Save the Date! :D

This is so "US"! This is LOVE! *giggles*

Amante Fleurs: Wedding Florist/ Ceremony and Reception Stylist Booked!

Before I was thinking of not hiring a florist since I think I can do DIYs.  For me it's not really a must it's more of "wants" and since we are trying not to reach our budget I'm convincing myself  not to have one....Until a w@wie sis (April ni Manny) discovered (mader) Julius Villamante of Amante Fleurs  and from there I got tempted to inquire after reading a lot of emails from w@wies how they find his work excellent with a very affordable rates compare to other event stylist. So,I inquired and after talking to him and hearing his ideas about our theme...I was so tempted and thrilled... I consulted Alan asap about it. I'm so happy that Alan approved and we finally decided to have an appointment with him for booking and contract signing.

Together with BFF Charm and Troy we visited his shop in Kamias last Sunday, June 3.I'm trying to catch his mock up set up but we came a bit late...good thing he still have the set up right there.:D

We discussed first the theme and details and then we do the contract signing. He even let us have some snacks and drinks.Mader toured us around the shop and showed those things they normally use in styling....
I was so thrilled to see how our set up will gonna be...So we agreed to have mock up set up 1st week of July. He also promised me that he will send me pictures of a ceremony set up close to the set up he will create for us!  :)

Few days after he sent  it to me that made me so giddy and excited for our scheduled mock up set up.

Here's the set up he sent me.....

note: it's not exactly how our set up will gonna be but the idea is somehow close to this one.... :D

Just imagine first it's set in a beachfront where the white sand is with a Mexican touch! hahaha

I can imagine myself walking in that aisle :)

love this detail 

of course this one too!

Do you imagine it now?Well I'll let your imagination works first because I wanted to keep the surprise element! hahaha

Wait! before I park.... Do you know that Mader Julius got a lot awards in styling  in Dubai where he worked for 8 years? Yes, it's true...and this July he will compete again in Singapore and I hope he gets more award hahaha...I'm just so proud we are having a world class wedding supplier. :D

meet Mader Julius :D

Maybe Troy looks  so hungry and thirsty that's why he (mader) served us this :D
cassava cake and sprite

Wanna see his works? Please see here!

It's more fun to be a bride if you're a member of W@W!

I always forgot to mention here that since we started our wedding preps for our December 23, 2012 wedding I've been a member of some really helpful wedding websites in the country. One of them is the famous.... Weddings at Work aka W@W.

I am a proud w@wie and been a member for more than half year now and I must say this group really helps me a lot with our preps, sometimes even in an out of wedding topics too...:D So for a bride to be and couple who just engaged it's the right place to be.... If only Alan can really understand Tagalog maybe I push him to sign up long time ago LOL!

Speaking of W@W, I've got the chance to attend  a W@W get together organized by an overseas w@w bride (sis Michelle).I can't explain how happy I am in finally meeting them and have a real picture of how they look like in real life and not only by their email address and w@w signatures. :D I promised myself before I'll make sure I'll steal a time to attend at least one EB and after that meet up, I want to attend more Ebs hahaha.

See below how many of us showed up in Cafe Mary Grace in Greenbelt 2..:D

note: w@w sissies and bros planned a surprise advance birthday party (with cake and balloons) to Mimma Benz.... I was surprised too when the waiters started singing Happy Birthday na....haha ( sorry naman po na-late kase akong dumating, di ako na orient plus katabi ko si Mam Benz ).:p

photo from Mimma Benz Rana :D

Here's the photos grabbed  from Sis April (ni Manny) Pulido.

See how w@w dami and w@w saya namin? :D 

And I was so lucky to received a gift token from Ms. Benz (birthday girl) that time...
A very useful and informative gift  I must say... Thank you again Mimma!

here's Mimma's gift to us :)

W@W wedding  primer, Bride's yellow pages and Ten ten te 10 coin 

It's so nice to be a w@wie! So for all the bride-to-be's out there...it's not yet too late to join W@W!

Try it and you'll never regret!Promise!

Jef Albea - Wedding gown designer : BOOKED

Hi friends!!!

