All-Purpose Flower

One of the remaining tasks we need to complete for our wedding is to look for a florist para sa simbahan. Kat literally scoured the net for a good deal and we attended at least two wedding fairs with that in mind. Nakapag tanong-tanong na din kami sa ever-referred na flower place, ang Dangwa, pero hindi kami satisfied sa mga packages na binigay sa amin. Buti na lang na-refer sa amin ang Fullblooms Flower Shop! 

with Miss Inah of Fullblooms

But before we talk about them, konting history muna about our preferences.

We originally wanted 10 topiary-type flower arrangements sa aisle (for 5 rows of pews) and 3 flower arrangements sa altar with inclusions for 2 candle arrangements. Tapos sooobrang sold kami sa bulaklak na Baby's Breath. As in almost all our inquiries for flower packages are quoted for Baby's Breath lang. It looks out of ordinary ("IN" sa theme namin) and a bunch of it is an eye-candy.

Ang problema lang talaga mas mahal than the usual roses and mums ang Baby's Breath. It also did not help that our wedding falls on a peak season so hindi din talaga kami makakamura kahit sa Dangwa pa kami pumunta. One of the florists we discussed with even joked about it on us. Sabi nya, "Congratulations! You're wedding falls on a peak season!". Bading sya, so imagine hearing it na parang nanalo kami ng living room showcase. LOL.

hininga ng sanggol

We almost opted for the usual flowers na lang para bumalik sa budget yung cost. That's when Fullblooms is referred to us by our wedding coordinator. Fullblooms Flower Shop is owned and managed by Miss Inah Anupol. We first talked over Facebook (click the links) for inquiries pero dahil madaming beses nang nakapag-trabaho ng magkasama si Miss Inah at yung grupo ni Ayie (Imbitado Events, our coordinator), confident na agad kami na okay ang service nila.

When we decided to book them, we went directly to their shop sa Makati so we can finalize all the details up front. We were welcomed by Miss Inah, herself, and she showed us their past flower arrangements. Her works are very elegant and captures the general motif of the event. She tries her best daw talaga para mabigay ang gusto ng mga couples while keeping it within reasonable budget. Na-appreciate niya din na pumunta kami personally to see her. 

Natuwa kami ng sobra dahil kaya pa din pala ng budget namin ang Baby's Breath after all. Fullblooms lang pala ang sagot. They even gave us a good deals to go along with the package. Kaya hindi na kami nagdalawang-isip mag-book that day.

Our package inclusion:

• 10 baby's breath topiary in sexy glass vase (pews)
• 3 flower arrangements for the altar
• 2 candle arrangements for the candle holders
• door styling (white cloth with crystal drapes)
• loose petals
• bridal car flower

Sobrang worth-it yung pag punta namin sa shop nila. May pag high-five pa kaming dalawa habang pauwi. Thank you very much Miss Inah!

some of the Fullblooms brides

* For inquiries, contact Miss Inah through their Facebook page.
* Added new items on our Wedding Updates page.
* Added a trivia item on the About Us portion of our page.
* Second photo stolen off the web. Hope the owner doesn't mind.

Somebody's Enjoying the Free Tasting

Following up on a previous post, we finally got to meet Chef Kiko of Toy Cakes and Pastries after we visited him in his place in Cubao to have our cake-tasting (yan ang favorite part ko sa wedding preps! [obi]). Sobrang accommodating niya as usual and right after talking us through the things we need to know about his cakes and konting kwento na din about himself, nilabas niya na yung choices for the flavor of our wedding cake (in cupcake form).

Nilantakan ko siya, in gentong order... [obi]

• vanilla with marshmallow and coconut
• chocolate ganache
• red velvet

Kahit busog pa kami (we just had lunch in Gateway), we pounced on the cupcakes like Cookie Monster when he sees cookies. Seriously. LOL. The cakes did not only look good but also very delectable! Tamang moist at tamang tamis lang. We (us and Kiko) share the same idea that a cake doesn't need to be too sweet to be delicious. Aprub!

ohm nom nom nom!

But wait, there's more! He also shared with us some of the desserts that he made (for an earlier wedding nga ba?). May tarts and some pastries on shot glasses. Nakalimutan na namin ang tawag sa kanila, basta masarap! Masarap tumambay sa kanila dahil ang daming pagkain. Haha! He even let us take away some of the pastries that we didn't get to finish. May sipon si Kat at that time so Obi gets to enjoy all the sampling while she only tasted with clearer taste buds the day after na.

After tasting them all, we ended up picking the chocolate ganache just because we're really biased with chocolates. Can't go wrong with that for sure. As for the design, pinag-iisipan pa namin. We want it cute and quirky. Matagal pa naman eh. Chef Kiko told us that he'll try his best to do whatever design we can come up with. Galing!

