It's been a while! It's been months since I have blogged about anything. After the Wedding, my husband and I have been so pre-occupied with stuff about our new home - buying furniture, appliances, and some improvements that we had to / wanted to make - and these are not that easy if you did not hire a contractor who can make this happen even without your supervision. In fact, as of this very moment, a "family carpenter" (if there is such thing) of Yan's is currently working on the back splash of our kitchen counter. We still have a lot to accomplish and we are taking it one step at a time.  Not to mention the adjustment that we both had to go through after we moved in. The cleaning, cooking, paying, taking care of everything. Ok, enough of the home making, I will discuss about this on separate posts soon, I'll proceed to the reviews and ratings of our wedding suppliers.

Our wedding has been so fun and memorable, thanks to our friends and families, and of course to our suppliers. It would not have been as fun and organized without their help and expertise. I am so grateful that God has led us to these wonderful suppliers, we have made the right decision in getting them. Here are my honest reviews and ratings of them to help other bride-to-be's decide on which suppliers to choose.

You can read here and here some back stories of how I got to choose Light of Love as our wedding party venue. It is the very first supplier we booked, and one of the suppliers I am most grateful to. Thanks to Stephanie, our AE, for making this aspect of our wedding planning a breeze! The moment I inquired thru email up until after the wedding, I never encountered any problem whatsoever in dealing with Steph. She was so accommodating, warm, helpful and smart. She was always so willing to answer any of my queries even if it's late at night or during her days off. She's always willing to help out and find solutions to my dilemmas. She's heaven-sent! Not only because of her, over-all we never had any problems at the venue during the wedding. Everything turned out great. I highly recommend this events place!

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮

This is not really a supplier because  it's a church, and it's not paid for profit, but I'll include a review anyway for bride-to-be's who are considering it to be their church on the big day. 

There are also back story on how we booked this church, read here.

After we have booked Light of Love, the next challenge is to look for a church nearby. Our criteria: (1) It has to be air-conditioned (it's non-negotiable because we do not want our guests, and ourselves as well, drenched in sweat during the ceremony, it could spoil the moment); (2) We do not like it big, we prefer a chapel because we want to ceremony to be intimate; (3) If possible, it is located in a quite and private area. We are so blessed to have found Archbishop's Palace - it's perfect for what we wanted and it is not expensive. The first person we talked to, whom we have booked our date, was Bro. Mart. But he soon left and went back to the seminary, he was replaced with Sister. We did not have any problems coordinating with them pre-wedding. Sister was so helpful with all my queries nearing the day of the wedding.  On the day of our wedding, the only problem we have encountered was the person in-charge did not want to lay the red carpet in the garden where I am supposed to walk. Since the aisle in the chapel is short, we extended it to the garden to make the bridal walk longer. It was all planned, we even rented an arch with reveal curtain from our florist. The person in-charge's reason for not wanting to lay the carpet was it rained and the ground was wet. Well in fact, it has long stopped raining and the sun was shining so bright at the time. Our coordinators did the best they could but that person would not give in. If my super mom had not intervened, I would not have that walk that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Thank God mom is always there to rescue me! End of story, the carpet was laid, but it delayed the ceremony for a few minutes. Other than that, the ceremony went smoothly. The sound system was fine, the air-conditioning great, and we had a really intimate and solemn wedding ceremony.

Rating:  ✮✮✮✮☆

The caterer is one of the most important suppliers of your wedding. They provide the most essential aspect of the party, food. They also define the look and ambiance of your venue if they are the only one who will be dressing it up - which is in our case. We have booked Hizon's during a grand food tasting, this was a planned one. I got a free hotel accommodation for this which we've used the day after our wedding - we chose Manila Hotel. You can read about our first food tasting with them here.

