Wedding Suppliers' Rating

I had a detailed wedding checklist because I knew what I wanted! But no matter how long we, brides, prepare for our wedding (we were on 2.5 years engagement), THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PERFECT WEDDING. There were many minor glitches we can laugh about. Some small details weren’t captured by our photographers’ lenses but that doesn’t change the fact that IT WAS THE ABSOLUTE PERFECT DAY OF OUR DAYS!! :) And because I myself thought of the details for each and every aspect of our wedding, I would have known from the smallest details what went wrong. But night before our wedding day, I had a truly personal talk with God. I lifted everything to Him. I told Him I did everything I can do for our wedding and I just wanted to enjoy the day, marry the love of my life and HAVE A HAPPY MARRIAGE. Come wedding day, I was over the moon! I was literally an extremely happy bride and a living hashtag BRIDECHILLA! I never stressed about the smallest details because that day, I just wanted to marry the love of my life. I leaned on happy thoughts for the success of our wedding is not in my hands anymore. In fact, I totally let go of control even if I used to micromanage everything! So I entrusted our wedding to all our suppliers na. AND I DID NOT REGRET LETTING GO AND LETTING GOD! The minor glitches, I brushed them off and had our coordinators rectify. Dahil diyan, I was able to keep countless happy wedding memories! :) And up to this time, I DON’T HAVE ANY BITTERNESS as to what transpired that day. We’re overjoyed as to how the wedding turned out to be beautiful even if I didn’t reach my target weight LOL!

One solid piece of advice for you bride-to-be’s: LET GO AND LET GOD ON YOUR WEDDING DAY! Everything superbly detailed and pretty, go ahead and plan your big day as much as you desire. But the moment you stand next to your husband, everything else is just a backdrop. SO FOCUS ON MARRYING THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE! :)

One more thing: My husband used to tell me that OUR WEDDING DOESN'T HAVE TO BE EXPENSIVE. Everything should fit into my husband’s budget and we shouldn’t be paying for our wedding long after the wedding. Walang kasing TUMPAK! And while I was disastrous at budgeting for the wedding , praise God for no hiram from anyone. We were kind of worried nearing the wedding since we invested some big lump sum of money but GOD DID PROVIDE! Hindi kami kinulang! :) And yes, we went beyond Jon’s first and second budget (our expenses ballooned to double the initial budget), but we weren’t regretful with our supplier line up.. kasi we had tons of happy memories! No major stressor that faithful day! And my husband tells me that his biggest consolation (from gastos haha) is me recurrently saying I WAS VERY HAPPY WITH OUR WEDDING. He didn’t hear me say “we should have done that this way..” or “we should have spent more on this..” because I didn’t have any foremost gripe! My husband’s glad that HE WAS ABLE TO GIVE ME A DREAM WEDDING HE CAN AFFORD. But then again, I was doomed at budgeting at ito talaga ang pinakamalaking pagkakamali ko so learn from me and don’t let this happen to you. I did not stick with our budget since I WAS MORE ON THE PEACE OF MIND SIDE more than nagtitipid. We are both based overseas by the way and I knew we needed talented and reputable suppliers. Wrong that I splurged to double the budget but then again if afford naman and you won’t have to borrow from anyone, plus you have savings and investments for the future, GO AHEAD SPLURGE A BIT! Hahaha nangunsinti :D What I mean here is BOOK THE BEST SUPPLIERS WITHIN YOUR BUDGET AS THERE IS NO REWIND BUTTON TO YOUR WEDDING! For me, a stressful supplier is not worth the discount or kahit libre pa sila!

And before I finally start with our Suppliers' Rating, I also wanted to share God’s goodness and overflowing blessings leading and on our wedding day:

1. Prior May 8, I checked the wedding forecast. There were threats of 2 thunderstorms looming over our wedding day :( Come wedding day, PERFECT ANG WEATHER! It rained the following day na.

2. Fall out of guests was negligible! We wrote 165 names in the final guest list. More than 150 graced our wedding with their presence! :) I refused to be disheartened by those who cancelled the same day. Hahaha after all, even the buffer table was filled and I can didn’t see noticeable dents per table! :)

3. ALL OF OUR SUPPLIERS DELIVERED VERY WELL! :) I really don’t have notable complaints with any of them apart from some major suppliers were an hour late. Nevertheless, they started working as soon as they stepped into my bridal suite :)

4. We kicked off our wedding reception with a super cool grand entrance! For others, that’s just icing on the cake but for us, that's the highlight of our reception. Both of us can’t dance kasi so it indeed surprised our guests. Haha! It was a last minute decision but probably one of the best decisions we've made for our wedding. Feel na feel ko, bakit ba? Haha! Many said that wandering away from the usual sweet sweet waltz plus the cute dance steps made it a very memorable grand entrance :) Side story: We practiced medaling araw of May 7 then sa grand entrance na ulit. Ayun, na-mental block kami sa steps kaya nagkalat tuloy kami sa dance floor! Hahaha but since it was our wedding, the editors did a good job ha! The Same Day Edit (SDE) video appeared as if it was well-coordinated. Haha!

5. We’ve been blessed by our guests’ generosity! Our money dance was a hit! Literal na blockbuster ang money dance kasi nakapila pa iyong magsasabit ng gifts sa amin! :) Super unexpected to be so much blessed with cash gifts so we opened a dollar savings account straightaway! :)

6. Most suppliers are pricey but with the help of my charm, haggling skills and w@w tag, most of them were discounted. Some from bridal fair, some from auction, some ex-deal (with our watch business) at some free pa, kaya super happy my husband! :)

I will be reviewing very much in detail so please pardon my long post. Anyhoo, I am posting the price so some so bride-to-be’s will have an idea. We booked most of our suppliers on February 2014 so these are 2014 rates :)

For the information of my non-W@Wie blog readers, a suppliers’ rating is a W@Wie’s way of giving back to the online community to help soon-to-become Filipino brides. We itemize all our suppliers and evaluate their performance pre, during, and post-wedding.

--- to be continued..