Being a web designer by profession had somehow turned me off a bit from buying online. I guess seeing the production of a shopping cart from concept to execution just made me think twice before inputting my credit card info. It’s not because I didn’t have faith in online transactions, but it’s simply due to the fact that we have always found alternatives for shopping cart payment gateways because Paypal isn’t available in the country yet. It was the issues on Philippine banking laws that prevented us from having fully-functional Paypal accounts, which kind of makes you wonder if it really is safe to transact online. But ever since the Paypal ban has been lifted, I must say that I’ve been less paranoid about buying stuff online with my credit card—which makes my husband frown every time he got our credit card bill. Hehe.

So what does all this tech talk have to do with wedding favors? A lot. Well, in the case of this review at least, because what I’ll be reviewing is an online store for wedding favors: Truly Wedding Favors.

The name says it all—Truly Wedding Favors is a website where you can get what else? Wedding favors, souvenirs your guests can take home and remind them of your special day. You can choose favors that are related to your theme and color motif, or simple get generic ones if you aren’t fussy.

If you’re tight on the budget, I’d still recommend getting favors from Divisoria. Because yes, wedding favors are still way cheaper there—especially since you won’t be paying for guarantee and quality, not to mention delivery. Those are the things you’d be saving up on if you go to Divisoria instead—the favors won’t be delivered on your doorstep ready for giving to your guests.

There are some local suppliers here who can provide you with delivery if you have allotted a tad bit more budget for your wedding favors. Most of them are able to replicate those you can find online like this Personalized Coffee Kit from Truly Wedding Favors, but don’t expect that it would be exact and the quality the same. There are those that are quite difficult to replicate, like this Calla Lily Candle—unless of course you know a supplier who actually makes custom candles and won’t require you to buy in bulk.

If you’re not going to factor in shipping costs (ugh, that’s the worse when you’re buying tangible products online), the costs of wedding souvenirs that Truly Wedding Favors offers are basically the same as those offered by local wedding suppliers. Take the Calla Lily Candle for example (I just love this candle, it’s so pretty).

Let’s say you needed to buy 100 pieces. A candle costs $1.79 each, but if you can get a volume discounted price of $1.29 each since you’re purchasing a hundred pieces ($1.29 for 80-143 pieces, $1.19 for 144++ pieces). If the current Dollar-Peso exchange rate is $1 = Php42, then each of the candles would cost you Php54.18. Multiply that by 100, and you’d be spending Php5,418 for the candles—which is actually the within the usual range of a bride’s wedding souvenir budget. If you get the souvenirs from a local wedding favors supplier, you’d probably pay the same. And yep, I’ve seen lower-quality candles similar to this one priced at around the same amount—sometimes they’re even more expensive.

According to their website, Truly Wedding Favors offers a satisfaction guarantee. If you aren’t pleased with the quality, you can send back the unused favors in exchange for better ones. I think local suppliers do that too, I’m not sure though. Read the contract or agreement you have with them to know if they do offer such guarantee as well.

As I have said, shipping is the main issue that you’ll have to face when buying wedding stuff online. International shipping is quite pricey, sometimes shipping alone costs more than the total expense of the products being shipped. However, this might not be much of a problem if you have relatives or friends in the United States who would be coming to the Philippines before your wedding. You wire them the payment and they’ll purchase the products for you and have them delivered to their address. They can then bring the favors to you when they get to the Philippines. The only risk you’ll have to worry about in this case is having your relative/friend’s baggage getting lost in the airport, or the person bringing the favors suddenly couldn’t make the trip.

If you ask me, I’d honestly tell you that buying raw materials from Divisoria and making your own stuff are still always the best way to save on expenses for your wedding. Though there isn’t a guarantee that the quality you get is always “premium” quality, it’s really up to you finding the Divisoria supplier who can give you that. However, I won’t totally rule out buying wedding stuff online or getting from a local supplier. Some people just don’t have the luxury of time. And when you really think about it, convenience is actually what you pay for when you’re not the one making your own wedding stuff—you pay for somebody else’s time and talent to make your wedding things.

