Planning A Perfect Wedding

Another excellent, excellent find. I need to update you guys on this. Good stuff, I swear. If you are looking for a brown tie to match your pink and brown themed wedding. I found a good site, Belisi they have insider information to an extensive tie collection including woven silk, from stripes, solid, paisley designed etc.

What's more they have free shipping and handling. I read on one of that insider post said that he have found the Associates to be pleasant, courteous, knowledgeable, and willing to go the extra mile to be of assistance.

Gotta love those, right. And I also fell in love with the information Belisi compiled related to fine scrafs and handbags which I can buy as bridesmaids and presents to the mother of the groom and mother of the bride. They even post tips on picking handbags, etc. Talk about elegance, class and style at affordable price.

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It really blows my mind how unity candles can be so outrageously expensive so I did one for us. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite happy with the first unity candle I made. I wished I had known about the one mentioned in my earlier post.

I revised the design using a square candle, incorporating the ribbons we used for our wedding details embelishments and a picture of a pink peony. In addition, I saw this cute metal plate originally meant for scrapbooking at the craft store. It says, "Marriage...the beautiful blending of two lives, two loves, two hearts"

I think this one looks so much better than the old one.

These are very nice and matching a pink and brown motif.

Floral Candles offers:
Hand painted pink and brown beeswax and faux brown flowers give a beautiful and whimsical flair to any wedding or event. Personalization can be up to 20 characters per line and 4 lines. Comes wrapped in cello and tied with a pink ribbon. Tapers included (notice the the brown color at the bottom of each taper!)

Nice huh, I wish I knew this before I made our handmade unity candle.

I used to drive 10 years ago. I was 18, that is until two of my friends (LV my sister in law, and Don, a close friend) passed away in two separate car accidents. Two teens who have not seen the fruition of their dreams. Both accidents involved a truck, more than twice the size of the cars they were in.

I wished though that they have read then the safety tips I have read recently. It talks about key pointers for teens/new drivers and old alike.

Some of them includes:
- Stay out of a truck’s blind spots or “No Zones.”
- Be careful when attempting to pass a truck.
- Do not swerve in front of a truck or cause the driver to come to asudden stop.
- Avoid “Squeeze Play” when a large truck needs to make a wide turn.
- Do not cut off a large truck or passenger bus.

To this date I have not driven. But lately I had been contemplating about it since their are companies out there who advocates to driving safely and im seeing less aggressive drivers lately. Sometime this year I will renew my license, buy a car and have a stable and reliable car insurance. I wonder how much it will cost me. Perhaps I can start by getting a cheap car insurance quote.


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Materials and tools needed:

Faux wax sticks in color of your choice

Brass, pewter, ceramic, or rubber seal

Clear embossing stamp pad or
a piece of cloth or cotton saturated in baby oil

Low-temp mini glue gun

(your faux wax sticks can be used in a hot melt (regular) glue gun for other crafting purposes, but the faux wax will come out very thin and difficult to use for making seals)

DIRECTIONS:

STEP 1. Insert the faux wax stick into glue gun and plug in. Do not begin to make the seals until the faux wax has had the chance to heat for several minutes! Caution! Even with a low-temp glue gun, the melted faux wax and the nozzle of the glue gun are very hot and can cause burns! Do not touch while in use!

STEP 2. Slightly wet the seal with the embossing ink or baby oil. This will help prevent the seal from sticking to the paper and make a very clear impression.

STEP 3. To make wax seals directly on the stationery or envelope, squeeze a small mound of faux wax onto the place where you want the seal to be.

STEP 4. Slowly, press the wet seal firmly into the faux wax to create an impression, wait for a few seconds and then remove.

(You may have to experiment on a scrap of cardboard or paper to get the amount of faux wax just right. There should be enough on the paper so that a small ridge of faux wax is pressed out all around the sides of the seal, but not so much that the seal is too thick and bulky. The brass seal I used to test this project is approximately 3/4 inch wide, and it worked best with a blob of faux wax the size of a raisin.)

If you are afraid to damage the paper or making errors, make your seals in the back of a non-stick baking sheet/pan, release after cooling and paste into your envelopes using clear glue.

