1. asked the photographers (or at least one of them) to cover cocktails as well.
2. had the prenup elsewhere. we had our prenup at fernwood (partly because it was too much of a hassle going elsewhere with a baby) so we did not have as many locations for the post-wedding pictorial
3. made sure that the fabfoto photo booth was mandatory. i think some of the guests didn’t know what the booth was about, so didn’t actually make use of it and wasn’t able to take home a souvenir.
4. also if possible i would make the fabfoto postcard just have one photo on it. with 4 photos on the postcard you had to pose four times and only got one printout.
5. i was a bit of a program nazi and had cut some traditional parts out so this is entirely my fault hehe. if i could do it over i would include the parents’ speeches, bouquet and garter throws.
6. got full video coverage. we loved the onsite avp however it would’ve been better if we had a video of the entire event, including audible sound!
7. asked veluz to make my dress breastfeeding-friendly. if i had done this then maybe matt wouldn’t have been so stressed out that day lol.

and lastly… i love my son to death but the wedding day would’ve been so much easier and enjoyable if i didn’t have a son yet lol so if you’re planning a kickass and worry-free wedding, do it before you have a kid! lol

at the end of the day (even if it’s my wedding day)… i am still a mother who needs to change her son’s dirty nappy!

anyway, i was really glad rene was there because he was able to take a detailed shot of my train. some of the shots of my train from john ong’s team were a bit bright so the details were not very visible.

rene was also able to take some pictures during cocktails but there wasn’t a lot. i should’ve specifically asked him to take shots during cocktails. anyway, he was really nice to deal with. he was also trying to get all sorts of angles, one time he sat in the tub of the hotel bathroom so he could take pictures of me while my hair was being done.

i give rene a 4.5 out of 5.

everyone was raving about the slideshow and onsite avp. no doubt about it john ong takes good pictures. i haven’t been able to put the onsite avp on youtube because i’m having trouble decrypting it. anyway once i figure it out i will include it here as well.

my only wishes, which i didn’t foresee and he doesn’t offer anyway:

- i wish they would upload the pictures and avp online like some of the other photographers and videographers out there
- we forgot to ask them, i wish they had assigned a photographer to take pictures during cocktails. there were three photographers from john ong’s team, and all three of them were present during the post-ceremony pictorial. which meant that there wasn’t really someone taking pictures during cocktails.
- i wish i was able to take more pictures at the hotel lobby. but i suppose it’s no one’s fault cos it was really hard with no one taking care of matt full-time.
- i wish the raw dvds of the videos had better audio, in case we decide to get them edited later on. the raw dvds we got have very low audio, i suppose they are really just for avps.

i think having so many photographers sort of backfired on us, we have around 8k jpg files (that’s including our backup photographer, rene gaviola). i suppose if i could do it all over again, i would ask them to take pictures of the cocktails as well.

we had a bit of trouble post-wedding cos one of the dvds they gave us did not have the files that we needed. it took about 2 weeks for us to get the correct set of files. anyway, john ong was really nice to deal with. he was very patient during our prenup when i had to take a couple of breastfeeding breaks cos matt was already getting mad.

i give john mateos ong and his team a 4 out of 5.

we chose fernwood gardens because they have a chapel where we can have the ceremony. we did not want to get a separate church because some of our guests were travelling from far places. the venue is really picturesque and it’s a bonus that they have glass ceilings. at least if it rained we could still have the garden reception that we wanted.

we got the glass dance floor and additional a/c because apparently it gets quite warm in the venue. we didn’t want matt to be hot and sweaty so the additional a/c was a priority. they must’ve worked cos i didn’t feel hot inside the reception venue. dealing with them was easy enough, i just emailed or sent lala a message on ym and everything was arranged from there.

i’m really thankful for fernwood gardens because they got us to use the courtyard venue, thanks to one of balay kandila’s staff.

the glass dance floor in use:

i give fernwood gardens a 5 out of 5.

i don’t really remember much of the music during the reception and we were at the pictorial while cocktails was happening, but people did say that the music was good we gave them a list of songs that we wanted and i think they just added some more songs of the same genre.

the guests were dancing so i suppose the music was good! hehe

anyway, i give them a 5 out of 5.

originally we only got 92AD to sing at the ceremony, but after clarice pointed out that it would only cost 5k extra for them to sing at the reception, we decided to get them for the reception as well. i really can’t remember much of the music during the ceremony or the reception, but apparently butch almost teared up when they started humming “after all” for my bridal march.

some people also asked if we had their dresses made cos the colours sort of meshed well with our motif. no we didn’t pay for their gowns lol but they looked great

anyway, people said they were great so i give them a 5 out of 5.

butch’s only comment was that he wanted roses along the aisles and not the lilies (is that what they’re called), but i suppose it would’ve been more expensive to use roses. also it might have been harder to walk down the aisles with my parents if they used roses.

i had no issues with them, so i am giving them a 5 out of 5.

i first heard of clarice through a friend’s wedding blog. i really liked her wedding so i mostly used the suppliers she had. anyway i googled clarice and found out that she has a lot of experience dealing with overseas-based brides. it actually took her a while to get back to me and i had already gotten a different coordinator.

after a chance meeting on ym (i forgot i had added her ym id on my list) i decided to go ahead with getting her for full coordination cos then my coordinator had some personal issues that made her unavailable for quite some time. anyway even before booking clarice i had already gotten in touch with some suppliers and the chancery. at first i was having trouble letting go and getting her to take care of everything. but when i got pregnant i lost interest with the preps so i let her have complete control over liaising with suppliers hehe.

anyway to make a long story short i was extremely happy with their services. clarice was always quick to respond to my queries and was always on top of things. having been pregnant last year i am amazed at how efficient she was eventhough she was already close to giving birth.

although clarice wasn’t able to attend the wedding (she had just given birth) her coordinators were more than capable. they were very helpful, even helping carry matt a few times. i was most impressed when one of them helped me change my nappy (red flag) and another helped me get in and out of my dress (not an easy feat!) when i had to breastfeed matt. i also liked their uniforms on the day, it made them look really professional.

after the wedding clarice also helped me with getting my dress cleaned and having it delivered back. i’ve also asked her to pay john mateos ong when the album is ready, i will just transfer the money to her account.

if you are an overseas-based bride and will be getting clarice as your coordinator, make sure you use her dollar account when transferring funds. i didn’t know she had one so i was using her peso account.

anyway, i would definitely give an event to remember a 5 out of 5, no questions asked.

this is the picture of the invite on their website:

and the picture of our invites:

i was in the US when we were doing the preps, so even though the colours were not the ones i liked i decided to just go through with it cos it was too much of a hassle looking for another design that i liked.

we also got a loose invitation for matt’s christening. we decided not to include it as part of the actual invitation cos it would’ve cost a lot more to have his picture printed in colour.

matt’s christening invitation;

i give printed matter a 4 out of 5.

although there were a lot of no show guests there wasn’t a lot of leftovers because the guests came back for seconds. being a sweet tooth myself i really liked their dessert bar, although i wasn’t actually able to enjoy the food on the actual wedding i suppose being the bride and groom you don’t have much choice but to do as you are told! lucky we ate heaps during the food tasting, at least we got to enjoy their food somehow hehe.

the kids also enjoyed the kiddie setup that they did, with matching mini tiffany chairs

i wish i were a guest at my own wedding, then i could’ve enjoyed the food and the desserts! especially the chocolate fountain *drools* hehe anyway, i would give josiah’s a 5 out of 5.