Wedding Update: Freshcuts Mock Up and Others

With just two days left for August, we’re so proud to blog about our additional accomplishments to our wedding preparation. We made most of the holiday last Monday to work on our preparation. In one day, we were able to squeeze in our meeting with Father Larry Faraon, our officiating priest, wedding ring hunting, souvenir hunting, and our mock up with Freshcuts! We met Fr. Larry in Sulu Hotel in Quezon City with my parents. It had been a secret dream of mine to have him officiate my wedding. Ever since I was young, I always look forward to his enjoyable homilies. He had been a close friend of our family for such a long time now. We had a wonderful chat over coffee. We’re pretty sure our matrimonial ceremony will be full of wisdom and fun. I just feel a bit guilty for he had to cancel his Healing Mass held every first Saturday in Tagaytay for our wedding.

Our next stop is the Gateway Mall. We’ve searched for the right wedding ring for us in Greenhills but we found no luck. JayR won’t close a deal with other suppliers without considering Suarez for he is complacent beforehand with their services. When we got to Suarez, the ring we had in mind is nowhere to be found in their display trays. We browsed over their pictures of rings but still no luck. We tried to discuss the details of the ring to the saleslady. Luckily, they have the right ring hidden. The ring for JayR had the perfect size of stones. Mine had smaller stones than his. Of course I had to object! We must have the same size of stones! Hahaha! After the contract had been made and carefully double checked (especially the size of stone on my ring), we closed the deal.

We then headed for Boni to check out a bakeshop supplier for our souvenirs. It’s the first time I’ve been to this kind of store. I feel so at home! It made me want to bake that right instant. Too bad they don’t have the souvenir that I wanted. The owner was not there so I just relayed my requirements to her staff. We found the exact souvenir I had in mind in the internet. Its online price would seem to be just the same if we had it custom made from scratch. We ordered it together with co-w@wie sis Lorna so we could split the shipping cost in half.

We made a short stop in Makati to have our late lunch. We bought more magnetic sheets for our Save the Dates. Then we’re off to meet Rey of Freshcuts in Alabang. For me, this is the highlight of our day! I’ve been looking forward for that moment for a week. We were more than happy when we saw the mock up! We both gave him two thumbs up for the nice setup! I can’t wait to see the actual setup of our venue come our wedding day! We knew that we made the right decision booking Freshcuts as our event stylist. Below are the pictures. We apologize for some pixelized area for we want to keep that element a surprise for our guests.

As he said, since our theme is an Autumn Wedding, he will use minimal flowers and more on landscaping. We feared that the centerpieces won't be lively without much flowers. Rey proved us wrong! The centerpieces looked very elegant and lively.



On our wedding the three red roses with different length will actually be orange gerbera daisies. Rey don't have gerbera daisies at that time so he made use of roses instead.



The centerpiece from a different angle. He'll add luminaries and kiat-kiat(small ponkan) around the table.



Below is the top view of the table. I forgot the material he used to tie the napkins. Aside from it, he'll have tag based on our motif tied in each ribbon. Ain't it lovely? :D

Wedding Update: Strings and Style

There’s just merely 4 months to go but technically, it’s only 3 months to go for we want to book all our suppliers by the end of November. December will breezily pass by as always. Our wedding date is just a week after the New Year which leaves us no time for more wedding preparations. So far, we’re a bit confident that we’ll meet our deadline. Just this month we booked the last two major suppliers we’ll need, String Quartet and Event Stylist.

Velvet Mood

I’ve tasked JayR for the assessment and booking of our wedding music. A very musical person that he is, he is very particular how it’ll be played. He wanted to ensure that we will only deal with professionals. My share is only limited to resource string ensembles in the market, and accompanying him to live demos. After assessing the type of music we wanted to have for our wedding, we closed the deal with Mr. Edwin Silangcruz of Velvet Mood. Velvet mood is another W@W find, thanks to Sis Bhe. We heard them play at one wedding in Vivere Suites. The ambience of the reception was very light and warm. The music that filled the room is very soothing, perfect for an indoor reception. Mr. Edwin is very easy to talk to and very accommodating. The best thing I liked about them is that they arrange music they’ve never played for free! I gave him a copy of my bridal march song for them to work on. They would also play during the ceremony and reception as many songs as required. We knew that we made the right decision booking them.

Freshcuts

Earlier this month we almost close a deal with another event stylist. Unfortunately we didn’t. Nevertheless, we know that God give us some misfortunes to let us see other wonderful things better for us. Had we booked the other stylist, we won’t be able to have a chance to work with Rey Darroca of Freshcuts. Freshcuts is another W@W find! Just as I feel low in finding the right stylist that would meet our requirements, Freshcuts came to the rescue! I am not expecting much when we first met him for I feel tired explaining what I wanted over and over again to different stylists. But when he started to draw his visualization, I became more and more interested. Since our theme is “Autumn Wedding”, he’ll use less flowers and more landscaping. The flowers he’ll use are roses and gerberas in the shade of reds, yellow, and orange. The centerpieces will have a unique element that I opt not to reveal at the moment. I want it to be a surprise to all our guests during our wedding. It’s very unique that I’ve never been to a wedding with that kind of element on a table. I just wish I’ll be able to keep this a secret for long! Hahaha! Rey also does wedding coordination. Since we already have an On-The-Day coordinator, he volunteered to be our backup coordinator! How cool is that?!! I would highly recommend this guy any future brides out there.

