Supplier review: Flowers of May

We already had Vatel Manila for my bridal bouquet and entourage flowers. But we still need a florist to prettify Caleruega some more.

I inquired on some other florists but, creative as they are, we just can’t afford them anymore as we’ve already splurged in a lot of stuff and we were already running out of budget.

Then I came across Flowers of May.

Liza was really nice to talk to. The packages they offer doesn’t include the red carpet but she agreed with my request to include it in our package in exchange for the flower arch at the entrance. She also was very nice in accepting my very risky requirement: to use only certain kinds of flowers that I’ve chosen for their symbology and that if she’s gonna use one that isn’t on my list, to check if it has a good meaning. This requirement is VERY RISKY as I run the danger of limiting the creativity of the florist as well as not having certain beautiful flowers on our wedding because of their not so nice symbology. But good vibes is what I really want hence with every difficult request to our florists, I also pray that they receive it positively and without much complaint. And Liza certainly didn’t complain.

What also made the deal just perfect was that the quotation Liza gave me was just right within the total cost we had budgeted for our flowers, for both entourage and Church. With Liza being very accommodating, I followed my instincts. We had Flowers of May for our wedding.

And certainly, I wasn’t disappointed.

I was nice to see these gerberas as I walked down the aisle.

20110907-084734.jpg

20110907-084820.jpg

Happy colors!

20110907-085449.jpg

The altar was so abundant with flowers, our sponsor candles seemed like they were set in a garden.

20110907-090004.jpg

Thank you so much Liza!! 🙂

Supplier: Flowers of May
Rating: 5/5
Contact info: +639189369438, +639189366750, liza_n_legaspi@yahoo.com

All photos by Dino Lara; purely unedited save for the text to show our wedsite.

Supplier Review: Vatel Manila

As Dylan Yap-Gozum really was excellent with his services, this post is actually not a “review” but more like sharing the beautiful bouquets that Dylan of Vatel Manila did for us.

As i’ve shared in my previous post, I ran the risk of limiting Dylan’s creativity because of my being a stickler with regards to flower meanings. True, I also ran the risk of not having the most beautiful of flowers for our wedding. But the symbolism is really important for me and since there really are lots of other beautiful (and affordable) flowers that have beautiful symbolisms, I stuck on with my requirement. Besides, I was also pretty confident that Dylan can deliver and can still be creative despite my imposed limitations.

And of course, Dylan didn’t fail me.

The moment I saw my bouquet during the wedding day, the two words that I can describe it with are abundance and profusion. It was a rich ball of flowers. “Rich” not just in terms of quantity of flowers but literally rich because my bouquet was composed of only tulips and orchids which really are quite expensive.

Orchids for love, luxury, beauty and strength. Tulips in general symbolize perfect love, grace and elegance with orange tulips signifying energy, enthusiasm, desire, and passion. Again, somebody sometime ago may just have made this all up. But then again, it’s all in the mindset. If you think you’re surrounded with all these positivity, and even holding one that symbolizes such positivity, I believe it’ll surely influence how you think and how you act.

Our wedding was at 6pm in Tagaytay. Since our coordinator Erika (of Detalye Weddings and Events) picked it up in the morning (Dylan makes his deliveries really early in the morning), the tulips run the risk of opening fully even before the wedding. Hence, I was really glad of Dylan’s thoughtfulness – see the plastic ring round the tulip? 😀

Love this brooch.

My ball of orange flowers went perfectly against my green preps dress, completing our wedding colors.

And of course, it was perfect against the whiteness of our wedding garb.

Our pretty ladies had their share of the beautiful flowers as well.

The day before our wedding was the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Dylan got inspired with the British Royal Couple’s bouquet and included Sweet William – dark pink (?) ones – into the bouquets of our entourage. He was confident the flower’s symbolism would pass my strict requirements. And sure enough, it did, with much giggling besides. The symbolism? The flower symbolizes “gallantry, finesse and perfection”. Love it.

Beautiful isn’t it? The rose cactus is really so pretty.

The carnation pomanders were just perfect for the little girls.

Symbolizing fidelity, optimism, joy and long life, the chrysanthemums (or “mums”) were just apt pillow for our rings and arrhae.

I had a fortune bouquet for the bouquet toss tradition. I myself also wanted to pick a fortune. haha.

To top it all off, Dylan gave us a lovely suprise – a bridal car bouquet as freebie. And it’s nowhere small at that!

Thank you much Dylan!! 🙂

Oh, one thing more. Not only were his flowers beautiful and joyful-giving, Dylan himself is one positive person that a bride should hang around with. True, I’ve only had contact with Dylan through emails but all his emails were like a breath of fresh air. Keep it up Dylan!! 🙂

Supplier: Dylan Yap-Gozum of Vatel Manila

Ratings: 5/5

Contact details: vatelmanila@gmail.com, www.vatelmanila.com

—————-

All photos above, save for the one entitled “entourage flowers” (taken by my bridesmaid-friend Cindy), were courtesy of Dino Lara Photography.

