DIY Update: STD Posters

It's 78 days before our big day, and we decided to start sending our STD (Save The Date) posters to our chosen guests today. I did three STD designs to choose from, but our fave is the In Time STD poster. (The pictures we've used were shot by our very talented prenup photographer, Benjie Tiongco.)

Our In Time STD poster

Our Casual STD poster

I will post our vintage retro STD movie poster, once we released our invitations to the guests. The main reason is we'll be using the same design for our cover page :)

Honeymoon destination :BOOKED!:)

Before, we still have no idea where our honeymoon destination will be. I suggested going to Boracay since we haven't been there before ( yeah, we suck hehe). Two Sundays ago, that was March 4, James texted me to change our TV's channel to QTV 11. He said ANG PINAKA's topic was favorable to us because that time they covered the top 10 world class resorts that can be found in the Philippines. When I changed the channel, it was on number 6 already. Below is the list of the top 10 luxurious resorts in the Philippines.

10. Buri Beach Resort & Spa

Sitio Dalaruan, Brgy. Sabang, Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro

09. Plantation Bay Resort & Spa

Marigondon, Mactan Island, Cebu

08. El Nido Resorts

El Nido, Palawan

07. Shangri-La's Mactan Resort & Spa

Punta Engano Road, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu

06. Discovery Shores Boracay

Station 1, Balabag, Boracay Island, Malay, Aklan

05. Eskaya Beach Resort & Spa

Tawala, Panglao Island, Bohol

04. Misibis Bay

Cagraray Island, Bacacay, Albay

03. Shangri-La's Boracay Resort & Spa

Barangay Yapak, Boracay Island, Malay, Aklan

02. Bellarocca Island Resort & Spa

Barangay Tungib-Lipata, Buenavista, Marinduque

01. Amanpulo (Palawan)

Pamalican Island, Cuyo, Palawan

After watching the whole program, James and I automatically dreamed of going to one of these resorts. We know that the accommodations on these resorts cost a lot, but I told James, "Who knows? maybe one day we can afford to go in one of the top 5."  

Lo and behold,a miracle happened. After a week of day dreaming...we're very fortunate to have our honeymoon in one of the top 10 world class resorts in the Philippines!

Any guesses? Maybe the picture below could help you guess where we are heading :)

Photo from: http://bellaroccaresorts.com

What a beautiful rock, isn't it? We're now more excited with the honeymoon than the wedding itself LOL =D

After our honeymoon trip, I'm going to share how we got this honeymoon package. I want to experience it myself first before I recommend our travel agency.They are just new in the industry, with no detailed online reviews so If our trip will be superb, I'll totally recommend them. 

Just wait for my review, Gad I'm really excited! :D

The last but not the least supplier to book, the wedding ring supplier, yay!:D

Bridal Car: Booked! :)

Before, we really wanted a Chrysler 300c for our bridal car. I even found an inexpensive white Chrysler 300c bridal car for rent last year, but I didn't book it because I wanted James to be here when we do that (I know how much he value cars, most specially on what I'm going to use on our wedding day hehe). Now that James is here, I decided to inquire again on our prospect bridal car supplier, but unfortunately their rates went up because of the new year. It already exceeded our allotted budget so time to find another supplier :(

So my quest for a cheap luxury bridal car rental went on, until I've read a supplier review rating from the wedding forum I am a member of and got interested with the good feed backs and rate the bride posted. I even googled his name and found his ad on Sulit.com. I saw the car in the pictures, and it looks good.

The owner of the said white BMW 3 Series 2006 model bridal car for rent is Mr. Jamie Lim. I called his globe land line number the other day, and inquired about his car rental rate. I was shocked to know that for a car like that he charges really low, which is a big help to couples like us, who only has certain budget for it so we immediately set an appointment with him.

James and I met him around 11:30 a.m. at National Bookstore, Quezon Ave.What I really like most in our conversation was, "Ayaw ko ng tulad sa ibang professional bridal car for rent na, lumagpas lang ng ganitong hour or ilang minutes eh magbabayad kana kaagad, kaya ifix nalang natin. I remember sa wedding ko, lumagpas lang kami ng 10 minutes, nagbayad na ako ng 1k!"

