Unveiled: A Tagaytay Wedding Fair

Tagaytay has always been a popular venue for destination weddings. The thought of getting married amidst the sprawling mountain scenery while enjoying the majestic view of the Taal Lake is enough to make a girl scream with delight. It's every bride's dream wedding!

But bear in mind that a destination wedding can be more expensive than a wedding in the city. The out-of-town charges of  the suppliers alone will take up a huge chunk from the wedding budget, so it is a definite must for every Tagaytay bride to scout for the best deals possible in order to cut down some of their expenses.

So here is some good news for all those who plan to hold their weddings in Tagaytay. Ville Sommet, one of Tagaytay's well-loved wedding and events venues, will hold its second bridal fair on next Saturday, October 5, 2013. Dubbed as "Unveiled: A Tagaytay Wedding Fair," this event will be held at the Glasshouse of Ville Sommet from 10am to 8pm, and will feature the best suppliers that will help soon-to-wed couples plan their dream Tagaytay wedding.

The Ville Sommet bridal fair is not just any ordinary bridal fair; it is the bridal fair exclusively designed for Tagaytay soon-to-wed couples All suppliers are ready to offer out-of-town packages and rates, and special promotions and discounts will also be exclusively made available to couples who made on-the-spot bookings. Couples may also get the chance to win exciting raffle prizes! Ang saya diba?

Not only that, but couples can also sample some of the best food and beverages from Juan Carlo the Caterer and Josiah's Catering, see the latest event styling designs from Ambiance by Pido, and attend wedding planning seminars by Gen Lee Events, all while being serenaded live by Muzzique Vox.

This is also the chance to check out Ville Sommet's new landscaping and greener pastures. Who knows, this may be your dream Tagaytay venue. Look how pretty it is in the pictures!

Entrance

Landscape

Chalet

Another view of the Chalet

Glasshouse

Setup inside the Glasshouse

Parkland

Pavilion

Another view of the Pavilion

Admission to the bridal fair is free, so don't be shy to drag your friends and family to the event! For more information, you may check out their Facebook account and Instagram account, or send them a tweet to their Twitter account.

See you there! :)

Bridal Fair Stories

Yesterday, Mox and I attended the Getting Married Bridal Fair at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay to book our mobile bar. The trip turned out to be more worthwhile than I thought because of some happenings in between. :)

Yes, Mox's real name is actually Neil. Ang layo noh? Haha.

STORY # 1:

Even though I was all set to buy our wedding rings in Ongpin just to save money, we still went around the fair to inquire with all the jewelers. I fell in love with this pair of two-toned, matte rings with a single diamond on each ring at Goldenhills. Unfortunately, the price was just too much for us. After searching for other alternatives, we found the same design at Suarez Wedding Rings, and it's half the price of Goldenhills'! We didn't book them at the fair though because Mox wanted to think things over, but I'm still happy to find an affordable wedding ring supplier that is more accessible (location-wise) to us than Ongpin. Hehe. We might book them at the next bridal fair so hopefully our design would still be there.

Mox also kept asking questions about the rings at each supplier's booth, which was so unlike him. But it's nice to finally see him become more active in our wedding preparations. Sa singsing lang pala siya magiging mabusisi.  Hehe.

STORY # 2:

We finally booked our mobile bar! And not only that, I got to meet Tine, Aiza and Cris, my fellow W@Wie brides. I have been chatting with them for months now since we will have a group boudoir session together, but this was actually the first time that I have met them. Nice to finally see the faces behind the Facebook accounts. Haha! Now I'm even more excited for our boudoir session! :)

By the way, I got tipsy after drinking so many cocktails at our mobile bar. Thank you Tine for recommending them to me. More details on our mobile bar in the next post.  :)

STORY # 3

We went to Osep&Mimi, our official photographers for the wedding, to make some changes in our contract. When I booked them, I put in Mary the Queen Parish and North Greenhills Clubhouse as our church and venue because I was so sure that we would book them once their 2014 calendars would open. But then we booked another church and venue instead. So now I wanted those changes to be reflected in our contract.

Osep wasn't available because he was at a wedding, so Mimi was the one who entertained us. She wasn't there during our first meeting so it was a pleasant surprise that she knew who I was. Of course, I am their longest booking ever, since I booked them last March 2012 for my April 2014 wedding, so I must have made an impact to them. Hahaha! Ang yabang ko lang.

