Detailing When Overseas

I was digging thru my notes (because every now and then a friend or relative would ask me questions about our wedding suppliers or tips or what-nots) when I found this Word document. I sent this to our caterer and if you noticed every single detail is covered. Yes, I am a glutton for punishment, lol. The devil is indeed in the details.

I'm one for paper trails. I don't like verbal communication. So that when something went wrong I have a proof, lol. There were two documents, one for VIP table and one for non-VIPs and these detailing documents were updated a lot of times but was last updated a month before our wedding (as you can see from the header).

So how does our detailing paper trail looks like?
Let's start with the VIP tables.  (these are screen capture of the actual Word document, click images for better resolution)

couple's stage image from my friends Jefferly and Ryan's wedding

Now, for the Non-VIPs. Now, these tables we need to upgrade/pay extra so we can have extra flowers and decorations. We used a long table for all guests regardless if they are VIPs or not which means we need more flowers....
I only included the page that are different from the VIP document.

#4 should've been "short-lace" chair cover...we want the long-lace
but they dont have enough for 100 guests...

So there you go, lol.

It made me chuckle looking at this. Yes, I do have attention for details. I guess it's because I'm a programmer and attention to details comes with the territory, lol.

Supplier Meeting/Detailing - Part 2

from july 30 until aug 3 of 2013 i went home to the philippines for a quick visit to meet with the suppliers while i was in between jobs (my contract just got done).....  more about that here: On Detailing and the Whirlwind Pinas Visit.......

a week before our wedding we had to meet with wedding suppliers again for remaining wedding stuff and here's what our week was like:

Day 0	1/11	\ ETD (JFK)
Day 1	1/12	ETA (MNL)
Day 2	1/13	1. Couturier - Boy Kastner (barong fitting)
Day 3	1/14	2. Coordinator
Day 4	1/15	3. Church - Notre Dame De Vie (canonical interview)
Day 5	1/16	4. HMUA: Mayone Bakunawa / 5. Photographer : JLR / 6. Videographer: DLS

this second half is just all tours.....

Day 7	1/18	Segway Tour in Intramuros, Manila
Day 8	1/19	(wedding)
Day 9	1/20	Villa Escudero (overnight)
Day 10	1/21	Tagaytay (day trip)
Day 11	1/22	Corregidor (day trip)
Day 12	1/23	El Nido
Day 13	1/24	El Nido
Day 14	1/25	El Nido
Day 15	1/26	El Nido
Day 16	1/27	Manila (Resorts World, Greenhills pasalubong shopping)
Day 17	1/28	Departure

so that's 6 suppliers total! 

i think if you're an overseas bride you can do what i did, go home 6 months before to take of wedding items that needs your personal appearance and needs to be in production right away.... take for example the entourage's gowns...... the sooner you tell your couturier the correct color shade and fabric you want the earlier he/she can start making your entourage's gown......

or, you can just meet with your wedding suppliers weeks before your wedding but if i may suggest, if you want to do that, try to do 2 suppliers per day and don't squeeze more than that in a day, and then plan how many weeks you need to be home before your big day based on how many suppliers you need to meet..... why i said 2 suppliers per day? you don't want to be too stressed out days before your wedding..... now for stuff that needs to be taken cared of way in advance, like the entourage's gown or your gown, you might want to talk to your supplier on that.... most of them can handle overseas bride and you can even do fitting online so just talk to them...... as to the right shade of color and fabric to use, you can try sending your pegs via snail mail to your supplier..... 

happy preps!

On Detailing and the Whirlwind Pinas Visit

because of some minor change on my usual schedule the hubby and i decided that i should go home to the philippines for a week to take care of some wedding stuff......just me, so it would be cheaper both vacation-leaves-wise and airfare-wise..... that way instead of taking 3 weeks off for our church wedding we can now just take 2 weeks off.....


we have booked 75% of our wedding suppliers since early 2011 (excited e, bakit ba) and the reason i came home is to meet with the suppliers that require that i am physically there to decide and give them my go signal on some stuff like for example the detailing for reception..... when i say detailing that's what flowers to use, what colors, what kind of linen, do i want runners, what color, how do i want the VIP table to be set up, how about the guests table, etc.... so anyway, below are the list of stuff i accomplished during my short visit in the philippines by timeline..... it was raining the whole time i was there but i managed to accomplish what i came home for......



