The Menu

Don't hesitate to ask the waiters for a refill :)

All you can eat, sit down dinner will be served at 5:30 PM.  Please do come on time and with a big appetite. :)

Soup

Pumpkin Soup

Main Course

Braised Chicken

Lengua

Chicken Galantina

Fish Fillet

Dessert

Glazed Sweet Potato

Banana Rolls with Sesame & Jackfruit

Smashingly Sinful Homemade Chocolate Cake

Beverage

Bottomless Freshly Squeezed Dalandan Juice

Tarragon Tea

**Special Order of:

Sonya's Garden Salad Bar
Lechon

Our Invitation

One of the first suppliers that Pierre and I were able to book was the invitation. :)  We got a 10% discount by booking Printed Matter on one of the wedding fairs that we have attended last year.

Both of us wanted to incorporate our "Bear" wedding theme on our invites, plus I also wanted to have a customized map for our Church and Reception venue.  With the help of PM's artist, Donna, here's what we were able to come up with. :)  It's not the "traditional" type of wedding invite, but we love it!  It's fun and it's unique. ;)

 

Where To Stay in Tagaytay

Some of our suggested accommodations if you would want to stay overnight or over the weekend in Tagaytay. :)

HOTELS

Hotel Dominique

**Special Promo:

Cash Cash Pinoy Promo (limited time only)

Taal Vista Hotel

**Special Promo:

SM Advantage Promo (until October 31, 2011)

Potter's Ridge

**Special Promo:

Potter's Ridge Promotions

Summit Ridge Tagaytay

**Special Promo:

Summit Ridge Promotions

HOUSES & COTTAGES

Casa Teresa
Tagaytay Vacation
Rosemont Gardens 

BED & BREAKFAST

The Boutique

Sonya's Garden

T House Tagaytay

Our Prenup Pictorial

August 1 (Monday) - We have chosen Manila Yacht Club as the location for our pre-nup, and having a bad weather will not be favorable for all of us.  So we have all decided (with our photographer, John Taca, and sytlist, Roko Arceo) to postpone our pre-nup shoot to Wednesday, hoping that super typhoon Kabayan will already go away.  Or if it doesn't, at least we should all come prepared.

August 3 (Wednesday) - "Rain or shine" we were determined to push through with our pictorial. :)

The day started very gloomy but luckily at around 11AM, the sun suddenly appeared!  Pierre and I got a little excited since we were praying so hard for a good weather.

Our make-up artist, Ms. Victoria Gonzalez, did our make-up at the Themes & Motifs, Makati Shangri-la.  She is really so nice.  She even volunteered to follow us at the Manila Yacht Club to do our retouch. :)

Around 2:30-3PM (our call time) - Pierre & I, the Luminosi team, Ms. Victoria and her hubby were already at the Manila Yacht Club.  Roko, our stylist, who earlier requested to postpone our meeting time from 2 to 2:30, have texted that he would be coming in a bit late.

30 minutes passed, I called Roko up again to check on where he is, but he was not picking up.  So we decided to start the shoot without him using the clothes that I was wearing (luckily, I wore a pretty dress that day) and Pierre wore the extra stuff that our stylist asked him to bring.  I was so worried and very apologetic to Pierre since he did not like Roko from day 1.  I just convinced him that he might really be okay since he was referred to us by gown designer. :( We continued with our shoot, trying our best to not think about Roko anymore since it will just ruin our mood.

After more than 2 1/2 hours, Roko finally showed up.  The sky was already dark and it already started to drizzle.  The sad part was that the clothes that he brought was not what we expected from a stylist.  He failed to capture our style & even our sizes! We could have just brought our own stuff and just saved what we paid him.  Even worse, he just sat there all the time and did not even help in directing the shoot.

His excuse for being late? - His morning shoot overrun because the make-up artist did not arrive and they had to buy and do the model's make-up by themselves.  If he really cared, he could have asked his driver (or anyone) to just bring the clothes to us.  To top it all, he didn't even offer to give back some of our payment considering that he was just there for an hour and his service and was really poor. :(

It was very a sad experience for us.  I just hope that all the bad things that could happen on our wedding day have already been concentrated on this incident.

For all the brides-to-be out there, please think twice before getting Roko Arceo as your stylist!  I do not want to have negative things written on our blog, but this one deserves to be published.  I hope that he will be able to read this and learn from it.. :(

Moving on to the bright side, our other suppliers have shined that day.  :)

• Ms. Victoria's service was really exceptional.  She has the concern of a mother, we were really touched.
• Luminosi Studios (John Taca) and his other crew members have been a very good sport.  I know they were all irritated with Roko, but they were professional to not be so obvious.  Also, despite of the lack of sunlight, John's team was able to produce a good output. :)
• Realship Corp (Lyn Laroco) - The yacht's caretaker (Kuya Froilan), did not factor in our very late stylist.  So based on his record, we have overstayed for 1.5 hours.  Lyn texted me the next day to ask for the payment for overtime, but when I told her about the incident, she did not compel us to pay anymore.

