Wedding Preps Update 3

Almost two weeks ago, we have reserved both the gown designer and the caterer.

My mom and I went to her designer one friday afternoon. Next time, I'll tell you who he is. My mom have been asking this designer to do her gowns and dresses. He also did one gown for me a few months back and I really liked the dress on me. Initially we went to talk about my wedding gown, since my gown will be a gift from my sister and her husband. When we got there, the designer proposed a really nice deal to us, covering the entire entourage (except the men)...super irresistible. And since my mom and I are both impressed with his work, we decided to book him, without me asking for Ane's opinion (surely malaking gulo later on!). That friday night, yeah, I lied to Ane and told him the wrong amount. Of course he didn't believe me and come saturday morning, I knew I could not lie any longer and told him the truth (I felt bad myself, about lying). He was angry, obviously, but thankfully we are able to sort it out. I guess I'm never gonna lie again (because he said he might take drastic measure [read: calling the wedding off] if I did something like that again). By the way, our motiff's gonna be orange and yellow accentuated by moss green.

The next day, we were scheduled to have food tasting at Hizon's and we were impressed by the way the owner Ms. Baby and our AE Ms Marianne handled us. The conversations went on smoothly and it was never hard to tell them what we want and need. Some things, Ms. Marianne immediately offered us for free even if we didn't ask for it. We definitely grabbed anything she offered, free nga eh! Hehe And since their food is so delish and we didn't have a hard time with them (which is number one in our considerations list), we paid the reservation fee already. Yey! We now have a caterer! It's up to us now when to set another meeting for the nitty-gritty details. We were also invited to go to the grand food tasting on Oct 2 at Gazebo Royale so we would have an idea about their set-up. We left with Ms. Marianne giving us her direct line plus her residence phone number in case we have questions and its a sunday or after office. Galing! For the past two weeks, I would receive SMS from Ms. Marianne everytime she would be out of the office or if she's gonna be on leave. That's nice, because I'm pretty sure that she values us as her client.

Our photographer will be our dear friend Richard Garcia. He's relatively new in the business but we know he and his assistant plus second photog will do a great job in preserving our moments into pictures. Now, Ane and I will not disclose how much it would cost us for Master Rickleng (rickleng = richard magaleng) to cover the event. Ask him na lang, hehehe. Ask me for his number.

We were able to book Ariel Javelosa for our video. He's been in the business long enough to understand our video needs plus his video package is well within our budget. I initially wanted to hire someone who is an expert in on-sire video editing ot be shown in during the reception but Ariel knocked some sense into my head. He said we can show the some scenes din naman from the preps and the church, and he will sdo that for free. As for the Audio-visual presentation (AVP) we decided to get away with the usual picture presentation showing us from kids until now. Instead of that, we shall be exhibiting mosaics (I am still arguing with Ane on who should do it. Ane is insisting to stick on the budget so we probably would not get Mosaic Moments). But we will still show an AVP, probably an MTV format, which Rickleng and some of our friends will help us do.

That's about it. I guess there's no reason to panic yet. Eveything is falling right on schedule, it seems. I'm more panicky for Ditche Ophie (and Ipe), Donna (and Bebert) and Sheila (and Cousin Frenz) who will all get married before January 2006 ends!

Pre- Wedding Preps Update 3 kwento

I should have been blogging about the preps but I've been procastinating...not because I wanted to have a "news-blockage" or something. It's because there are too many things in my mind right now. Now, this blog says "9 mos and 3 weeks until we exchange I do's", and there are a lot of cross-out already at the sidebad list. Just that makes me wanna update and write details.

Anyway, as of today, the only thing missing in our list of major vendors/suppliers are the ones for: the flowers, make-up, entertainment and invites. We haven't met with possible suppliers of these because we both think we shouldn't hurry yet (except for the HMUA [hair and make-up artist] prospects, which I should start booking for THMU [trial hair and make-up] before the end of October, and before we go on a holiday.

Eddie Bruan is number one in my list. Not only did he make a perfect job on my bestfriend two years ago, he also advertise that he use my and my mom's choice of make-up. And his rates are reasonable too.

We have a florist in mind but she could be very expensive for us. We will be scouting in Dangwa late this year, probably. Three shops are already being considered. Our flowers will be simple since I just love the white ones, like roses and carnations and tulips.

For the invites, we gave up the idea of choosing the ones with pockets and inserts against the plain ones which look elegant just the same. Our dream invites cost at a range of p120 to p150 per set. Now considering our number of guests, that amount for an invite would be quite expensive, eh?

For the entertainment, Ysidro's performers will most likely take care of it at the reception. As for the church, we might request the seminarians to be our choir.

Showing my staff and our friends that this is how far I've gone with the preps (with a lot of time left), they can't help but exclaim, "Grabe, you are so organized! Ang dami mo na nagawa!" To which I smile and reply, "the real work is about to happen pa lang." Which is true since there's still a lot of contract signing to do, meetings to set, compromises to make. I'm setting myself ready when January comes , we'll probably be too busy. I'm not even sure if I'll be in the country to finalize all details. Sigh.