PHOTO: clockwise from top: Materials, step 1, step 2, step 3, step 4, impression using a rubber stamp, impression using a brass seal.

Try this test it analyzes what kind of bride are you. It defines me as a modern bride. Hmmm. interesting stuff!

While you aren't ready to throw away all wedding tradions, you want a wedding with a twist. You're more inspired by celebrity weddings on E! than from bridal magazines. Whether this means getting married on the beach barefoot or a mariachi band for the reception... Your wedding will be a blend of old and new - white dress cocktail, personalied vows, whatever suites you!!!
Want to Know What Kind of Bride Will You Be? Take This Quiz :-)

Looking for the best Valentine's Day gift ideas for the woman you love? I recently stumbled upon a site that lists sales from various online stores. I hope my hubby is reading this because I would not mind receiving a nice pair of diamond earrings or maybe a nice bouquet of flowers is just as good.

Meanwhile, I am also eyeing on Dell Axim X51v PDA for my husband. He’s always wanted to have one. I’ll secretly buy after I checked out the prices at Money Solution . I’m sure he will love it. Money solution is such a great site. It has every gadgets that I have been looking for in a while.

My goddaughter Martha is also turning one soon, maybe I will buy her some educational toys. I’m sure there are some great products on sale listed here.

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Being newlywed and young we’ve been exploring on investment possibilities other than our retirement fund and savings. I remembered my mom kept telling me that owning jewelries are good investment, but I don’t wear much of gold. So I looked for alternatives and found that gold coins and ingots are as good investment. Gold coins are one of the oldest forms of money. Furthering my research I found out that I don’t have worry about robbery and theft since companies such as Monex sells gold coins and offers immediate personal delivery or arrange for convenient and safe storage at an independent bank or depository. So now you know where our money is going to next, to purchase gold coins --- talk about a gold rush!

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By Sara Brodsky, Director, Best Foot Forward
Originator of The Wedding Crash Course

The first dance is often the last piece of the puzzle for a couple planning their wedding. Choosing a first dance tune can be frustrating if you don't know where to begin. Here are secrets to making your first dance meaningful and enjoyable, rather than anxiety provoking or dull.

The words and musical style of your first dance song should reflect your personalities. Start with a musical genre and then pare down your choices within that genre. Are you jazz aficionados? Pop specialists? Elvis worshippers? Is Motown in your soul or country in your heart?

Choose a song with a slow to medium tempo (upbeat is fine). Slower is not necessarily easier. Very slow tunes may sound wonderfully romantic on the CD, but not translate well on the dance floor. Often, the rhythm in these songs is more difficult to hear, and thus, makes it more difficult to dance easily.

If you find choosing a first dance song a bit overwhelming, ask your DJ or bandleader for suggestions.

If the song you choose for your first dance is not on your band's play list, give them plenty of time to learn it - the more time they have to rehearse it, the better it will sound at your wedding.

Dance for approximately two minutes - no more! After two minutes, your guests are focusing elsewhere. It's easy for a DJ to fade in and out of a tune to fit this time frame, and a band always can play a shorter version of the tune.

If you really want to play the whole tune - the words are particularly meaningful to you, for example - invite your guests to join you after your two minutes.

Listen to tunes on your computer or go to your public library. Many libraries have extensive CD collections, which can save you money when searching for that perfect first song.

Additional Notes: Our First Dance was At Last By Etta James. The bubble machine was pointed at our direction. We were dancing and the kids were having a grand time chasing the bubbles. It was a nice I'm finally home feeling. Until the last note of the dance, the coordinator popped for confetti canons. I felt like a kid, amazed with the colorful paper flying in the air!

We knew about Hizons even before we started hearing about them here at w@w. I did not bother asking other caterer but them. My initial AE there was Sue (those who were w@wies long enough would know her) then was picked up by Ella. Being an overseas bride I asked my cousin to book them do the food tasting and I did the rest of the planning with Ella. I have a particular set up in mind down to how the ribbons will be on the chairs, the cake table, votive wraps, VIP place setting down to how the napkins will be folded and decorated.

