Wedding Suppliers Review

I can't believe I am actually doing a review one year after our big day. Elbert and I have been extremely busy (and lazy) since we got married. There's just too many things to be mindful of. Of course there's this thing they call "adjustment stage", from being single to being married. I bet rookie couples can agree on that.

Wedding planning can be fun and stressful at the same time. The biggest stress factor of course is the wedding fund. While it's true that the bride should be on top of the wedding planning, it's important that the couple sit down together and talk about their ideas and budget because everything starts from there. Doing so will avoid impulsive spending, thus putting the couple's hard earned money down the drain (unless someone pays for the wedding). 

I personally enjoyed planning our wedding. I was very hands-on because we didn't have a very fat budget. I had to be very meticulous every step of the way because every wedding item entails cost. Anyway, here's my review of our suppliers. No bashing here. Just an honest to goodness review based on our experience.

Rustic Mornings by Isabelo, Marikina - 5/5

We availed the prenup package - venue use with food. It's very sulit. Elbert and I love Rustic Mornings so we decided to choose it as our prenup venue. Besides, it's near our place :) Marikina represent! (ha-ha)

We initially thought about doing an outdoor prenup . But it demands a lot of preparations, and we honestly couldn't afford to pay for a prenup stylist. It wasn't part of the budget. Rustic Mornings was a very convenient venue for us. We love the place! Why look further? 😉

St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Antipolo - 3.5/5 

Elbert and I were looking for a church that is not in Marikina. We didn't want to go that far and so we decided to go Antipolo. I initially wanted Parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary but it was pretty far from the city. Besides our elderly guests would definitely complain of the long drive (he-he). Also, I am not a fan of big churches when it comes to wedding. I wanted an intimate size wherein goers can properly see each other. 

St. Therese Parish was very clean and organised.  We didn't have a hard time dealing with them - they were efficient and on point. The church's aisle was short which actually suited my taste. The flower arrangement along the aisle was part of the church's wedding package.  St. Therese was very prompt when it comes to wedding schedules. They do not allow confetti at the church's main entrance.

Our wedding was at 2-4 pm. But the mother butlers instructed our guests to leave the church at 3:30pm. They even turned off the lights and electric fans. Medyo off lang because we still had more time for photo ops kahit 10- 15 more minutes. Though we understand that there's a 4pm wedding, we thought that the recession was way too early! And they turned off the freakin' electric fans 😝 😝 😝

Stradella's Hotel, Cainta - 4/5

The reason why we booked Stradella Hotel was because it's very accessible to St. Therese. It's actually just 15-20 minutes away. We went straight to the hotel to book two rooms - 1 two bedroom suite as preparation venue/bride's room and a double bed room for the groom. Rooms were very clean and rates were reasonable. They were also very lenient when it comes to food deliveries or take out meals. 

Problem came when we were about to check in. The two bedroom suite that we particularly reserved and paid for was occupied. The booking officer unfortunately made an oversight, thus we were forced to check in in a different two bedroom suite area. To compensate for the terrible incident, Stradella Hotel allowed us to do photo/video shoot around the vicinity which they typically charge at Php4,000.

Overall, our experience with Stradella Hotel was very pleasant.

L' Orchard Garden, Antipolo 4/5 

Rhea was an amazing agent-coordinator. She's very kind and easy to contact. Dealing with L' Orchard was such a breeze.

We wanted a garden-rustic set up since our wedding day fell in a summer. We rented the Pavilion area which was surrounded with big trees and plants. Swags were readily installed which was a good deal because we didn't have to rent for it. It was perfect near-city garden wedding for me. 

Rhea said the Pavilion can accommodate up to 200 guests, but our 170 guests looked congested. There's not much room left to move around. Although the Pavilion was open, it felt humid in the area considering the weather was very kind us. Spot lights could have contributed to that. I say 150 guests maximum is ideal for the Pavilion area. 

Overall, our experience with L' Orchard was worth the praise. And hey, they gave us a free photo booth! 

M Catering and Fine Foods - 5/5 

No other words but SUPERB. Nothing but praises from our guests. We loved everything they did to our reception setup! Becca, our account holder granted every single detail we requested.

M Catering was an affiliated/accredited supplier of L' Orchard. They offered venue-banquet packages which was cheaper to the budget. But we didn't avail the offer. We directly booked M Catering so that our requests or options would not be limited to the package.

