OTD Coordinator: Booked!

A few weeks ago, I blogged about my dilemma on choosing our OTD coordinator because I had a difficult time deciding between The One Exclusive and M Events. After asking for help from fellow brides at W@W and musing over each of the coordinators’ pros and cons, I’ve finally came up with a decision.

Our chosen OTD coordinator for our special day is…

I felt The One Exclusive was THE ONE (forgive the pun) not only because of the great feedbacks received from their brides, but also because I felt very at ease with them during our first meeting. Of course, I also said the same thing about M Events, but I thought I'd be more comfortable working with Kath because we are somewhat of the same age bracket. I don’t know why, but I have an aversion in “bossing” around people who are older than me. Parang nakakahiya kasing mag-utos eh. I’d rather give out orders to people who are relatively of the same age as me because it wouldn’t be too awkward if I'd get mad at them in case something wrong happens. Pwedeng-pwede ko ilabas ang inner bridezilla ko sa kanila. Haha!

 

I also like that Kath took a casual, “we-are-your-friends” approach to our meeting. She didn’t present any excel sheets or Powerpoint slides, and there was no formal question-and-answer portion, which sounded like a job interview. Instead, she just casually asked how our wedding preps were getting along and gave tips and advices that would be useful during the big day itself. She also shared some anecdotes on the weddings they have coordinated, even the one that was “controversial” because it earned them a very long, negative feedback from the bride. I’ve read that long thread in W@W, but it was nice to hear TOE’s side of the story even though the wedding happened more than a year ago. I think negative feedbacks on suppliers are unavoidable because you can't please everyone, but at least TOE takes every negative review as constructive criticism, which will help them be better in their craft.

Another advantage is that Kath, Thoffy and the rest of the TOE team have worked with most of our chosen suppliers at least one time. Since almost all of them are friends, they are already familiar with each other's work ethics and would not be second-guessing one another anymore.

But the thing that really sealed the deal for me was the fact that TOE's package rate already includes an emcee. I've heard good reviews about Thoffy as a host and I'm sure he would make our celebration fun, lively and unforgettable. Not only that, I already asked Arbee of KTG Events, who is one of my closest friends, to act as Thoffy's co-host. KTG and TOE are both friends, so even Kath was excited at the idea of pairing up Thoffy with Arbee. In her words nga, "Magiging maingay reception mo pag sina Thoffy and Arbee ang mga host!" So now I got two emcees instead of just one. :)

TOE does not require a specific amount to pay for reservations; any amount is fine to block the date. TOE also allows about a month for pencil booking in case you need more time to think about your decision. The payment terms are very flexible so it wouldn't burn a hole in your pocket once you'd book them. Although sometimes they take a long time to reply to my queries, but I'm not yet worried. Malayo pa naman wedding ko eh. :)

I just received the acknowledgement receipt for our downpayment and even some worksheets for our wedding. Nakakaexcite and nakakapressure i-fill up ang mga worksheets na yun! But, I also have another thing in mind. Now that I finally booked our OTD coordinator, how should I tell M Events that I would not get their services anymore? Any suggestions please?

THE ONE EXCLUSIVE

0917-5303663 (Thoffy), 0927-9767455 (Kath)

theoneexclusive@gmail.com

Another Wedding Site!

I first put up this blog to keep track of the progress of our wedding preparations, but lately, this has become my personal outlet for my rants and raves about everyday life. I also plan to use this blog to document our life after the wedding and possibly even my adventures in motherhood when that time comes. In short, magiging halo-halo na ang laman niya in the future.

So in order to make things more organized, I decided to make a wedsite—a site that focuses solely on, you guess it, our wedding. Our wedsite will be for the benefit of our guests so that they would be able to know the essential information on our wedding without having to read about every nitty-gritty detail on my wedding blog. They can also RSVP through our wedsite, so hopefully, there wouldn't be any excuses why they haven't RSVPed. Hmp.

Our wedsite is still a work in progress, but if you want to check it out, just click the link: http://www.mywedding.com/natamox/index.html

A screenshot of our wedsite. :)

As you may noticed, our wedsite has absolutely nothing to do with our color motif (turquoise and orange) and our theme (beach). Well, the only explanation for that is.... I just like purple. Haha!

My First DIY Attempt

I am not an artsy person. I couldn't draw to save a life and I couldn't make some crafts out of recycled materials. But I still plan to do some DIYs for our wedding to save a few thousand bucks on our wedding expenses. Ambisyosang frog diba? Haha! I  already made a list for our DIYs, which includes my entourage's flowers and even the reception decor. Hay, good luck na lang sa akin. I've been researching nonstop for tutorials, but I'm still not confident that I could pull off my DIY dreams for our wedding. I definitely need all the help I could get, so as early as now, I am already practicing on my DIY skills.

