Yesterday we were able to secure agreements with the last two suppliers we needed: Print Lane for the invitations, and Angel of Hearts for the flower arrangements.

Print Lane's office is located across Isetann Department Store in Recto. As compared to other shops that do print business in the area, they were the ones who are the easiest to talk to. The quality of the invitations are way better than that of the other shops as well. We just have to agree upon the design of the invitation on Tuesday afternoon.

Angel Of Hearts' office/shop is located in the Dangwa Tranco area in Sampaloc. Just the same as with Print Lane, Lawrence, who is the proprietor of the shop, was very accomodating. We were able to finish our talk and produce a list of what he would be providing for us come the big day. :)

So far, these are the two suppliers to whom we have experienced fast transactions. How we wish all suppliers would transact in a speedy manner like these did.

After meeting Mayette Bustamante of Motif and Styles, we went to three hotels that are near San Sebastian Church: Manila Hotel, Manila Diamond Hotel, and Hotel Sofitel.

Among the three we have visited, Manila Hotel offered the cheapest room rates, not to mention that it is the nearest to the Church. It has this "Old Manila" ambiance once we stepped inside -- we get the feeling that we're suddenly transported back to the early 1900's. However, we think the place doesn't offer much when it comes to finding a place to get a photo shoot. If we would want to stay at a hotel for a family event, we'd heavily consider Manila Hotel, but in choosing a hotel as a bridal residence, we're having second choices.

The second hotel we visited was Manila Diamond Hotel. The rooms are just of the same size as that in Manila Hotel, but the overall ambiance is different. The color of the room feels lively, and the bath and toilet seems to be bigger. The rooms are oriented in a way that you have a view of the bay on the side of the window, so getting a room on either side of the hotel building doesn't really make any difference.

The most beautiful of the three hotels we have visited was Hotel Sofitel. From the main lobby, to the grand staircase leading to the restaurant and pool area, down to the Zen-inspired corridors when going to the rooms, the hotel gave us the feeling that we are in a place where only the priveleged can stay. We would have chosen this among the three, but the room rates and the Php5000 fee for using the grand staircase for photo shoots made us think otherwise.

We finally decided that we would be staying at the Manila Diamond Hotel before and after the wedding ceremonies. We would be making reservations before the next weekend comes.

We'll be checking in to the hotel in the morning, prepare for the wedding and photo shoot, leave for a while for the main event, and then go back to the hotel to spend some time in the spa, stay at the pool, and then spend the rest of the night in the room.

This morning we went to the Cluster Building of Tutuban Center to meet Ms. Mayette Bustamante of Motif and Styles. We have earlier decided on getting her to do the wedding gown only, but later on we have decided that she would also be the one to do the gowns for the rest of the female entourage, so that we could avail of the wedding package that they offer.

We provided her with a picture of how the wedding gown should look like. Once the agreements related to the design of the wedding gown were done, measurements were taken. As for the entourage's gowns, she would be creating designs for each of them.

So that's one less thing to worry about the wedding preparations. :)

We're having a difficult time as to where we would be be staying when the big day comes.

Sofitel has a great view of the Bay, Diamond as well, but you can still see Roxas Boulevard below.

We're hearing a lot of positive feedback from Diamond, but Sofitel has this grand staircase that is a good location for a photo shoot.

Sofitel is nearer the Church compared to Diamond.

Hmmm... Maybe a visit to both hotels would solve our dilemma.

Since yesterday we've started giving out the save the date cards. We're getting positive feedbacks so far. :)

A few days ago we've started making test designs for save the date cards that we would be giving to some of our guests. We've come up with something simple and clean.

The photo was taken from a friend's wedding, background cleared using The GIMP. The rest of the card's layout was done using Inkscape. This is then printed on magnet paper that we got for 88 pesos (A4 size) from Daiso at St. Francis Square, Ortigas.

We hope the guests would like how it looks.

Just a few hours ago, we had a meeting with Dulce Fortunado, a professional emcee, at Starbucks Shangri-la Mall.

As we have found out, Dulce is a bubbly person. We're looking for someone who not only would emcee for us during the reception, but someone whom we see as a friend that we could easily talk to. She fit that bill nicely. We easily got comfortable discussing a lot of things with her (wedding- and non-wedding-related), and we felt that that same energy and enthusiasm would translate to the reception as well.

Without any doubt, we immediately closed the deal.

At the moment, we've almost completed the 8 pairs of sponsors for the wedding. Yes, eight pairs in all! We still need to talk to some of them personally so as to make things formal.

We've also decided to get a professional emcee. We haven't decided who it will be but we plan to choose one from several we have contacted before this moth ends.

We also created a monogram that will be used for the invitations. It's posted in the front page already. We're having talks with Unifair regarding the design of the invitations, and we'll be getting back to them once we've finalized the layout and size.

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