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Typhoon Ondoy has sidetracked many people, and many plans. That weekend, we were supposed to have a family pictorial! Obviously, we had to cancel it.
Since that weekend, and through the other typhoons that have blown through the country, we’ve been busy with relief efforts here and there. Also, Oneal has a new job, and I have two new projects that keep me busy. So you can understand how our wedding planning got sidetracked.
Now we’re gathering our wits again, and going through all our wedding checklists to see what else needs doing. Fortunately, there’s not a lot left. All the major suppliers have been booked:
- Ceremony and reception venue – Fernwood Gardens, QC
- Caterer – Shangri-La Chinese Restaurant
- Florist for the church – 15-58 Flowers and Styles
- Florist for the entourage – Go4Flowers
- Photographer – Pat Mateo
- Videographer – 30fps
- Cake artist – Our friend, Reitch Calabia
- Couturier – Our friend, Jenny Rojales
- Rings maker
- Bridal jewelry – Our ninang, Ruby Bayan
So now, here’s what we need to do next:
- Book the hair and make-up artist
- Complete our wedding documents
- Draft and finalize the missalette
- Design and finalize the invitations
- Decide on the music for the ceremony
- Decide on the music for the reception
- Decide on the preps hotel
- Finalize the reception program
- Attend a pre-cana seminar
There’s more that needs to be done, but these are the most urgent. We’re working on some of them already:
- Some of the documents have been obtained while a few others need to be requested.
- We’ve canvassed 4 hotels in Quezon City already.
- I know which HMUA I want to get.
- Jovan is working on our invitations.
Some things need more work than others, obviously. 
But we’re getting there. Wish us luck! In the meantime, it’s my birthday on Saturday, and we’re flying to Bora for a much-needed vacation. Yay!
– rej
well, at least the priorities are done. we’ve given downpayments for the venue, caterer, ceremony and reception flowers, photographer and videographer.
just today we signed the contract with the Manila String Machine.
the funny thing is that we never tell any of them about the theme of the wedding when we initially meet. we only inform them about what we have planned right after we sign the contract and give them the check. fortunately, none of them reacted violently when we tell them what we have planned. they all seem to get really excited when they find out it will be a Star Wars wedding.
they can’t wait to be a part of it because it is something different from what they usually have to do, which can get tiring after a while.
the best part is that they can play the Imperial March! 
5 months to go and we are ahead of schedule.
- oneal
Donation to the GMA Kapuso Foundation, September 2008, SM Marikina
As you may have noticed, we update the wedsite sporadically, but when we do, we post a lot of stuff! I usually write the long entries, and Oneal fiddles around with the code.
This time, we’ve added links to the websites of our suppliers, removed some clutter, and changed a few settings. Please feel free to leave a comment or two (or more)!
Also, please check out our other pages, as we’ve posted some updates:
– rej
We met Ted Amper a few weeks ago.
The best gauge we have for booking any of our suppliers is how well we get along with them. Naturally, we canvass different suppliers first based on price, availability, and the quality of their work. But sometimes their personality is more important than that.
Take for example one account executive from one of the florists we met with. She was polite, yes, but she also didn’t seem very receptive to our ideas, and was even correcting us on several points. It’s our wedding, not hers, and if she thinks she can improve on what we want, she should be able to phrase them such that we’d be inclined to agree with her.
Suffice it to say, we didn’t hire that florist, and instead we went with the one with very helpful and effusive account executives. So what’s this got to do with music?
From the start we knew we wanted strings for the ceremony, and possibly for the reception too. We asked around for contacts, but never really got to get in touch with the musicians until recently.
Our friend Zuri told us about Manila String Machine, which was the group that played at Issa Litton and Tiger Garido’s Star Wars wedding last December. I sent an SMS to the cellist, Ted Amper, and he gave us their website URL. The repertoire was all we needed to see.
It was full of movie themes by John Williams, and lovely, lovely music from Ennio Morricone, as well as a few other gems. There were links to YouTube videos of their performances, and one of the videos showed them playing Ennio Morricone! *swoon* I fell in love.
The price was also good, and their terms very reasonable. So we decided to meet with Ted.
Ted was really, really nice. He was very amusing, very warm and friendly, and quick to answer our questions and dispel any doubts. After he left, Oneal said, “You like them na, no?”
Indeed, the repertoire, the price, and the terms were great, and it sounded like Manila String Machine was a group that really loved to play music, and they already knew the music we wanted. What’s not to like?
So today, we booked Manila String Machine. I hope they can learn a few more new pieces for the wedding, like my bridal march. We’ll meet them in about two weeks for the downpayment and the contract-signing.