Yes, he's a generous, soft-spoken and sophisticated guy.The bridal car was actually his wife's old car that she's not using anymore, so they decided to rent it as a bridal car since it is color white. Well it's not that old either, 5 years is not that old compare to vintage cars right? And when we checked the car's interior and exterior, you'll see that it is well maintained.

Just contact him if you need one, I assure you the car is squeaky clean,classy and most importantly good air conditioning!:) To give you an idea he currently charges 5k for 3-5 hours, not bad :D

JAMIE LIM
09175660237
Globe mobile duo landline: 2116449
Email add: limjosemanuel@yahoo.com

Wedding Preps Venue Hunting Part 1

As much as I wanted to be on track with our wedding preps, I can't blog our progress all at once because of work duties and other responsibilities I've been juggling lately. Even though wedding preparations are very tiring, it's also fulfilling because you are doing it with the love of your life. ;-)

Last Saturday, January 14 2012, James and I went out to do a hotel ocular in QC, Eastwood and Ortigas. Yes it's three cities, but we only visited one hotel in QC, one hotel in Eastwood and two hotels in Ortigas. I'm going to share here what we liked and don't like about these hotels.

Sulo Riviera Hotel

Sulo Riviera lobby

This is the first hotel we visited. It is the nearest hotel to our church and reception and it is only located at East Avenue, Quezon City.

Pros:

• It is advisable to get this hotel for couples who will have their church and reception in QC area.
• Nice furnishings.
• They have a pool at the middle of the hotel for pictorial.
• Spacious rooms.

Cons:

• The place is small.
• No staircase (a major con for me)
• Their rates are a bit pricey. Their suite is as expensive as the ones in Edsa-Shangrila hotel, considering they are only considered as a four star hotel.
• The hallways going to the rooms are really dark, even though it already have orange lightings at every corner.
• It smells old.
• Food delivery is not allowed.
• Additional 3,000 pesos for the lobby and room pictorials.

With that enough cons, we immediately decided to visit the next hotel, off we go to Eastwood Richmonde Hotel :)

Eastwood Richmonde Hotel

Eastwood Richmonde lobby

I've been hearing good feed backs about this hotel, so even though it's quite far from our church and reception, we still decided to check it out. When we finally stepped inside this hotel, I liked it already!

Pros:

• It has a staircase! (Yey! Yey! Yey!)
• They have good air conditioning. It's cold even though we're just in the lobby.
• They have good lighting in the lobby, which is very useful for pictorials.
• Their lobby is big. We saw a group of entourage sitting in the lobby area, waiting for the bride to go down the stairs.
• The hotel is beside Eastwood Mall. In case you forgot something, you can buy it there.
• They have modern, clean, and spacious rooms.Also their room hallways are full of mirrors, really good for photo opp :-D
• The staff are courteous and nice. The bell boy who accompanied us to see the rooms gave us tips and suggestions on what room to book.
• No additional charges for lobby and room pictorials. (yey!)
• They allow food delivery with no extra charge (yey!)
• They can allow room stay extensions with no extra charge (another yey!)
• Their room rates are affordable, even if we book 3 rooms, it'll still be on our budget range ( a big yehey!)

Cons:

• We went there on Saturday so it's very traffic. Our wedding falls on Tuesday, so I don't know if the traffic would still be the same ( hope not ).
• It's far from our QC church and reception, but it can be manageable if you get out of the hotel early.
• I know if you book a room in Eastwood Richmonde, you'll get 1 free parking slot per room. Suppliers can park at Eastwood Mall, but I think it will be kinda costly. If I'm not mistaken, we were charged 50 pesos for just staying 1 and a half hour in Eastwood Mall parking.

At that very moment, I really wanted to make a reservation, but we opted to check other hotels in Ortigas so we could have many choices. 

Crowne Plaza Galleria Hotel

Crowne Plaza reception area

I can't comment much on this hotel because when we visited it, they have no rooms available for ocular. They just gave us their current room rates and some pictures so we could visualize how the rooms look like.

Pros:

• It is advisable to get this hotel for couples who will have their church and reception in Mandaluyong or Libis area.
• The staff who assisted us was nice and courteous.
• Their rates are reasonable enough.
• It's beside Robinson's Galleria, you could jump over there if you need anything.
• It's not hard to find because it is near EDSA. When you see Robinson's Galleria, you know you're on the right track.