My week has been so busy and the metropolitan life kept my fingers frozen that made me missed more than a week to write even just one post...Pardon me for that!

It's a roller coaster week...

Happy, sad, happy sad....

As much as I wanted to give you all the details I guess I will just make you all confuse , so for the moment lemme just share you one of the best news of the week.... after half year of searching I finally met and booked my wedding gown designer.

He is Jef Albea....

Jef was referred to me by a w@w friend Wynn ( thank you sistah! ) and after I saw his site I just have a good feeling about his creations. I was thrilled so I visited him in his place with Bff Charm last April 21, Saturday. He drew a sketch for me basing on my pegs and guess what? I am really tempted to book him right then and there due to excitement hahaha  but since I have to wait for Alan’s approval I told him give me until Wednesday to decide. That same day after i reported  how's the meet up and how I love Jef's sketch for me Alan gave me the approval and even decided to book him as our female entourage gown designer too....tee hee!

Tuesday morning was not really good so to change my mood I shoot him a sms asking he is free anytime that day so I can book him and I'm glad he has spare time to accommodate me in the afternoon....

And there you go... I booked him and we signed the contract! In one sitting he made the female entourage gown sketches as well us Alan's suit that really made me happy. I even forgot how bad my morning was...

I so love Jef na and he is so guapo pa!.... :)

I want to keep the surprise factor here sana but then I just can't resist to share his sketches for us... anyways it's still gonna be different in the actual  output....so bakit ba? (palusot pa ako) :P

So without further ado...let me share you my bridal gown in the making.....: D

let's start from here!
please click the photos for better viewing......

My gown :D

Alan's suit 

Mom's gown

Mother in law's

 for my Maid of Honor

for Secondary Sponsors

 for my Bridesmaid

for flower girls

Jef  busy doing my entourage sketches :)

Our perfect picture from his iphone :)

That's it!

For a designer, Jef's rate is a way affordable to other known designers in town but since he is still young and have lots of ideas in mind I believe he can make my dream gown into reality. You can tell him your budget and he can adjust well still depending on your pegs.With the rapport I can say I love him to bits, for me that's a big plus. I know I can't rate him just yet.... not until our wedding is done but you know what since I met him he just made me feel so excited and happy looking forward to see myself wearing that gown!Yiiiihhhh! 

Ok....will park na...bye for now! ~ ANNA

Note: Jef can draw a sketch for you on the spot  but then he can't give it to you not until you book him... In that case I almost  book him on the spot! LOL

Check his site here!

More wedding gown pegs!

who will not be confuse with these gowns? I want them all!!! YAY!

and with sexy back designs like  below... >_<

oh well, wish me luck folks.....

note: all pictures provided by Uncle google :P

Our wedding videographer: Stephen Wedding Film

Having a celebrity-like wedding video is what I always dreamed of  (yes, celebrity like talaga kase artistahin ako chos lang hehe :). Well, I was talking about the SDE (same day edit) videos or also known as onsite videos.

As wikipedia defines it here ---->

Same Day Edit : ( Also called a wedding day edit) A short video produced from footage of the wedding shot earlier in the day, usually only incorporating footage from pre-ceremony, ceremony and post ceremony, that is then showed at the reception as a recap of the wedding.

I'm actually a fan of Jason Magbanua ever since and  I even wished I could get him as my wedding  videographer. Now that I am at this point of my life where I'm  planning my own wedding I just realized sometimes dreams are just dreams..Go on and keep on dreaming! LOL Why? Because after I knew how much do we need to save to avail a service of Mr. JM I just told myself we need to live within our means...hahaha. Well, yes! we can't afford his service. We actually can if we will not be practical but It's just too much for a normal people like us and  besides we don't want to earn debts just to have our dream wedding...So, we decided to just find someone who's within our budget but can provide a good quality service too. Late last year we started our  search, I keep on sending emails for some good videographers with good reviews at the same time with good rates but unfortunately all of them are already booked for December 2012. Gawd! I can't imagine that videographers are kind of hard to find.. There are lots them but the one that can give you what you want....hmmm well it requires a lot of research for you to find them. Can you imagine how desperate I am to find one? I'm sending emails of inquiry even on Christmas day! LOL...Yes, I stumbled upon Stephen Wedding Film's site on Christmas day (right after Noche buena I guess) and the Holiday don't bothered me to shoot him an email. But guess what? It seems like Stephen's reply  is one of great Christmas gift we received  cause he answered me on Christmas day too informing me that he is still available on our wedding date. Few more emails and we finally agreed to a meet up. YEY!
Stephen Prado is still new in the business but what I love about his work except for affordable rates ( when I  I booked him) is his unique concept videos. Because of those videos we want us to have one too aside from the SDE.. :p

