A few hours ago we met Madge Lejano at the Imagine-Nation Studios in Oasis Manila.

It was quite a short encounter, since it's already evening when we arrived, but everything went on smoothly. She answered every question we had, and signed the contract afterwards.

Madge Lejano is quite popular on the W@W mailing list, and looking at the pictures on her website, and the before and after pictures of previous clients that she showed us, we're pretty sure that we'd be getting premium service with her.

Visit Madge's website here.

After a few days of  discussion with our coordinator (who's really patient with us as we were talking about the details with her), we have finally made the necessary adjustments with our suppliers and with the Church. Instead of August 10, we'll be having our wedding on October 18!

Why do you ask? We found out from several discussion groups that the Month of August isn't really a good  time to get married since it falls within the Lunar Ghost Month -- bad luck, according to Chinese tradition.

Coincidentally, October 18, 2008 happens to be called "The Sweetest Day". Isn't it great that we'd be saying our vows on such a day

We just came home from a food tasting appointment at Eloquente's main office in Yale st., Cubao. We were accomodated by Beng, who is in charge of all catering contracts in Gazebo Royale.

Honestly, the food tasted great! We liked the setup presented to us as well. It was enough to convince us that our search for a caterer is through.

We will be getting in touch with them again once we finalize our motif so that they can include it in our contract. For the meantime, we would be informing Lucelle of Gazebo Royale that we are choosing them as caterer for our wedding.

Now, on to the other suppliers!

We received the confirmation email regarding our request to be added to the Weddings at Work mailing list for would-be married couples.

Now we can share information with other couples about our experiences in preparing for our wedding!

Today we went to Gazebo Royale to make a reservation for our wedding reception. We got Phoenix Avenue, which we think is enough for the 150 guests that we expect to come.

We were accompanied by our coordinator Junlyn. It was good that we had our coordinator with us, as we weren't really aware of the details that we need to consider when getting a wedding package. After clarifying some issues, among them the string quartet (in place of the photo and video coverage that is part of the package) and extra fees that will be charged to us so that wine would be served to our guests, we paid the requisite booking fee. We still have to decide which caterer would provide the food and drinks, but at least the booking assures us that the place will be reserved for us on our wedding date.

One thing we noticed when we checked out Phoenix Avenue before we left Gazebo Royale is that the center lighting was changed from capiz lamps to multi-colored floral lamps. Now this poses a problem since we were told that the lamps were fixed! It may be hard to match the colors of the lamps with the motif we would be choosing for our wedding.

We proceeded to the office of Ariel Javelosa afterwards. Since we haven't decided what the motif of our wedding will be and where the prenuptial pictorial would take place, we just paid 25% of the total fee for the package we chose and will be informing them later of other details. Again, fortunately we have our coordinator with us, since Junlyn was able to get us an additional AV presentation during the reception for free once we added the use of an LCD projector and screen.

The day ends, and we were able to make reservations to what we see as the most important things we need to consider for our wedding. The freebies even made the deals better. We both are very pleased with what we have accomplished so far.

A 'debate' ensued between us as to the choices we have for the wedding. Nothing bad, just a Bride-Groom discussion on the pros and cons of each available choice we have for the cakes, caterers, photo/videographers, and any other extras we can get on the wedding package available from our chosen reception venue.

We also searched the internet for a hotel that can give us a great view of Manila Bay without burning a big hole on our pockets. Hotel Sofitel and Manila Diamond Hotel seems to have the best location in the Roxas Boulevard area.

Yesterday, we went to Hizon's Catering's Grand Food Tasting at 1Esplanade near SM Mall of Asia. We were able to sample some of the food -- and admittedly, it tastes great! We haven't signed up for anything on the spot -- but we hope we could get a great deal from them once we finalize where our wedding reception will be.

We met with Junlyn of Events by M&G to finalize our contract with them to do a full coordination of our wedding. We have agreed upon the terms and conditions of the contract, and she gave us a rundown of the suppliers that they have in mind. We also have a preliminary timetable of things that we need to do. We now need to decide with finality where to hold the reception, since that would dictate which caterers we would get. Know more about Events by M&G at their website. Incidentally, it's Junlyn's birthday today. It's great that she liked the birthday gift we gave her.

The coordinator-to-be has suggested that we meet on Friday to formalize everything, but our work schedule permits us to do so only on Thursday or Saturday. Thank God there's SMS on mobile phones, we can easily send messages to each other to find a common ground on when and where to meet.

We're currently in the process of getting a wedding coordinator. We have already decided on who they will be, but since no contract signing or formal agreement on paper has been made as of late, we still deem it unofficial. We hope they could ease up the stress of making sure that the event would be memorable not only to us but to the guests as well.