I chose Hizon's for reasons of: having a good reputation (among all suppliers having the same price range in LOL packages), lots of freebies and upgrades, I liked the food at the tasting, they offer a variety of themes to choose from which you can mix and match. Let's talk about the stressful stage: planning. Since I knew that Hizon's would be, if not the most important, one of the most important suppliers in our wedding, I had to make sure that every aspect it clarified and noted by our planner. My AE was Jorina (it's because I inquired to her first)  and the event planner assigned to me was Justin. There were times Jorina would not respond to my text messages, same with Justin, and that stressed me out. If you are a bride-to-be and your catering point persons would not answer your queries about your wedding reception, it kind of turns you off and freaks you out at the same time. But at the end of the day, everything was sorted out well for the party.

Our detailing went well.  It happened about 4 months before our wedding. I came with my husband (fiance then), cousin, and friend - both were part of my entourage. Justin was accommodating, but seemed in a hurry towards the latter part of our discussion. I would love to discuss about this detailing experience soon - choosing of table cloths, center pieces, cake, backdrop, etc, etc.

During the party, I was not anymore aware of how they handled things, but seems like it went well. Except for: my mom had to go into the kitchen to remind the waiters to serve the additional appetizers that we bought and turned over to them. 

Post-event these were my complaints: There were no left-over food turned over to us (I am sure there were some left as my relatives would say that). My biggest disappointment was: They did not turn over the ground coffee and the sugar and creamer packets, when in fact only my husband asked for coffee, no one else. I suppose they also took the mason jars that many of our guests left behind. (Many guests got drunk, and left the mason jar souvenirs which they have used during the party). It is a very common rule to return those, but no one bothered to do so. Not even the head waiter. I wonder how they divided these among themselves. It's not that much, but it's just so disappointing that their staff keep these things without permission from clients. There were also lots of nacho chips that were left unopened, if my mom had not seen those maybe they could have also brought it home. I have even written a letter to Hizon's general email address regarding this incident, but no response. Oh well.

So here's my rating...

Rating:  ✮✮✮☆☆

With all the photographers in the wedding industry nowadays, it can be confusing to choose who will capture your precious moments on your big day.  This day will happen only once, and we want to make sure the moments are captured beautifully - BUT without spending a fortune! We all know how  well-known and reputable photographers can be so expensive nowadays - well it is talent, skills and experience that you are paying for, so no complaints. It is really up to you to choose which style suits you, and which rate suits your budget. You can find here the list of the photographers that we have considered.

Again, this is a supplier that we have been blessed to find. We have booked Liz Ranola for our pre-nup shoot and the wedding day.  We first met with her in a coffee shop to discuss what we like to happen in the shoot, and well just to meet. She was so friendly, warm and bubbly. Here's our pre-nup shoot story. We had fun doing this shoot, and the photos turned out great. Her back-up photographer in this shoot was Macy Matienzo.

Come wedding day, we saw each other again after many months, and it's like meeting old friends. When the wedding photos on-site AVP was shown, we were in complete awe. I didn't expect the photos to look like that. They were so great.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮

I went crazy looking at and comparing SDEs (and packages) of several wedding videographers. I was totally insane. It was so difficult. It was like doing a thesis.  We chose Vidlens for the ff reasons: I love all of their SDEs - it has taste, character, the editing is so good, very creative, overall output quality is good, in spite of their very affordable rates at that time. Well. that are still quite affordable until now because they include free aerial shots in all of their packages, so I suggest you go check them out if you are still undecided.  You can also read here my post about the photo and video suppliers options I had and my short list.

Bryan was so responsive to all of my queries either through email or SMS. This quality of a supplier is what makes me stick around. Even though my "inquiring period" was too long before I actually get to book them, he still replies to me always. He was open to my special request of having an unedited full coverage even if it is not part of the package, I just wanted to have this full video of our wedding (even without musical scoring or any effects) apart from the lovely SDE so I can watch what really transpired that day in full. I met with Bryan to finally book them on our day, he was young and energetic, and listens well to suggestions and preferences.

We were so happy with our SDE. We were in awe the entire time we were watching it for the first time in our wedding party.  Our guests also loved the video. It's something we can watch over and over again, with our future kids and grand kids.  You can watch it here.