Back in the preps months around August I was having a hard time conveying to them how I wanted my set up. Our first mock up, see more info here http://021806.blogspot.com/2005/08/joke-ng-caterer.html ended up looking like a joke. Kitte, my coordinator and I did not stop until we got what we wanted. Those were times I felt like I was hitting a wall.

As soon as I got to Manila I knew I needed to meet Mrs. Hizon herself and Ella and I did spent 3 laborious hours in their office. I asked for a mock set up and my jaw fell on the ground the centerpiece is the exact colors of my bouquet. I had it changed to just light to pink roses lang. That moment seemed quite promising and disappointing at the same time. We had a final food tasting, I made final instructions on the food (do not overgrill fish, no salt and unsalted butter on the veggies, use two different kind of pasta etc) we asked them to show us the candle holders, kneelers, chairs, linens. I showed them how to do the chair ribbons the table napkins, etc. I asked their window shades to be drawn and redrawn coz I want to see the setup both in dim and bright atmosphere. There were clients whove come and gone and I was still there. OC that I am. Mrs. Hizon even commented, iha ang sobrang detalye mo. I left their office feeling that everything will fall into place, Ella JUST HAVE TO DO HER PART!!!

Few days later we went back to give her the floor layout we wanted and to give them the ribbons for the setup. We upgraded at Gazebo from Pheonix to Champagne hall and it required to buffet set-up instead of one. Ella was more reassuring that she got a hold of everything na. I asked to see picture of the bridal car and she said di pa nya alam.

Come wedding day, I overheard Kitte frantic on her cellphone. Ella called her panicking thinking our wedding is at 4pm when actually it was at six. Our contract says 6pm ceremony starts and 7pm dinner will be served. They were also arguing about the gazebo that shouldn’t have been over the couple’s table.

BRIDAL CAR
I got down to the hotel lobby and saw that the bridal car is nicer than what we were suppose to get. Apparently it got upgraded. We got a bug eye Mercedes instead of an E-class. The car was supplied by Adeb Rentals. The driver Mang Romy is nice and makwento as soon as we got to Gazebo. He tried to ease my tense right before I got out of the car.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/548565679/2713464200068268723BExPCY

SET-UP AT GAZEBO ROYALE
As the car was rolling by Gazebo, Ella approached me and said, Ma’am I tried, I hope you like it. It was worth all the hard work. I held my breath, the hall looked very nice. All the stress paid off. The venue was just as I would imagine it. ELLA DELIVERED!!! Whew, thank God! The entire place was screaming romance and love! There were pink and white roses everywhere you look and they were of good quality flowers. Flowers were provided by Hizon’s in-house florist, Emma’s Flowershop.

Later I would find out that Mrs. Hizon was assigning Ella to another event but she refused, with the line that “baka pagalitan ako ni Ma’am Gloria kung me magkakamali.” After the program I will find out that Mrs. Hizon and Anna Palisoc of Gazebo Royale were there to make sure everything was all set. Days after when Anna and chanced to meet up again, she told me the carpet used was a bit worn out, but I did not even noticed!

FOOD AND BEVERAGES
Seriously I did not get to eat even any leftover due to confusion amongst our families when it was time to part the leftovers. But the few bites Jun and I had were good. We had less leftover than anticipated considering we only have 120-130 guests who showed up and we were booked for 200 plus 2 suppliers table and buffer for 20. When I asked Ella the following day why there were very little leftover, she replied that guest keep coming back for more, Nasarapan po yung guests nyo. Either our guests were REALLY hungry or the perception that wait staff keep some food for themselves is true.

We did not get to eat because the head waiter was so slow in giving us food! By the time we were served and ready to eat the host was already calling us to proceed with the program.

