1st Month Mark

It has been a month now since Papa P and I got engaged. And so far, we have crossed out two suppliers; one of which I think, is very important to book as early as now, the photo and video.

There's still a long way to go and a long list to fulfill and as of today, we still have 14 months till the big day.

Next on the list is the Venue and the Catering!

We have requested my sis and bro to do ocular in three venues in Antipolo -- the top three we were eyeing on. And for them, they do have a definite winner...a place, which after much convincing from them, we also came to love and so we decided to get.

However, we are still torn between choosing if we are only to get the venue or avail of their package, which pretty much includes the catering and the styling. The latter would have made our lives easier since all-in packages would cost just about half compared to when you will get separate suppliers for catering and styling. However, after doing some extensive research on their partnered caterer, we have found some negative feedback from previous clients. Although they say that each client is a unique case, Papa P still didn't want to take the risk. Hence, problem still not solved. Waah! The dilemma of an overseas couple...geeez!

We are still praying about making this big leap in our preps. Hopefully by end of August, we have already made our final decision.

Booking our First Suppliers

This is officially it!!! We have finally made our first down payment to two of our suppliers.

1. Nice Print Photography for our Photo/Video and PhotoBooth (20% of the whole package)

2. Joy San Gabriel for Cake (Php1, 000 Reservation)

I am in bliss... :) I know for some, this stage is no biggie, but for me, booking your first ever supplier is a clear sign that this is it...and there's no looking back now.

We were actually supposed to book our targeted Venue with package for Catering as well, since we have been eyeing on this one for quite some time now. I have been closely coordinating with the AE and she was very easy to talk to and besides, this supplier fits exactly our preference for a garden wedding and fits exactly our budget. (which is a very big deal!) But then since we have not physically visited the place, Papa Peers decided to ask my Sis and Bro to check out the venue first and share with us how they find the place...this will really help us a lot in deciding.

Anyway my Sis and Bro will be having the ocular this Monday, hopefully we will be able to get good feedback.

This is definitely next on our list. And I know that if we are able to finally book...mas lalong exciting!

Prayer Note: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your provision. We continue to entrust to your our planning and we pray that you grant us the wisdom to choose our suppliers. We bring you back all the glory, In Jesus Name. Amen!

Budgeting Strategy (Step 1)

Now that we have confirmed some suppliers from the recent Bridal Caravan we attended, these suppliers are one by one, now following-up with us on our deposit/down payment. I know how very crucial this first step is, since giving your down payment means blocking off the date exclusively for you.

So far today, two suppliers have already been following up with us...Good thing I am able to delay a bit since Papa P and I haven't really sat down and discuss our budgeting strategy. 

This, I believe, is where women are experts of. While delaying and while waiting for H2B to discuss money matters, I was able to negotiate the payment terms with one of our suppliers. (gudjab!) This is very much important since you don't want to drown yourself with huge amounts of payables all at the same time. 

So anyway, Peers and I will be discussing on this matter soon. Hopefully we'd be able to settle (at least our budgeting) until end of this week so we can proceed and start scratching off from our suppliers' list.

Prayer Note: God was, is and will forever be our provider! We lift up all our planning to you and may your will be done accordingly. Amen!

Good Deals from the Bridal Caravan!

Thank God for Bridal Fairs...

And thank God that even if we were an hour late from the time the event started, we were still one of the few ones who arrived first... (Filipino Time nga naman!)

We were targeting on Photo and Video, Catering, Cake and Invitations. Well actually, we were targeting mostly on the Photo and Video since this is one of the suppliers that's crucial to get and book (apart from venue and catering)

So then, first off was the Photo and Video, we inquired first at Nice Print Photography, which actually got a good spot mainly because their booth was the first booth you'll see upon registration. This, by far, was the "bestest" deal we got from the whole fair. We got the Centuria Package upgraded with Prenup (waived OOT fee for location), AVP Presentation and On the Day Editing. Basically all in all, we were able to save Php41, 000 ++ out of the freebies and discounts we got. (Imagine that!) I have actually been liaising with Charisse (the owner) via email a couple of weeks back and had actually pencil booked our date for 14November14. But after I found out that they were included in the Caravan, I knew I had to wait and attend this event before confirming on anything. And good enough, naging sulit ang pagiging patient...Imagine if we booked prior to the fair, we could have not gotten discounts/upgrades and freebies. Btw, while we were still at it...we booked a PhotoBooth with them as well, which only had minimal addition on top of the photo/video package we got. (Good Deal!)