Cons:

• No staircase (a major con for me)
• The lobby is small, no area for photo opp. I think they need to redesign it.
• Air conditioning is not that good. That time, It's kinda hot when we were talking to the receptionist at the lobby.

Holiday Inn Hotel Ortigas

Holiday Inn reception area

It's not really in our plan to visit this hotel, but since it's beside Crowne Plaza, we decided to inquire too.

Pros:

• It is advisable to get this hotel for couples who will have their church and reception in Mandaluyong or Libis area.
• The staff who assisted us was nice and courteous.
• Again it is near Robinson's Galleria. It is useful to be beside a mall in case you forget something.

Cons:

• The lobby is really small, no area for photo opp.
• Their rates are quite expensive, considering there is nothing special in this hotel.
• They have smoking and non-smoking rooms in this hotel, a big no-no for me. We wanted to check their non-smoking deluxe room but there's no available for ocular.So their receptionist offered us to check one of their deluxe smoking rooms because they look the same, and my Gad, it stinks! even if they frequently clean it, you'll still smell like cigarette butt.

Obviously, out of all the hotels we visited, we really loved Eastwood Richmonde. We're still undecided on booking them, because we will have another hotel venue ocular one of these days, but this time we'll focus only in Ortigas area. On our next ocular, we will be visiting Edsa-Shangrila hotel, Oakwood Premiere Joy-Nostalg hotel, Discovery Suites and Richmonde Hotel Ortigas. 

String Quartet: Booked!

Today is special for me and for the Filipinos because one, it is my 1st year at my current work ( yehey!) and two, Ms. Philippines Shamcey Supsup won 3rd runner up at Ms. Universe Pageant 2011 ( Kudos and congrats Shamcey!). Anyways, I'm still at work but I'm kinda bored hehe. I already know the info I needed for my new task, but I'm just not in the mood to start yet :D So for some ice breaker, I'm going to share our latest wedding preps update, we already have a string quartet for our reception yipee!!:D

James really loves music. He knows how to play guitar, that's why he told me that he will be the one to choose who will be our string quartet. The string quartet we booked was my first choice, I told him about them before, but that time he wasn't that interested with wedding preparations yet hehe. So weeks have passed, while researching again for new suppliers, I came across another string quartet that plays modern songs, so I became interested with their services. I even emailed the team's manager and inquired regarding their current rates, and we decided to pencil book them. Unfortunately, because of some undesirable circumstances, we have to change plans because of our new budget. The current rate of the quartet I wanted to book was somehow expensive, so we decided to research another string quartet that plays well and within the price range we set aside for it.

One day, James sent me some links of string quartets to choose from. I checked the sites he gave me, and found one with good feed backs so I emailed them immediately. I called the team's manager, and asked for their rates,but when he found out that our wedding will be December next year, he said he's not sure if he could book us this early . Upon knowing this, I decided to look for another group until I remember that the first string quartet that I liked was within our new price budget, so I immediately popped their site to James.

Their site was reconstructed and with new video files. This time, their new videos are in HD format so you could hear their performance clearly. James loved their music and how they performed so he said to me,      "Han, okay na ito, i-book mo na sila kaagad." The string quartet that I'm talking about is the LEGGIERO STRINGS AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA.

Last Friday, September 9, 2011, we had a meeting with Mr. Jack Yapchulay. He's one of the pianist in Leggiero and the other one is his wife, Mrs. Merlie Yapchulay. They are a family of musicians, his 3 kids play the violin and cello, how cool is that?:D We set the meeting around 7-7:30 p.m. at Figaro, Shang-rila Mall at Mandaluyong. I'm with mom and we got in the place early so we just bought hot choco and frap to pass the time while waiting for him ( Sis Ayeth didn't come because she has an early event to attend to the next morning). I texted him again around 7:30 pm, but he said I got the wrong number so I texted Mrs. Merlie for confirmation. He got in our meeting place around 8pm (kinda late from our agreed time, good thing we're really not in a hurry). He apologized for being late and told me that he didn't read my text message well, so he thought I texted the wrong person. He's a nice guy with a lot of stories to tell. He told us their performances on other events and weddings, mingling with celebrities and how intelligent and talented his kids are. By the way, their family joined the talent show contest on TV 5 named TALENTADONG PINOY because of their son who loves to join talent contests.

