Some of my favorite shots from Paul Vincent

This is it guys!

I got our wedding pictures taken by Paul Vincent today. I just cannot contain myself not to look at it. I even brought our rusty old laptop with me just to view it. I looked at one of the CD before I packed up at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Trinoma.... I just cannot resist it! Well, my itchiness did not disappoint me! I simply love all the pictures in the CD... and we have 4 more to look at when I get home tomorrow! I am soooo happy... happy .... happy! It is really worth to move our wedding date just to get these suppliers! They are the best! These photos are not arranged properly.. since I am too excited to post it!

Enjoy viewing Paul Vincent's work!

Crayola moment again! My IBM Friends will just love this one! I took out most of my crying moments pictures from Paul.. just to save my face from the teasing! hehehehe.. Yes mga badet.. I did not post those!

This is one of my very favorites... Our photo looks like a commercial ad for Ponds! (Kimpaw said that!)

I just cannot remember what part of the ceremony is this one! Christian was really shaking the whole ceremony!

Trying to figure out what to do with the rings... I learned that they were arguing if they are going to place it on the pillow or not... Since Michael, Xtian's best man, will be carrying our rings.. it will be weird for him to carry it on the pillow! Gosh.. a very adult ring bearer.. Duh!

Gosh.. my daddy cannot stop from crying .. from the hotel.. at the church... during the reception...

My cousin cannot resist herself having a picture taken by Paul... She has been bugging me about this picture for almost two weeks now! When I saw this one... I knew why she kept on bugging me!

My best friend Kenneth... ahem.. excuse me.. Atty. Joey.. hahaha.. with steady hands on the uno stacko game for the bachelors... Just look at the other bachelors.. praying that the stack tumble down...

Atty. Bon Vincent... Is uno stacko as complicated as an election case? LOL! Look at those eyes...

My cousin Bernard was online on Skype the whole reception... Here he is posing for pictures! Hehehehe... He should have worn his tux!

I will have to post more this weekend... More more pictures to come... I still have to get the CDS from Jayson & Jo Anne Arquiza!!! That is equal to more pictures!

Where the preparation & celebration took place

Pearl Garden Hotel
Address: 1700 Adriatico Street, Malate, Manila
Telephone no.: 525.1000 local 203/208
Email address: pgarden@info.com.ph
Peso Power:
Reception - Php 65000 is their rate that they have for a wedding reception but we have a different price. Just PM me.
For the rooms - Php 3400 less 20% for Deluxe room
- Php 4600 less 20% for executive suite

If you are a follower of our blog, you would have known that our caterer is originally Hizon's but since we were having an awful time looking for a venue that will be cheap; I tried to look for an alternative. We even tried to check out Max's near the church but they do not want to accept April weddings because of their renovation plans! The next Max's big enough for a reception with 100 people is in Baclaran! No way! Aristocrat is too pricey! Scratch that. I even tried to check out the hotel where one of the couples in our pre-cana seminar will be having their reception! When Christian saw the website.. he said .. hell no!

The search paid off. Out of the blue, I discovered Pearl Garden Hotel. I have seen the site of the hotel and the rooms look impressive.. Hmmm... I was thinking that it might look good because it is an ad picture. What the heck, I emailed them to inquire about their reception rates. When I got it, this is really promising! I showed it to Christian and he said we should check it out, and that we did. We even tried the food during their Valentine’s Day promo. Food was great! Venue is presentable enough and the rooms are just the same as the photos! Lovely! We decided to have our wedding reception there, as well as the wedding preparations. All in one place and at a very good price.

Before the wedding, it is really to deal with Arleen, the AE assigned to us. She is easily reached through text and emails. She patiently answers all the inquiries and carefully looked into all the list of don'ts that we have. We took out a lot of stuff in the wedding amenities.... We are not the typical newly weds plus Christian does not want the whole shananigans! hehehehe...

The day before the wedding, the check in was a breeze. The staffs are really helpful. Our rooms were really beautiful. We booked 3 rooms for the day before the wedding -- one executive suite for me, one deluxe king for Christian and a deluxe twin for my family. It was also well noted that we will have the executive suite for late check out. Room service is fast also since we requested for a lot of ice. Hehehe... However, when we requested for them to fix the rooms; that took a while! We have to call 3 to 4 times. Aside from that, the rooms are great! The breakfast buffet is also good… it is not Spiral or Heat but it is a great deal.

