Pamamanhikan

  What we do know is that pamamanhikan is the formal meeting of my family and hers. My parents will ask for Jen’s ‘hands’ from her parents, and then they will talk about our wedding and our future. But we decided that we were not having any of that discussion. It's just plain awkward. We wanted this tradition to be easy going, relaxed and... delicious!

My parents brought stuffed inihaw na isda, alimango, hipon, barbecue, fried liempo and a case of San Mig light. Jen’s parents prepared kaldereta, ginataang kalabasa, fried chicken, pinaupong manok, carbonara, buko pandan and samalamig… This no longer just pamamanhikan. This was the best food fest ever!!!!

For the rest of the night we told some stories and shared a few bottles of beer. We were happy to see that our parents were very warm with each other while my siblings were very at home with Jen’s sister. For that night, we were just one family. One un-­hungry family!

We are going to eat food from this feast for the next 3 days =P

Bridal Gown

Total information blackout.

As per instruction from the bride.

Hair and Makeup

Well, there's really not much I can say about Jen's hair and makeup on the wedding day except that she is really excited to work with Kris Bacani.

Kris Bacani is a graduate of Ateneo, trained in New York, and teaches makeup artistry at the Serendra. But for more information about her and her team, you can visit her site here. Lets see what she does to Jen on the pre-nup and the wedding day.

Music

Although we will be hiring musicians, we wanted to have some pipe in music played as well. While the musicians will set the mood and ambiance, it is the pipe in music that will take care of giving guests—the LSS =). 

Since our theme is vintage, only certain types of music will do. So, sorry, no Justin Bieber. 

To keep you relaxed, hope you wouldn't mind listening to Ella Fitzgerald or Nat King Cole. And we really hope you can still appreciate the music of Jo Stafford and the likes of Tony Bennet.

For some upbeats.. a Stevie Wonder, perhaps? How about a litte bit of the Beatles or the Spiral Staircase ? Do you remember Huey Lewis & The News? And of course, there's the legendary Jackie Wilson! 

Accommodations

Tagaytay is a tourist city so it’s fairly easy to look for accommodations before the wedding. It’s just a matter of choosing the one that will fit our budget. At first, we found this small resort hotel that has a very nice Tagaytay view. We decided to rent the whole place to keep it exclusive for our relatives and some guests. I explained that we would rent the whole place for bridal preparations. I thought I made that clear so I made a deposit which was equal to half of the whole rent. We were happy with the booking until…

A Bad Venue Story..
We visited the place to do an ocular and we were approached by the care taker. He guided us around and while doing so, explained to us the terms of the accommodation. The terms were ok at first, but then he said - read this: everyone who will enter the place will have to pay a fee!!! Yes! E-v-e-r-y-o-n-e, meaning even the makeup artists, photographers, drivers and visiting relatives! That’s stupid! We paid for the use of the WHOLE PLACE! Why would they charge for entrance fees again?! Since that was just an insane policy, we decided to cancel our reservation and have our deposit refunded. We  thought that was the end of story. But we were wrong. They said our deposit had been forfeited! What a way to make money… is that even legal, DTI?!

Anyway, after kilometric texts and ear numbing phone calls, it was a good thing that I was able to retrieve our deposit. That was a traumatic experience and we were ready to report the incident at the Tagaytay City Hall! We needed a new option, badly.

Now, here's the GOOD one!

And so our search was on for a new hotel. It didn’t take long for us to find a new one. Several months ago when were scouting for a pre-nup venue, we initially considered the Crosswinds Swiss Luxury Resort.

This resort is Swiss inspired and going inside the property suddenly transports anyone to some Alpine town. The mixing of the colors around the place is so relaxing.

We will be staying in one of their Condotels: the Grand Quartiers. Crosswinds is being developed by Vistaland so I assume this property is owned by the Villars? I hope Crosswinds would erase the bad memories of the White House**. I was happy we had that argument with White House, otherwise we would not have been able to stay in the really awesome Crosswinds.

You can visit their site here.


**en Espanol

Musicians

We initially wanted to hire a chorale. We watched the videos of numerous groups over at youtube and found a group that comes from Tagaytay. They really sounded good and we were totally mesmerized but unfortunately, they were already booked for November 24. So I continued on searching over the internet and over magazines and if I remember correctly, I have called no fewer than 8 contacts. But they were either booked or I read some bad reviews about them. Because I was already getting frustrated, I was ready to decide on not having musicians anymore.

But Jen wanted the guests to be serenaded so I suggested that since we couldn't find a singing group, why don’t we hire musicians? Musicians -- playing different instruments, after all gives a very relaxing ambiance especially during dinner. I went back to the internet and found a group called Libante Strings. They seem to be constantly appearing in the wedding circuit, based on reviews, so I guess they should be able to deliver. They seem to be a family of musicians and their repertoire seem to fit the kind of music we want played.

