Color me pissed

so after weeks of looking at/re-editing/sending/following up/choosing pantone chips for/double-checking invites that looked like this, in (reddish-purple) plum and (teal-ish) turquoise...

my printer sends me these horrid chocolate brown and grass-green invites. one hundred fricking twenty of them.


at first i am stunned. then i flashback to the meticulous process (see above) i went through just to idiot-proof the design. then i whine about it to all the art directors at work, who, while deploring the color job, say it's a kick-ass piece of work. this is why i love working in an office full of kick-ass creatives -- my seatmate cecil did the layout for me for free. "maganda naman siya eh," volunteers jl. "itapon mo na lang yung original file."

then i get online and, with almost eerie calm, proceed to inform the owner of the print shop of the matter. after checking the damn things, he promptly offers me a free reprint, which is just as well. dahil kung hindi, aba pucha, one email to the phalanx of bridezillas in my egroup can potentially derail his business for at least a few months. you have no idea how seriously brides take supplier reviews. really.

since he vows to personally take responsibility for the outcome of the reprints, i am placated. really, if not for the service given me by the owner, i would be bashing this place to kingdom come. which is a shame, actually, because i was pretty happy with them until all this happened.

the reprints are done in a week, which is still too long a delay for me but what can you do. the print shop's peace offering arrives -- the colors are still not true to the original file. at this point, i am still not happy, but not willing to put off delivering the invites for another week. so i simply choose not to feel bad about anything i'm going to give my nearest and dearest, and accept the prints. i tell the owner as much. he feels bad about the whole thing and offers me free thank-you cards -- a very gracious offer, which i am gracious (and penny-pinched) enough to consider.

now most of the invites are out, the guests are informed -- and on the whole, pleased and wowed by them (except for one major drama). and that is that.

so after weeks of looking at/re-editing/sending/following up/choosing pantone chips for/double-checking invites that looked like this, in (reddish-purple) plum and (teal-ish) turquoise...

my printer sends me these horrid chocolate brown and grass-green invites. one hundred fricking twenty of them.


at first i am stunned. then i flashback to the meticulous process (see above) i went through just to idiot-proof the design. then i whine about it to all the art directors at work, who, while deploring the color job, say it's a kick-ass piece of work. this is why i love working in an office full of kick-ass creatives -- my seatmate cecil did the layout for me for free. "maganda naman siya eh," volunteers jl. "itapon mo na lang yung original file."

then i get online and, with almost eerie calm, proceed to inform the owner of the print shop of the matter. after checking the damn things, he promptly offers me a free reprint, which is just as well. dahil kung hindi, aba pucha, one email to the phalanx of bridezillas in my egroup can potentially derail his business for at least a few months. you have no idea how seriously brides take supplier reviews. really.

since he vows to personally take responsibility for the outcome of the reprints, i am placated. really, if not for the service given me by the owner, i would be bashing this place to kingdom come. which is a shame, actually, because i was pretty happy with them until all this happened.

the reprints are done in a week, which is still too long a delay for me but what can you do. the print shop's peace offering arrives -- the colors are still not true to the original file. at this point, i am still not happy, but not willing to put off delivering the invites for another week. so i simply choose not to feel bad about anything i'm going to give my nearest and dearest, and accept the prints. i tell the owner as much. he feels bad about the whole thing and offers me free thank-you cards -- a very gracious offer, which i am gracious (and penny-pinched) enough to consider.

now most of the invites are out, the guests are informed -- and on the whole, pleased and wowed by them (except for one major drama). and that is that.

Quote of the day

"It's really hard to idiot-proof wedding preps."

-- Jolly Picache
Marlon's high school friend
husband of Shar
Weddings@Work egroup-mate
and new Yahoo chat buddy

also known as: the story of the wedding invitations that were delivered thirty minutes ago, eagerly opened, and caused an otherwise calm and coasting bride a near heart attack.

next up on deepa and marlon's wedding blog!

