Ento HMUA: Booked!

My ento will be paying for their own gowns for our big day so we decided to pay for their hair and makeup as our gift to them. This would also be the perfect reason for them to go to our hotel early for the pictorials. Wala silang choice. Haha!

To pay for their hair and makeup, I added four extra heads to my package from Ms. Berny, my HMUA. The fee was P1,500 per head, which was quite expensive in terms of ento makeup, but since I wanted to have only one contact person for the hair and makeup, I got Ms. Berny's team.

But as the weeks go by (and the list of expenses got bigger), I decided to do some cost-cutting to lessen our budget. I've heard that there are a lot of makeup artists who offer cheap rates for ento makeup, so I decided to look for a cheaper alternative for my ento's HMUA.

I've heard good reviews about Diane Coles. She offers P950 per head, which was cheaper than my Ms. Berny's rate. So I messaged her in Facebook, asking if she's still available on our date. Unfortunately, she was not, so I had to look for other more options.

Then I found about Jennifer Gumban from W@W. She has one of the cheapest rates for ento makeup. Imagine, only P700 per head! Some of my W@Wie friends also vouched for her great makeup skills since she also did their makeup for their prenups. I'm not sure if I can post some of their pictures here so just check them out at Jennifer's website.

Elitista Basement by Jennifer Gumban

I only have four female ento members, excluding the principal sponsors, so if I would get Jennifer as my ento HMUA, that would mean I would only have to pay a total of P2,800 for four heads, as opposed to the P6,000 rate from Ms. Berny! Diba, ang laking savings! Of course before booking Jennifer, I had to tell Ms. Berny that I wouldn't get her team to do our ento makeup. Luckily, she allowed me to cancel the four extra heads, so now I'm free to get Jennifer as our ento HMUA! Yey! :)

Whew, another supplier checked off our list. A few more to go and we're done! :)

Honeymoon: Booked!

Unlike other couples, we never really planned to have a honeymoon in the first place. We were already spending so much for the wedding, so I felt too guilty to splurge on our honeymoon. Sayang rin kasi ang savings eh. This was actually the reason why I didn't include it in our initial wedding budget. Deep inside, I was hoping that someone would shoulder our honeymoon expenses as their wedding gift to us. Haha!

But then we decided to increase our budget to include a somewhat fancy honeymoon. After all, this is the perfect excuse to splurge for a trip! Haha! But because we are too kuripot, we chose a local destination for our honeymoon: Siargao. Siargao is known as the surfing capital of the Philippines, and because Mox is a surfing fanatic, I know he will definitely enjoy the big waves of Siargao. As for me, well, I'm pretty happy to be a beach bum there. Magrerelax na lang ako sa beach habang nagpapakahirap magsurf si Mox. Haha!

We plan to get the honeymoon package of one of the top resorts in Siargao, so all we needed were cheap flights going there. Cebu Pacific is the only airline with flights to Siargao (connecting through Cebu), so we were on the lookout for their seat sales. And lo and behold, a piso fare sale happened! But sadly, there were no piso fare flights to Siargao! Grrrr! I tried computing how much our flights would cost with their regular rates, and the total price was so expensive! In fact, getting an international flight would cost less than a flight to Siargao. Nakakaloka diba?

Then I thought, why not Bali, Indonesia? Bali is also a premiere surfing spot so I know Mox would go for it. And the roundtrip tickets for two would only cost around P11,000! Now that is quite cheap considering that it is a popular honeymoon destination. I was so tempted to get tickets already, but Mox wanted to think things over first, so I didn't book the flights yet.

Luckily, there was a travel expo happening at SMX Convention Center that weekend so Mox and I went there to see if we would find great travel deals to Bali. It was our first time to go to a travel expo, and I was so shocked to see the long lines of people so early in the morning! We tried searching for travel deals, but the Bali packages were only valid until  December 2013 only. There were a few 2014 packages, but these are only valid until March 2014. Di man lang namin naabutan. Bwiset.

So we decided to just book a flight to Bali then make our own land arrangements ourselves. We lined up at the Cebu Pacific booth in hopes of getting an affordable flight to Bali since the piso fare promo was still ongoing. We stood in line for almost FOUR HOURS! We were both so hungry, tired and irritated. At ang sakit ng paa ko ha!

After hours of standing (with some arguments in between with Mox who was very, very cranky that time), it was finally our turn! I immediately asked the reservations officer if there were available flights for Bali that were included in the piso fare promo, but to my dismay, there were no more flights! Waaaaah! I really wanted to cry as soon as I heard the news. Imagine, all that waiting for nothing! :(

I felt so down that I wanted to just leave the expo without booking anything, but Mox said that we should just book a flight to any destination so thaat our wait would not be in vain. The reservations officer gave some suggestions like Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore, but I really wanted to go to a beach destination, which was why my heart was set on going to Bali. I thought of going to Phuket instead, but the flight schedules were too close to each other that it would seem as if we would just spend one night in Phuket. Hindi sulit diba?