Mimi is so nice and very easy to talk to! She agreed to my request to have another contract made even though she's busy handing flyers to all those couples passing by. We even sat at their ghost chairs to sign the contract. Haha. I was also able to see samples of their albums, which I didn't have a chance to do during our first meeting. I love their album covers! Now I'm very excited to see how our own albums would look like. :)

The best part of our meeting? Mimi gave me additional freebies that day! Whee! :) My original package included a 5x7 prenup album, a 10x10 wedding album, prenup AVP and a 16x20 canvas print, but she allowed me to change the prenup album to 8x10 and added an onsite AVP and 100 4R prints for free! Ang saya-saya ko lang. Hehe.

See, I told you bridal fairs are fun. Can't wait for the next one. :)

Bridal Fair Madness

Last Saturday, Mox and I went to the 20^th edition of Themes & Motifs’ Wedding Expo Philippines at the SMX Convention Center in Mall of Asia. It was our first time to attend a bridal fair together so I was very excited to show him around, look for possible suppliers together and let him carry my bag full of brochures for a change. Lagi na lang sumasakit balikat ko dahil dalawang bridal fairs na ang nilibot kong mag-isa habang buhat-buhat ang malaking bag na yun. So now, it’s his time to shine. Siya naman dapat ang magdusa. Haha!

It was easy to go around the fair because the suppliers were sorted according to their category. For example, all caterers were grouped together in one row, while the photographers and videographers were all located in another row. I particularly had fun at the row where the photobooth suppliers were located because most of them offered free trials so we got lots of prints to take home as souvenirs. Oh yes, the camwhore in me is very satisfied. Haha! I wanted to try all of the photobooths there but Mox was already tired from “smiling” (or at least doing his version of a smile) so I had to stop. Here are some of our photobooth pics at the fair:

From Studio On Wheels

This is actually a photo magnet from Clip Photobooth :)

From Pose and Print

From BaiCapture

From Fantasy Kiosk

Fron Lenscape

From Giggles Photobooth

I was supposed to have an airbrush makeup trial with one of the HMUAs there, but Mox was already getting cranky from standing too long that he demanded to go home already. We even had a little argument because he asked why I had to go around each and every booth to get fliers when our wedding was still so far away. What’s with men and the lack of enthusiasm with the wedding preps? Hay, mga lalaki talaga oh.

P.S. Okay, scratch my last sentence. I just learned that Mox was asking a friend earlier about her caterer for her wedding. Apparently, he plans to schedule us for a food tasting in the coming months. Finally, he's now opening up to the thought of actually preparing for the wedding. :)

Weekend Love

This must have been one of, if not, the busiest weekend ever! So read at your own risk because this will be one LONG blog entry. Haha!

THURSDAY
Since our team follows Dubai time, our workweek ends on Thursdays. So to celebrate the weekend and Jerhmie's birthday, we went to Music Match in Ortigas Home Depot to eat, drink and sing our hearts out. Kami na ang mga addict sa videoke! This was my first time to go out with my new officemates so I was pretty excited to just relax and have fun with them.

This was my first time in almost 10 months to go out and drink with office friends. Di na nga ako sanay uminom eh. But what I missed more than the drinking itself is the camaraderie between colleagues that these office gimiks seem to inspire. I'd never thought I would experience that again, but last Thursday's videoke nightout proved me wrong. :)  

FRIDAY
Despite having only three hours of sleep and a mild hangover from last night's videoke gimik, I still went to The Wedding Library's Weddings & Debuts 2012 bridal fair at Megatrade Halls 1 to 3 to meet prospective suppliers and of course get some more fliers! :)

One thing is for sure, the bridal fair is definitely one of the biggest events that I've attended so far. It took me almost three hours to go around each and every booth. I even had a list of all the exhibitors just to check whether I passed by all of them. Ang bigat na tuloy ng bag ko sa sobrang dami ng brochures at fliers. But all in all, it was worth it because I saw a lot of different suppliers and I had a free make-up trial with Monique Cruz of Natural Glow Makeup, which was perfect because I got a date with Mox later in the evening. Nakalibreng makeup pa tuloy ako para sa date. Too bad, I didn't have a picture of my face before and after the trial. But rest assured, maganda pa rin naman ako. Hahaha!