Thank you very much to all of you! :)

Here's a sneak preview of our prenup photos from Luminosi:

Realship Corp website: http://www.realshipcorp.com/

Our Florist

Finally, after months of research, we were able to find the perfect florist for our big day! :)  Since our wedding theme is Bear + Spring, we would like to have as much colorful and pretty flowers as we can, but of course, it should still suit our budget.  Thankfully Serge was able to offer us that. :)

Serge is well-known for his sampaguita arrangements.  But he has ventured in other floral arrangements as well and he really does a good job at it. :)  You may view his works from this website: Loi Floral Sense

Here are some of our flower inspirations for our wedding day:

We are super happy & lucky that we were able to book him. :)  Thanks again to Anna Liza for referring him to us!

Our Wedding Cord

During my usual hobby of searching wedding websites, I came across Project Dream Wedding's blog.  At that time, Pierre and I were already hunting for a wedding cord, so I immediately emailed Eyzel (site owner) to check how much they are.  I was very surprised that the price of her wedding cords are almost similar to the wedding cords that we see in wedding specialty stores and bridal fairs, but her cords will be customized based on your wedding motif and theme. :)

Eyzel is so creative and very nice.  She even went an extra mile to search for the bear trinkets for our wedding cord (they are so cute!)  When she was only able to find gold bears, she hand-painted them to make them silver.  She also added our initials and a heart in between the two bears. :)  She even gave me a few freebie items for my DIY project. ;)  Thanks so much Eyzel!

Here's the finished product--  We so love it!  Can't wait for it to get delivered. :)

Project Dream Wedding website: http://projectdreamwedding.blogspot.com/, http://projectdreamwedding.multiply.com/, http://www.facebook.com/projectdreamwedding

Our Wedding Rings

We love it! :)  Thank you so much Mandy!

Our HMUA

Whew!  We thought we would no longer be able to find a good hair and makeup artist that's still available on our wedding day.. but luckily we found her during the June 2011 Themes and Motifs Wedding Expo at PICC Forum. :)

Meet Ms. Victoria Gonzalez--

She's very sweet and we felt very at ease with her.  We got a good deal from her as well. :)

Many thanks to Anna Liza's team and Princess Misa for referring us to her! ;)

Victoria Gonzalez website: http://www.victoriagonzalez.multiply.com/

Our Honeymoon

Thanks to Citibank, we were able to get the best deal for our dream honeymoon at Bellarocca Island. :)  Can't wait for our trip!

Here are some pics of the resort from Weekend Haven:

Bellarocca website: http://www.bellaroccaresorts.com

Our Pre-nup Photo Workshop Experience

Last April, Bear and I were invited by our colleague, Winston Baltasar, to model for one of his Pre-nup Photo Workshops in their home at San Antonio Village, Makati.  It was indeed a wonderful and fun experience to work with such a talented group. :)

Sharing some of the photos that were taken during the workshop:

With the whole gang :) Thanks guys!

To those who are interested to attend Winston's photo workshops, you may contact him through the following websites:

http://winstonbaltasar.multiply.com/

http://www.facebook.com/winston.baltasar

HMUA: Chin Viyar - http://chin93.multiply.com/

Our Discovery Weekend Experience

"Plan your marriage, not just your wedding."

When we first heard of the Discovery Weekend Seminar, Bear and I were both hesitant to attend it since we've learned that some couples have decided to break-up after realizing that they have issues that they can't settle or personal goals/beliefs that they cannot compromise.  But after over a year of consideration, we've finally decided to join DW as part of our Valentine's Day activity (February 4 to 6, 2011).

Our trip to OMI Retreat House was not that easy - I remember rushing from the office to ride the MRT on a Friday evening, going on round trip, I was like in a can of sardines, someone stepping on my toe (@_@), missed to buy my personal hygiene stuff since we want to catch-up with the 7:30PM registration cut-off, Bear waiting for me in a taxi cab (since we just sold our car that time) and he's getting quite impatient since I've promised to leave the office earlier. It was really crazy!  Thankfully, we didn't start a fight at that time since it was too early to spoil our long weekend together. :)

As we entered the dining hall, couples were all over the place!  We sat down together with two couples and instantly talked about our wedding plans over dinner.  It was really nice to be surrounded by people in love. :D

After dinner, we started with our first activity - Couple Introduction.  I remember Pierre describing me as "very understanding", while I described him as "very patient". :P  After a few talks and sharing, we have ended our first night.

