The Unconventional Bridal Shower

The bridal shower planned by Alisa and Wena turned out to be one of the most fun event I had for some time. I did think if it was a party for my wedding because Wilt seems to be aware of it. But I figured that maybe I just forgot about it and I actually told him about the party earlier. Another fact that got me to dismiss it as a party for me is the fact that there are boys invited for the party. If it were an all-girls party, then I would automatically have assumed it was for a bridal shower.

The first person I saw was Jason. And my first question was, "Why are you here?". It was supposed to be a party for Vlads and Lester for their birthday. But then I figured, okay, it's always good to see old friends so why bother?

In the middle of our lunch, Wena and Alisa then advised it was a bridal shower. An unconventional one because the parties involved men. Most of my team were there including the night shift.

The first game was for a series of questions they asked Wilt and I'm supposed to match his answer. Boy, was I lousy at that. In my mind, some of the answers were obvious but I still answered something different. As a consequence, I got my face painted every time I make a mistake. For every correct answer, I got to open a gift. It was fun and we were making such a ruckus that the people in Marche keeps on complaining.

The next game was for me to identify the man-of-the-hour through the sense of touch. Alisa got me choosing cards containing different body parts and 3 names of our male guests. Wena guided my hand to each participant and I was supposed to identify who was the man-of-the-hour. For every right answer, I get a prize money. For every wrong answer, I get to either take out a part of my outfit or wear something from my collection of gifts. Wena had one of the underwear on top of my head worn as a headband. She also got me wearing a sheer sexy lingerie on top of my blouse.

It was so much fun and no matter how much noise we made, the Marche management just can't do anything about it. Some of my friends got irritated because of the constant reprimand for the noise but it was all supposed to be noisy because of the theme.

Anyhow, I really enjoyed my unconventional bridal shower and it's always good to have angels like Wena and Alisa who planned the whole thing.

I can only post 2 photos from the event as we need the rest of it for the wedding AVP.

Vendor Review - Print Divas and PrintedMatter

I admit it was partly my fault. But I think it is a vendor's responsibility to be clear about their product and services to avoid any misconception about the end result.

I wanted to visit Print Diva's office so I can see their products but since they're located in Pasig, it was difficult for us to visit coming from Laguna/Cavite. I managed to see QP and Printedmatter in Glorietta. QP is nice and elegant but their designs are a bit traditional and outdated. Printedmatter was one of the other vendors I have shortlisted and I did see their samples and liked them.

I can't remember anymore what prompted me to choose Print Divas. Maybe it's their cheaper cost and nice examples. Or maybe it's the free stickers. Since I saw the materials from Printedmatter and QP, I figured all vendors must be using the same materials so I went ahead and chose Print Divas for my invitations. What a bad decision it turned out to be.

Don't get me wrong. Their designs are nice. But it's the material that I was not happy about. The end product of my first invitation looked so cheap that I knew I cannot give this away. There goes my money down the drain.

The papers used for my invitation is almost the same as the paper of my desk calendar that I bought in National bookstore. If I knew it will end up like this, I could have done it myself and not pay that much. The free envelope stickers were printed in matte adhesive paper that you can buy from National bookstore. The design was not nice and the end result is again not good enough. The design for the label was also without my input so it was not something I liked.

Printdivas created my missalette too. For this purpose, the paper is just okay so I can use them for the wedding. Thank God for small blessings, 'no? At least, it was not a total loss.

Printedmatter allows a mock-up of your invitation so you get a picture of what you will get. There are additional cost though but overall, I am happier with their product and I'm glad I got them to help me with my final invitation.

One lesson I learned about the Print Divas mistake is that I need to make time to visit my vendors and not just rely on what I see in the internet. So with my other vendors, I took the time to talk to them and work out the details so that I get what I asked for. No more surprises.

Here's my rating for the two vendors using a rating range of 1 - 10 with 10 being the highest:

Details	Print Divas	Printed Matter
Design	6	8
Materials	1	8
Mockup	0	8
Price	8	8
Time to complete	4	8
Value for money	0	10

Two Months to go

I have a hectic schedule this week. Thankfully I listened to my Bello and decided to go home this month instead of going somewhere else for vacation. These are what I finished this week. There's nothing like planning things ahead and sticking to the schedule (with some leeway of course).

✓ Dress Fitting
✓ Flowers
✓ Place to stay
✓ Sent documents to church
✓ Finalized details for reception
✓ Souvenirs
✓ OTD Coordinator
✓ Shoes
✓ Hair decor
✓ Accessories

These are things I have yet to finish this week. Still a lot more to do in between.
✗ Wedding singers
✗ New invites
✗ Renew wedding license (it expires 3 days before our wedding. haiz!)
✗ Pay vendors requiring 2nd or final payment this month

I think I'll be exhausted by the time I get back to Singapore. And then back to work after. I'm gonna be stressed soon.

Wedding Disaster # 1

I had my first disaster for my wedding today. My fiance brought the samples of our printed invitation and I almost fainted when I saw it. The material is not what I expected and it looks like a cheap invitation printed at the back of the room of a restaurant that's trying to front as a printing press as well.

OMG!

I wanna fly to Manila now and storm the office of the darn company.

I have to look now for new invitations and hope it will be finished within 2 weeks.

Darn, darn, darn, darn.