Back to Balay

when marlon and i chose balay indang as our reception venue last december, it was mostly marlon's call. balay, a bed and breakfast in indang, cavite (about 15 to 20 minutes from aguinaldo highway in tagaytay) was the last place we visited after a long day sussing out possible reception venues in tagaytay.

i was tired, feverish, and barely remembered the place. the drive seemed overlong and the pictures (taken at night) were not too great. but marlon really liked it, and didn't seem too bothered about the drive. plus, marge tan, who owned and operated the place, was a total sweetheart. so we took it.

almost a year later, we went back to balay for an ocular inspection of the venue with our caterer, kaye. marlon was actually a little anxious about it. "what if we go back there in the daytime and realize na pangit pala siya?" he fretted.

thank goodness, it turned out to be even better than he or i remembered.

the main house, where cocktails will be held

the cocktail area (for hot tsokolate and kapeng barako! yum!)

the poolside pavilion where the reception will be held

main reception area (love the vigan tiles)

where marlon and i will be seated (totally hate the couples-table-with-backdrop idea)

more balay details

we had fun planning the reception floor layouts with kaye, who's great to work with and full of ideas. more than that, we fell in love with balay all over again and were reminded of why it stood out from the other venues in the first place.

it really is a homey, eclectic and warm place -- somewhere where our guests can really kick back and enjoy an intimate evening with friends and family. as you can probably tell, "grand", "opulent", or "formal" are not among our key words.

it was great to be back at balay. and the next time i'll be back, it'll be to get married! yahoo!

Flower power

call me an an anti-flower bride.

at the beginning of the year, i professed my utter detest (and i kind of still do) for the idea of spending gajillions of money on things that will just wilt and die at the end of the day. i skulked around the weddings at work yahoogroup, incredulous at brides who blew as much as a hundred thousand pesos on flowers for the church, entourage and reception. a hundred grand!!! on flowers!!!! (then, of course, i vowed i would never do something so ridiculous.)

i scoffed at "event stylists" who were really just florists in disguise. and i toyed with the tempting idea of eschewing flowers altogether, except for the bride's bouquet.

maybe i was different. or maybe i was just cheap. after all, i did get a handful of quotations that, while not as outre as a hundred grand, were whoppers in their own right. and so i hemmed, i hawed, i avoided, i footdragged my way to booking a florist.

until my partner at work recommended his florist, mr. hardinero, to me. a guy raving about a florist pointed to a florist worth checking out, i reasoned. plus, the package rates on their website were just about as much as i was willing to spend on things that were doomed to be forgotten, stolen, or tossed out the next day. so, having done a little homework (pegs from brides.com and martha stewart weddings), i stole away from the office one afternoono to meet pam of mr. hardinero at starbucks tomas morato.

pam is such a sweetheart. her simple and straightforward attitude, heaps of patience, huge portfolio of sample bouquets, never-ending list of suggestions and willingness to customize totally won this anti-flower bride over. so much so, in fact, that i actually found myself getting excited about the flowers for my wedding... and kilig at the thought of my all-purple, all-orchid bridal bouquet.

never underestimate the power of flowers.

the peg for my bouquet: an assortment of purple orchids...

the entourage bouquets will be mostly made up of hydrangeas...

agapanthus or african lilies...

two-tone carnations (the edges are a deep mauve, not red like in this photo)...

and sea lavender for fillers.

our mothers will be special! they get lovely white casablanca (or stargazer) lilies in their bouquets...

and the ninangs get these big-ass cabbage roses!


i asked pam to do away with the traditional church arrangements, which are flowers in stands at each pew. choosing an arrangement like this helped me get more bang for my buck.

and she agreed to do them with these button mums in purple.

i'm actually excited to see what the mockup arrangements look like. i guess i'm an anti-flower bride no longer!

The first fitting

top: beads for mom's gown; justine's dress; pia's dress and lining

second: ruffle details and the gold fabric for the tops, up close

third: the motif colors all together; mom and tria at work

bottom: mom thinks; the gold fabric that made her think twice

i was so excited for the first entourage fitting -- i would finally get to see if the colors we chose would work together off the color board, and see tria's creations on some of my dearest friends. i was ready to go with my camera and take snaps of everyone and everything! so why are there no bridesmaids in the photos?

two words: manila traffic! after sitting in a cab with my mom for over three hours, how many bridesmaids and secondary sponsors do you think i caught up with? zero! actually, most of the girls had backed out earlier due to schedule conflicts -- all except my high school best friend, hershel. unfortunately, she had come and gone before i arrived.

so tria just showed me some of the unfinished dresses, and kindly put one on a kiddie mannequin so i could get an idea of the whole look. i loved it! the colors don't quite come through in the pictures (is it the lighting? the camera?), but they were lovely and striking all together. big sigh of relief.

tria also sat down with my mom to create her mother-of-the-bride gown. and my mom, someone who has opinions coming out of her ears, just clammed up! tameme ito! fortunately, she warmed up to some of the fabrics, like a pretty deep purple silk and burnished gold chiffon. she had two designs made (decisions, decisions!) -- nothing less to be expected from a mother who is wondering why i'm not changing into another gown for the reception!