You might be getting tired of me saying this, but yes, it’s always up to you. Should you make your own favors, get from a local supplier, or buy online? You’re the one (and your groom-to-be) who decides. Just remember to study both the advantages and disadvantages of all the options in relation to your situation (ask yourself: “Do you have time to make your own?” “Can you find ways to lower the cost of shipping?” “Can your budget accommodate getting ready-made souvenirs?”) before coming to a decision. You wouldn’t want to waste your money would you?

UPDATE: Melissa of TrulyWeddingFavors.Com has generously offered the readers of My Filipino Wedding an additional 5% discount!!! Just use the promotion code TRULY5 upon checkout and you’ll get your discount.

I think it’s already quite obvious that you will have to get help from your family, friends and connections whether you like it or not—you just can’t do everything on your own. But sometimes, a bride can’t help but want to do everything, or at least take part on each and every single aspect of her wedding. That’s understandable. After all, it’s your most important day we’re talking about here. Just don’t forget you have to walk down the aisle, and not rolled into the Church in a coffin

Planning a wedding is actually a bit similar to running a business—the lower the expenses and higher the profit, the better. You want to have the best wedding at the lowest cost possible. And just like in business, pulling a few strings can help you do just that.

Marc and I were lucky that we had a lot of friends and relatives who were willing to help us plan and implement our wedding. We’ve been quite active in our college organizations, so we met a lot of people adept at planning and implementing events who became our great friends. Just think of it this way. If you and your friends are able to plan and implement full-scale concerts, food sales, and fund-raising drives, weddings are easy.

Instead of getting a wedding coordinator or planner which could have cost us Php25,000, we asked help from our friends. They were glad to do it—it was like holding another organization event. Before the wedding, we sat down with them tackling the wedding program, the flow, who will be in charge of what, the music the band will play, etc. etc. I’m glad they did, because as I can recall, I wasn’t really thinking properly in the morning before I walked down the aisle. There was excitement, fear, and anticipation—three different feelings that don’t really go well when decision-making was required.

The best thing about your friends being your wedding coordinators is probably the fact that you know they know your best interests, and won’t screw you. But if you really need to get a wedding coordinator for your day (if you don’t have friends who have experiences in events planning), it’s best to just get one for the day. Wedding coordinators also offer On-the-Day (OTD) Coordination, where they’ll basically just oversee the implementation of your wedding plans on your day. However, it’s still best that you have somebody like a friend or relative whom you can trust to see how the coordinator is doing. I don’t know about you, but I really do find it hard to entrust something as important as my wedding day to somebody I don’t really know.

Wedding coordination was not the only aspect we got as a gift (or, in simpler words, free) on our wedding. A lot more have contributed to how we were able to get a US$3,000 wedding budget:

• Live band at the reception
  Marc and I had friends who performed regularly at bars, and they gladly performed for us during our wedding—as their generous wedding gift. I found out later on when I asked them how they felt about performing at other people’s weddings that they wouldn’t have charged us much if we didn’t really know them personally. So yes, their rates are very affordable, and depends on how many songs they had to perform and how long. If you’re interested, send me a message so I can help you get in touch with them.
• Photo and Video Coverage
  Now, this is where we lucked out—really lucked out. My dad is a photojournalist, but he used to work in the wedding industry as a photographer when I was still a kid. So yes, he had a lot of connections in the field. Two of his photographer friends gave us photo and video coverage as their gifts. I have to tell you, what they did totally helped our budget—photo and video coverage is actually one of the costliest expenses of wedding planning apart from food for the reception.
• Souvenirs (200 pieces)
  My cousins offered to provide the souvenirs for our wedding, since they were found of making them anyway. And yep, the souvenirs turned out pretty well! Take a look at this post’s photo and see for yourself.
• Bridal Car
  My mom’s old friend lent us her silvery white BMW. She was godmother, so she wanted to take part in the wedding other than the entourage. When we asked her if we could borrow her car, she was more than happy to lend us
• Audio-Video Presentation (AVP)
  Our primary business offers web and multimedia services, so obviously this one’s free since we made our AVP ourselves
• Wedding Guestbook (Magnetic Album) and Pre-Nuptial Pictorials
  Another gift from a long-time friend who has his own photo studio.