We hired a Quartet (Violin, Flute, Keyboard, Double Bass) and a Singer!


You can visit their site here .

Flowers

I don’t know about other couples, but we found it hard to look for a florist. Not that they’re a rarity, actually there are lots of them. It’s just hard to get a quote because we have to give them an idea of the design we want and we just didn’t have the time to go around. So enter the very trusty internet.

We searched for a florist in Tagaytay and I chanced upon a very, unassumingly named flowershop – RCJC Flowers. As I was browsing, I found really good reviews. So I immediately made a call. Tita Cora, the owner answered me and gave me a documentary about flowers over the phone! She was very accommodating. So I convinced Jen to try RCJC.

We visited her small shop at the junction of Mendez and Aguinaldo Hway. She was consistently asking for our preference and she offered lots of suggestions. It’s a definite plus that she is already familiar with the church and by some twist of luck, she lives just a few blocks from our reception venue. She agreed to transfer the flowers from the church to the reception at no extra charge! =) Jen finally found the designs she wanted and as I watched her discuss things with Tita Cora, I saw the warmest smile she ever had since we started preparing. A warmth that we hope can be delivered by Tita Cora through her flowers.

We chose pastel colored flowers by the way, to make the ambiance vintage-y. Hopefully =)

You can visit their site here .

Motif

When telling people we were about to get married, I noticed that the TOP 3 most frequently asked questions were:

1) Kailan?

2) Saan?

And surprisingly…

3) Anong motif niyo?

So the motif, or the color, is perhaps as important a detail to people as the date and the venue of the ceremony. Although I bet, that if the frequency of question is related to the importance of that detail then, people should be asking “Anong ulam?” =)

Anyway, we initially chose blue and brown but one of our good friends who also got married raced us to it. So in order to maintain the uniqueness of their marriage we decided to change ours. It didn’t take long for us to decide for new motif though.

Puzzled. That’s the reaction we get when we tell people our motif is going to be Black and Ivory. We can’t blame them. These color combination is very unconventional and risky. But somehow we find it very symbolic and elegant at the same time.

Our motif celebrates contrast. And isn’t marriage about that?

Theme

One time, we were talking about how we wanted our wedding to look like. She wanted this stuff and I wanted that stuff and before we knew it, the whole picture just got so messed up. Our wedding would have looked like a patched quilt! That’s until we decided to have a themed wedding. Having a theme, we thought, would make deciding less stressful, because with a theme we had a direction – a baseline - upon which all aspects of the wedding would have to align with. Now, we just have to think of a theme.

Themed weddings aren’t exactly rare. We could go Filipiniana, Mediternean, Baltic, Etruscan, Castillan, Venetian, Medieval, Colonial etc etc etc, a couple of fusion there and dash of combi there. We ended up in the same mess!

One day while watching TV, Jen just opened a topic about Angelina Jolie and how she adored her in the movie ‘Changeling’. It was a movie set in the 1920’s… 

Then it hit me! I searched the internet and baaaam! I showed it to Jen and she loved it! We are going vintage! As I continuously showed her images from the net on different vintage weddings, she said that it was the kind of wedding she would have wanted. Well its not necessarily the 20’s because that would be way too old. We just want a kind of “old” that’s enough to bring back memories. We could feel it– old school, yes, but it was the golden age of everything. One never goes wrong with the classics.

Ok. There’s an alternative story in this. Having a vintage theme is the only way the vintage cars wouldn’t get scrapped out of the wedding plans =) And I am b-e-n-t on getting in that Buick (evil laugh**).

Bridal Car

We didn't think much about the bridal car. For as long as it's white, it would do. But one time, I was searching the internet and happened to browse over Don Robert's Bridal Cars. And, W-O-W, their roster was just filled with awesomely restored vintage cars from the 1920 to 1970's. So I discussed this with Jen and we decided to go for a vintage bridal car.  As for me, I just want to see them cars!

Her bridal car would be a 1947 Jaguar Mark V...

And I specifically requested for a 1948 Buick Roadmaster... A groom's gotta ride too, right? =)

You can visit their site here.

Photobooth

Almost everybody loves pictures. Especially if they're on it. Not surprisingly, ALL the weddings I have attended to had setup a photobooth. In the bridal fair that we went to, we booked just two suppliers. PartyShots was one of them.

When we went to their booth, they asked us to have some photos taken and, we obliged.. =) To our surprise, the pictures were not printed on photopaper. Yes, you read that right, not on paper, but on magnets! We booked them immediately.

Now the other supplier we just happened to pass by on and upon seeing what their product was, in a minute they got us hooked!

Frame Up will be providing a digital display on the wedding day. What it will look like, I don't know. We'll find out in the wedding day! 