Screenshot of us watching the SDE for the first time in our wedding party.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮

Flowers: DANGWA FLORIST

Flowers was one of the least items I prioritized during the preps.  I honestly didn't care that much about flowers, as long as they would  not look tacky and cheap, I would be ok with it. However, price changed from the first time I went to a weedding expo than when I actually made the booking.  The prices increase that quick! Well, it was a year gap, since we started planning early. I just had so many major suppliers in mind that I had to book, so wouldn't be able to squeeze in flowers at that time. So when I finally thought about booking a supplier for this, I just dug up the flyers and brochures I collected from the very few wedding expos I have been (I didn't like going to one) and compared them. I thought flowers were all the same, so I compared the prices first and made elimination process. Then researched thoroughly on client feedback and sample outputs. The decision was easy booking Dangwa Florist. We caught them at the next wedding expo, they seem to join all expos, and made our booking.  It would be better if you can speak to Ate Arlene herself, instead of just one of her staff. She can give discount if you haggle it right.

A month before the wedding we went to her shop in Dangwa to finalize our flowers. The flowers they were arranging when we came were so colorful and pretty. I am thankful because she gave me so many freebies. I didn't even have to get a flower arrangement package for the church, aside from the lantern stands on the aisle and reveal curtain I rented, because I got her to throw in free flowers for the altar, candles and reader's podium. The cheapest package for church set up is Php 6,000 (including aisle flowers) which I did not have to spend.  She also gave me free upgrades. Standard freebies are car bouquet, loose petals, throw bouquet and offertory flower basket.

So came wedding day, the flowers for entourage were delivered very early in our hotel room. My mom received these since my coordinators have not yet arrived at that time.  To be honest, I was a little disappointed as the flowers did not come so fresh. I can see a bit brown on the sides of the petals. The arrangements were good, the freshness of the flowers was what threw it off. a But I guess it just didn't bother me at all that that time because there are many other things I have my mind on, and hey it's the my big day to just worry about the flowers.  While there were no problems with the church set up. The reveal curtain was actually more than what I expected.

Rating: ✮✮✮☆☆


Mobile Bar: BAR TENDERS AT WORK

My idea for our bar was a DIY one. I saw this photo of a wedding reception in a blog, also in Light of Love, where the bar was not the typical mobile bar station serving cheap cocktails, but just a banquet table dressed up with a chalkboard sign saying BAR, it has a big metal bucket with all sorts of wines and expensive liquors. Drinks are served in paper cups. I thought it looked cool. The thing I hate the most about mobile bars was the cheap cocktails I can barely drink. I know my guests would not enjoy, because I don't.  We wanted to buy the liquor to be served. But going through the nitty gritty of doing a fully DIY bar, it would be too tedious. With the utensils, ice, manpower and all. So I had the idea of just booking a mobile bar for the sake of having a full bar set up and bar tenders, but drinks will come from us. I keep looking for a deal in various deal sites and found this deal on Bar Tenders at Work that includes not just the set up and service I only wanted, but cocktails also for 60 pax. Well, these are the cheap cocktails I warned you about, but it comes for free! I think of it as some sort of back-up or "filler" drinks.  I had some special requests like serving the drinks that we brought, additional rock glasses, bar menus, etc. This supplier was so easy to talk to. I booked directly to them instead of buying a voucher at the deal site, which is way better. I had to deposit in full.

During the wedding party, I did not encounter any problems with them. They followed my instructions and requests. I think they did a good job. Their mobile bar, although pink, also looked new and good with nice lighting, compared to the shabby mobile bars of other suppliers.

If you're wondering what kind of drinks we served, here's our bar menu which I created. All the shooters were included in their package, the rest we brought.

(Because I am such a control freak, I cannot let them do the layout. I just asked for them sizes and sent the files t them from printing.)


Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮

PS: Many (as in many) including the bride got drunk at the party. ;)


Photo booth: QUIRKY BOOTH

This is also another supplier I thought of not booking.  I just thought photo booths are too cliche. One is present in every single wedding I have been to (I think). But I couldn't think of other ways to keep my guests entertained / busy while waiting for us to arrive at the party venue, so ok might as well book one. I just had to make sure the background and props are not tacky, especially the layout of the photo print - so again I had to step in.  Quirky Booth has standard backgrounds to choose  from, if you want a customized one they can create it for you with extra cost. I decided to make my own background out of crepe paper strips, and had my cousin help me out with the photo print layout. I want the layout to have big photos (of guests) , and no photo of us please. I want them to be able to keep these prints and even display these, and not just throw it away because it  has a photo of us (ha!).

I found out about this supplier in Party Plans and Idea (PPI) group in Facebook. The owners were pleasant and easy to communicate with. They were so accommodating and patient with my requests. I would be happy to get them again for a party in the future. I was happy with their service, and the prints. Plus I did not expect each print would come with a frame!

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮


Invites: URBANISTA INVITES and CMYK PRINTING

We've booked Urbanista in one of our trips to wedding expos, it was unplanned. Because I was supposed to get our invites printed in one of our suppliers in the office, since I know a lot, and the design created by my design friend The James Abalos (ehem, illustrator of Anne Curtis' UNICEF children's book). James still did do the design, almost same time as he was working on Anne's book, and I loved it so much. I actually gave Urbanista a shot of creating the layout design, but I did not like it at all. So had to ask my friend for SOS.

We had two kinds of invite: Main Invite (accordion fold type) - for entourage members / family and a Secondary Invite (single page, back to back print) - for non-entourage friends and relatives. The difference is obvious, the main one has entourage names, while the secondary doesn't; and the reason economical. I will show the full invitation design in an entry on our wedding invitation soon.  I will also show the layout done by Urbanista which I didn't use.  But here's my cover for now:

Invite cover - by James Abalos

Urbanista printed our main invites, and CMYK our secondary invites.  CMYK was our regular supplier in our company for events needs, and I know their quality of work. I got these complimentary. CMYKs' printing was better than Urbanista which we paid. The colors were better with CMYK. James,being the meticulous artist that he is, was not too happy with the colors of Urbanista's prints. They kept insisting we need to adjust the color in the file, but James and I both know that printers can adjust the colors with their outputs without the client having to send a new file. Color really vary in monitors. So enough of the technicality, since it would take up so much time to do more samples, I just gave the go signal. It does not look that bad anyway. If it were not for CMYK'sa precise colors, it would not bother me so much.  But still kudos to Urbanista because, aside from the color concern, I did not have any problem dealing with them.  And thank you so much to CMYK Printing for the compli prints with good quality.

Ratings: Urbanista Invites ✮✮✮☆☆; CMYK Printing ✮✮✮✮✮


Hotel: ASTORIA PLAZA

Astoria Plaza is a very popular choice for wedding preps venue because of it spacious and modern rooms, big windows and reasonable room rates. We also looked at Shaw Residenza since it is just across Archbishop's Plaza and has loft type rooms; as well as Lancaster Suies which is also near our church. Both seemed gloomy, and might not look very good in photos and video.  So I gave in to Astoria. This is the same hotel where my sister and cousins threw in a surprise bridal shower party for me in a 2BR suite.  The suites we got for the wedding preps where only 1BR, but my husband's family had it upgraded to 2BR since they all slept at the hotel the night before the wedding. Luckily, since there were no more 1BR suites available at the time of our check-in, we were given a 2BR suite, the 2nd bedroom and bathroom were just locked. This gave us a much more spacious room for suppliers and family and friends to hang out - there were a lot! We saved a lot on the rooms by getting only 1BR since the main purpose is only for the preps shoot rather than overnight stay of our families. Astoria is more expensive than our first  two options, but I am just so glad to have checked in here because the photos and video looked so much better than what it would have been in the other hotel options.