It was time to meet my roommate, Inez.  She's really nice and sweet!  She even offered to share her personal stuff with me since I was not able to buy earlier (our lovely faciliator, Kate, has offered to buy the things that I need so that I'll feel more at ease). I really admire her humility and simpleness despite of her status in life.  We also have a lot of things in common - we love to cook, we have our spiritual readings, we even call our fiances "Bear" :)



Our second day was the most meaningful for us since it involves a lot of open communication with our partner. Bear and I were able to confirm that we have similar goals in life.  We were also asked to write "real love letters", which is far from our usual plain "Happy Monthsary", "Happy Birthday" greetings. The couple sharers were also great! We were able to hear very unusual love stories that we thought could only happen in telenovelas/movies.  The night was capped with the Sacrament of Reconciliation which is very solemn and peaceful.



With the DW couples :)

Our third day was still packed with activities.  There was an element of surprise which I won't be sharing here (for the benefit of those who will be attending DW in the future). :)  After the seminar, a mass was held where Bear and I were asked to read our written prayer to God.  Graduation followed, the DW theme song was sung, and we finally said our goodbyes.


Overall, DW is a very meaningful experience for us.  As I quote from my FB, "A weekend full of lessons and sharing. The Discovery Weekend lives up to its slogan "Plan your marriage not just your wedding". Glad Pierre & I came out of it still firm with our decision to get married, and we're even more excited! :) With the help and guidance of the Lord, everything will fall into its right place in His own time."

Indeed marriage is something that we should really take seriously as no one would like to enter into something that can end up as the biggest mistake of our lives!  We believe that God has paved our way so that we can be part of this DW experience, and we are looking forward to working with Him to make our relationship last more than a lifetime.

Discovery Weekend website: http://www.discoveryweekend.org/

Our OTD Coordinator

One of the wedding suppliers that took most of our time to book is the OTD Coordinator.  Why?  Because we have to find the best team that Pierre and I will be able to fully trust to carry out our wedding plans smoothly. :)  We are very OC when it comes to our wedding preps and we would really love for our special day to be close to perfect but hassle-free.

Events Management Services by Annaliza Sotto

When we first met with Annaliza, my first impression was she is strict and direct to the point.  Which we liked because she really means business.  Aside from them being very familiar with Tagaytay weddings, her team was already able to work with most of our suppliers which is a plus. They also do not charge out-of-town fee for Tagaytay events. :)

This is the package that we got from them:

FULL PAYMENT PROMO - On The Day Package

With Free Hosting, RSVP and Personal Assistant (PA) during prenup pictorial, plus choose one among the ff sets of additional freebies:

• Set 1 Party Poppers, wine and fruit basket for the offertory
• Set 2 Party Poppers and bubble machine
• Set 3 Party Poppers and Thank You Cards
• Set 4 Party Poppers and use of manequin for the Hotel Photoshoot.

ON-THE_DAY COORDINATION

• Max of 3 meetingswith the client for OTD service 1 mo. before the wedding day.
• Unlimited consultations and assistance through phone and email upon signing of contract until the wedding day.
• Recommended reliable suppliers/ vendors.
• Assistance in confirming details, services and final agreements with wedding suppliers.
• Provide the details and discuss with the clients and vendors the arrangement, lay out and set up.
• Orient entourage and the participants of their specific roles at the church/ reception.
• Ocular inspection of the ceremony/ reception site and coordinate with the suppliers.
• Payment management (monitor and schedule payments of suppliers).
• Assist in finalization of guest lists, seating arrangement and floor plan.
• Conceptualize and organize the whole reception program.
• Over all management of the wedding ceremony and reception.
• Assist in selection of music for the ceremony and reception.
• Management of ceremony and reception materials (gifts for the sponsors, misslattes, offertory, souvenir etc.).
• Guest registration, gift management and inventory.
• Staffing on the day of the event Event Manager + 4-5 event assistants equipped w/ radio communication and     headset w/ nametemplate and uniform.

We're looking forward to working with Annaliza and her team :)

Events Management Services: http://www.eventsmanagementservices.net/index.php

Our Wedding Cake

While browsing the web for the perfect wedding cake (of course it has to have a bear couple on it!), we came across this very nice cake design--

Pierre and I both loved it, and we started searching for cake suppliers that are also good in customizing cake toppers.

Cake Farm Bakeshop 

We were able to learn about Cake Farm (Kristia Perez-Rubio Baking Studio) from the GirlTalk  Engagement & Weddings Forum.  One bride was raving how beautiful their wedding cake was and so we immediately searched for the cake maker's website. 

Basing on their website, Pie's cakes look really special and the execution is very clean.  So we've emailed her to ask for a quotation and set an appointment for the cake tasting.

We met with Pie at her baking studio in Cavite.  She is very sweet and "machikka", which made us feel more at ease.  Plus her cupcakes are so delicious!  She also made suggestions on how to make our wedding cake more beautiful. :)  Here's what we're getting from her at a very affordable rate:

• 6x6 Chocolate fondant cake
• 100 pcs. Assorted cupcakes with personalized topper (flavors: kahlua, carrot, mango)
• Bear couple cake topper (cold porcelain)
• Free use of cake rack
• Delivery

 Cake Farm website: http://cakefarmbakeshop.multiply.com/