– rej
From the start we decided that we want to have a photographer with at least two cameras shooting at once and that goes the same for the video. this is so that they can take multiple angles at once as well as get shots of us and the crowd simultaneously.
we selected and booked the photographer so now we were choosing from a shortlist of videographers who have the right number of cameras for reasonable prices. some of the ones we wanted were already booked on our date so we asked one of those our photographer recommended, 30Fps we looked at their website, checked out their rates and watched a few sample videos. they seem to have the right equipment including a glidecam setup and glidetracks for more stable sweeping and panning shots.
we asked for service only because a friend has volunteered to edit the video the way we would like it. i spoke to Paul Macasaet and told him they were referred by our photographer. he originally asked if we could drop by the wedding fair at the PICC to sign a contract and give the downpayment, i told him we didn’t like going to wedding fairs anymore and he said even though they don’t do pencil bookings, he’ll take our word and put us down as confirmed for the February 20, 2010 date and wont take any more clients on that day.
we are meeting them on Wednesday to finalize things.
on that note, we seem to have all the suppliers done and ready.
- oneal
Other people keep telling us we have everything worked out for our wedding, but it still feels like there’s so much to do!
For instance, we have yet to meet our priest, Fr. Clod Bagabaldo. We’re finally meeting him for the first time tomorrow night. I hope our ideas aren’t too outlandish for him!
Second, we have booked neither videographer nor musicians! We have some shortlisted, but nothing final yet. Eek!
– rej
I really don’t know anything about flowers. All I know is I don’t like roses, because they’re such a cliche; tulips, because they really don’t look pretty to me, and are ridiculously expensive; and tiger lilies, because Mom used to put them in the house years ago, and their scent gives me headaches.
So when we started checking out florists, I had to ask the names of the flowers that looked pretty, and we had to write them down. So by the time we were meeting with florists and talking about packages and options and such, we had a list of flowers we liked! Yay!
Unfortunately, Fernwood is rather strict about florists for the chapel, and we can only hire accredited florists: Flowers of May, 15-58 Flowers and Styles, and Scenta Flowers. We met with account execs from all three, just to see what they could offer, and which one we were most comfortable with. After meeting all three, we decided on 15-58.
So this evening we met with their AE, Rina, in Gateway, signed the contract, and paid the reservation fee. Yay flowers!
We’re getting calla lilies, mums, and aster. As for the arrangement, you’ll see it on the big day!
– rej
Alas, alas, woe to us. We still haven’t booked a photographer.
We’ve been turned down by three photographers now. 
Carlos, Oneal’s cousin, won’t be in the country. Studio A by Ghie Javelosa is already booked on that day, and it’s such a shame, because I really liked their photography. I saw the photos of the Fernwood wedding they covered, and it made me cry!
Next, I asked my college blockmate, Lisa, who now covers weddings with her husband Jeff Llarena. Alas, they’re also already booked! Hopefully, though, I can recommend them to another friend who’s getting married in a few years.
Today we’re meeting up with Pat Mateo, who was recommended to us by Carlos. Next week we hope to meet Kerwin Yu, who was referred to us by my friend, Mikah.
Here’s hoping! *cross fingers*
– rej
Today’s task: find a studio for the photo and video coverage!
With the caterer settled, the photo and video coverage is the next big hurdle. We actually had a nice idea for the photo coverage of the wedding. We have a lot of friends who take great photos, and we intend to ask all of them to bring their cameras and take pictures during the wedding. Then before they leave, we’ll make sure to copy their pictures. From this pool of photos from our guests, we’ll make the wedding album.
Still, we need 2 professional photographers, and 2 camera men. We need the photographers primarily for the preps and the ceremony, since it’ll be hard for the guests to take pictures of the ceremony. Plus they can take care of all the usual shots: with the family, with the entourage, etc., etc.
Then the video coverage is necessary, because while a lot of our friends take great still photos, great camerawork is a little more difficult.
Another thing: we don’t want the supplier to provide us with their edited wedding video, or the wedding album, bound and layouted by them. We want them to just do the coverage, and give us the RAW shots and raw footage afterwards. Then Jovan will help us edit and layout the photos, and we’ll print and bind the album ourselves. Dexter will edit the wedding video.
We had originally wanted to ask Oneal’s cousin, Carlos Hubilla, to cover the wedding. He was so excited when he heard about it, and would have been so willing to do it. He had friends who could do the video coverage too. Alas, he may be out of the country then, so we’re still not sure about that. So we went through the many fliers we’ve gathered from the bridal fairs.
I found a studio that offers a package with what we need: 2 professional photographers, and 2 camera men, for the budget we have in mind. I emailed them, and hopefully they’ll lower the price when they find out we don’t need the album and the edited video.
Yes, we’ve finally selected a caterer. Amen! We went to a food-tasting at Shangri-La restaurant on West Ave. last month with Paul and Dante, and it was pretty good. We like the food, and they can serve it lauriat-style, with no extra cost! Yay.
So tonight, we’re going to the restaurant to pay the reservation fee and discuss the terms for the contract. Yay!