Next off was Catering Services. The only supplier participating for this area was Josiah's Catering. And we met the owners as well. Rates were still the same but the rep we spoke with upgraded the package to Pasta Bar instead of just a dish and waived off the vat which amounted around Php20, 000 ++. However the only concern with Josaih's was that they don't have any inclusive packages to the Venue we were targeting to get. After requesting for quotation from the venue (including their accredited catering services) they would still be cheaper compared to Josaih's package. So this one, although we signed up for them, is still pending until we confirm first the venue.

Next stop was Joy San Gabriel, she's one of the very popular suppliers for Cakes and Pastries. And since she was highly recommended by my friend who recently got married, we had to check her out. Cake will be sponsored by Papa P's sister, Ate Shayne. So we inquired from her booth and we checked out how much the rates are for her cakes. For this one, we pretty much got a good deal as well, since apart from the 3-tier personalized and customized cake that we will avail, we will be able to convert the first two upper layers to either individual 8 pcs 6" round cakes or 50 pcs cupcakes with variety of flavours. And apart from this, if we confirm until the offer lasts, we will be given 10-12 bottles of biscuits (2 dozens per bottle) -- which we tried and tasted during the event, and oh was it super delicious! So for this one, we pretty much were convinced to get as well.

After the cake, next on our list was the Invitations. We tried to check the supplier for the invitation, but both booths "Printsonalities" and "WINK" were occupied and had customers inquiring. And since we were running out of time and had to rush to go to church at 2PM, we can't wait any longer  and so we just decided to let it pass. Anyway, these are just minor suppliers and I was actually just thinking of DIY-ing my invitations.

Mission Almost Complete -- almost, since too bad we didn't get to inquire for the invitations. But nevertheless, we were still satisfied. After checking out and confirming good packages for Photo and Video and the Wedding cake, our day was pretty much complete. So, still not bad for a first timer couple! 

Looking forward to more fairs within the next months!

Cheers! ^_^

SG Bridal Caravan 2013

God is Good and his Timing is Perfect...

Who would've thought that amidst the whirlwind in Wedding Preps...and considering the fact that we are both overseas and have no idea with whatever wedding suppliers there are... Christine Ong-Te, a popular Wedding Event Coordinator in the Philippines has partnered with Wedding Essentials Magazine and organized a Bridal Fair right here in SG. Thank God!!!

Fiance and I are both super excited and looking forward to attending our first ever Bridal Fair this coming Sunday, 18 August 2013...

And we are both praying that we get good deals on this event!

See you there!

Cheers Monogram / Logo

One boring day at work, I was doodling at my notebook and came up with this...

And so I thought, what a nice idea for our logo...but since I lack the technical skills and the ability to work around the computer, I had no idea how to have this in soft copy...

And then I remembered my ex-colleague who was our IT guy in my first company. He was basically our all-around IT person...With good skills in Graphic/Web Designing. I sent him FB message to check if he's bored (lol!)...and asked him huge favor if he could copy the one I drew and make it a logo...

After a few exchanges of email and few revisions, he finally sent me two final drafts...

Can you imagine that all this was just through email and FB. Kudos Bossing Erik! ^_^

Anyway, I showed these two to Papa P...And he chose the one with the outline, because it looked more sharp compared to the first one which looked a bit blur because of the colours.

After picking the winner, I thought that it looked too plain and lacking in detail...For those not aware of how "cheers" came about, they would think it's just a plain word. 