Then the reservations officer suggested Kota Kinabalu! It is said to be part of East Malaysia, but is far away from the mainland.  I have never been there, but I've heard lots of great things about the place. The best part of all, the airfare was really cheap! We got two roundtrip tickets for less than P3,500! That's even cheaper than some domestic flights! See, worth it rin pala ang pagpila namin ng apat na oras.

So now we have our honeymoon destination. Yey! Our honeymoon will take place two months after our wedding though because those were the only available dates within the piso fare promo. But it does not matter because at least we would still get to travel together! :) It would be Mox's first time to go out of the country EVER, so you can imagine his excitement about the trip. Haha! I still have to do some research on our itinerary and possible accommodations, but that wouldn't be too difficult.. Since we were able to save on our airfare, we could splurge on our hotel accommodation. I can't wait! :)

See you in June Kota Kinabalu!

W@W Love: Grand EB 2013

July 7, 2013 was a very memorable date for all W@Wies because we finally had a chance to meet and greet all those faces behind the emails and Facebook accounts at the W@W Grand EB! Finally, makikita ko na kayong lahat sa personal! Haha. :)

Layout by The Pretty Palette by OJ

What made this event special is that this was organized by W@Wies for the W@Wies! Yes, from the program to the prizes and decors; the W@Wies were in charge of all of that. Kulang na lang siguro, kami na yung nagluto para sa event. Haha!

Can I just say that I love the photo walls! Kudos to the Decor Committee! We know how much hard work you've put into creating the decors, and we really appreciated how it beautified the place. See how much fun we had taking photos at the photo walls? Uhhm, pwedeng mahiram talent niyo sa wedding ko? Hahaha!

Circular Pinwheels Wall

Kusudama Flowers Wall

My Little Red Riding Hood at Moki Gray's setup

The Message Booth

There were a lot of suppliers also involved in the event. There was Manny and April, Camzar and She & Him for the photography, Aisle 1401 and For You are Mine for the videography, Margarush for the drinks, and lots more!

And of course, the event was overflowing with food. Richgold provided us with some heavy cocktails for merienda, and we enjoyed the desserts/candies of Punky Porca's Box of Sweets and the cakes of Purpledish. I don't have any pictures of the food though, just their setups. Masyado siguro akong gutom. Haha!

Richgold's setup

Purpledish's dessert bar

Punky Porca's candy buffet

Some of Punky's mini cupcakes (na hindi ko nakain dahil may kumuha. Huhu)

Just a happy note, I saw a lot of our suppliers there (Manny and April, Chef Velmor, Anna of Aisle 1401), and it's so nice to see that they still recognize me. As in first-name basis talaga! In fact, even our former AE from Richgold recognized us! Sabi pa nga niya, miss na daw niya kakulitan namin ni Mox dahil lagi kami nag-aaway sa tuwing minemeet namin sila. Haha! Come to think of it, maybe that's not really a good thing because we did cancel our contract with them. Haha! Just kidding. But seriously, it's really heartwarming to learn that our suppliers still remember us from the brief meetings that we had with them, even though they have probably met so many different couples already. :)

We had a blast during the event! We love the bridal shower games, especially the pop the balloon challenge. And of course, the highlight was the impromptu "Gentleman" dance by the W@Wies with none other than Boy Kastner Santos, the W@Wie Supplier of the Year for 2011. Check out their super-fun dance here!

And yes, winners of the W@W Peer Awards were announced. Sadly, I didn't win the Blogerista award, but I am still very happy and honored to be nominated. Congratulations to the winners by the way! :)

And of course, who doesn't love freebies? I wasn't able to win in the raffle (sabi ko na nga ba malas talaga ako eh), but I was still able to bring home a bag full of goodies. The lootbag includes beauty products from Pond's, a cupcake from Chef Kiko, chocolates from Knotville Favors, yema balls by Hearts and Bells, and the W@W Commemorative Coin. We also had our photobooth picture from iFlick Photobooth. Syempre, di pwedeng mawala yun. Hehe.

Lootbag goodies :)

Ganda ng printing, in fairness

But what made this day special, aside from the loot bag and the free food, was being with all my W@Wie sisters and brothers. After months of just talking through emails and FB chats, we were able to bring our friendship to the next level. :) I want to thank Ms. Benz and Sir Abet for creating W@W, because not only were we able to prepare our dream wedding with the help of this community, but we were also able to find new friends that will surely make the next chapter of our lives more memorable. I love you my W@Wie friends! Here's to more EB's and chikahan moments with you :)

Photo from CamZar Photography

The Missus Reaches 100K!

Before I leave for the W@W Grand EB, which will happen later this afternoon near MOA, I just want to say thank you to all of the readers of this blog because we had finally reached (actually, we just exceeded) another milestone today.

I can't believe we had more than 100,000 views already! Hopefully, this will serve as a sign that I would win the Blogerista award later. Haha! Nangangarap lang naman.

Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart! I love you all. :)