Though it may seem that we’re almost done with our wedding preparations, there are still some minute details that require our attention. Our next project is finding the right wedding rings and our souvenirs which we won’t blog about to maintain its secrecy.

God bless everyone!

Wedding Update: New Florist

Last week, we thought we are done with a month long search for our florist and event stylist. Just as we are about to schedule an appointment to make our downpayment with our chosen florist, we received a news from him that we are not the only couple inquiring on the same date as ours. An isolated case it is to him, he would accept two styling event in one day. Though he confirmed that we will be given priority, JayR did not approve. One way or the other, one client will be affected. We don't want to take that risk. We are getting married for the first time ONLY once! Since we've turned down the other florists we inquired to, we are once again in search of florist.

Today, I was surprised when my father told me that we will meet my ninang in Dangwa. What a good place to meet her. It's such a great timing! We need not schedule another trip to Dangwa to scout for florists. Though JayR is not with me, I braved the Dangwa street and looked for the stall of Mang Boy - special thanks to Golda for texting me his stall number. Mang Boy is very famous in W@W egroup. He has a small stall only so when we arrived there, they had me look at their photos of flowers in the middle of the street right under the heat of the sun! Good thing it's still a bit early that time so the rays of the sun didn't hurt much! If you'll look at Mang Boy, you wouldn't think he's a florist. Sobrang maton nya! hahaha! Anyway, I found his quotation a bit pricey. I told him that I would still have to show his quotation to JayR for approval. While waiting for my ninang to arrive, my mother and I looked around the flower shops. Just right in front of Mang Boy's stall, we found Jojo. Jojo is very accomodating. He had us sitted once we stepped inside his stall. He showed his portfolios to us. His quotation is lower than that of Mang Boy's. Plus I got big discount for he gave in to my budget. I'm really not good in haggling, so I really felt good afterwards! Aside from a lot of freebies which came along with the package, he made a sample of my maid of honor's buoquet and gave it to me for free. Check it out below!



Finding a new florist may be a blessing in disguise for us! For the reception styling, we might get the service of the florist second to our list. I just hope that she didn't felt bad about us after we turned her down a week ago. Ouch!

Have a nice day everybody!

Wedding Update: Sunday of KaBlooms

Last night, we went home feeling triumphant! We met Sunday Cabagay of KaBlooms to discuss his works and our requirements for our wedding. He was the last florist/stylist we’ll meet before we make a decision who to book. At first, we just plan to avail of his services for the styling of the venue. But since we’re already there, might as well see how much he would charge us for the whole entourage. I just thought though his price may be higher than the florists in Dangwa, the amount is enough to compensate our effort to drive to Dangwa.

We arrived on the exact time at our rendezvous. He was a few minutes late but it’s acceptable. I’m just glad he didn’t cancel on us like I’ve read in w@w archives when he cancelled 15 minutes after the proposed time. JayR for sure will be furious if that happened. Honestly, I’m expecting a gay stylist to arrive. Can you blame me? He was the first guy I met with a very gay name. No offense Sunday! JayR on the other hand is expecting a girl stylist. It’s my fault. I did not give him much information about Sunday except the link to his works. We made introductions and went on with the meeting. He possesses a lot of good qualities of a good stylist. He’s working as an event stylist full time which I thought is his part time job only. He’s a graduate of Landscape Architecture from UP (biased hehe..). He accepts only one styling project per day. After hearing those words, we knew that we are talking with the right person.

The meeting was very light and fun. We first discussed the flowers for the entourage. I love flowers but I admit I have no knowledge of some sort about them. I just told him the shades of color that I wanted to have. He would then name and suggest some flowers. If I seem unsure of what his suggested flower looks like, he would try to look for actual pictures in his archive or his “book of inspirations” of flowers as he called it. He also showed me some of his works on his w@wies clients. We then proceeded with the discussion on the venue. He asked for a theme. We have no particular theme but I just want everything to blend together, from the center pieces to the couple’s table, and to other areas of the ballroom. According to him, currently his inspiration for centerpieces arrangements are those that guests can take home. Some tables will each have 3 small centerpieces combined together while others will have single arrangements. As for the couple table, we wanted to have an arch with little flowers on them. I already sent him a picture of a similar setup. He also uses mood lights to enhance the couple’s table. The lights are at no extra charge, and are already included in his package. He’d do an Olympic drapes all throughout the ballroom. I told him that MSC have materials for drapes that he could use for free. However, he insists that he would use his materials. I did not argue for I’m sure he knows what’s best for us. During the meeting, I can already visualize the look of our ballroom. Hence, he achieved our objective!

Now comes the scary part. The moment he announces how much our package will be. Frankly, I kept my breath for a moment before he blurted it out. When he finally did, I was surprised how his quotation fits our budget. He only gave us a rough estimate of the total cost. He’ll email us the actual quotation by next week. He will also create a concept board of the venue once we confirmed to book him. Aside from that, he’ll do a mock up of the centerpieces he’ll use. I am now 98% sure to get him as our stylist. The other 2% will add up after we received his final quotation.

I’m sure he’ll be one of our favorite suppliers!

God bless everyone!