In other news, Mox and I finally had our Valentine's date at Cafe Juanita. It's a little cafe near Kapitolyo in Pasig that serves Filipino and Japanese dishes. We ordered bagnet, buro (a vegetable dish) and garlic pepper squid. The ambience was homey and at the same time romantic, and the food was delicious, although we quickly became full after drinking too much mango shake and water because the garlic pepper squid was so spicy. It was also a bit pricey—our bill reached more than a thousand pesos for just the two of us—but overall it can still be a great dating place.

 

 

Yummy bagnet :)

Mox also gave me a flower as a gift, but I was more giddy over his usual greeting card because he finally wrote a more kilig-inducing message than his "Mahal na mahal kita beh mwah simple lang!" note that he always write. Naks, nagiging romantiko na siya. Haha!

SATURDAY
I accompanied my best friend, my fiance and some friends to watch the Liv5 concert in Trinoma. It featured five pop-punk bands from the U.S.: The Ready Set, A+ Dropouts, The Summer Set, Forever The Sickest Kids and A Rocket To The Moon. I started listening to pop punk because of my best friend's influence, but I was not familiar with all the bands that played, except for A Rocket To The Moon. Dinaig pa nga ako ng mga high school kids dun kasi mas alam pa nila ang mga kanta kesa sa akin.

A funny sidenote: We didn't have tickets for the concert so we were just standing outside the venue, trying to catch a glimpse of the bands at the big TV screen. Suddenly, an event organizer asked us if we want to go in and watch for free, so of course we agreed! Naawa siguro sa amin kasi kami lang nagtiyagang maghintay at manuod sa labas. Haha!

The concert lasted for four hours and ended at around 9pm. Then we spent almost two hours walking around Trinoma, searching for a place to eat. Because it was almost 11pm, most of the restaurants were already closing. Good thing, KFC was still open so we were still able to grab some dinner before heading home. We even took advantage of KFC's photobooth since there are only a few people left. Napuno ata namin yung buong screen nila ng mga pictures namin. Camwhore na camwhore. Haha! Too bad, we couldn't get a copy of our pictures. Booooo!

Overall, it was a great but tiring weekend. Next week, it will probably be even more tiring because Mox and I will try to squeeze in two food tasting sessions into our schedule. Excited na akong mabusog. :)

The Bridal Fair Experience

*First of all, sorry for not updating this blog for almost a week now.  I have been so busy at my new work that I haven't had the time to write. I promise that I will update my blog every weekend... or at least I'll try. Hehe!*

I have registered for all the upcoming bridal fairs a year ago but when our wedding date was moved, I was already having second thoughts on attending the fairs. After all, I wouldn't be able to book suppliers because my wedding is still more than two years away. But since I had nothing to do last Friday while waiting for Mox to finish his shift, I decided to visit the Getting Married Bridal Fair at the SMX Convention Center in SM Mall of Asia.

My entrance ticket. :)

I was there at around 11am so there weren't that many people yet. I was able to go around to every booth, get all their brochures and calling cards, and even speak to some of the exhibitors. Whenever suppliers asked me when's the wedding date, I would always say that it's in April 2013, a year before our REAL wedding date. Some suppliers don't allow bookings for 2014 yet so I know I wouldn't be taken seriously if I would tell them my real wedding date. Besides, I only want an idea of their current rates so that I would be able to compute a tentative wedding budget, adding allowances for price increases. Rume-research lang kumbaga.

I also passed by the booth of Alt-X Videos, whom I planned to get as my videographer. Archie and Sansan were quite nice and accommodating, even though I told them that my wedding was still in 2014 (the only supplier to know my real wedding date). They even told me that it was okay to book them now to avail their current rates (they will have a price increase on Monday). It's just too bad I don't have the money to make a downpayment yet. Kaya no choice, dun talaga ako sa mas mataas na presyo. Huhu.

All in all, it was a tiring and yet a fulfilling experience. I got so many brochures and flyers that I had to put them inside a separate bag. And to be more organized, I put all brochures into long brown envelopes, each labeled with their respective supplier categories (photo, video, food, music, etc.). OC na kung OC. Haha!

Signs of my OC-ness