Brides-to-be would do well registering as a member of bridalbook.ph to be able to talk with fellow members in the Forums or create her own Bridal Book. I also saw helpful articles like DIY projects and answers to questions about wedding etiquette. Moments like this, I look back at my own wedding preparations where I read as much as possible about wedding stuff on the internet and browsed bridal magazines. It all helped me well in the end.

Another advantage of being active in the bridalbook.ph community is that you’ll be able to get updated with their promos. If you’re lucky, you might even have your honeymoon for free! They currently have a promo for a free three-day, two-night stay at Bellarocca Island Resort & Spa in Marinduque. Too bad, we were married in January 2009 or I would have aimed for this contest. Please view complete contest mechanics here.

Summit Ridge hotel, Tagaytay

Our family went up to Tagaytay this weekend to savor the cool breeze and stayed at Summit Ridge hotel.We enjoyed our stay here because of its modern amenities (free wifi!) and the scenic view of Taal volcano from our fourth floor balcony. Summit Ridge is the newest hotel building to rise in Tagaytay and its advantage from competitors like Taal Vista is the mall-promenade beside it. No need to go far because everything is beside your hotel – restaurants, coffeeshops, boutiques, even a hardware store and supermarket. Parking is also very convenient.

Because of its big space, the ten-storey Summit Ridge makes for an ideal wedding venue. In fact, it has three ballrooms and three function rooms for special celebrations like anniversaries, birthdays and weddings. The biggest ballroom, Raintree A, can accommodate 240 persons while Raintree B & C, can seat up to 150 people each. All three ballrooms combined has space for 400 to 500 people.

On the other hand, the three function rooms Hazelnut, Walnut and Chestnut, can accommodate 100 people when combined.

I think the advantage of Summit Ridge as a venue for your dream Tagaytay wedding is the expertise of its caterer which is the Cravings Group – the same people behind the Center for Culinary Arts, The Coffee Beanery and C2 Classic Cuisine. I say advantage because nothing is more important for your special day than the quality of the food served during the reception which your guests will savor and remember long after the ceremony has passed.

Then, there’s the whole romantic idea of getting wed in Tagaytay which is a famed honeymoon destination. Holding your reception in a venue like Summit Ridge takes away the hassle of planning for your hotel room and breakfast in bed the morning after since this is included in the wedding package itself.

Anyway, here’s the Summit Ridge wedding package rates for 2010:

International menu, unless otherwise stated
Package Set A – P123,000 (minimum of 100 pax)
Package Set B – P144,000
Package Set C – P172,000
Package Set D – P180,000
Package (Local Flair, using local dishes) – P158,000

inclusive of the following:

Overnight stay for two in a Standard King room
Breakfast in bed for two
Use of function room for five hours
Complimentary food tasting for 4 persons
one day event management services
three-layered fondant cake
doves in a decorate cage
complimentary one round of iced tea or softdrinks
standard individual table centerpieces
personalized menu card
elegant floral arrangement for couple’s table
presidential table arrangement with personalized place cards
elegant floral arrangement for buffet table
complete PSA and sound system
guest book and signature frame
one bottle champagne for toasting
waived corkage for two wine bottles (750 ml)
gift for couple
10% discount for published hotel rates for friends and relatives attending the wedding, plus 30% discount for published room rates during the couple’s first wedding anniversary

For inquiries, call the Sales Office or the Events Team
Tel. No. (632) 240-6888 or 0922-8526800
or email reservations@summitridgehotel.com

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:

Not to mention, we love Francis Libiran straight, no-frills designs as well. These are good enough for those slim enough to wear it.

Francis Libiran contact details:

126 Scout Fernandez St.
Tomas Morato, Quezon City Philippines

Tel. Nos. 925-5495, 416-9098
email : francislibiran@mac.com
or visit his website

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?

