serendipity is my fave word

what made us scratch our heads on our wedding day..

Even if Alex & I we’re very VERY hands on with the wedding planning and preparations, we still encountered a lot of glitches.

• Kristina Jewelry (jeweller) owner insisted “Diamonds have DNA.” that why they can’t give us a square (face-up) princess cut. After we told that we’d check that with our friend jeweller, we later claimed the wedding bands with SQUARE princess cut diamonds. DNA?? really?
• Casa Ibiza (hotel villa) required corkage fee for bringing in food but when asked for lunch menu, they told that we can only order 2 of each kind due to limited kitchen stocks. Should their stocks be our problem, too?
• Bridal car driver cut Alex. The bride arrived first than the groom. But of course I didn’t get off the car until it was time.
• When the church door opened, there were people behind me. Panira ng scene.
• The wedding before us went overtime so ours was cut short (no homily).
• Our doves were too young, they didn’t fly.
• Cristina Villas (reception venue) charged more than what was on the contract. Alex had to go home & retrieve our contract copy to correct and settle the bill.

We have more than 10 vendors but got more than double bad days as the wedding day gets near. But here are the top 3 vendors that gave us headache.

#3 B.A. Studio

I booked BA 8 months before the wedding when I wasn’t sure of the church and reception venue yet, but they required me to put a church & a venue on the contract. They said they could revise it later. 2 months later, I submitted the final church and venue for the ceremony & reception.

Then we heard from a reliable source about an incident where BA missed a 10am wedding thinking that it would be held 3pm. So with that, we immediately asked them give us a new one but they just made erasures on the contract. We just wanted to make sure that whatever happens, we can go after them, with of course, a clean and clear contract. However, BA declined our request.

The BA staff that brought the projector and white screen came late. The AVP and onsite video should have been presented during the early part of dinner. That’s why the program got messed up a little.

Also, the first sampler CD only contains the pictures taken at the church. So we asked them to deliver another one. But the second CD is still a fail. Now, we are awaiting the third one. Whew.

Oh and by the way, the marketing personnel, Evelyn, magulo syang kausap. Period.

#2. Full Blooms

We booked Full Blooms 6 months before and conceptualized everything with the owner, Inah Hubillar, so we expected everything will fall into its place on our wedding day. But we were wrong.

Not satisfied with the service. I asked pomander (flower balls) for the bridesmaids, she sent posies instead. And the bridal bouquet! ..also, my husband’s boutonniere! We asked for mini callas, we received big ones! (Those used for church arrangement not for a bouquet!)

When we arrived at the church, we we’re SO DISAPPOINTED we didn’t see the tulle (the white cloth usually hung in pews), petals (there should’ve been scattered red roses on the floor) and arrangement on the unity candle we paid for. The church was so plain. We reported this but her excuse was she had too many weddings that day. Its been almost a month, we heard nothing from her. tsk tsk.

#1 Bobby Galang

The gowns were delivered late—week before the wedding!

The makeup artists that came on the wedding day are not those who did the trial makeup.

He arrived late. Flowers, makeup artists and photographers came before he did.

He was very loud during the processional march.

He lost the flowers for the offertory and used, God-knows-where-he-got, old and fake-looking flowers on a basket. Discovered it on the pictures.

He left at the middle of the ceremony to go to the reception. There’s not enough manpower.

I asked him to brief my sister and MOH, Ann, and cousin, PJ to host the dinner affair but he still took most of the hosting job.

He didn’t follow the venue layout and

placed the wishing well in a compromised area

. Well, we found out we lost cash when a guest verified if we received the amount they dropped on the well.

He

lost the throwing bouquet

. I had to throw my own bouquet during the program. tsk.

At the end of the program, he told us he and his staff were leaving but he didn’t formally turn over the ff to us:

wedding paraphernalias - had to call my sister and friends if they have it, gladly nothing was lost

guest list (the one guests signed at the entrance) - we could have used this list vs the headcount the caterer declared

total number of gifts - the gifts had been numbered but we didn’t see the list

top layer of the wedding cake (fondant-covered styro) - trashed by the caterer :`(

We hired him to be our on-the-day wedding coordinator, but looked like nothing was really “coordinated”.

So if these vendors are on your list? Crossed them out. NOW.