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Rating

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Church: Caleruega

1.0

In all the times I've been there, whether to attend a friend's wedding or just out of walang magawa, it has never failed to amaze me at how beautiful it is. The church is small and is perfect for intimate weddings.

If they can make further improvements pa, I would suggest paving the roads and making the place more handicap-friendly.

Officiating Priest: Msgr. Bobby Olaguer

1.0

We went to the NBP (yes, the bilibid prison!) a year before to tell him about the wedding to make sure that he does not double-book! He also enlightened us on how to go about a mixed marriage, not only with how the ceremony should go, but also on the possible "repercussions" it will have once we have our own family. He even suggested an unconventional way of doing the rite of marriage :) which we did but without the funny element to it. [It was supposed to go like: "Weng, do you take me to be your lawful husband?" "Yes, I do." then the bridesmaids would go "Owwwws?"]

Fr. Bobby is actually my lolo and the dad's side of the family were all excited since I was the first grandchild to be married by him.

Reception Venue: Nurture Spa

1.5

The ambiance was perfect for a simple garden reception; what was even better was that it was really affordable too! Inclusions of the package were: 5 hours inclusive use of the venue, smoke and bubble machine, luminaries, floral drop arrangement, sound system, and cake.

They provided tents at no additional cost too.

The only problem was that it rained a few days before our wedding, so the ground was soft. My gown ended up having a chocolate brown train at the end of the night.

The staff were really friendly and reliable. Food was great (though we did not eat as much with all the excitement happening around us!) and the guests loved it. Too bad I did not get a piece of the mango crepe L
L
L

Photo/Video: Nice Print

1.5

Charisse was very easy to talk to. This actually led me to pencil book them immediately. My first AE was Jane but sadly she left… and I only found out about it when I scheduled my prenup pictorials in August. I did not get the famous guys like Bernie and Rupert. I was assigned to Dennis. On our way to Antipolo (where we held the prenups), all three of us bonded on one topic: CARS. Suffice to say, we had a blast during the pictorials.

During the wedding, I was a bit disappointed because they arrived around two hours late. So I was almost done with my make-up when they came in. the team sent to me was quite a young team! Which turned out to be great since they were all makulit and we had fun! Even the guests nakikipagkulitan sa kanila.

I availed of the on-site video and was very happy at the finished product. The guests were amazed ambilis daw nila nagawa.

I got the raw pics after 10 days. True enough, the best yung pictures!!! They caught all the drama and the emotion! We are very happy with their output.

What I do not like about Niceprint is yung office personnel nila. They need to improve on customer service talaga. You can't get a straight answer from them, as if they are always clueless.

OTD: CSM Events

2.5

Ate Balu is really great. We already had a gameplan months before the wedding and it was executed naman. Not as I wanted it to happen, but it was okay, I guess. I guess the clincher for me was that they arrived an hour late.

HMUA: Merlyn Padagas

1.0

I LOVE HER! Make-up was very simple and I loved how she did my eyes.

Bridal Gown and accessories

1.0

My gown was very simple, tube gown with beading on top. May 3 stripes lang sa back. I bought this in a quaint bridal shop in Minneapolis. It came with a secondary veil whose beading was the same as my gown's. The veil was ordered at eBay, customized; I never really liked the long ones so I opted for the elbow-length veil lang. My purse was bought at David's Bridal in San Jose, it is the same one as Katherine Heigl had in the film 27 Dresses at the start of the film! The shawl was matched to the bag so I immediately bought it too.

Entourage Gowns: Solemn Vows by Cerruby Yap

1.0

Tita Ruby is very easy to talk to and very honest. She worked within my budget and she worked really fast! Without sacrificing quality, mind you. I only have good things to say about her and her shop.

Highly recommended.

BTW, I had to make adjustments to my gown since I bought it more than a year before the wedding. Syempre I gained weight ;-) haha! But she charged me very minimal lang as in I can't believe it. Considering she had her hands full trying to figure out the intricacies of the gown, but she did say she learned something by doing it.

