The Wedding Fact Sheet

Recently, I was attend the launch of the new line of liquid foundation by Artistry, the prestige make-up brand of Amway. One of the highlights of the launch was a fashion show featuring wedding gown creations by designer to the stars Francis Libiran. He has made red carpet gowns for the likes of beauteous actresses Anne Curtis and Bea Alonzo. During a brief chat, the youthful Francis revealed that one can have a wedding gown made with him for as low as P17,000 (seventeen thousand pesos). For a celebrity designer, that’s certainly reasonable!

We certainly give the thumbs up to his wedding gowns, which were simple yet stunning. When asked what the wedding trends for 2010 will be, he mentioned that the color tone for the entourage will now veer on pastels, as opposed to the dark colors last year. This means the return of pink, lavender, lime green and other light colors. Instead of straight silhouettes, wedding gowns will have more frills at the bottom edges, like what you see in these gowns:

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Divisoria in Manila, Philippines is the ultimate refuge for the harassed bride on a budget. Even if it is unconsidered “unglamorous,” the truth of the matter is that even the most famous designers and couturiers go here for their raw materials and other supplies.

A walk down Divi will easily cut your wedding expenses in half. What you can find here: souvenirs, wedding giveaways, wedding accessories like necklaces, and of course ready-made wedding dresses for as low as 2K (about $40) , bridal entourage gowns for as low as 800 pesos (about $18) – all of them come in different sizes already. If you have your own style, the Divisoria tailors will customize the gowns for you, just be sure to give them the magazine clipping or photocopy of the image.

This is what I did when I had my daughters’ flower girls’ gowns done by a shop in Yangco Building, a place dedicated to wedding dresses and supplies in Divisoria. I just printed the picture I saw on the internet. I was happy with the outcome, although I remember being worried because the shop was so delayed in their promise to deliver. So one tip when you avail of the made-to-order services of the Divisoria shops: allow for lead time in delivery because they might be attending to a lot of clients. Anyway, I was really happy with how my daughters’ gown turned out. They certainly looked lovely, don’t you think?

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