We had no problems checking in and out. The suppliers were able to go in freely with no hassle. Astoria is used to wedding preps and suppliers. I know they do charge corkage fee for bulk food deliveries because my cousins and sister got charged when they ordered party trays for my bridal shower.  So if you want to save on that, you can assign your coordinators or relatives to get your supplier meals from the supplier at the entrance or outside the hotel, and be the ones to bring it up to the room.

If you want to do photo shoot in a public area of the hotel like the pool area, you have to submit a letter of request, which we didn't.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮


Wedding Coordinator: EVENTS SIMPLIFIED

This is another crucial supplier to anyone's wedding day. I have inquired to tons, and met a few, and ended up with ES.  Karmie and Kaice were easy to talk to, and a colleague got them for her wedding and she can vouch that they did a good job. Those were two reasons why I decided to get them to do our on-the-day wedding coordination. The many freebies they offer is a plus.  They did a fantastic job!  Kaice was the one in-charge during my wedding, though we've first met with Karmie during the inquiry stage. Kaice made sure I was well taken cared of that moment they arrived the hotel up to the party venue. She made sure I was fed, the schedule was being followed, and every little thing that needs to be coordinated and organized.

From the first meet up, up to the wedding day itself, we never had any problems with ES.

We also got Karmie to do the party hosting which you can read about on the following item.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮


Event Host: KARMIE ALTAMERA

It was much easier that Karmie hosted our party since she already knew the program and the nitty-gritty of our wedding. Plus it's also easy to coordinate with the whole production / other suppliers since she is also part of the wedding coordinators team. Karmie did a great job. She was very articulate, lively, spontaneous, and she sure has done this many many times - it shows.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮


Supplier Meals: ALBA'S EATERY

Alba's was also a supplier from work. They supply staff meals in some of the events I handle, and I know for sure that I can count on them. Their packed meals come complete with rice (generous serving), meat viand, vegetable viand, dessert, bottled drink, disposable utensils and a candy. It also comes at a very affordable price, and delivery is free of charge within Metro Manila.

Our lunch meals, for suppliers and family / friends at the hotel, came with rice, 3 pcs BBQ, sauteed pechay, C2 bottled iced tea, and buko pandan.  While dinner supplier meals for some suppliers who needed to eat early or did not stay for the entire party delivered straight to the party venue include lechon and pakbet, and same other inclusions as I've mentioned with lunch meals. They delivered on time.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮


Light and Sounds: SOUND TECH PRO

Light of Love has only two accredited L&S suppliers, Sound Tech Pro and Strad Pro. I have read a handful of negative feedback on the latter, so I specifically requested to Steph right from the beginning to assign Sound Tech Pro to us. It was a very good decision.

The package with the venue includes basic sound system. I had to upgrade the sound system last minute for the band, thank God Kaice got to know that the basic sound system provided could not meet the requirement needed by the band, or else it could be a big problem. We also added mood lights. The lights cost Php 4,000 more, but it was totally worth it, trust me! Lights are (almost) everything with ambiance, especially during the after-party. I was hesitant as first with this additional cost, which I thought was unnecessary, but this is one of those pretty-to-look-at items on the list that would make so much impact. I also rented the projector and screen from them for the operation to be hassle-free, also less suppliers to deal with. Since I got mood lights, I was able to haggle with the projector fee. Smoke or bubble machine comes for free - I chose smoke machine which was used during our first dance, and almost the entire time during our fun after-party.

We have never encountered any technical problem light/sound-wise during the party. The short program went on smoothly, as well as the after-party. The owner was also very accommodating. We met him first during one ocular visit in LOL to check out the mood lights.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮


Band: INFINITE SOUL ACOUSTIC

We first saw Infinite Soul performing in a wedding at LOL when we went for our very first ocular even before I have read about them on GirlTalk. We immediately fell in love with how their music, especially the sax part, added so much class and swag at the same time to the party. Boy they were good!  At first I thought of their rate as kind of steep for my budget for the band, but eventually gave in when we found them in a wedding expo and got the ceremony performance for free, since this was my problem as our church do not provide a choir, soloist, or even a pianist. I know that getting a performer or group for church would cost more than what I would save in getting other cheaper bands. They are one of the very first suppliers we have booked, it was a year before our wedding.