He will be there on the wedding to personally deliver and setup the wedding cake. We were so blessed to have stumbled upon him during our search for a cake chef. Ngayon pa lang feel na feel na namin na mapabilang ang wedding cake namin sa mga naggagandahang cakes na gawa niya. 

You can check those on his Facebook page.

About Us

This is a list of little known facts about HIM and HER! It is also posted at the end of our "LOVE STORY" page, and we will continue adding items to it as we recall more interesting stuff about US.

• THEY foster a huge teddy bear named "Hurhur". It's HIS first Valentine's Day gift for HER.





meet hurhur


• THEY love spicy food and has been given discounts in New Bombay - Glorietta 3 just by dining there so often.


• THEIR first "couple thing" are skate shoes from Zoo York.


• THEY are Guitar Hero freaks.


• THEY did food tripping for a year. See HIS blog for a list of food places THEY visited.


• As a pastime, THEY give names to each of HIS Lego minifigure collection.

sana may mag-regalo sa amin neto sa kasal

• At some point, THEY swapped hobbies for no reason at all. HE did cross-stitching. SHE did miniature painting.


• THEY frequent The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf - Glorietta 2 for relaxed tambay moments. THEIR favorite - Pure Double Chocolate!


• Since becoming a couple, HE write daily happenings about THEM on a logbook. Yes, THEY refuse to call it a diary! 


• THEY did spelunking on three connecting caves in Sagada, Benguet. That's more than six hours of traveling underground. HE tricked HER into it.

several meters underground

• To celebrate an anniversary, THEY commuted to Tagaytay amidst a typhoon to have lunch and quality time over coffee. Then, went back to Manila on the same day!


• THEY have a collection of "Where's Wally?" books.


• THEIR first date was on Mister Kabab - West Avenue.

Sis to Sis

[Words by Kat]

A big question for any engaged couple is "Paano nga ba magplano ng kasal?". For us, especially since we're working on a budget, we need to be very sure before booking a supplier. Mahirap magtiwala at maglabas ng pera sa mga suppliers na hindi mo lubos na alam kung paano trumabaho. So after months of searching the net, we came across Girltalk (Gtalk) and Weddings at Work (W@W). Dito kami nakakakuha ng mga guide and feedback para sa mga napupusuan naming suppliers.

W@W is powered by Yahoo Groups. It was established by Abet and Benz in 1999 exclusively for couples that are planning to get married. As expected, mas madalas na mga brides-to-be ang naka-register dito than grooms-to-be. Members can post any wedding related topics so that other w@wies can contribute to the topic. At first, I was hesitant to join the group kasi alam kong di ako makaka keep-up with the amount of posts and I don't want to be swamped with emails everyday. But I got curious and sent a membership request after almost every supplier that we book asked me if I'm a w@wie. Lurker lang ako noong umpisa then when we started to go all-out for the wedding preps, mas naging active ako. We learned a lot of tips and information from it. We shared experiences with our own suppliers to other members as well. It works for us since our suppliers can gain more experience before our own wedding. Also, nakatulong na kami sa mga w@wies, nakatulong pa kami sa suppliers namin.

Girltalk, on the other hand, is a forum that has a dedicated "engagement and wedding” section for couples na nagpa-plano ng kasal. This is open to all na may alam sa weddings, so you'll get to talk with suppliers and couples as well. Madalas lurker lang ako dito. I find it informative and helpful for our wedding preparation pero nahihirapan lang ako mag back-read ng mga posts.

Planning a wedding can be complicated but with these outlets, sure kaming matutupad ang aming dream wedding with a clearer understanding of things. Kaya as much as possible I try to be active sa mga forums na ito to give back to the community those things that we learned during our own preparation.

Toy Cake Story

It has been a tradition to do the cake cutting on a wedding, up to the point na traditional joke na din ang mag slice ng malaking piece para isubo sa partner (sabay traditional na magtatawanan ang mga guests). LOL.

papatayin ako ni kat kung gento kalaki ang slice ko...

at gento ka-swabe ang bigote ko sa kasal [obi]

Initially we planned on just getting a two-layer cake with an edible bottom layer tapos may kasama na lang 50 pieces of cupcakes. When placed around the cake stand, the cupcakes should give an illusion na mataas yung cake namin. Tapos mas madali pa ipamigay sa guests after the wedding. We were pretty much sold with that idea so we started looking for suppliers who can deliver a good package around that concept while being within the budget pa din. 

That changed, however, when we saw an anniversary promo from Chef Kiko of Toy Cakes and Pastries. It's his third year anniversary and he is offering two promos for this month (April, 2013). 

• A dessert buffet promo with lots of freebies, OR
• A 3-layer cake for only 4,000!

Promo Runs until April 31

Ang laki ng savings namin if we get to pick the cake promo, kaya agad agad na kaming nagpa-reserve with Chef Kiko. After settling the reservation fee, we are scheduled to have a cake tasting on April 20 to finalize our flavor-of-choice and how we want the cake to look like.

