Invitations

After finalizing the whole entourage, it's now time to work on the invitation. the whole process of working on the invitation, from the design layout to the printing is really fast. just a few days after I approved the layout, Suzette already texted me that the invitations are ready for pick up. We went to their office to pick up the invitations (and pay for the half of the remaining balance). I was really amazed with how the invitation looked like. For me, it is just perfect! I loved it a lot!

The Prenup Session

We are now 3months down before the big day. Our agenda now is the Prenup Session. The place where we had the photo shoot was at Pan de Amerikana in Marikina City. I called them and set a schedule for the shoot. They do not allow any photo shoot on weekends. Thus, we scheduled ours on a Monday. They will only charge php500 for the use of the dressing room and will require your whole team to dine in their restaurant.

After having the schedule set with the placed, we then coordinated with Awesome Events Ph for the photographer's schedule. Also, requested to have a hair & makeup artist which is not a part of the package we availed.

The morning of the prenup day, I was both excited and nervous. We arrived early in the venue. We stayed at the dressing room as we wait for the artist and the photographer. The makeup artist, Ms. Azhyl Gobe is very amazing. She was able to finish my hair and make up in just around 15 minutes. I loved how she made me look. Our photographer, Sir Leo Pacalda, is also good and very easy to work with. He guides us well on what to do and how to pose. We finished everything in less than 2 hours. This includes to outfits with different hair & makeup.

After the shoot, we dined at Pan de Amerikana. The food is good and relatively affordable. I was a good lunch indeed. We then went to Awesome Event's office. We need to pay the next 10,000 and an additional php 2500 for the hair and makeup. On this same day, we are already given a copy of all the prenup pictures on our flash drive.

As we go home and check the pictures, we are so amazed! I really loved how the pictures look. I also love what was done on my hair and make up. If I will rate Azhyl and Leo for this day, it will definitely be 5 stars!!!

Here are some of the really great photos.

The Dresses

I definitely want to skip the step of gathering my bridesmaids and secondary sponsors for body measurements for their dresses. Thus, I chose to buy the dresses over the shelf. My sister and my niece went with me to Divisoria to score some great dresses for a good price.


Before we actually started hunting down some dresses, we first bought the neckties for the groomsmen and bow ties for the little boys.

Then, we started exploring the stores in 168. There are tons of dresses there. The bridal sections are B1, 4th flr and 6th flr. We got the dresses for the secondary sponsors and for the maid of honor on the 6th flr. Afterwards, we headed to Tutuban Mall. We got the dresses for the bridesmaids there.

Here are the photos for the 3 different designs of the dresses.

for the Maid of Honor

For the Bridesmaids

For the secondary sponsors

I was really happy, I spent less than php6000 for all the dresses. :) :) :)

Seminars

Since we are to be married in a Catholic Church, one of the requirements is to attend seminars. There are 3 seminars in total. Each are to be taken on separate days. Here's a brief description of each:

NFP - Natural Family Planning

Of course we all know that the Catholic Church is no in favor of the artificial ones. Thus, they do give a seminar on the natural way. We had this seminar together with other couples who are also about to be married. It was interesting indeed. They will also educate you on how to have a baby girl or baby boy. The method that was discussed to us is known as BOM or Billings Ovulation Method.

MEI - Marriage Expectation Inventory

For this one, it will be just the two of you together with the one who presides. Both of you will be asked to answer a questionnaire. Most of the questions are about your expectations after the wedding. Both your answers will then be discussed to you. This will help you compromise if there are items that you might disagree about in the future. This will also prepare you on a lot of things that you might face in the future as married couple. (ex. living with relative/parents).

Pre-Cana

This is a longer seminar. We had it from 8am to 5pm. There are quite a few other couples aside from us. This seminar will remind you of your Catholic faith. At the same time, this will prepare you as you enter married life more in a spiritual aspect. This is named after Jesus' first miracle in the wedding in Cana. 

There you have it. Aside from this 3, we will be having Canonical interview with the Priest when the wedding date is already close. 

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.