VIP center table, menu label, guest center table and cake

rustic background courtesy of M Catering

We decided to invest in food so we really didn't mind booking M Catering although it was slightly more expensive than other catering services.  To be honest, my husband was kind of really picky when it comes to food. He wanted our guests to enjoy the banquet. Never mind other wedding details. He just simply wanted a good food.

M Catering also gave us free wedding car as part of the promo we availed. We got Lexus :D 

String Session - Merjohn Lagaya - 5/5

Love and praise to String Session and Merjohn! We should have asked them to stay or extend after the reception program. The trio sounded really amazing. And very professional too! I will hire them again in our 10th year anniversary 😀 

Tip: If you're a fan of Final Fantasy 8, please ask Merjohn to play Eyes on Me. Sobrang astig. That's my song while I was walking down the aisle. 

String Session Trio 

SMA Weddings and Beyond - 5/5

We availed the On the Day Coordination service. Sheena and her team did an amazing job in taking care of everything I asked them to. I was pretty much a nitty gritty bride (kaunti lang naman!) probably because I too am an event coordinator at work. He-He.

grabbed from SMA's facebook account

Sheena's wedding excel/database was a sure hit for me. Everything was detailed and scheduled so you will not miss a point. Sheena really mastered the art of wedding event coordination. Sheena also took care of my supplier's meal (brunch) during wedding preparations. If you're interested to get her services, ask her about the supplier's meal to lessen your worry on that :)

Desino Dulce - 5/5

Desino made my wedding gown. I loved it. I truly loved it. I never had a major problem with them. My gown fitted very well.

I think the reason why I loved my gown was because Desino made an excellent interpretation of my  design peg. And, I wasn't expecting that they would produce an exact replica of the gown design I chose on google ;p For me, as long as the gown looks elegant, I'm fine with that. 

i love my back (he-he)

Amy Keh's Bridal Gown - 4/5

Our entourage and groom's barong's supplier is Tita Amy Keh, a resident of Marikina. They were very good at fixing the adjustments. Good thing about Tita Amy was that her chiffon gowns had three linings which looked really flowy. Ebert's barong fitted very well.  Tita Amy's rate was very reasonable. Just tell her much your budget is. 

Our male entourage took care of their barongs. We just told them to wear khaki pants. 

The one thing I didn't like that much about Tita Amy's work was the gowns of our flower girls and junior bride. Though it looked cute anyway, the fabric she used for the top layer of the gowns were medyo matigas. I wasn't satisfied with it. 

The Make Up Artist Wheng Legaspi - 5/5

I love Ms. Wheng. I was very satisfied with her work. She also did my make up in our pre-nup. Ms. Wheng's hand was very light. She really knows her craft and she was very on top of it.

She was also easy to contact and would answer straight away. We didn't have any problems in dealing with Ms. Wheng. Super satisfied!

Parkershot Photography - 4/5

We booked them at a wedding expo in PICC. The package we got was worth it. They were very pro and easy to dealt with. Our package included widescreen and projector which was again value for money. We were able to receive our prenup and wedding photos on time. Thumbs up to RJ and team :) The reason why we gave them only four was because I didn't like the contents of our SDE. Parang kulang sa elements He he. But other than that, Parkershot is highly recommended.  

Ann and the Flowershop, Concepcion, Marikina - 5/5

Ann provided our entourage flowers. We upgraded the package she offered and everything turned out really charming. Ann's package was the cheapest we got. She offered us discounts and freebies. too! We love Ann! Her flower shop is located beside Immaculate Concepcion Church at Concepcion Uno, Marikina. 

for the mums (middle flower) and secondary sponsors

Sabroso's Lechon - 5/5

Arrived on time as per my coordinator. Our lechon was one the blockbusters and it was finished in no time! Ha-ha. 

Shaker's Punch - 5/5

I had one shot after the reception. They were very easy to contact. Ryan Rano was very responsive and customer oriented. Our guests loved it. We asked them to take care of our beers too :)

I will no longer write about our wedding host and lights and sounds suppliers because they failed to meet our standards and expectations.

What I learned about this whole wedding thing was that couple should enjoy planning things together. Focus on love not on stress and the extravagance of the whole wedding shebang. Wedding should reflect the personality of the couple because that's what make it more special :)

We did a lot of DYIs by the way which I posted on my Wedding page 😍