Prenup Supplier Rating #5: Pan de Amerikana Katipunan

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Happy holidays! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break. As for me, it's the usual downtime of the year filled with get togethers and catching-up and, much to my chagrin, eating!!! Bingeing and over indulgence this season is not for me, as I must exert effort not to add to my poundage to avoid any rework and panic dieting weeks before the wedding. Hoho!

For today, I'll be sharing our experience with Pan de Amerikana when we decided last minute to have our prenup in their Katipunan branch. This humble bread shop, with its main branch located in Marikina, is noted for its quirky upside down shop.

Original location for our pictorial is at Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife, but we had to change locations due to the gloomy weather that greeted our morning. Good thing Pan de Amerikana Katipunan was available that day.       

Photo Credit: Panoramio

Rating Scale: 1 - 10 (10 being the highest)

Service: Prenup Venue

Peso Power: Free (You must eat at their place though)

Rating: 7

Pros:

• Highly accommodating. We checked with the shop just freaking 2 hours before the shoot and we were so lucky that they don't have a scheduled shoot that day and so we were approved with our request. 
• Budget friendly. No fees to pay for a shoot. They just request the couple and suppliers to dine at their shop.
• Affordable food. Yes this is counted because this is part of the requirement for any pictorial request.
• Interesting outdoor structure. This will be a good backdrop for a shot from across the street. Sadly we weren't able to do that since it was raining that day.

Cons:

• Katipunan branch is small and limited. This is quite a disadvantage because it directly affects any photo shoot. 
• Quirkiness indoors is not so apparent and hard to capture in photos as most of it (the quirkiness) are hanging from the ceiling -- or should I say floor? Hehe.
• The place is quite dark for a pictorial.

Despite all these, Pan de Amerikana still saved us from rescheduling the shoot once more.

Countdown: 1 month!

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And we're onto our last streeeeetch! Last month to finish everything before we reach the culmination of everything that we've been doing the past 2 years. I'm feeling strained more and more mainly because of the sudden spike of workload this month. Tons of things to deliver with so little time. I'm eagerly anticipating my break from work as the wedding will also serve as a much awaited breather for me. 

Excitement for the wedding itself hasn't kicked in yet but I'm looking forward to feeling warm, giddy, and kilig all over. Haha. Enough of this non-sense! Let's now talk business and see our completion rate against last months's task list.

• Send-out all invitations - In progress. Most have been released already but some are still waiting for Christmas reunions to come so they can be delivered to the respective recipients. :)
• Complete processing of marriage license - DONE. We finally have our license! Yipee!
• Update Darlene's  program workbook
• Compile photos for AVP presentations - DONE. Photos for Prenup AVP has been sent to Darlene while the Growing Up photos will be shared to Ariel Javelosa soon.
• Create our missals - DONE. Layout completed and just waiting to finalize some contents before we proceed with the printing.
• Complete our wedding day accessories
• Pick-up my wedding shoes - DONE. I love how my shoes turned out!
• Complete layouts for stationery - DONE. Adrin did a great job completing all this. 
• Label/pack our giveaways - In progress. I already commissioned my trusted bridesmaid to put the twines on our small jams. Packing for other giveaways or tokens haven't started yet. 
• Finish DIY Signage
• Entourage dress fitting and delivery - In Progress. Almost all of our entourage have completed fitting their dresses save for our two flower girls. This will be completed within the week. Actual delivery of the dress will be on January. 
• Delivery of barongs to male entourage - In Progress. Some have been delivered already while others are still waiting for the reunions to happen. :)
• Another meeting with KTG
• Finalize song list
• Shop for house fixtures - DONE. BUT this is a work in progress while the construction is still on-going. 

Uh oh. Lots of items not striked out. But as Adrin would always tell me, fret not because looks like we're still in good shape since we also managed to accomplish these other items.

• Complete Rustan's and SM Bridal Registry
• Order for custom hangers
• Receive our cake toppers and clay giveaways
• Picked-up the jams
• Final detailing with florist

Oh how I badly wish everything will be completed a week before the wedding. May the list below be a comprehensive guide of all the things we need to complete. 

1. Finalize Darlene's program workbook
2. Complete our wedding day accessories
3. Complete packing of giveaways/tokens
4. Finish DIY signage
5. Deliver all barongs and dresses
6. Handover meeting to KTG
7. Finalize song list
8. Submit all church requirements
9. Finalize guest list
10. Finalize headcount of suppliers on the day
11. Book crew meals for lunch
12. Print misalettes
13. Buy offertory item (gift basket, mompo wine, host)
14. Buy wine and beer
15. Buy prizes for games
16. Final gown fitting
17. Prepare for our first dance
18. Pack all items for the wedding
19. Buy items needed for house construction

Okay, I should stop here as it's becoming a bit daunting already. More energy for us please! 

Prenup Supplier Rating #4: Chasing Tales Photography

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Do you still remember the free prenup shoot we won months back? Well, we had the actual shoot last October with Chasing Tales Photography. Initial location is at Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife but we veered away from it due to bad weather that day. Quick thinking and action led us to Pan de Amerikana at Katipunan. We booked the place a few hours before our actual shoot time and thankfully they can accommodate us.

Chasing Tales got there shortly ahead of us and quickly setup their equipment upon our arrival. They are a bunch of friends from school who finished mutimedia arts and decided to setup a photography outfit after. We're surprised to know that Wale, our main contact, is actually a girl. Haha. She came with ER (male), the other photographer, and Maricris as their assistant.