You can visit Frame Up' site here.

You can visit Party Shots' site here.

Bridal Fairs

Many of our friends told us to go visit Bridal Fairs. I thought it would be hard to find such events, because "who" organizes bridal fairs right? Really? There are are fairs dedicated to -- weddings? 

And I was surprised! When I finally started to take notice of the posters and the announcements and  the billboards, I figured there is such a proliferation of wedding fairs. There is practically one every month! So Jen and I decided to visit the one held at the Megamall.

The event was just filled with suppliers for everything. Even for things I never thought actually had a supplier. And as we walked around, all our plans suddenly got a shock because the event flooded us with lots of ideas. In visiting these events, you should already be looking for a particular supplier already, because if not, you could get easily tempted. If only for the ease at which you can book  suppliers, it could suddenly get out of hand. A good thing though is that you can get lots of discounts and truly get value for money. You can also see, first hand, what they have to offer. 

So in the bridal fair, we were able to book for a photobooth and the digital photoframe. Just the two, BUT we collected tons of brochures, just to widen our choices. We did not want to go book immediately. Only when we got home that we looked at the brochures.

We learned that bridal fairs could really give you a picture of how your wedding...well.... fairs =). 

Videographer/Photographer

If  there were something I was very ready to splurge on, it was for the photographer. When I told Jen about the budget I would set for this, she was very surprised! But I had to convince her. After the wedding, after all the merriment and when the occasion is all over , the images that this photographer will get will be what’s left. We will remember things by through the photos . We can share the moment to more people through the videos. It will be the "thing" they will look forward to before, during and after the wedding. This will make us smile when we grow old or when we have petty fights.  This person, this photographer, will capture our emotions...our feelings at every moment! We will show this to our children. And they will show it to their children’s children.  And yes… there will be world peace!!

She agreed.

I showed her the site of the photographer I was researching about. Upon seeing the images in their site, Jen immediately got my point. I showed her the site of Daniel Lei Studios.

The internet was just filled with raves about this team and we are really excited to work with them!

You can visit their site here.

Wedding Coordinator

While at the Wedding Store, we asked the staff if she could recommend any coordinators. She recommended that we get the services of Anna Liza Sotto and her team. Until that time, since we haven’t been really searching the net for a coordinator, we didn’t know anything yet about her and her group.

But after visiting her site, Jen and I got convinced that she would probably be the best person to get. She knows our caterer, she knows the reception and most of all, she knows about Tagaytay weddings. I emailed her immediately and got a response.

The service we got from her is only OTD but we were happy that since January, she has been very helpful and accommodating even though we haven’t met yet. She answered our questions promptly. The first time we met her in person was, coincidentally, in one bridal fair where she had a booth.

Our meeting with her was very productive. Not a minute wasted. The good thing was how organized she was, as if she had a virtual powerpoint. Jen instantly liked her. As we went on with our later bookings, we would find out she was well known among Tagaytay wedding suppliers. A definite plus!

Hope she delivers well on the day. Because she is also going to be the emcee of the night=)

You can visit their site here.

Caterer

When we were looking for a caterer, we browsed through the internet. I chanced upon a site called “Weddings In Sky” which is a wedding store that has a shop in Robinsons Summit in Tagaytay. Their partner-caterer is a company called Towns Delight.

I googled the company and found out that they have been in the business for quite some time already. So if they managed to stay that long, they must be good right? We’ll see, but I haven’t read a complaint about the caterer yet.

We visited their office and we were accommodated by their very friendly staff. She told us so many things that for a moment, she was like a wedding coordinator! She showed us their table arrangements and Jen was just so engrossed with the discussion. We found out they were affiliated with Colossian Gardens too, so after a quick phone call, our reception venue was reserved!

Will the dinner be delicious? Lets find out!
You can visit their website  here.

Reception

Unlike the church, Colossian Gardens in Neogan, Tagaytay  was not our instant choice of reception.  But after realizing that it suits our requirements, we went back for a second look.

Click here for the map.

The reception area is covered. So except, God forbid it rains as much as Ondoy, then we should be dry. 

The place was like a big, really big garden so the ambiance is a plus.

The road to the reception is not very grand, but once we entered the gate we never expected what we saw. We were greeted with a rolling landscaped hill. A path then leads to the drop off point. From the drop off point starts a white washed bridge which will guide to the foyer covered with crawling vines.

On the ceiling of the foyer hang capiz lanterns which we can only imagine should glow beautifully at night.

Add that to the numerous trees surrounding the area.

The presidential table will then be located at a platform with a garden planked stairway.

But the thing that finally nailed it for us was, drum roll… the enormous parking space!

Just like the church though, some parts are also under construction last time we visited. So help us pray, they finish in time. =)