Our first and foremost consideration in choosing the venue is that it must be indoor. Thanks to global warming, we have had heavy rains in usually dry months of December and May. The last thing we want, after months of preparations, is to see our guests scrambling for shelter.

We were initially choosing between Dusit and Intercon. After the Manila Pen Siege, we both agreed that Makati Hotels are not for us. If typhoons are bad, a coup d'etat is worse.

We also considered Blue Leaf and North Forbes Pavillion but both venues are already booked.

And so we ended up with Manila Hotel. We get mixed reactions whenever we tell family and friends about our venue. But it all boils down to what we really want and where we will be happy. We attended a wedding in MH last year and until now we can’t stop raving about the food. We love the lobby and its chandeliers. We hope are guests will also fall in love with MH just as we did.

Randall is the first and only photographer we met.

We knew we wanted MangoRed to cover our wedding even before we finalized the church and reception venue. We were even willing to move the wedding date just so we can book them.

If there is a supplier whose website we check twice a day, who makes us want to look at the mirror and practice our smiles and angas/gangster look, who inspires us to come up with creative and out of the box gimiks for our wedding, that's gotta be MangoRed!

Can't wait for our prenup shoot this May!

It was hours before our scheduled meeting with Elmer, when we agreed to stop the first-and-only and on-the-spot booking habit.

Elmer is the most magalang of all our wedding suppliers. Emails and text messages are filled with po and opo and always end with God Bless.

When Elmer and Franco started talking about music, about "butas" "basag" "buo", it became obvious to us that Elmer is really passionate about his work and he is really commited to satisfying his customers.

So we booked him! On the spot! Another first and only!

When we first made our budget Excel file, video was not in our list. We thought, since there will be 3 photographers from Mangored on our wedding day, video won't be necessary.

That was until we (actually the bride) watched an onsite video. Strangers' onsite videos turn Jamie's eyes into a Pagsanjan Falls of tears. Franco just had to give in. (thank you, be! love you, be!)

The usually cranky-when-puyat Franky had a great time chatting with Chichi and her team for hours.

We love her so much that we would still book her even if the trial did not go very well. The trial went well and we booked her on the spot

Can't wait to see her again for our prenup make up.

Tita Menchie is the mother of the high school barkada of the sister of the bride. Her family has been into the embroidery business for decades. She is also a trusted partner of the Department of Tourism for Lumban-made products.

Knowing her credentials makes us confident that Franco will be one dashing groomie on our wedding day.

Newbie? Yes!
Make-up Brands? Wow!
Talent, Passion and Innovation? Wowowee!
Rate? Wowoweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Highly recommended!! Leah has been arranging my trips since 2006. She even got me a Parisian hotel reservation voucher for my Schengen Visa application even though she knew that I didn't have definite plans of going to Paris at that time.

- Jamie