Carmen and Alvin were officemates way back 1998 and are always in contact when one needed help. Carmen now owns her own business (supplying Fire Extinguishers big companies in Makati, I bet).

We haven’t met Marlon before. We’ve only seen pictures of him on Facebook. They availed of our Month of the Wedding Package. But even if Carmen and Marlon got us to work on their wedding, come reception time, we were already their guests. Good thing we have angels who are really good and can be trusted. I can close my eyes and not worry at all.

At first we were very concerned with security issues since they invited elected officials, among them was Vice President Elect Jejomar Binay. It was a good thing to find out that they are not that particular with security among other things.

Carmen is known for being thrifty in all means. It was really hard to find a high end looking souvenir for less than Php 150. Good thing I have a reliable supplier who I can turn to everytime I run out of ideas. Home and Bridal Essentials came up with a reed diffuser for Carmen’s wedding at a very reasonable cost. When I asked other people to guess the cost, they say around Php 300, Php 450 and someone even said Php 500. Actual cost of this delightful souvenir? It’s actually Php 120 each.

Come wedding day it was a mini reunion of SharExchange and of course what do you expect when there’s a reunion… picture here. picture there. Hehehe…

Some things we learned from this wedding:
Having VIPs at your wedding is nice but you have to consider that it can make or break your wedding. People were more excited to have their pictures taken with Vice President Elect Binay than the couple. He was nice enough to go out of the chapel early so that the pictorials with the couple can proceed. But then again, the guests went wherever he went leaving the couple with a few guests with them and this made me sad. Wedding was at 3pm but recessional ended at 7pm because of the pictorials at the chapel. Everyone was hungry by then.

Your emcee is the life of your party. Friends may offer their services to serve as their gift for you but you have to remember that not everybody has that gift, that charisma to keep people smiling all throughout your reception. Also, it doesn’t mean that if they’re DJs from radio stations they’re good emcees already. It takes time and experience to really know this craft. Come wedding day, the emcee who happens to be a friend of the groom is not really that prepared. He only has his laptop and no print out of the script that he prepared. Since we were not told about this ahead of time, we were not able to do something about it. All we had were copies of the program sequence. I didn’t like the idea but we had to settle with what we have (laptop) and have him stand at the back of the principal sponsors. That’s the only space where he can use his laptop since the whole place was jammed packed.

Wedding Details:
Month of the Wedding Coordination: Simply Beautiful Events
Prep Site: Dusit Hotel
Church: Saint Francis of Assisi Chapel
Reception: Cycad Garden, Fernwood Gardens
Caterer: Hizon’s Catering
Make up Artist: Makeup Forever
Florist: 15-58 Flowers and Styles
Photo and Video: CD Worx
Entertainment: Toks
Souvenirs: Home and Bridal Essentials
Invitations: V-Craft