For the reception, they really set up the venue in a very formal way. I love the way that they placed our cake as the center of attraction. They even went their way to get our two seats! Hehehehe! The colors that they have really matched our color motif! The staff even placed votive candles inside our luminaries!!!! All the requests that I have made they followed! Food wise! The guests were raving about the food. We did not hear a single complaint about it. They loved everything. Good good good reviews! Thank God. We even sampled the leftovers… I attacked the lasagna when they delivered it to our room!

The service is fast as well. They have student interns around so there were 3 servers per table! The VIP table seems to have 1 server to 2 VIP guests! The turn around of the food was really fast! The head waiter even apologized that it took like 3 minutes for our soup to be served! Service is two thumbs up.

Oh the only downside of the whole hotel thing, the expensive parking in the area. We forgot to tell our OTD Coordinator to get verified parking stubs for our guests! Christian said that they get a minus point for this one! LOL!

If I will be ask if I will recommend them, definitely yes! Especially to those planning a budget wedding! We just received a message from our AE that we still have the 10% discount if we stay in the hotel soon… so we are planning to celebrate Christian’s birthday there… and even New Year’s Eve! Yehey!

Rating: 4.99/5

I need to deduct something for the parking... I am a submissive wife! LOL!

Invitation Layout! the YM layout!

Graphizar

Telephone no.: 0922.8211281 (Noel) /0917.8822745 (Krisel)

Email address: graphizar.designs@gmail.com

Peso power: Php 500

I already have a vision of the invites that we will have. Since me and Christian decided on having a Yahoo Messenger theme, we have to have the interface of YM as part of the layout. I tried to do it on my own but the printer that we got needs to have the layouts in high resolution.... Hmmm.. dumb dumb alert! They said I have to do it on Corel Draw or Photoshop. It read as foreign language to me.

Then came in Graphizar! Co-w@w Sis Krisel & her hubby, Noel, started the business to do caricatures and they have incorporated doing layout for invites as well as monograms. So I grabbed the opportunity for them to do our invite layouts. I have the concept but I don’t have the juices to do it in the programs being asked by Impress Prints.

It was easy transacting with Sis Krisel. After I deposited the money, it took around two weeks for the final layout to be sent to us. I guess they are really busy with the pending work that they have. With the rates that they have, they might have been swamped by orders. In the end, the wait is fully worth it! Christian is so happy with it. Keep on saying that our invites is so unique and not the typical invitations that is out there.

Kudos to Sis Krisel and Noel. More power to their business….

The entourage card..

the main invite... i really like the combination of colors

Rating: 4.99/5
there were some misspelled words but i did not bother to have it changed by them

Printer for our Invites

Impress Prints
Address: Unit 5 148 R. Lagmay Street, San Juan City
Telephone no.: 727.4704/994.7081/0922.899.8858
Email address: impressprints.biz@gmail.com
Inclusions:

• main card
• entourage card
• 3"x5" RSVP or thank you card
• standard envelopes
• mailing labels ---> we changed this to monogram stickers instead
• free black and white printing of map at the back of RSVP card
• 2 free tumblers

Pesos power: Php 4200 less 10% from the bridal fair ... Php 3780 ---> gift from my cousin

Invitations... Invites... I never knew that picking a type of invite will be hard. I never had the idea that there are different kinds of prints -- letterpress, thermograph, digital print, embossed.. the list goes on! OMG! People can really get carried away with this wedding stuff. I visualized our invites to be a unique one. It will be good to have the old embossed type like my mom and dad's but when we asked for the price, we were shocked. Our jaws literally dropped as if we saw a naked person infront of us. We checked our some invites at Card Prints in SM North Edsa... and they can go up to 100 pesos. As Christian picked his desired design, the prices go up! Oh man, my fiance turned hubby really has taste! Ahem ahem ahem.. looked at me!

So off I went to bridal fairs to get discounts... I knew that we will be ending up with digital print invites but I don't have any regular layout. I wanted something that will represent us and something that will be aligned with our theme. At the Themes and Motif Bridal Fair last September, me and my cousin, Pam went to the booth of Impress Prints! I already inquired with them through email and they replied that they will be able to print the design that we wanted. When my cousin heard of the price, she said that it will be her gift for us. Yehey... less item on our budget. We booked them right there and then!

It is really easy dealing with Jen and John. Right after booking them, they were able to email us the wordings that we can choose from. They also emailed the details that we talked about during the fair. That is really impressive. After I sent the layout of our invites, we were able to get the mock invites the very next day. Sweet! They even did the alterations when we found some misspelled names and words on the mock invites. Impress Print is really flexible. I actually sent them a low resolution file of the map that I have made but they were able to create one for us! They just give good customer service! Winner! It was a good choice to get them!