For starters, I  tried to make a simple fabric flower, which will be used for the entourage's bouquets. Since this is my first attempt, I used an old piece of curtain for the flower, but I will use felt fabric for the real bouquets.

After a few burns from the glue gun, I finally finished my fabric flower:

Don't mind the band-aid. :P

There are different ways on how to make a fabric flower, but this is probably the easiest way to do it. I'll post some tutorials once I begin making my entourage's bouquets for real. Practice run lang ito. Hehe.

I thought of attaching the flower to a headband, which could be used as an accessory for the flower girl. I got my old headband and covered it with a strip of cloth so it would be the same color as the flower. The edges were a bit frayed because I used crappy scissors, but at least it added character to the headband. Hehe.

 
Here's my cousin, who will be my flower girl for the wedding, wearing my DIY headband.

I think my first DIY attempt is a success, but I still need to practice more, especially since I plan to make more complicated accessories (but that is a secret for now). Oh well, at least I still have two years to improve on my skills. Malay mo pagkatapos nito, magiging DIY queen na ako. Haha! Asa.

Wedding Dilemma Part 2: Which Coordinator?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I met with two coordinators yesterday, M Events and The One Exclusive, to see which one of them will I have the "This is it!" feeling. Both of them have great feedbacks from W@W and GirlTalk. Both of them have the same rates, although The One Exclusive also offers emcee services with their package. And most of all, both of them have really nice coordinators, Grace for M Events and Kath for The One Exclusive.

Which is why I am in this dilemma right now. When I met with Grace, I thought I have found my OTD coordinator. She was sweet, easy to talk to, and she explained all the inclusions in their packages efficiently. She even recommended a full band when I told her that I plan to have a band in our reception. I just have to mention her name to the manager to get a discount. Diba, ang bait niya? I was so tempted to book her then and there, but I thought I have to meet with Kath first before making a decision.

Then when I met with Kath, I again had the "This is it!" feeling. Our meeting was very informal; we just shared stories about my wedding preps and their experience as coordinators. She also suggested some affordable suppliers and she even gave some inputs on our church dilemma. Our meeting lasted for almost two hours because we were chatting like long-time friends. As in kwentuhan to the max! When our meeting ended, I was smiling the whole time because I felt that I found a friend for life.

Is it possible to have the "This is it!" feeling with two suppliers? I'm so confused! I don't know who to book!

I am one confused bride.

The Search for the Perfect Coordinator

When I was still scouting for suppliers, I already shortlisted one OTD coordinator for our wedding because I felt that we had instant rapport even though we were only communicating via email that time. Kumportable talaga ako sa kanya eh. Plus, she also gave me an unexpected wedding gift, which would lead to more savings in our wedding budget. So I thought we would book her once her 2014 calendar opens.

But then I learned that she doesn't accept Saturday weddings anymore due to her church activities, and unfortunately, our wedding falls on a Saturday. She did say that she usually follows to the reception once she's finished with church, but I didn't want to take any chances in case something goes wrong and she's not there. I wanted an OTD coordinator who would give us his/her full-fledged attention during our special day. So sadly, I had to let my dream coordinator go and look for another one.

After reading great reviews about them in W@W and GirlTalk, and making sure they fit our specific budget, I finally decided to meet with two OTD coordinators tomorrow:

1. Grace Roxas of M Events
2. Kath Tizon and Thoffy Consulta of The One Exclusive

I was supposed to meet with Kath last week, but she had an emergency to attend to so I rescheduled it for tomorrow afternoon. And since I didn't want my day to go to waste, I also scheduled a morning meeting with Grace. That way I would be able to compare my experiences with both of them, and hopefully make a decision on who to pick for our OTD coordinator. After all, someone must help me tame my inner bridezilla. Hehe.

Don't let me be a bridezilla!

I just hope Mox would be able to get out of work as soon as he can so that he could join me in my meeting with Kath and Thoffy. Napapagod na rin kasi akong makipagmeet sa mga suppliers na mag-isa. I just wish he would be more supportive with our wedding preps, even though it's still "too early to plan" (his words, not mine). I know a wedding is supposedly all for the bride, but c'mon, this is his wedding too. I also need a groom's input on the wedding details and other stuff! Hay, this rant definitedly deserves another blog entry.

Wedding Dilemma Part 1: Air-conditioned Church or Not?