Chef Kiko replied promptly with our emails, text messages, at Facebook messages din. He's very accomodating and he would even apologize pa kapag matagal syang hindi nakasagot sa mga inquiries namin. He is well-known sa Girltalk at sa W@W kaya di na kami nagdalawang isip na kunin sya. Madami din good reviews kaming nababasa about his work so no doubt at all na sobrang in-demand yung mga cakes niya.

He has a lot of photos of his work in his Facebook page. 

Check it out here.

Down the Rabbit Hole

When we started to plan the wedding, one of the first thing we thought about was the wedding theme. We want it to reflect our quirky personality pero romantic pa din ang dating. After much thinking, 'vintage whimsical' ang napili namin. It well-fitted our personalities and at the same time it's something we can easily work on in terms of DIY's and conceptualization. Tamang kagamitan lang galing sa baul ni lola at dagdagan ng konting contemporary but unique pieces at swak na sa trippings namin. Parang "Alice in Wonderland" but less the extra-crazy stuff.

vintage quirky

After finalizing what we want for the areas that needs styling, next step is to find someone who can execute all these ideas on the wedding. Gusto namin yung may sense of style, madaming ideas at resources, and syempre, can work on our budget. We eventually ended up with three options:

• In-house stylist from our caterer
• Chasing Dreams
• Moki Gray.

We meet up with the in-house stylist for Queensland Catering Services (Madel). That's a week after we did a reservation to them to be our caterer. The meeting went well. We showed her our pegs and discussed how are we going to achieve it. She has tons of ideas and quite reassuring that she can do the job kahit morning wedding pa kami. It's a plus din na kasama na sa isa sa mga packages nila yung payment for the event styling, kaya no need to worry about additional costs.

On the other hand, we learned about the events group, Chasing Dreams, through W@W (the wedding forum). I read about this review from a supplier regarding their work and it got me interested after I checked photos of their outputs. Madami din silang good reviews from fellow w@wies kaya we decided to drop an inquiry to them. We sent sample pictures to them and also mentioned our budget. Okay naman ang usapan namin and what got us more interested is their confirmation that the budget is workable.

Feather Centerpiece by Chasing Dreams

Si Moki Gray naman is fairly new sa wedding industry. Wedding registration styling and invitations suites are some of the services that she specializes on. Sinubukan lang namin mag-inquire sa kanya kung kaya nya mag full styling kasi sinabi ng coordinator namin na sya ang nag-style ng W@W booth sa isang wedding fair. Sobrang pretty nung W@W booth na yun at pasok na pasok sa theme na gusto namin kaya nakipag-usap agad kami kay Moki. Next thing we knew, we are pencil booked. Napaka hassle-free niya kausap at mabilis sumagot ng inquiries.

an actual setup by Moki Gray

With all that, hirap na hirap naman kami ngayon mag-decide kung sino ang pipiliin. Isa ito sa mga pinakamahirap desisyunan thus far during our preps. So sino ang pipiliin? ABANGAN!

* If you didn't notice the links on their names, well... now you do. Those are linked to their respective Facebook pages. Also, all photos are stolen off the web. Pahiram po.

Imbitado Ka

After booking some of the major suppliers, our next stop is to look for an on-the-day coordinator (OTD). Originally, we were not really keen on getting an OTD kasi naisip namin na savings din yun and for sure we can rely on our relatives to willingly do the coordinating for us. Kaso, later on, naisip namin na dapat kasama namin silang nagsasaya sa event at hindi sila dapat haggard sa pagiging punong abala on that day. We also heard a lot from other couples that OTD's are almost a must-have to take a huge chunk of the things to worry about from sa mga ikakasal. Sulit na expense kumbaga.

As soon as we decided to get one, we asked our soon-to-wed friends about their own OTD's. One of Obi's friend, who is also having his wedding soon, referred Imbitado Events. As usual, takbo agad kami online para mag research about the team. They have a lot of good reviews and positive testimonials, at affordable ang rates nila. With the amount of bookings they have (it's all listed on their website), we are quite sure that experience on the field should not be an issue.

We had several correspondence with Ayie (she's the one running Imbitado Events) before we eventually decided to book them. Mabilis syang sumagot with our inquiries and it sounds like she knows what she's doing kaya kinuha na namin sila agad before we even did a meeting with them. Buti na lang din at open pa sila sa aming wedding date.

Ayie of Imbitado Events

Eventually, we met with Ayie over coffee. We discussed a looot about weddings: her past events, the Imbitado Events team and what they offer, information about our wedding, madaming madaming tips at supplier recommendations,  and yes... even wedding horror stories! We feel really blessed that we got Ayie. We see that she loves what she's doing kaya sobrang ramdam namin na nasa magandang kamay ang kasal. Peace of mind!

* Visit their website at http://www.imbitadoevents.com/

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