You will just have to arm yourself with patience and persistence when you go to Divisoria. The Yangco Building (or Yangco Market) in Ilaya Street seems to be a popular destination. The buiding seems to be dominated by the gown-makers of Pandi, Bulacan. They offer gowns and dresses for all members of the wedding entourage, including Barong Tagalog for the males. The clothes can be made from native materials like jusi, santana, and pina.

I kept two business cards of the suppliers, and you may call them for reference. Be sure to canvass for the best (nay cheapest) suppliers

Jireh Bridal Boutique
Pasilio V 23 Yangco Building
791 Ilaya St. Divisoria
Tel. No. 245-0860
0916-4791932

Jonalyn and Larry Bridal Boutique
Pasilio V 18 Yangco Building
Mobile Phone Nos. 0927-6033840
09194123770

Photo via Agent Provocateur

In the run-up to the wedding, a bride often fusses and frets about her wedding gown. But there’s one thing that should also hold equal importance: her wedding lingerie, or what she wears inside the gown.

Bridal undergarments are a serious business since they determine the degree of comfort of the bride on her special day. A body shaper or waist slimmer would be handy to make sure no unsightly bulges are showing beneath her frock. There’s also the delicate matter of her bra. What to wear, for example, if her gown is almost backless? Happy to say that there are special brassieres for that, bra designs which will stay invisible at the right corners.

An excited bride will choose wedding lingerie that is delightfully sexy, if only because she expects to be alone with her groom on the first day or night of her honeymoon. Her underwear will be something in cream or white, with luscious details like lace or little bows. She could choose to wear hosiery beneath her gown and accent these with a garter belt and suspenders, while wearing heels of course.The details that go with the undergarments she chooses determines her attitude on the wedding day itself. If a bride wears something sexy inside, she will glow with anticipation outside. So I advise all brides to take time to choose your lingerie. They matter more than you imagine

Tiffany Love by mrsz featuring Monsoon accessories

If me and my husband are to get married again, I’d surely choose a Tiffany wedding theme. The color itself is classy and far from ordinary. Most of all, it will blend perfectly with a white wedding gown.

Above image shows something I made in Polyvore about a Tiffany theme wedding. There are many areas where you can incorporate a Tiffany blue color – the flower girls’ gowns, the bridal bouquet, the wedding favors, the wedding cake, cupcake tower and even your wedding gown. Of course, don’t forget your wedding jewelry. Tiffany wedding rings are available for sale in the Philippines exclusively at Rustan’s Department Store in Makati City. They also provide cleaning and engraving services for a minimal fee.

In coming up with the Tiffany wedding of your dreams, it’s always wise to talk with people working with you in the wedding, such as your organizer and florist. The only difficult thing
one would probably encounter is that it’s hard to find swatches of Tiffany blue. Remember that it’s different from aqua blue and other shades. But am sure any determined bride will not be discouraged and will always find a way to make her Tiffany dreams come true.

First of all, happy holidays to readers of this dormant blog, LOL. Updating this site more often now happily counts as one of my New Year’s resolutions, if only to share more info with betrothed couples and hopeful brides out there. Forgive my delinquency pls.

Over Christmas, I was trying to compile an animated presentation of our holiday pictures and suddenly remembered this nifty site called animoto.com. First heard of Animoto because our wedding photographer used this website for the audio-visual presentation of our prenuptial pictures. Please see video above, this was shown during our wedding reception.

I remember then, our wedding photographer, Guj Tungpalan of Redsheep Photography gave us a link to the above video so I can embed it in my blog or favorite networking site like Facebook.

It took my own tinkering with Animoto to find out how easy it is. Now you can make your own video, slideshow or audio-visual presentation from the file of wedding photos and prenuptial pictures you have on hand, for sending to family and friends or uploading to Facebook, Twitter and others. Talk about being a tech-savvy, modern-day bride, hehehe.

How to do this:

1. Choose your photos. It can be from your own collection, or the ones you’ve already uploaded to photo-sharing sites like Photobucket, Picasa or Flickr.