The only downside of a long engagement is that we would often change our minds during the wedding preps whenever we would see something that is supposedly better than what we've chosen. The fickle-mindedness of brides (and even grooms) has already bitten me because lately I've been second-guessing some of our decisions regarding our prospective supplier.

The first wedding dilemma is with our church. Ever since we've started planning, I never really thought of holding our wedding in an air-conditioned church because I felt that it was not a necessity to begin with. We've already set a specific budget for our church and an air-conditioned church would cost more than what we could pay for.

At first, we were pretty set on booking Mary the Queen Parish in Greenhills.

But now, I am having second thoughts of booking a non air-conditioned church. Our wedding will be held in the summer, and if today is any indication of how hot  it would be on our wedding, then we would have a problem. Grabe lang sa init ah! I want everyone to be comfortable on our wedding day, without having to worry about sweat stains on their outfits, body odor and crankiness brought by the scorching summer heat. I want everyone to be cool even though it's almost 36 degrees outside.

And because of that, we've thought of having our wedding at Santuario de San Jose, a church in Greenhills that offers air-conditioning.

However, the rate of SSJ costs P10,000 more than Mary the Queen, which is way out of our budget. Mox told me that he's okay with a non air-conditioned church, but I'm still not convinced. We would visit both churches on May 1, so I guess I just have to rely on our "This is it" feeling for our decision.

What about you, which church would you choose?

I'm A Versatile Blogger!

Honestly, I do not see myself as a great blogger. I am no travel junkie, food critic or sassy fashionista who have their own blogger fan base. I am just an ordinary girl who rants and writes about her adventures in life, particularly in planning for her upcoming wedding. Sometimes, I feel envious whenever I would read some popular blogs because I feel that I can never write as well as them.

Which is why I am so touched and honored when Kim of Coffee With Kim awarded me with The Versatile Blogger award. Thank you Kim for my first blog award ever! :) I'd never thought that people would read about my random ramblings, more so even like them. Kinikilig tuloy ako! Hehe!

Rules:

Thank the blogger who sends you the award and add a link to his/her blog.

 Write 7 random things about you.

Give the award to other 15 bloggers you love and tell them

The rules say that I have to write seven random things about me. So here we go:

1. I'm absolutely terrified of cockroaches, especially those big flying ones! Give me a frog, a snake or even a big, fat rat any day; just don't let me near one tiny cockroach. I couldn't even kill one because I'm too scared that it would run up my leg. Kadiri! I blame that whole cockroach-flying-to-my-hair incident when I was seven for my phobia.


2. I feel more rested during the day when I only have four hours of sleep or less than when I have the full eight hours of sleep. I can even go about the day without sleeping at all! Maybe this is the reason why I never grew taller than 5 feet. Pfft.
   
   
3. I dip fruits into soy sauce for added flavor instead of using salt. My favorite fruits to dip are banana, pineapple and watermelon.
   
   
4. I cannot sleep without putting a pillow between my legs. No, it's nothing dirty or bastos; it's just because I used to wake up a lot during the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. So I thought that by putting the pillow between my legs, it would prevent the feeling of wanting to pee. It doesn't really work, but it became a habit so the pillow still stays between my legs.
   
   
5. I have this small speech problem where I can't pronounce the "R" properly if it's followed by a vowel. Instead of "R", it would sound like the letter "W". So instead of saying "street", I would say "stweet". Some people think I'm making baby talk, but I really can't help it. It's barely noticeable, but people who DO notice it love to make me pronounce difficult words such as "Miriam", "Punerarya" or "Rumaragasa".
   
   
6. I collect paper bags, fancy papers and gift wrappers. If you'll buy me a gift and put it inside a beautiful paper bag, I'll probably be happier with the paper bag than with the gift itself. Also, the only reason why I like to receive flowers is because of their wrappings. Yes, I am weird that way.
   
   
7. I love the smell of newly photocopied paper and new books. Whenever I'm reading a new book, I would stop once in a while to smell the pages.
   

So now it's time to award 15 of my favorite bloggers with The Versatile Blogger award:

• What's Your Cup of Tea
• The Happy Hobo
• The Sweet Spot
• Certified Bridechilla
• Blended to Perfection
• Micanonymous
• Dea Guwapa
• Ever After Begins Today
• Sweet Simple Joys
• Because I Love Random Things
• Everyday Sunday
• All About It
• Dapatty (Yes, I had to add Patty Laurel's blog. Haha!)
• Life in the Plus Lane
• Wanderlust Wannabe

I can't wait to read some random facts about all of you! Enjoy! :)

Cheers!