no mass, no flowers, ceremony only
• Extra charge of Php 500 for electricty of video
  

For mode of payment:

• Reservation fee (non-refundable) Php 2,000
• Upon interview - Php 1,000
• Balance due two weeks before the date of the wedding
  

We were shocked to see that the Dioceses of Cubao have a tall building like a condominium... This is where the reception halls are located. They have two halls available. One can accomodate 100 guests and the other can fit around 200 to 250 depending on the set up you may want. The bigger venue is nice, tall ceiling, big venue floor... We discovered that the rate was Php 21,000 for the bigger hall plus 5% of the caterer's contract... I was not keen of getting the venue anymore after hearing the price!!!

The search is not over. There are two places that we still have to check out. The PETA Theater Center in Quezon City and the Filipinas Heritage Library. Hmmm.. How I wish this will end already. I really want to start on the save the dates already.

Only time will tell when will the search be over...

This is the bigger hall of the Immaculate Conception Parish. High ceiling and it has air conditioning but it is a bit pricey for the look of the place.