The print of the invite was good and really good quality. Everything went smooth and really hassle free! Anyone looking for a good quality printing within a budget, Impress Print is a good way to go!

Rating: 5+++++/5

Guest souvenirs anyone? .... Gummie Bears

Gummie Haven by Five EB Enterprises
Address: Metro Manila
Telephone no.: 502.0268/0917.537.0294/0919.524.1151
Email address: eileenantazo27@gmail.com
Peso power: Php 1000 for 50 packs of 50g gummie bears! 100 packs equals Php 2000

I already set my expectations that the photo booth will serve as our wedding souvenirs but Christian said that we should have another token that we can give our guests aside from the photo booth print outs. Now this is really a challenge... We have a limited budget and adding another item on the list is really hard! So I went online and looked for a most inexpensive, most practical token I could find. I know that Christian will not appreciate anything that is not useful. Hmmm... Think think think... Google... google... google.... I have looked far and wide and then I narrowed it down to something edible. Then I found Gummie Haven.

Affordable and really unique.. It is cute too! I told Christian about it and he liked the idea. So I texted Eileen, the owner. She called me after I made the inquiry and she emailed me some details on how to make the payment. We got 100 packs of gummy bears, which were weighed 25grams each!

We met Eileen at Trinoma to get the items and she placed it neatly in a big box so that the plastic will not be crumpled. They are also tied up according to our color motif! I loved it! They smelled good too! I wanted to try it right there and there but I have to restrain myself! In the end, it is really to easy to deal with Eileen and she can easily be contacted through email or text. The transaction was easy! No hassle at all. The guests loved the souvenirs too! Simple yet appealing! Just like me and Christian! LOL!

I printed out thank you tags to stick to the gummie bear packages....

Our OTD Coodinator team's help out place the souvenirs per table seating

Rating: 5/5

Same day edit! by Phoeben Teocson

Aside from exchanging vows with Christian, our onsite or same day edit video is one of the reasons that I am looking forward to our wedding day..... It is part of the photo/video package that we got from the w@w auction and just before the wedding, I shared on this blog that Phoeben Teocson will be doing the onsite video for us.

What is an onsite video? It is usually shots taken during the wedding day from the preparation to the wedding ceremony. Others will have shots taken on the earlier part of the reception like the first couple's dance and the entrance what have you! These shots will be then edited and shown during the wedding reception..... This is technology at its finest..... but for me it is what I called "instant gratification."

When it was time to watch the video, I held hands with Christian and I know we will both love whatever Bim had made for us. I have been watching all the onsite videos that he posts on this site. It had become a habit for me to check his site every now and then just to see if there is something new. I am also a frequent visitor at Chug Cadiogan's site and he is one of our videographers as well. Well... this time it is not his client's onsite that we will be watching it is ours! It is simply beautiful! Christian loved the song!

Our guests loved it too.. They cannot stop talking about it... Well they cannot stop talking about the number of crew our photo/video suppliers! LOL!

Here it is... watch and enjoy.

Something for our principal sponsors

The Russian Cookie House
Address: Makati City, Manila
Telephone no.: 0917.895.2863/896.5707/897.1115
Email address: russiancookiehouse@yahoo.com
Peso power: Php 280 per box ... Php 1680 for 6 boxes

On the last minute of the wedding preparations, my sister informed me that she will not be able to buy the tokens for our principal sponsors.. Hmmm... stress alert! When I heard about this one, I already geared up to look for tokens that will easier for us to get. Me and my mom went around Robinson's Place... Not very keen on getting some decorations thingy.... We are leaning towards something edible... Looked at small cakes.... and other chocolate stuff... ended up with Russian cookies. The boxes are elegant looking and I know that the cookies they have taste sooo good! I actually received a box of their wonderful cookies when I was hospitalized last year and I have to wait for a week to savor it until my throat healed from the tonsillectomy. Good thing about this token is that I don't have to have to wrap it up anymore. I have some personalized thank you cards printed out already.

On the night before the wedding, I just passed by their outlet at Robinson's Place and bought 6 boxes.... Wrote on the thank you cards and slipped it in between the ribbons! Perfect.. Elegant looking yet simple enough to represent us. We are food loving people and an edible token truly shows me and Christian! The day after the wedding, I went to my aunt's house and both my mom's sisters were raving about the cookies. They both said that the cookies are so good. I even received a text message from my cousin, whose mom is one of our principal sponsors, asking me where I got the cookies! We are both glad that our principal sponsors appreciated our tokens even though it was not well planned! That is the beauty of on the spot thinking... they come up to be the most suitable!

just simply wrapped... the way that we want it to be!