Sample of Stephen's concept video I'm talking about. :D

January 09, 2012 with BFF Charm I booked and signed a contract with him in UCC Coffee in Robinsons Manila.I was actually surprised when I knew that he is younger than me..Haha tanda ko na!

The meeting went okay. He sometimes sms me about a possible location for our concept shoot and stuffs like that after booking him. In facebook when he is online I update him about the preps progress and even asked him twice if it's ok to change of our wedding location so as our wedding date, glad it's fine with him.I found a supplier/friend feeling in him that makes it more easier for me to reach him without feeling intimidated.

Just right after I booked him some of his works have been featured in some countries known wedding blogsites that made me feel that its really his YEAR to bloom in wedding business.

Features he'd got so far....


Weddings at Work -Feature Grandest Grand Entrance of Newlyweds we’ve seen so far!
Rebellious Brides: The Pedicab Entrance
Weddings at Work: Best Vows of 2011

For brides-to-be who are interested in Stephen Prado's work, know him more from his w@w podcast from this link. :)

Let me finished this post with Aubrey Carampel's (showbiz reporter of GMA 7) wedding concept video by Stephen Prado with help of award winning director and GMA 7 reporter Cesar Apolinario.
Hope you enjoy it like I do! :D

Fadge Cravings-Cake Supplier: Booked

Sorry for a super late update! I dunno what happened to me and I can't move my ass off here...Grrrrr I hate myself for being lazy!

Well, finally our wedding cake supplier is booked. Last Saturday, April 28 after attending Bro. Leo's Diaconal Ordination and a short side trip in Batangas I went straight to Batangas City to meet Ate Mhadg of Fadge Cravings.It's really my intention to get a local cake supplier to save from out of town fee/delivery though Batangas City is still couple of towns away from Laiya, San Juan, Batangas... I guess P1000 cake delivery charge is not bad at all right? :P They are located in a subdivision that is new to me ( i studied in Batangas City during my college days but I never been there) so commuting is kind of hard to me, I lost and rode the wrong jeepney twice. I'm really not good in direction but I'm glad  though I came a bit late I was able to make it. I saw their shop was closed but good thing it's right where Ate Mhadg lives I tried pushing the door bell in front of the gate and there she is.:D Sigh of relief! hahaha.. I learned from her that they don't even got the chance to open that day because she is currently making some cake orders the she need to deliver the next day...

So how's the meeting?

At first Alan and I wanted to have a 3-layered all edible cake but after seeing my parent's wedding cake I said to myself I want ours to looks like close to that one instead. So when I saw a damask theme cupcake tower made by Fadge I told them about it and they said it's okay and we can discuss the details in our meeting. So there, I booked for a cupcake tower ( a cake on top the layer and 80 pieces of cupcakes to be place in the other 5 layers of the tower). The other reason why we chose it instead of the 3 layered edible cake is that we wanted to make sure everyone (guests) will be able eat and taste the cake/cupcakes  in the reception...We don't want to have leftovers because the next day after the wedding we will be surely busy to catch our flights going to a planned out of town Christmas celebration together with both families so I guess taking leftovers is not a good idea at all...so having cupcakes is better. And besides I hate it when I'm attending a wedding and never got the chance to taste the wedding cake..Oh well, that's only my two cents as a wedding guests but I do respect those couples who bring their cakes at home after reception. :P

Well,well, well, too much habla! LOL 

Now to give you how our wedding cake/cupcake tower will looks like lemme show you our pegs..