I can’t remember all the other stuff we got for free, but these were the ones that had quite an impact on wedding budget. Let’s say we had to pay for these, we’d spend:

Live band – Php5,000 up
Photo and Video Coverage – Php60,000 up
200 Souvenirs – Php7,000
Bridal Car – Php6,000 for the first 5 hours
Audio-Video Presentation – Php5,000
Wedding Guestbook – Php10,000
Pre-Nuptial Pictorials – Php5,000
OTD Coordination – Php8,000

So we saved around how much on free stuff? Just about Php106,000 We saved an estimate of 106k out of the kind generosity of our friends and relatives. That’s quite a lot, considering the fact that it’s not even an exact figure (I’ve forgotten the other stuff we got as gifts from family and friends that helped in the implementation of our wedding).

* * *

Upon the many requests I’ve gotten through email, I am currently trying to get in touch with the suppliers I’ve had for my wedding for their updated rates and information. I’ll be posting the info soon, promise! Stay tuned!

Whenever you hire a service provider, you don’t only pay for the product, but the cost of labor and creativity as well. My husband Marc and I run a small design firm, so we kind of know this for a fact. We don’t just factor in the hours worked on a project, but the value of the design as well. When you do things on your own, you only need to consider the cost of raw materials—you won’t need to pay for labor nor for design value, because you’d be the one doing it. Unless, of course, you need to “bribe” a creative cousin or nephew to do some “arts and crafts” for you. But still, it won’t cost as much as hiring a pro.

Realistically, you can’t do everything on your own. If you’re not an owner of a catering business, you’d definitely need to hire a caterer (you wouldn’t want to spend the night before your wedding cooking loads of food, do you?). Same with flowers. Hiring a florist would be logical if you don’t own a flower shop. But there are things that you can do ahead of time. Here are some ideas…

Wedding Planner. Marc and I have considered hiring a wedding planner, but eventually abandoned the idea. My work was home-based, so I pretty much have control over my schedule. I was able to find time to do the canvassing for suppliers and the actually planning on my own, with some help from kind friends and relatives. A wedding planner here in the Philippines can cost you more than Php10,000 (approximately US$200), which you could have added to upgrade your reception menu or get an incredibly nice cake. If the circumstances are right, you can do away with a wedding planner and lessen your expenses.

Invitations. If you’re planning your wedding in say, 10 months, you can actually do this on your own. Seeing all those fancy invitations can be pretty intimidating, but don’t let those embossed text and shiny boards fool you. Invitations valued at around Php80 a piece will probably only cost less than (or even more) than the amount in raw materials. Most of that amount is attributed to labor and creative value.

You just need to do a bit of research. If you’re not confident in your creative skills, there’s always the internet. Do a search of designs you like. Print it out. Then create your version.

If you like the “traditional” vellum, you can get uncut sheets straight from the factory. Veco Paper Corporation manufactures huge sheets of specialized papers for you to cut to your liking. If you’re not looking for fancy cutwork, you can always purchase the packed and pre-cut papers from a local bookstore—fold them up, stick the parchment with text, and put it in invitation envelopes you can buy in packs of 5’s or 10’s.

Going for the handmade look? Then go get yourself sheets of handmade papers. Bulaon Novelty in Tiendesitas and SM Megamall sells really pretty papers. Since you’re going to be buying in bulk, you can even haggle for a discount. That’s something you can’t just do when you’re dealing with an invitations supplier.

The photo on this series’ overview will show you how our invitation turned out (my sister, our household help, and I made those). I laid out the text in Photoshop, printed it on a regular bond paper, and had it photocopied on Parchment paper. Our guests never saw suspected it was made like that, and even marveled at how we were able to afford such “specialized” invitation.

If you prefer to have your invitation text embossed, no problem. Design it, print it out, and bring it to the long street full of invitation suppliers in Recto. They can do the cutting and embossing for you at about Php1,200 (approx. US$24) for 150 sheets of paper you provide. All you’ll have to do is to combine it with a specialized or handmade paper cover, add a little ribbon, stick some fake flowers, and there you have it: a seemingly expensive invitation for your guests to marvel at.

Souvenirs. The same principle in cost computation of souvenirs is basically the same as invitations: you pay more for labor and value.

A lot of the raw materials for souvenirs can be found in the streets of Divisoria. You can even find a supplier for personalized ribbons there. The challenge for you would be how to combine those raw materials, which can easily be remedied by searching the Net. Use Google or Yahoo. They’re here for a reason: search!

