Saturday, May 30, 2009

Braving Divisoria for Wedding Garments

Sweetie and I braved Divisoria to check out Divisoria for wedding garments. The last time I was there was about a year ago when my niece asked if we could buy her a terno for her Filipino org activities (she's based in the US). I also accompanied my friend to buy her wedding and entourage gown a few years ago (we got it RTW!).

Anyway, we also did the rounds of couturiers and the costs were just too high. We've pegged a budget for the wedding and would like to stick to that budget, so we thought we should check out Divisoria.

Here's a rundown of costs:

Bridal Gowns - PhP3,500 and up (includes accessories)
Maid of Honor/Bridesmaid gowns - PhP600 to PhP1,200 (satin is cheaper than taffeta/chiffon)
Flower Girl gowns - PhP600 to PhP800
Barongs - PhP600 and up
Barongs for Grooms/Fathers - PhP800 and up
Mothers gowns - PHP1,300 and up
*they can also do suits

The rates for patahi are the same as well. All you need to do is bring your design or choose from their catalog (catalog means, bridal magazines). The rates are the same whether or not you ask them to place beads.

Here's a few I got cards from:

Julao Wedding Gown
Maylen V. Julao (look for Iday)
Pasilio-E Stall #71-72
Galvan Building, Ilaya St.
Binondo Manila
Tel +(632) 309-3051
Cel. 63 (921) 5554450

Paul & Lyn's Bridal Haus
Salve A. Pitalbo
Stall No. 29, 35 Pasilio B-C
Galvan Building, Ilaya St.
Binondo, Manila
Tel + (632) 710-9471
Res. + (632) 237-1327 or 254-5622

Lomentigar Bridal Boutique & Souvenir Collections
Tessie D. Lomentigar
Pasilio B-17
Galvan Building, Ilaya Street
Binondo, Manila
Arlaine +63 (920) 627-9326
Jean +63 (923) 535-5357

Ronaleen Bridal & Barong Shoppe
Sollie and Ramon Santos
Galvan Cabrera Building
Pasilio E. No. 78-81
Email ronaleen_bridal (at) yahoo.com
Tel + (632) 309-3133

Aiza's Personal Touch
Galvan, Divisoria
Stall No. 46, Pasilio G
Cel. +63 (915) 202-2809

More about Divisoria gowns here

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Souvenir Idea for Silver Wedding Anniversary

My Mom's friend, Tita Emma, put this souvenir together for her 25th wedding anniversary. It's a set of table napkins with beaded napkin holders placed in a window box.


It's actually easy to assemble! You can buy all materials in Divisoria:

napkin
window box
napkin holder - beads + garter

I'll try to make a how-to-do post about the napkin holder soon :)

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Planning Your Own Wedding

I did not realize I've been gone a month! I've been so busy traveling and slipping in venue and church oculars, food tasting and hunting for a designer, I haven't had had the time to blog! Argghhh!

But anyway, the past few weeks have given me more insights about planning your own wedding. And it's not really so hard after all, especially if your fiance is the hands-on type.


Here are a few tricks and tools that I've been using to plan my wedding:

1. Attend bridal fairs! There's two happening soon, Celebrations at SMX on May 24-25 and The Philippine Wedding Summit at the PICC Forum on June 27-28. The show with the most suppliers usually are the ones handled by Themes & Motifs.

2. Collect flyers! It may sound funny, but my fiance and I have been collecting flyers for more than a year now. Most of them ended up in paper bags and I've just recently sorted them out (see the photo above). They've been really helpful in our search for the right supplier.

3. Use directories! You can get a free wedding directory from DPC Yellow Pages or buy the Bride's Yellow Pages from bookstores.

4. Use Google! Search for suppliers online and read up reviews about them too. I also use Google Docs to put together information and I share this with my fiance for his review.

5. Read Forums! I'm quite scared about giving my money to a stranger, so after searching for reviews about a supplier I also read forums to get feedback from others. I usually frequent Kasal.com's forum and the Wedding's at Work community.