2. Upload the appropriate music, which can either be the library of songs from Animoto itself or your own selection. It can even be from your own recording.

3. Finalize everything. Animoto will send you a link to the video you just made.

Prices for these are quite reasonable. I paid as little as $3 for our family Christmas slideshow, or you can opt for $30 for unlimited access for one year. Just be sure to have your credit card details or Paypal account ready.

Disclaimer: Am in no way affiliated or connected with the service, but I’d happily recommend them if you want a do-it-yourself, professional-looking video or slideshow

Finally, we got our wedding album yesterday, nine months after our wedding, haha.

The delay is remarkable because this hasn’t really been our priority. We’re quite content viewing our pics from the computer and various photo-sharing sites. Our wedding pictures are also in Facebook.

It was only my friend Tonyo, a graphic designer, who pointed out to me the importance of having an album to preserve our wedding memories. Okay, I was bound to order it from outside but Tonyo gave me a good deal. Six thousand pesos for a wooden album with waterproofing, and inclusive of designing it on Photoshop. A very friendly rate, I must say, and I agreed to it.

If you’re having a budget wedding, the wedding album is another area you can save on. Usually, it is packaged along with the wedding photographer’s rates but that makes it doubly, if not triply expensive. Looking back now, photographer’s fees plus this wedding album only cost us P25K , whereas the average wedding photo coverage package out there is $1,200 or so.

If you know how to play around with Adobe photoshop or even digiscrapping, you can design your own wedding album and just have it bound in Hidalgo, Quiapo where cost of binding starts at P2,500 or so. Or, if you’re like me who has a friend engaged in graphic design, why not hire them to do it for you at a minimal fee. Saves you much and solves your problem in time.

Pearl Farm Beach Resort in scenic Samal Island in Davao is one of the best beach resorts in the Philippines. My friends and I spent time here last July, and I couldn’t help but think of it as a good honeymoon place as well. Think of it: a suite on an island for the two of you, away from the hustle and bustle of the big crowds, a good time to establish your enduring bond after the wedding.

I liked best our view here of the sea. For accommodations, one can have a choice of hilltop rooms (garden view), those houses on stilts or any of the seven exclusive villas. Room rates can be gleaned from their website. We stayed in the Samal Suite, a two-storey suite which had a queen size (matrimonial bed) on the second floor, flatscreen TVs and an iPod dock. Modern contemporary meets Muslim traditional design

Too bad I wasn’t able to ask if they’re available as a wedding ceremony venue as well. Looks like it’s possible, as the resort has a number of facilities for it like the main restaurant and the Malipano Pavilion. Pearl Farm should be perfect if you’re planning to have a small beach wedding. In the meantime, here’s their Dream Honeymoon Package for 2009:

Dream Honeymoon Package 2009
Php 24,000.00 per Couple
Inclusive of :
Three days / Two nights room accommodation at the SAMAL HOUSE
welcome drinks upon arrival
welcome fruit basket
two(2) days breakfast
two days lunch for the couple plus one regular dinner
one session of Body Massage for 2
roundtrip boat transfer
complimentary use of swimming pool,tennis court and other resort selected recreational facilities.
PLUS! Exclusive Romantic Dinner with Bottle of Wine.

Schedule of boat departure from Davao Marina to Resort:
8 am / 1:30pm / 4:00pm / 6:00pm

Resort to Davao Marina:
0645am/ 10:00am / 1:00pm / 4:00pm

For bookings and reservations:

You may contact Pearl Farm Beach Resort with address at
Kaputian, Island Garden City of Samal, Philippines
Tel. No: (6382) 221-9970
Fax No: (6382) 221-9979

or the Pearl Farm Manila Sales Offic :

15th Floor, 139 Corporate Center
Valero St., Salcedo Village, Makati City

Tel. No.: (632) 750-1896 / 750-1898 / 893-2093
Fax No.: (632) 750-1894