Personalized Items. Those were the things that probably made our wedding “special.” Everything just seemed to match. Marc and I went for a “modern Filipiniana” theme with a color motif of aqua blue and silver—we decorated things as mundane as our wine, table numbers, wedding programs/missallettes. Since we got the raw materials in Divisoria, we didn’t have to spend much.

The key in doing wedding stuff on your own are organization, patience, research, and creativity. You pay for labor and value if you can’t do it on your own, but if you can manage your time wisely, it shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, doing things on your own gives your wedding stuff a personal touch—trinklets made from your heart would be remembered and appreciated.

I don’t understand it much either, to tell you the truth. Weddings here are such huge events that even if a family isn’t well-off (like us!), they’d want an extravagant wedding (or “bongga,” in colloquial terms). A “simple” wedding here in the Philippines can mean a lot of things—having 50 guests instead of 100, or having a judge perform the rite and treat just about a dozen people to dinner for a reception. With all these different perceptions of what a “simple” wedding here means, allow me to just describe to you our wedding so you’ll have a pretty good idea of what came about with that Php155,000 (approximately US$3,000) budget.

My husband, Marc and I, had a church wedding in an air-conditioned parish. Our reception was held at a nearby clubhouse, with a band performing amidst bubbles and mood lighting while 200 guests were provided with full-course dinner and a chocolate fountain. We also paid for the gowns and Barong Tagalogs of our entourage including our own, and had 5 photographers and a videographer documenting the event every step of the way.

Our wedding was not as simple as going to the city hall to get hitched, but it wasn’t as extravagant as having fireworks or holding the reception at a hotel. BUT, we got some pretty good feedback from our guests. They actually thought we spent a lot for it, since that kind of wedding would usually cost around twice as much as our actual budget.

Although most of the entries I’ve written here in this blog are specific to having a great wedding without ludicrous expenses, I noticed that I haven’t really written anything that talked about how I was able to keep our wedding budget at around Php155,000 specifically. Thanks to this comment on my personal blog by Janet, I decided to come up with this blog series on how I did just that.

The thing is, there are a lot of factors to be discussed. Marc and I planned our wedding within the span of 10 months, so we picked up quite a lot of tips along the way. I initially intended for this to be just one long entry, but it’s difficult to squeeze everything in that I’d like to say. So there. I’ll just make it into a series of blog posts.

Before I get into the specifics, there are some important things that you need to take note of. Marc and I got married almost a year ago, and a lot can change from then till today—especially when it comes to cost. You really need to consider inflation. What cost us Php5,000 two years ago may cost more today. I won’t be able to guarantee that you’ll have your wedding at US$3,000 as well—it will also depend on you and the people you know.

What I will discuss in this series are mostly principles. I’ll probably put in some info on my suppliers too, but just don’t forget that we got their services almost two years ago. I’m no longer sure if they’re still the cheapest in the market—you’ll have to find that out on your own.

So… watch out for this series in the coming days. Subscribe to my feed if you have to, because I’ll be telling you how exactly we got our elegant wedding for only US$3,000.

Nothing changed when I was searching for the perfect gown. Although some of my high society relatives insisted on it, I didn’t really see the need for having a designer gown. Besides, my budget couldn’t afford it.

Being the artist that I am, you really couldn’t help but want to have your entourage’s gowns be color-coordinated—and the same. My husband-to-be and I at that time didn’t have much to spend with. I was about to accept the fact that my entourage’s gowns will probably just be similarly colored (but not uniformed), until an aunt reminded me of the gowns in Divisoria.

I totally forgot about it. You see, there’s this one-floor building (the Yangco building, to be more specific) beside Ilaya Street in Divisoria that’s so saturated with wedding and debut gowns, you’d think you’ve died and gone to gown heaven. Each booth is lined with the prettiest gowns. And read this: the gowns can go as cheap as P1,000.

You can get this RTW gown from FNB Boutique (in Pasillo V-II of the Yangco Building), at around P3,000 (not sure though, but I do recall it’s not more than Php5,000). Pretty, isn’t it? How’s that for a $60 wedding gown?