Rating Scale: 1 - 10 (10 being the highest)

Service: Prenup Pictorial

Peso Power: Free!!! 

Rating: 7

Pros:

• Contact person (Wale) is very easy to talk to.
• Flexible and quick to adapt to sudden change in plans
• Able to make good use of the limited venue we have. Each nook and cranny was maximized.
• They provided their own transportation.
• They are perfectly OK waiting in between shoots.
• They take good "emo" shots.
• Aside from "emo" shots, they also take good details shots.
• Good presentation. They took time to wrap the DVD of photos creatively with a nice tag!

Cons:

• The poses they were asking us to do were limited and all too common.
• Wale and ER need to articulate better what they're asking their subjects to do.
• We received the photos later than their committed date. 
• Post processed photos were too dark for our liking and are not natural looking at all.
• A portion of the raw photos in the DVD we received were corrupted. :(

With that, I leave you with some photos from our engagement shoot.

DIY #5: Place Cards for the Important Folks

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We finished another DIY recently, and this happened to be the place cards for our VIPs. Scrap portions of our invitation boards were used together with the excess lace. I'll skip the talking and just share with you our finished DIYs. :)

W@W's 2013 Christmas Party

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More than two weeks ago, we attended another party of WeddingsAtWork. This time, it's the annual Christmas party which is usually sponsored by the different suppliers in the wedding industry. It was held at the newly opened Blue Leaf Filipinas and was catered by Josiah's Catering.

This year's theme is Backyard Party and everyone was asked to dress in pastel colors. We left the office fairly early to avoid the terrible Friday rush hour and arrived at the venue pretty much on time. Our w@w friends were already there when we arrived and they've already arranged our table decor/centerpiece.

The party took a while to commence and so we whiled our time checking out the different stations all over the place.

We also took some pictures and had ourselves photographed by the official photographers of the event --Pictratto and Mezarc Buslon Fotografie.

To the delight of the w@wies, lots of wedding items have been spontaneously given away by the suppliers who are in attendance. This consumed a great time of the program, but we didn't mind much since the free items makes our co-w@wies truly loco! Even our good friend Nat was able to win herself a pair of custom shoes c/o Jazel Sy. Woohoo!

As for me and Adrin, we took home a turbo broiler which I've been eyeing even before the program started. It also came with a fruit cake and a g-string as minor giveaways. Haha.

One of the most awaited highlights of the party is the awarding of the community's Top 10 suppliers of the year, and the most coveted Supplier of the Year award. We were so proud that four of our trusted suppliers are nominated this year. In the end, K by Cunanan emerged victorious among the lot.

What a fun party it was! I sure hope to take part in the next one even if we're already married by then. =)

DIY Invites Update #7: Up for Distribution

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Finally, after working on our invites for almost 9 months (we sourced our papers around March of this year), our wedding invitations are all done! Wooohooo! It's a major accomplishment for us because it's our biggest and most laborious DIY project. Not only that, we also met our target deadline for their completion. Happiness!

Here's a breakdown for the cost of materials for our invitations.

If we take out the cost of the tools we bought from Lasting Impression, our cost will be slashed by almost 50%. Not bad for a pocketfold invite such as ours. =)

More than the cost though, the greater factor for this project is the manual labor that we had to do. We pulled several overnighters just to make good progress each time. In the end, all our efforts are so worth it. We loved how our invitations turned out and we wouldn't have done it any other way. =)

Read the rest of the DIY Invites series here :
Update #1 - Star Paper Trip
Update #2 - DIY Tools from Lasting Impression
Update #3 - The Perfect Envelopes
Update #4 - The Pocketfolds
Update #5 - Final Mock-up
Update #6 - They're Almost Ready

Pseudo-Shopping at Rustan's Weddings and Beyond

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Some weeks back, ze fiance and I finally decided to enlist ourselves at Rustan's bridal registry. We went to their store at Alabang Town Center one Saturday to check on the process and eventually register ourselves. We were ushered to their small office at the Home section and entertained for our agenda. 

Upon telling them that we'd like to have a gift registry with them, we were asked to fill-out a one-pager information sheet. With this, we have the following benefits:

1. Choose the items that we want to receive as wedding presents.
2. Be able to return items we do not like or double items received, and replace them with the ones we prefer.
3. Free delivery for gifts that will be left with them by our guests. 

To let our guests know that we're enlisted in their program, they gave us the Rustan's Weddings and Beyond invitation inserts. 

What's left of the 100pcs. we received. We actually only need 80pcs.

Elegantly designed information card

Aside from that, we also received several discount coupons just because we joined their program.

2 discount cards at Rustan's Home

Discount and Upgrade card for Bellevue Manila's Hotel and Restaurants

6 discount cards for Maidenform items at Rustan's

Lots of perks right? We were also entitled for 1 raffle for a trip to USA c/o their partner United Airlines. I wish we get to take that prize! Haha!

It was also good timing for us because a store attendant can immediately assist us at that moment to select items and build our registry. But before the actual pseudo-shopping, we were provide a checklist so we can pre-select the store sections we want to choose from. This makes selection more efficient as it already limits the areas to be visited.

Adrin and I enjoyed making rounds through their displays and would lightly argue on which items to pick. Haha. Our attendant is ever alert on items we're eyeing and made sure that these items are encoded using their hand scanner. She also makes suggestions at times so we get the most value-for-money item that they sell. It took us more than an hour to complete our list and we're more than happy with our decision to have a registry. It will make the first few weeks and months of our married life a lot simpler because we just might receive some of the basic things we need. =)