july 29, sunday - (1) visit wedding venue to settle balance and to attend our caterer's mini food tasting and bridal fair (2) meet with my entourage's dress' couturier... wasnt able to do this because my flight (i hate you united airline) got delayed and instead of arriving in manila on Saturday night i didn't arrive until Monday morning.....soooo pissed!

july 30, monday - met with our 1. cake supplier (Judy Uson) - my plane arrived in Manila at 8:45am and my ride arrived past 9...... my appointment with the cake supplier was 1:00pm...... i just dropped off my luggage at my friend's condo in mandaluyong and off i went (wala ng liguan!)...... now,  i have already sent our cake supplier an email on what we want for our cake but it's still nice to come sit and talk to the supplier personally and brainstorm about my cake design....i also finalized my additional orders, like the mini cakes for the primary sponsors and cupcakes for the entourage....

july 31, tuesday - met with our florist and on site studio..... i  met them both at shangri-la mall at shaw blvd.... i just found out during the meeting with our 2. florist (1558) that peach roses are hard to come by during winter......the season for peach roses are summer..... i am so bummed! but oh well, it is what it is....they'll just try to combine colors to make it look peach..... i decided to upgrade our package....  for 3,000 pesos we'll have better church aisle and some freebies and extra stuff for the flower girls too....  i even got a smoke machine for my bridal entrance at church (o di ba bongga, haha)...

              i have also met with our 3. onsite studio..... we really don't want to do the photobooth anymore because we want to be different.... we also have upgraded to 4d because we want the best execution for our paris theme.....actually, our wedding theme is travel with a touch of parisian element so our wedding theme wouldn't focus mainly on the paris aspect...... anyway, the onsite studio seemed excited.... i don't think they have done that theme for a customer yet but they did have that one time for a bridal fair but that's it....

aug 1, wednesday - since i wasn't able to visit my wedding venue and the couturier on july 29, sunday our wedding coordinator was nice to call these two suppliers to move the meeting to aug 1...... so i went to our 4. wedding venue (Fernbrook) to settle our balance.... i figured that's the perfect time to do it even though our deadline really isn't until october (2012) but  since it's a large amount (6-digit is no joke) i'd rather hand the payment to them personally rather than wire it or have someone hand them the payment..... i'm a happy camper because that's settled and i got to meet our AE personally too and got our free maps..... and the icing on the cake was i was able to tour the venue and got to see all the things i have read about them, the place is gorgeous! so glad we chose Fernbrook....

               also met with the church personnel for our church requirements..... submitted the hubby's freedom to marry and some other requirements and in return they gave me the wedding banns request that i need to submit to my parish (don bosco makati).....

               i also met with the 5. couturier (Boy Kastner)....... now, i'm getting my wedding gown from pronovias and i bought it here in the U.S. so the couturier isn't really for me but for my wedding entourage and for my groom, dad and brother's barong (my hubby will be wearing a coat barong)...... i went to meet with him since his shop is just a few minutes from our wedding venue..... we discussed about the design of the gowns and i gave him a swatch for my color motif and some other pegs..... i'm so excited for the bridesmaids/secondary sponsors/flower girl's dresses that now i'm thinking of asking him to make me those dresses too, hee hee....

aug 2, thursday - went to the 6. caterer (Josiah's) office at marikina for food tasting, and detailing..... also met my wedding coordinator (we booked them for partial coordination and not just on-the-day) during the process..... then a few hours later, met again with our coordinator at makati  but with our 7. emcee (Missy Ferrer-Litao) this time..... we had to talk about the flow of the program..... had to remind them we have a gondola ride and sky lanterns..... i feel that won't be our last meeting.....same with the reception detailing.....

aug 3, friday - took care of the 8. wedding banns (Don Bosco Makati).....went to don bosco makati (my parish) to submit the wedding banns request and paid the fee (Php600) in advance.... also went to an office in makati to take care of our 9. mini honeymoon booking (El Nido Resorts), mini kasi we have foreign guests coming with us...it's our treat to them for enduring the long flight, lol).....

aug 4, saturday - supposedly rest day but my brother wants me to take my niece to enchanted kingdom....

aug 5, sunday - flight back to philly....

it was a very toxic week and i can't really say i enjoyed that trip because aside from my flight being delayed twice and cancelled once i was just running all over the place everyday doing errands and enduring  mother nature's cranky weather...... but i'm still glad i did that trip though, overall it was still a productive week and over all i was able to meet with 9 suppliers! not bad ......