Review: Dino Lara Photography

I think, the fact that I frequently mention Dino here in our blog already screams how Dino is one of our favorite supplier, even from Day 1.

We’d always be thankful to him on how on Day 1 he thoughtfully obliged us and suggested how we can have the “first look” photoshoot to maximize our locations since we have a 6pm ceremony. I will always remember the wash of emotions I had and how my eyes teared-up as I hear Dino describe how our “first look” would be. See, when I met up with Dino, Hubby and I were less than one week civilly married and the totally emotion-less civil marriage we had in Japan had us dreaming and yearning for a beautiful Church wedding. The civil marriage system in Japan really doesn’t beg for any emotion whatsoever – well, except for the emotion of wanting to have the most beautiful and touching Church wedding EVER. So I think nobody would blame me if I’d get emotional even when Dino was just describing how it would be done on our Big day.

And come first week of January, Dino obliged us as well and met up with us even when it was right smack in the middle of his super peak schedule. Dino was very patient with all our questions as well, silly as they might seem!

Come wedding day, well, his team was just superb. Together with Jason’s team, they made my hubby, who was otherwise really shy, seem naturally expressive. Looking at our raw pictures now, somehow, the emotions, that usually Hubby only shows when nobody sees us or when nobody around us knows who we are, were captured in the pictures. Dino was even able to make hubby tickle me!!  haha.

I am still in the middle of selecting photos that will be included in our main wedding album (yes, main. We’ll have around 5 albums I think, 2 big ones and 3 small ones). Photo selection is quite a difficult task, I tell you, if you’re only to choose 350 pictures among 5,500 beautiful ones! And yes, even when they were just raw copies for now, I can only sigh as we look at our pictures. Beautiful.

Can’t, can’t wait for our photo albums.

Thank you Dino. You helped make our dream come true, and even perpetuated it, with the help of your beautiful pictures.

Supplier: Dino Lara Photography

Rating: 5/5

Contact details: dinolaraphotography@gmail.com; +63920.9125069; +632.8834408

Review: Irene Sy-Go

Irene is probably one of the nicest among our suppliers. And the most poised at that, I think! Thoughful to boot. When we were getting started with the makeup, I was coughing a bit, due to an itchy throat. It was Ms Irene who took the initiative and called a staff in Ville Sommet to bring us drinking water “because the bride is having some coughing spell because of dry throat”. Now who wouldn’t love her?

As for her team’s output, I would probably let the photos tell the rest of the story. Hair by the way is by Rica. I love the hairstyle she did for me during our trial makeup but because of a certain request I had, Rica did it this way. Not so bad, I think.

me, fooling around

Irene at work

pretty ladies! i wouldn't be surprised if they already bookmarked Irene's homepage and phone number

 And oh yes, I wore this green dress during preps. I fell in love with a simple wedding dress in an old Martha Stewart Magazine cover. Out of wanting to deviate from the norm of wearing a bathrobe or akin to it during preps, I requested tita Linda (Linda Dee bridal) to make me a cocktail dress with the bodice similar to the one in the magazine. Tita Linda made a lime green one. It perfectly matched with my bouquet to complete our colors. Heart!

All photos courtesy of Dino Lara.

Supplier: Irene Sy-Go

Rating: 5/5

Contact details: +639209506227, irenesygo501.multiply.com

Review: Jamsy (Lights and Sounds)

I think I would let the pictures speak for themselves for my review on Jamsy. All photos are raw unedited photos from Dino Lara, save for the added text.

 

As for the Sounds part, we only had one technical problem with our Sounds. Hubby and I were about to start our performance and I was about to make some spiel on our first song. The mic given me however, refuses to work. It took a minute or so to get the emcee’s (Ingrid) mic. It was great from there, however. Apart from that minor problem, everything sounded real great!

Supplier: Jamsy Lights and Sounds

Rating: 4.75/5

Contact details: +632.826.5801, +632.788.8931, +63917.4503548, +63917.7420580, fax: +632.8207287

Review: Customized Designs (misalette)

Renee was such a breeze to work with. Totally not stressful at all. She’s based in North of Metro Manila and pickup point for the misalettes is in malls in Ortigas area. Since I’m in Alabang, I opted for courier delivery. Totally hassle-free.

The only one catch though was that the supposedly orange font color on our misalette cover wasn’t really orange but more on the reddish tint.

One good thing however was that since i’m a w@wie, she offered me a freebie. However, I already have the three freebies she offered to me and I don’t want things to be redundant. So I asked Renee if she can make us sticker stamps with our cartoons made by a fellow w@wie Anna. Tada!

Just used six of them last week and posted them on our Yokohama postcard thank you cards. Lovely.

Supplier: Renee Rose M. Hernando-Ferido of Customized Designs

Rating: 4/5

Contact Details: +63922.8530470, +63916.2532095, customizedesigns09@yahoo.com