We ordered cases of beer from Hizon all we see were San Mig Light and there were left over Pilsen pero di nila maibigay. They asked us to go to their office with containers. Ano dadalhin ko balde? So I just left that with them. We also bought 6 liters each of red and white wine, 12 bottles of chamdor white grape, 6 bottles of champagne, and a P7000 bottle champagne for us. During the cake cutting they were going to serve us wine that we did not bring so we had to tell the waiter manong di ho yaan ang amin. We have our own, please get our champagne. So after the champagne thing after the cake we asked the head waiter to keep it at the couple’s table. Aba sinerve sa male ento who don’t drink champagne, nasayang tuloy. E ang sarap sarap pa naman nun, nasayang. Later on I would find out that not all of the wine and champagne were served, yet all the chamdor was gone! Guests don’t even know we had them. We were able to get back 1 of each red and white wine and 2 bottles of champagne and half of the gold reserve whiskey we had for the male guests. Whatever happened to the small bottles of carlo rossi for the male ento, we don’t know.

HOST
I would highly recommend Marjorie Dizon for host. She’s from Hizon’s. She’s lively, spontaneous, and doesn’t have a funny accent. Those who want her contact info, please let me know.

TIFFANY CHAIRS
The chairs were decorated the way we wanted them. The ceremony setup was done the way I envisioned them. They looked lovely in the pictures. Which by the way you can view from our webshots gallery http://community.webshots.com/user/gngabriel under wedding reception. Tiffany chairs for the guests were free because of their tie up with Gazebo. We just rented the 80 chairs for the ceremony set up. They were clean and have no chipping paint.

WAIT STAFF SERVICES
I did not hear any negative feedback on this. Courteous naman sila. Except for the server not removing the plastic covers from the server. The guests had to take them off pa. Another negative thing was one of my guests losing her wallet at Gazebo. This was very sad and disappointing. All the wait staff was frisked and searched, nothing was found. Gazebo staff were searched as well wala rin. Good thing she did not have a lot of money in her wallet, or so she says. I’m really sorry for that.

SWORD PARADE
I completely forgot about this when we were walking during the reception did not even noticed this was going on. I should have done the torch one and it would have been probably more noticeable!


Overall I would still recommend Hizon’s for their food and Ella proved herself to me during the day of the wedding talaga. Out of 10 I will give them an 8 because of the liquor and food and some minor snafus.

 I've heard lots of positive comments about Veluz and her shoes and bag tie-up, Niko of Seven Shoes. Having already baught my gown here in Boston, I decided to avail Niko's shoes and bag package during the W@W Auction. This was one of the best decisions I made, as I am very satisfied with Niko's professionalism, craft and candidness.

  

In short notice, he was able to make me shoes and bag that beadwork matching that from gown. He insisted on getting pictures of my gown so he can match the beadwork. The day before the wedding we met at the lobby of Edsa Shangri La for delivery and final fitting. He even reminded me to let go, enjoy my day and always smile.

The morning of the wedding he stopped by to drop off my back up shoes (that I never needed to wear, since the shoes he made me were comfy.) He noticed that I carelessly draped my gown into the manequin and stuck it in the corner. Obviously when you dont have a designer, you dont know what to do. And he went over and beyond his services and took out the manequin, fixed it and even placed the accesories at the foot of the gown. My reaction, Ah ganun pala! He even noticed the monochromatic pink brooch I have that lazily was lying on the table and suggested that I use it in the gown. It definitely added that it factor! He did that inspite of three other clients he need to attend to that day, who are all w@wies. Im sure they had his full attention too!

I can't thank Niko enough for his excellent service. I would recommend Niko to any future bride who needs customized shoes and bags.

After seven years of dating and 13 sleepless months in wedding preps, we finally said "I Do" in front of God and our family & select friends. The hall was pretty and overflowing with pink and white roses, the music was moving that I had to stop in the middle of the isle during the bridal march to keep myself from crying. During the entire ceremony, Jun and I almost never let go of each others' hands and teary eyed. Butterflies were flown during the first kiss and confetti canons were popped on the last note of our first dance, At Last by Etta James. We did not have a lot of guest but everyone turned out happy celebrating with us. The party did not end after we left the Gazebo Royale. We bought all the liquor back to our hotel and partied with friends.

Follow this link for pictures taken by out back-up photographer, Paul Vincent. More pictures to come by our main photographer, Archie Paungan.