The horror came four months before our wedding when Monica called me out of the blue while I was out having lunch with my colleagues. She told me the unthinkable. Her sister was getting married in Boracay and she could not make it to my wedding to perform. I was at lost for words. I thought, okay here we go problems start coming in.  I was so upset. Not only her, the male vocalist /guitarist, who happens to be her boyfriend, also could not make it of course. She said she would just recommend another band if that would be ok with me. The band she recommended was their Team B (Team Ching).  I didn't know they already have this Team A, B, C thing at that time. Team A is Monica's of course - the one I actually booked a year ago, which was being replaced all of a sudden by Team B. I really felt I was being shortchanged and cheated. At this point I was open to her suggested solutions, but at the same time I started looking for other options. I really felt bad.  Though in fairness to Monica, she communicated to me frequently and properly and tried to resolve the problem. To make long story short, I ended up still getting them, Team B, but I bargained to lower price a bit (it was just to make me feel better since it felt like being downgraded), and had to make sure there would still be a male vocalist slash instrument player in one, as this is what the original arrangement includes, not just female vocalist. Also, the night before the wedding, Monica sent me a message that I have been upgraded to full band (I only availed of the lowest package). If she only told me this early, my disappointment would have diminished significantly.

Came wedding day, Ching's team was fantastic. We've heard so many great comments about their performance. Some thought it was recorded music being played during the bridal march. Ching was really good. I did not get the chance to talk to them during the event though. If it weren't for the disappointment and backing out issue, I would have given them a rating of 10. But I am still thankful because the performance was great and I got free full band upgrade.

Rating: ✮✮✮☆☆


Wedding Dress: THE TWIN ENTOURAGE

I bought my dress ready-made. Found it, fit it, loved it, paid for it. But my gown hunting story did not go as easy as that. It was one painful process that I am not going to recount here because it might take up so much space and your time. Probably will have to pour it out on one of my next entries.  The Twin Entourage sometimes joins wedding expos. The staff that we were talking to, Kheil, was helpful.  The wedding dress that I got was a simple and classy one. It's an all-lace serpentine cut strapless gown. I love how the fit-and-flair style of this dress flatters my body type, though a month before the wedding I had to exert efforts to lose inches off of my waist to fit in comfortably, which I did.  I am not the ball-type, ruffles, stones, grandioso dress kind of girl. I'd rather have it plain, classy, timeless and sophisticated. I was completely happy with my wedding dress.

Rating:  ✮✮✮✮✮


Groom Suit: I.L. Santos

I.L. Santos is one of the few tailors in 168 mall that specializes in suits and barongs.  They've had a few prominent clients to boot.  My groom had his 5-piece suit tailor-made, we chose the fabrics. It was a dark gray suit.  He was quite happy with it, my groom is not the 'pwede na' kind of guy especially when it comes to the clothes and shoes he wears. He is meticulous, and if it satisfied him, it must be pretty good.  After our first visit, we went back thrice for the first fitting, adjustment, and pick up.  We never had any problem with this supplier.  I was also happy that I got to bargain a bit - because we booked on the spot.

Rating:  ✮✮✮✮✮


Entourage Dresses: ROSLIM ENTERPRISES

I have always planned to get my female entourage (not including the principal sponsors) infinity dress even before I have learned that this is becoming a common entourage outfit nowadays. Why would it not be? It is very practical, versatile, economical and pretty.  I kept looking for ready-made infinity dresses in our motif color and luckily found them in a clothes shop in Binondo along Juan Luna St.

Rating:  ✮✮✮✮☆


There you have it! My honest to goodness reviews and ratings of all our wedding suppliers. Our wedding planning did not come easy, it was with a handful of hurdles and challenges, but equally it was also exciting and happy to do. Actually, I kind of miss it.  Hope my reviews helped all of you to decide on your wedding suppliers.