Let's start here .....

This is how our cupcake tower will look like. I mean the size and the height.

It's the damask cupcakes I saw that made me go for a cupcake tower instead.

This is our first choice for the 3 layered all edible cake.

And since I can't let go of the beach-y details of this cake for this is really love..
Our cupcake tower will still have this details so imagine
the the damask cupcakes with this  details instead..
Don't you think it's lovely? :)

by the way this is my parent's wedding cake...
 I want  ours to looks close to it because
I wanted to put wedding wishes in each cupcakes
  like  what those golden ribbons have.
Though I never told Ate Madge about it yet cause
 i guess ribbons is  not so good  idea...
I'm still thinking  how can I incorporate it with our theme.

Can you imagine now how our tower will gonna be? Not yet? Ok, so here's more.....The color will be aqua blue instead of white and the details will follow our color palete. To have a Mexican touch I told Ate Mhadg that I will just order a Mexican inspired topper.We'll prolly choose a clay topper so we can keep it as a remembrance! :)

OOOOpppps before I park I forgot to tell you that Ate Mhadg got the chance to lemme taste their cake so I can choose which flavor we want to have...Alan and I really wanted to have their carrot cake but unfortunately She don't have a sample of their premium cakes for me to taste that day so I just choose between their 3 basic flavors, which is chocolate, mocha and vanilla. So, what would you expect?A chocolate addict here so obviously I chose the chocolate flavor. They all taste good though I just love how my palete enjoy the chocolatey taste.. :P

Here's the cakes Ate Mhadg took from some
 of her cake orders for me to taste it...Thank you! haha..

This raspberry juice really quenched my thirst! Thanks again LOL!

So there's my piece of cake! :D

PS. I booked and paid her the DP the same day.She promised me she'll send the contract soon since she never thought I will pay her that same day. :P

I missed the last trip of Supercat! waaaaah :/ no choice so I travel via RO-RO. :(
the first 4 photos i grabbed from Fadge Cravings site.

Where we will say I do....again?

Happy Sunday everyone!

As usual we will attend Sunday mass later because most of us wakes up late and there's not too much people during last mass that means we don't need to worry about getting space to sit ( we are normally late) *ashamed*. So for the meantime let me tell you about the Church where we will say I do again.

I've been sharing you about some wedding stuffs like our DIY projects, official monogram and theme but I never have a post about our wedding suppliers yet. So now let me start with you the Church where our wedding ceremony will be held.

At first I thought it's easy to find one but I'm wrong! My dream Church is Caleruega but since me and hubby  really wanted to have a beach reception and we don't want the Nasugbu beaches plus when I tried to book the date is already taken so we just planned to have it in my hometown (Calapan City) stress free and  a way cheaper ( because we don't need to worry about the accommodations of the guests). I inquired in 2 Churches here unfortunately there's no wedding schedules in our prospect date. We can't move it because my Mother in law can't make it earlier due to her job schedules, can't make it later because it's Christmas already. I  keep on searching, I even went to Puerto Galera with family to inquire but hey! I didn't know that all the churches in Oriental Mindoro is basing in the same schedule which is only during Wednesday,Friday and Saturday. For this reason we decided to have a destination wedding instead, a destination where not too far for our guests and of course where we can find a beach reception. Finally we found the perfect place, San Juan, Batangas it is.

Are you familiar where Judy Ann Santos and Ryan Agoncillo ( Filipino celebrities) tied the knot? If not, that church is San Juan Nepomuceno Parish Church and in that same Church we will say I do...again! Exciting isn't it? Well we did not chose it because we are a big fan it just that old church really is an amazing Church.

Alan and I fell in love even the first time we saw it in the web.

Last week of December last year (2011) I booked them via telephone and confirmed it January 21 this year when BFF Charm and I visited the church and did a resort ocular for our reception in Laiya.

Their staff specially Sister Ponie is really helpful and nice.I am really happy that we made the right decision and now I am so excited and can't wait until I walk down its aisle. :D

yours truly in front of San Juan Nepomuceno Church during our visit :)

with BFF Charm in Orange Restaurant in San Juan, Batangas downtown