The K chronicles

considering that she is the supplier i am the most deliriously happy about (kate and tria a very close second), i am surprised i haven't blogged about my caterer, kaye cunanan, yet. an atenean who's just a couple of batches above mine, kaye runs k by cunanan, a hip-ified update of her family's decades-old catering business.

then i figured it out. i've written so many blissful rhapsodies about kaye on the weddings@work yahoogroup that i don't feel the need to write about her here! so i went and dug up all my kaye-related letters to various w@w brides and am reposting bits and pieces here. you'll get to see what a great start we got off to, just what it is i love about her, and sneak peeks of our menu.

(marlon? more than convinced. he keeps bugging me to ask kaye for a second taste test!)

--

Hey Celina!

Side kwento lang, how I discovered Kaye was when my fiance and I checked out Balay for the first time. Sila yung caterer sa wedding that was ongoing at that time. Marge of Balay said, o yan kunin n'yo, I've been observing them, ok yung setup nila at maayos silang magtrabaho. So I googled Kaye after and now I'm so glad I did.

Deepa

--

Hey Trina,

I'm a K bride and would definitely recommend her. In terms of freebies, it's hard to say really, until you sit down with Kaye and tell her what you really want. During our first meeting, I literally threw my wish list at her, haha. At in fairness ang dami kong gusto na binigay niya for free. 3-layer cake by Judy Uson (although I'm considering an upgrade now), cocktails (hot choco and coffee with cookies), setups for both dinner and cocktail areas, wish cards and jar, luminaries etc.

For me mas naging sulit siya kasi ang dami kong kalandian na gusto sa place cards, wish cards and table numbers -- she just said sure, give me your desired fonts/layout and I'll print and assemble those for you.

Your budget of P700/head is definitely workable. Dami mo nang makukuha niya. Ako nga, my budget was P700/head. Laking gulat ko na lang nung final quotation sa akin ni Kaye, with all the requests we made, was just P530/head.

The key with Kaye is to tell her your wants and budget right off the bat. And prepare to be amazed :-)

Deepa

--

Hi guys!

Omigosh I am so happy with K by Cunanan too! My fiance and I had our food tasting with Kaye just the other day (without having chosen a menu yet), and we were pleasantly surprised. Not just surprised actually, floored is more like it. Meeting Kaye just made me so much more excited about how our wedding day will turn out. Share ko lang my experience with her.

First of all, the food was great and beautifully presented. I'm not a fan of red meat, but she served this tenderloin pepper-crusted steak that even I had to say should be a must-have on our menu. (My carnivorous fiance was only too happy to agree.)

Second, I love how she asked for our budget and listened to our ideas first instead of just handing me a prepared package or menu. That will really help us stick to the budget. Given the budget and our inputs, saka siya gagawa ng customized menu. Can't wait to see that :-)

Third, and most important for me, ang gaganda ng kanyang mga setups. Kakaiba yung level of customization. When she showed me photos, they all looked so different from each other, full of personality talaga.

Nung tinanong ko, "So are those setups upgrades or kasama na yan sa basic catering service mo?" and she answered, "Ah that's included sa basic, no added fee yun" muntik na akong maluha sa tuwa, haha. I am officially crossing off "event stylist" from my supplier shortlist (and budget!) kasi sa ganda ng setups ni Kaye, I can see na hindi na kailangan. (Yay tipid!)

She took notes on all my ideas for the reception setup, asked for my pegs and set schedules na for the ocular, floor plan presentation, and table setting mockup. The control freak in me was fainting from happiness. OC brides will love her. Marami ring personal touches sa setups niya that kikay brides will love.

Deepa

--

Hi Charisse,

I booked Kaye without having a taste test first. We basically just showed up and let her serve stuff that she wanted to serve. We actually didn't end up getting any of the stuff she served us, but we were suitably impressed by the quality of the food.