And so I searched online for samples of monograms/logos...and most of what I saw consisted of the couples' names or their initials and date of their wedding day. Some with borders in a round shape...and some was in square shape...etc...

Since originally, the word "Cheers" was in round shape...I thought that it would be nice to have this as a background instead of having borders...and then I thought of just putting our names and the date of our wedding...

After a few attempts and trial-and-error...and after getting the opinion of H2B, this was our final output.

 

I wanted something simple but will still show our chosen "pastel rainbow" motif. At the same time, I wanted our monogram/logo to showcase our infamous couple name "Cheers" ^_^

Our Color Motif - Pastel Rainbow

For me and Papa P, there's never a dull moment (or so I believe! ^_^) And this does not only manifest in our personalities, but also with the way we present ourselves... :)

For those of you who know me, I LOVE COLOURS! And obviously "black", "brown", and "gray" is never an option...I only use these colours to neutralize different colour combinations.

So thinking about which motif to get (and thanks to my mom for the inspiration), I thought of getting rainbow colours. But when I shared this with H2B, he was concerned that our event might turn out like a Birthday Party and not a Wedding (Well, I understand his sentiments here) hehe!

So I searched online for pegs of such motif and landed on a page depicting various colours -- not too strong and still cool to the eyes. And thanks to Pinterest, we have actually seen weddings with such motif. Having Pastel Rainbow may not be conventional for now -- but still, it is workable. <3

So there you have it, the Pastel Rainbow... ^_^

Exciting and I can just imagine how it will all turn out... ^_^

Cheers! ^_^

Choosing The Date ( 14 - November - 14 )

I have always assumed that prepping for a Wedding is a bit overwhelming, thus sometimes if left out-of-control, can turn out to be a cause of stress.

And now that Fiance and I are starting with the preps, I have never actually imagined that even in choosing "THE DATE", it can already be too overwhelming...

If it was just up to Me and Papa P to decide, it's easy as a pie...We will pick our special day when we officially became a couple, Feb 14. But after consideration of a whole lot of other factors (ie. availability of family members, availability of most guests that we will be inviting, peak/off peak season, weekday/weekend) and also taking into consideration that Me, Papa P and Peers' family are all overseas and that most of our guests are also coming from overseas too...it took us a long time to finally set a date. We needed to prioritize and put the pros and cons for each of our targeted days.

Year will be 2014...this one was easy since 2013 will be too rush for us.

We chose between April and December first...April being a summer season and December since its a holiday. We thought this would be convenient months for the majority since our guests from overseas will have all the reason to go back to the Philippines for vacation or holidays.

When we laid out these two dates, both had more cons rather than pros...For one, budget-wise...April would be too near for us...and Secondly, December (although this was both our top choice - alanganin for Peers' Mom who will not be able to take leave from work since, ika nga Peak Season sya). Apart from these obvious reasons, there was actually a whole lot more "uhmmms" and "ahmmms", so we just thought it would be best to let go of these dates.

So to be safe, we moved one month earlier, hence landing to November...

This looked all right for me and H2B...besides, "11" is his number...and November, I think is a safe month whereby Rainy Season is already over and the weather is just about "perfect" (not raining and yet can still feel the cool breeze of the "ber"-months). Apart from this, November as for most suppliers, is not a Peak Month for weddings...and rates are reasonable compared to when you hold your wedding on a December -- usually the prices shoot up and this is the time most suppliers increase their rates for the coming year. H2B initially thought of 11-3-2014...Because "11" is his number, "3" is my number" and "14" is both our numbers...but then coming to our senses, we realized that this wasn't a good day since it will be right after "All Saints" and "All Souls" Day...Lol! (It actually gave me the creeps...haha!). So we just decided since 14th of November is our Monthsary Date...and Year will be 2014. We just went for 14-11-14. :) Yey!

So there you have it, after carefully taking into consideration a WHOLE LOT OF FACTORS...we finally agreed to our date...still with our fave number as a couple, 14... <3

14-November-14

Cheers! ^_^