I made personalized notes for our ninongs and ninangs!

Pistachio cookies up front... looks really good right?

Rating: 5/5

suppliers' lunch...our lunch.... tapsilog from Sinangag Express

Sinangag Express
Address: Gomez Building, 708, Pedro Gil cor. L.M. Guerrero St. Manila
Telephone no.: 526.6992/525.4089
Peso power: Php 45.00 per meal ... Php 2250 for 50 pack meals

The suppliers' lunch meal is one of the most dreadful item in our planning phase. I really wanted to serve something that is not fried chicken but will not hurt our wedding budget. I made up my mind on getting Mang Inasal meals since me and Christian both love Mang Inasal. When we went around the area near the hotel, there is no Mang Inasal branch in sight. I tried searching online and the nearest branch is the main office in Pasay. Hmmm.... scratch that idea!

While walking to the hotel, I saw a Binalot store but their price range is still beyond the budget. Me and my mom even searched inside Robinson's Place Manila just to find the best lunch meals we can find. When I was with Sharleen after roaming around the Malate area, I saw the Sinangag Express branch infront of UP Manila. Hmmm... value meals at 45 pesos each.... tapsilog galore! I love tapsilog and I hope my suppliers like it too... they are also open 24 hours so that is a plus. We can order in very early!

Morning of the wedding.... I asked my sister, Andie and my friend, Bethany to go to Sinangag Express to order our lunch. At the store, Bethany told me my sister almost ordered for 80 pieces! Good thing, Beth remembered that I said 50 pieces only! Gosh that will be a lot of tapsilog to go around! One bad thing about the whole experience, they were told that they cannot deliver the 50 pieces!!!! WTF! So Andie and Beth had to go back to the branch and picked up the orders. Well, they did not complain about it! We served water as drinks .... since that is what they bought!

Personally, I haven't got the chance to taste the food but my relatives said that it was good. The suppliers did not complain and they just sat at the lobby of our rooms while the munch on their lunch. We were able to feed every supplier that we have! We were around 35 suppliers and some relatives plus my two female entourage! Only 4 packs were left when everyone was done eating!

Sinangag Express is a good alternative to other value meals... and it cost fairly compared to the other take out... it's just too bad that they don't deliver come to think that the hotel is just two blocks away from their branch! Tsk tsk tsk...

A lot of sinangag (garlic fried rice).... plus sunny side up egg and tapa (fried marinated beef strips)

My niece, Dannielle enjoying her lunch!

Rating: 4/5

no delivery for bulk orders... lame!!!

under the magician's hands

Val Villarin
Address: 4A18 Francesca tower, Scout Borromeo St. corner EDSA, South Triangle, Quezon City Telephone no.: 408.3492/0920.806.9726
Email: val_villarin@hotmail.com
Inclusions:

• bride's & groom's make up plus 3 personsfree
• prenup make up (was not able to avail of this one)

Peso power: Php 9000 for booking during the bridal fair

I am really not a fan of make up. I only wear make up for job interviews and when I don't feel good or whenever I am down. It has been a long time since I wore make up. So I am not really that happy in looking for a HMUA (hair & make up artist). During the Wedding Library Bridal fair, I had a trial make up done with another HMUA but booked Val Villarin instead. I booked him because of the raves given to him by co-w@wies plus the fact that most of the sisses at the w@w booth dragged me to Val's booth. When we talked about the price, I was hooked!

I was scheduled to have a trial with him before April starts but due to a very hectic schedule that did not push through. I will have to rely on the feed backs and the raves of my sisses. Come our wedding, Val was really chatty and nice. He moved very smoothly with all the cameras and the videos around us. He is really a pro. I guess he is so used to all the chaos around him during wedding preparations! I just love it! He even smiles for the camera! Winner! I opted not to have an airbrush application of the make up and go with the traditional application.

When we were done, I love my make up, specially the way my eyebrows were shaped! I love love love it! My friends also told me that my make up look great and I was really beautiful... lovely... all the positive adjectives you can think of.. LOL! I really feel beautiful on that day! Val really is a magician! I wish I have Val everyday with me to make me up! Hahahaha!!!! I now know the reason behind the raves for Val! He is simply extraordinary! His staff also worked wonders with Christian's hair. He kept on saying that the way that they made his hair did not show his thinning hair problem! LOL! He said that he should wear his hair that way! I even joked that I will buy the kind of hairspray that they used on him so that he can style it!

Rating: 5+++++/5