Before she proposed anything to us, we told her we had a lot of Indian and vegetarian guests; we wanted hot chocolate and kapeng barako; and that we generally like Mediterranean food and lemon- and chocolate-based desserts. The dishes she came up with for our menu were just that. Ayan tuloy ang saya-saya namin sa menu.

Deepa

--

Ey Rhona,

Kaye quoted me P530/head for the following: cocktails of spanish hot chocolate, batangas kapeng barako, assorted cookies; dinner of assorted bread, 1 soup, 1 salad, 4 main dishes (we chose beef, chicken, fish and pasta), steamed rice and carrot rice, dinner rolls, raspberry or vanilla iced tea, brewed coffee and tarragon tea, and 3 desserts.

Deepa

--

all photos from kaye's pbase account.

Here comes the dress

this dress is a lot of things.

it's a transition from my being a long-time fan of the amazing kate torralba to being her friend. a dress that wasn't going to happen -- i had already settled on a designer, i had this huge complex about how i couldn't possibly afford kate. a result of a quick exchange of text messages and a split-second, gut-feel decision to show up at kate's studio.

it's a real collaboration between me and kate. a testament not just to her creative genius but to how she really GOT me. it doesn't look like a single one of the many pegs i sent kate, but she GOT something from them too, and made it me! it's fun and inspiration and kakikayan and all the things that i enjoy whenever i pop on over to kate's colorful, whimsical apartment.

it's a confection of ivory tulle and gold thread, inspired by and embellished with patterns from a pair of enamel earrings i bought in a mumbai bangketa. (the trip to mumbai was for our fourth anniversary, and our last as boyfriend and girlfriend.) it has its own matching little purse and strands of beads draped across a low back -- girly touches that i love. it's corseted inside and has a little train -- perfect for our little chapel.

but maybe all it is is my dress. it's the dress i will be wearing on a saturday afternoon in december, when i marry my best friend.

so here it is!


and the earrings! i saw them on my last-minute shopping jaunt in colaba, and knew that i had to wear them to my own wedding. you would totally not believe how much they cost. wearing a bangketa find on my wedding day seems so me!


*giddy and excited*

All hail the maid of honor

and for my zexy zeester, something that totally does not look like any of the other entourage gowns!

the lady:


and her dress:

Secondary style

for the secondary sponsors (mimi, justine and hershel -- close friends from acs, college and high school, respectively), tria and i flipped the color combinations around. they get aqua taffeta skirts with purple sashes -- the bridesmaids have purple skirts and aqua sashes.

they also get a different silhouette -- the same ruffled, girly tops but with a pencil skirt this time.

Bubble girls

for our two adorable flower girls, dani and ela (the super-cute daughters of my acs friends aui and jay), tria created bubble dresses in gold chiffon and taffeta. these two kiddies also get peter pan collars and sashes in purple and aqua.

(darn now i wish i had pictures of dani and ela!)

Playing dress-up

since i have the faces of the bridesmaids up, i thought i'd post sketches of their dresses too.

if you're a guy, i know it will probably be a matter of nanoseconds before i lose you.

first, the design pegs. i had a rather comprehensive list of no's, which included the generic long, spaghetti-strapped a-line dress in shantung silk. no shawls -- any bridesmaid seen wearing a wrap will be speedily defenestrated. (or maybe i should assign one of my gay friends to be a style bouncer.) no all-alike dresses -- each of the girls we chose has a unique beauty and body type. one dress does not fit all. and no beading.

before i begin to sound like bridezilla, what were my yeses? yes to reusable, and therefore, to separates. yes to dresses made with each bridesmaid in mind. yes to short, yes to casual, and a resounding yes to girly.



now, the designer.

my perpetually perfectly turned-out friend tria villasis-ramolete runs a garment business called dream bride. plus, she's super organized, stylish and a joy to work with.

at chris's despedida -- tria's in the cute mint green blouse

and she knows my kiliti -- she only had to bludgeon me over the head once with the weighty term "special price" for me to have dinner with her. and over a huge meal at burgoo, we put the dresses together.

and here they are, in tria's microscopic, stepford-neat hand.

tria will use gold chiffon for the soft, ruffled tops, aquamarine taffeta for the sashes, and purple (o sige na nga amethyst! hahaha!) taffeta for the skirts.

i must admit i am a bit antsy about seeing if the bold color scheme we chose will look good off the color board and out in the real world. luckily, the bridesmaids' first fitting is coming up next weekend, and i can't wait to see what the dresses look like!