Good thing we decided to book them this early because they're going to increase around 2-4k next year. Another nice thing about them is they can also play modern songs like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars...etc. I really wanted to have a string quartet that can play both modern and classical songs in our reception so that's really a plus factor to me.

If you wanted to see their performances, here's their website: http://www.leggierostrings.com/

Hurry and visit their site now, so you could still avail their old rate for the year :D

Thank you :)

It's been months since we started preparing for our wedding. Though my hubby to be is still far away ( but in two months he'll be here yehey!), I was able to book all are major suppliers, and now I'm scouting for minor ones. We're going to visit them one by one when he gets back here.

Before,whenever I suggested suppliers, he will just say "whatever you like, it's fine with me". I sometimes feel that I'm just the one who's excited with the wedding preps. Well I can't blame him though, because one, he's too far away and two, he can't just browse over the net in the office, because clients might see him (his broadband connection promo expired, so he doesn't have internet connection anymore in his room). Maybe I'm just having the " alone b2b mode" that time hehehe :D

One day, I just panicked. Due to unpredictable circumstances, our original wedding budget was cut down to some amount. Because of this, I have to revamp our excel sheet and I informed him about it. When I was about to explode of worry (worrying that our wedding budget won't fit in anymore), he calmed me down by asking if I could send him the excel sheet I made, and he'll edit it himself. I immediately emailed him the excel sheet then minutes later, I got a new one from him wherein he added columns telling how much  is our new budget, how much did we saved from the suppliers I booked, how much is the exceeded amount ( in case there are exceeded packages we acquired from the suppliers we previously booked) in short he edited the excel sheet to make it easier for me. I suggested some revisions and emailed it back to him, minutes later he sent  the revised one and voila! come to think of it, we still won't exceed even though we reach the max amount of each allotted budget for our suppliers :) I'll just do my best to cut down expenses, and scout for the best but affordable suppliers :D

Maybe, somehow, he got worried to of my panicky attitude hehe. I'm just happy that he made things easier for me. Aside from editing our wedding budget excel sheet, he even chose who will be our string quartet for the reception. He researched some quartets over the net and gave it to me, but when I shared to him my first string quartet bet ( they are not the string quartet I initially wanted to book, but they are in my list because they are affordable), he fell in love with their music :). He even downloaded some of their video clips in you tube (They uploaded new HD video clips in their website, and oh boy, they are good indeed! Their clips before were blurry and the audio was shaky, that's why I didn't appreciated their performance that much). He pushed me to set a meeting to them immediately to avail their low rate promo, because it's indicated in their website that they will increase next year.

So next week Friday, together with our head coordinator Sis Ayeth, I'm going to meet our prospect String Quartet. It's none other than the LEGGIERO STRING QUARTET :) If I'm not mistaken,They are a family of musicians. My h2b is very keen with music, since he knows how to play the guitar. With his skill and love for music, I know he chose well who are string quartet will be :D

Thanks hannie, hoping for more help from you in the future hehe mwah! :-* see you soon! :D

Bridal Hair Do inspirations

Whenever I research about weddings, I always notice one thing, the bride is always stunning. Whether it's just a simple civil wedding ceremony or an extravagant one, the bride has this happy aura that makes a wedding really special. I have faith that our HMUA will deliver very well on our wedding day, but I wonder how he’ll be a fairy god mother to me :) So today, I decided to do a research about bridal hair-dos.

My hair has very fine strands so it looks limp. I wanted to have a volumize up-do look on my wedding day and I got these fine pegs below as inspirations :)

Nicole Hernandez

 Remember Carla Grasa?the pond's girl model? she's Nicole Hernandez in real life and these are her wedding  portrait pictures, she's such a site!:) 

 

Priscilla Meirelles

 Who doesn't know John Estrada's new apple of the eye? she's no other than Priscilla Meirelles.I love her hair-do, it's like a greasy-volume-up-wavy up-do, hehe whatever you call it,I really like it :) 

 

 

Anielle Santos

She's the coffeemate "ehem" girl that everybody loved. Like Nicole and Priscilla I'm also in awe when I saw her pics.

I wish I could look stunning like them too on my wedding day ^_^

Source: Metro Photo and Pat Dy