The trick in getting the best deal in Divisoria is knowing how to haggle. I’ve tried to canvass for the best price, but they’re basically the same (not surprising, since these stores probably have a standard price). But if you get lucky (like we did), you’d get a dressmaker willing to lower the price for you. However, in order to do that, you have to “buy in bulk.” Meaning, the entire entourage.

Nice, don’t you think? Even the guys’ Barong Tagalog are aqua blue. It was quite a sight seeing them go marching down the aisle.

For about P35,000 (around $700), I was able to get these custom-made: blue Barongs for my hubby’s bestman and groomsmen, a child’s blue Barong for my ring and coin bearer, gowns for all three of the women secondary sponsors, gowns for my maid-of-honor, bridesmaids, junior bridesmaids and flower girls, as well as the Barong for my dad and the motif gowns for my mom and my mother-in-law. Oh, don’t forget my husband’s Barong Tagalog made of finest piña, and my elaborate cut-work wedding gown with an intricate beadwork. Hard to believe we spent less than a thousand dollars for all these? Well, believe it. That’s Divisoria fashion for you, baby.

Oddly enough, I could have gotten it cheaper. If I opted for the ready-to-wear wedding gown (I’m too scientific to take the pamahiin of getting bad luck if you try on your bridal gown before the wedding day seriously), I probably wouldn’t have spent more than $500 for the entire thing. But I wanted it prettier. And made use of my own designs.

I printed out a photo of my dream gown (which I got from the Net), and have FNB Boutique copy it. Not exactly though, I wanted it to have a Filipiniana touch. I did the same thing for the women in my entourage, but I modified the samples a bit in Photoshop so the printout will look exactly as I pictured them. They’re not designer gowns, but hey, they’re pretty and cheap anyway.

If you want to get in touch with the couturier who made my entourage’s formal wear, you can try FNB Boutique. Look for Nita Blanco (she’s the owner). You can reach her at 309-31-82. You can also talk to one of her assistants, Rona (she’s the one who took care of my account), through mobile 0921-975-42-34. Just tell her you got their info from one of their clients (Gail Dela Cruz-Villanueva), and she might actually give you a better deal.

My husband, Marc, and I spent around P13,000 for our rings. Yes, P13k for both them already. And they weren’t made of silver, mind you. White gold! With a tiny, teeny weeny diamond on encrusted on each. We were on a tight budget, but we didn’t want the “symbols of our unending love” be as cheap as those things you’ll find in sterling silver shop. We wanted it to be worth something, but still within our reach.

Here are some things you might want to consider when you’re doing your ring shopping, and have a very limited budget:

• Shop early. Early, as in, not a month before. My husband and I made that very mistake: we bought the ring only about three weeks before our wedding day. And since we were in a pretty tight spot already (imagine getting married without the wedding bands), we had no choice but to pay the additional rush fee.
• Use your charms to haggle. Yeah, Marc and I did just that. We were able to charm our way into a discount.
• Branded or not branded? You decide. But if you don’t have the luxury of having an unending flow of cash, the unbranded one might be better for you. Branded rings can cost you more than three times (or more) the price of unbranded ones.
• Yellow gold, white gold, platinum, two-color, tri-color—take your pick. It’s always best to know before hand what kind of wedding band you want. The cheapest is the yellow gold one, the tri-color being the most expensive. When you already know what you want (and have really thought about it), it’s easier to estimate the price range.
• The simpler the design, the less expensive the ring becomes. Don’t get me wrong though, a simple ring design doesn’t mean that it’s too plain. Remember that you’d be wearing these rings every single day of your lives. A garish ring will not only attract snatchers (not to mention hold-uppers), but it would be hard for you to match it with the clothes you wear.
• Canvas, canvas! Make sure you canvas first, it’s really not advisable to buy your rings in the first shop that you’ll come across. You’re just going to feel bad when you see a jewelry store offering the same design but at a lower price. Take your time deciding.

And last but not the least, ask about the warranty. Marc and I got our rings at Suarez Wedding Rings in Gateway Mall, Cubao. Aside from getting them at a reasonable price, these babies also come with a lifetime warranty (I don’t think the warranty covers losing the rings though hehe).

Did I miss anything? Feel free to add your input and help other soon-to-weds with their ring shopping!