Music: Holly Paraiso

1.5

This was another early booking :)

Again, most of my guests raved about her. Sobrang galing daw… well she is! I gave her music sheets only a week before the wedding and viola, she learned it.

The only drawback was she did not know how to download music sheets and she has no printer. Hehe. Good thing I lived near her so it was okay to just print those out for her. Limited lang din yung playlist with her. But it's okay as long as you have a fallback audio cd at hand.

She was very accommodating din when I brought my singer to her house to practice. She really does find time for you.

Flowers: Go4Flowers

1.5

The flowers were beautiful, especially mine hahaha! The only problem was that the aisle flowers were supposed to be on pails hung by the pews. With the size of the aisle at Caleruega, kumusta naman nung nakatayo yung flowers?! Ayun, di kami kasyang tatlo ng parents ko. Laki kasi namin hahaha! But it was beautiful talaga!

Invites: Cardprints

1.0

Easy to talk to and they did deliver naman what I asked them to do. Although I've heard some bad feedback about them, I guess you just have to treat them as regular printers who won't do any grammar or spell checks for you!

Cake Topper: Precious Moments musical cake topper

1.0

I got them on sale at Megamall and it complemented my cake perfectly. I plan to have my future kids use them in their own wedding :) sana gumagana pa sya by that time haha!

Souvenirs: Heart-shaped Measuring Spoons from eBay US

1.0

Very unique daw sabi ng guests. Grabe I got them from eBay as well and you guys can imagine gano kabigat yung maleta ko when I came back. The NWA folks were like "What's in these luggages?" When I told them they were measuring spoon souvenirs for my wedding they gave me a free pass!

Rings: Ultra Diamond and Whitehall & Co.

1.0

Zayd had a simple titanium wedding band with three diamonds, while I had a sort-of eternity ring made in 14k white gold. My ring complemented my engagement ring too.

It was basically a steal when we got the rings; the saleslady was very helpful and maxed out the discount she could give us. I guess she saw the disappointment on my face when she said my ring would cost around $335 *sniff there goes the budget*

We managed to lower it down a wee bit more until it reached an acceptable limit ;-)

DIY: Kissing bells, candles, cord (by MOH), missallete

1.0

LOVE YOUR OWN.

And of course, the labor of love from my ever-creative MOH, DJ. The cord was really heavy (laki ng beads e) very nice it had a prism effect nag iiba iba ng color :)

Shoes: Abbylyn's

1.5

The first beadwork they did, my shoes looked like pink. My motif was purple. So what I did was I asked them to re-bead everything to silver na lang then accent on purple pearls.

PERFECT na!

Preps Venue: "T" chilLine Tagaytay

1.0

I found this through the web while I was scouting for a nice hotel for my preps and my family who will be staying over the day before the wedding. I found that hotels were more expensive, since at that time, their weekend rate was 50k -- that's Friday to Sunday.

We paid for the house even before we had to ocular it, relying mostly on pictures from the web. So a week before the wedding, we decided to swing by and take a look at it. WHEW! The view was breathtaking and the house! $&%*! It had four rooms, 2 of which had the nicest view; kitchen, ref, utensils, towels, pool, sauna, and a jacuzzi.

Oh, and did I mention this was where For the First Time was shot? Gotcha!

Gifts for Principal Sponsors and Parents: Wine Depot

1.0

Wine Depot is really the place to snatch good deals for wines! Very affordable prices.

Cebu Pacific

1.0

This was my first time to take Cebu Pacific on an international flight. I was dreading it actually because of the bad feedback I've been hearing.. However, it turned out okay naman. Yeah, they're not your typical PAL, NWA, etc. But what the heck, they have good prices and I did arrive alive and all my stuff with me. They even arrived earlier than estimated. Beat that!