The Church

We did not think twice when deciding which church we would like to get married. Definitely, it will be where we first had mass together. This is also the church where we go every Sunday. We will be married at San Felipe Neri Parish.

This church is located at the corner of Boni Avenue and Aglipay St. Mandaluyong City. We believed that this will be very accessible for both our relatives.

We inquired for the requirements for wedding in this church. Please see below picture for the guidelines from this church.

Just a tip: be mindful of the validity of Baptismal and Confirmation certificates. You can only request once for these certificate for "marriage purposes". Technically, you should only be married once. 

Also, if you want your wedding to fall on a weekend, you should book at least a year before. Weekend schedules are mostly booked. That is one of the reason we scheduled our wedding on a friday, September 30, 2016.

Awesome Events Ph

Now that we have a church and a reception venue, we need to look for suppliers. We opted for those who offer packages. Simpy because I do not have enough time (and patience) to talk to different suppliers/vendors. My sister gave me options that she found over the internet. Some of options she gave are as follows:

1. Events Magic
2. Awesome Event Ph
3. Pink Genius

I tried sending SMS/PMs on these three to see which of them replies first. I was kinda interested with Pink Genius as they are recommended by Sir Tony of secret garden. I asked if we can meet up with them. Of course I would like to see their portfolio as well. However, they responded to me that they only do meet ups if we are to pay the reservation fee already. Therefore, I removed them from our options.

Next, I got a call from Awesome Events Ph as a response to the messages I sent them. They gave us directions on how we can get to their office. I find it good that they do have an office. At one point, I don't need to worry about the legitimacy of their company. When we arrived at their office, we are welcomed by Ms. Suzette Osias. She showed as the different packages they offer. We found the HOPE package to fit what we need and fit our budget. Also, I found the photos and videos of their previous events to be really good. However, when we started looking at the schedules, they fully booked on weekends. Since I already felt that I wanted this supplier, I asked Ms. Suzette to give us time to think over our schedule.

After Awesome Ph, I tried to contact Events Magic. The prices on their packages seems cheaper. I asked about their partner in photo/vid. I looked at their portfolio on facebook and I wasn't really happy. Also, when I asked them to pencil book a our desired schedule until the time I can go to their office, they told me that they don't do pencil booking. It was a Monday and I am planning to go to their office on Friday of same week. With that, I felt that I won't get a good service from them. So I marked them out of my list.

After making sure that the schedule is available on church and on the reception venue, we finally decided to go with Awesome Events Ph. We went back to their place in Marikina to sign the contract and talk about terms and conditions.

Here is the link on their facebook page and you may browse other packages that they have.

We chose to avail the HOPE package (worth 100k) as this seems fit for us. They only required php 10,000 for reservation. The next php 10,000 to be paid on Prenup session. The remaining php 80,000 will be split into 2 payment. First will be once the invitations are released and the next will be 2 weeks before the event.

The Secret Garden

After choosing the best church for us, we need to find a good venue for the reception. We wanted the venue to be within Mandaluyong only so that it won't be hard for the guest to go there after the wedding ceremony.

I browse the internet and found Secret Garden in Mandaluyong. Don't be confused as there is also another Secret Garden somewhere in Novaliches, Quezon City. We went to check out the place (and the price). We set an appointment with Sir Tony for site visit and to check the schedule as well.

We got there around 7 in the evening. Just perfect time for us to see how the place would look like at night since the reception would definitely be in the evening.

Here are some pictures of the place when there are no decors yet.

We are fortunate enough that they allowed us to rent the venue alone. Moving forward, if you want to rent the place, you also have to get other services from them (catering, stage design, lights and sounds, etc).

The rates that we got from them are as follow:

php 30,000 for the place

php 5,000 for corkage and garbage collection

TOTAL: 35,000

They only required us to pay for 5,000 as reservation fee. The remaining balance can be paid 2 weeks before the event.

Engagement Session w/ Carlo

As there are a lot of people who are happy for us when we got engage, there is this one guy who stood out. He is so happy for us that he offered to do a photo shoot for us for free!!!

Our good friend Carlo captured really awesome photos of us. Whenever I look at his works, I am in awe. Here are some of the photos that he took for us. We are indeed very thankful for all the efforts that he placed on these wonderful work of art.

You can browse more of his work on this link: Click here