Monday, March 23, 2009

Wedding Attire

Every OC bride wants her guests to follow the prescribed attire for her wedding, right? But Filipinos are known to be adamant when it comes to this part of the wedding. State a Semi Formal attire and you'll get guests wearing jeans, rubber shoes and shirts and casual blouses. State a Formal Attire and you'll see some guests wearing short sleeved polo and black rubber shoes comouflaging as leather shoes (This one we experienced in our wedding.) And state Strictly Formal and you'll get guests wearing cocktail dresses. See the pattern here? Filipinos almost always dress a step down of the prescribed attire! To defend the guests' side, especially the women, only a few stores carry cocktail and formal dresses that it sometimes so taxing to look for one thus resulting to being underdressed in a wedding. I experienced scourging two malls last week looking for the perfect "wedding chick" attire for W@W Anniversary Party and I have gathered a list of stores where one can buy that perfect wedding attire.

1. Kirei
This is where I got my beautiful cocktail dress. Very feminine and wedding chick if I may say so myself! This store specializes in cocktail and formal dresses that you can spend hours looking at their collection. Prepare to spend P1,200-P2,000 plus for a dress here. They also have accessories.

Photobucket
Me and Jay at the W@W Party

2. Lhasa
This is my next favorite store to shop for cocktail dresses. Why? because they are cheap yet pretty! You can get a cocktail dress here for as low as P800 since their market are teens and young adult. Their deesigns are trendy too. But don't expect them to last for a long time. Remember that cheap can equal to low quality. But if you intend to wear it only for a couple (meaning, two or three times tops) of times then dresses in Lhasa will do.

3. Sari Sari
Sari Sari also specializes in selling cocktail and formal dresses. They even have shoes to match the dresses they sell. Unfortunately, their dresses are also costly just like in Kirei. Actually, some are even more expensive! So prepare to spend a lot if you are planning to buy a dress here. But the upside is they have a lot of designs ranging from the classic to the trend today so you have more to choose from.

4. Karimadon
I thought Kirei and Karimadon are sister stores but apparently I was mistaken. They also carry a lot of cocktail and formal dresses here. But their designs are not as trendy and as many as Kirrei and Sari Sari. A bit pricey, too.

5. Shapes
Shapes clothes range from casual to Semi Formal. Unfortunately, their cocktail dresses are limited in designs usually just ranging from the usual tube and sleeveless types. A bit pricey too from P1,00-P1,600 considering their simple designs. Usually, you can also see those kind of dresses inside the department stores of malls so don't expect to be a stand out if you are sporting a dress from Shapes.

6. Petit Monde
I was dissapointed when I went to look for a dress in Petit Monde. Instead of a lot of coctail dresses what I saw are a lot of summer dresses. Don't expect a lot of designs here to choose from. Actually, their designs can be a little oudated com to think of it.

7. Forever 21
If you want a dress on the daring side, get one from Forever 21. But if you want a decent one then think twice if you don't want the bride to shoot daggers at you. As expected, I didn't find my dream dress here. Very pricey too. I think they have a dress worth P3,000-P5,000 in this store.

So before turning up as a wedding guest nightmare, scourge these stores first. You might find your wedding chick attire here just like I did.


Monday, March 16, 2009

New Wedding Hair Accesories

A new and hot hair accessory is now available for brides! Meet the stone encrusted headbands from Jennifer Behr's collection! Headbands have always been a good hair accessory choice for brides but this new collection of Jennifer Behr has put the hair accessory to a new level. Decorated with swarovsky crystals, this head piece can be worn on your wedding or any formal party you may attend to in the future. But this headband is not for the on a budget bride since the price range for these beauties are from $200 to $600! You may purchase this beautiful stone encrusted piece online since I think it is still not available in the country. Only actress Anne Curtis is known to have one in the Philippines as of date!

Some photos to drool on:

Photobucket

headband7

headband6

headband5

headband4

Photobucket

headband2

headband

*** all images from Jennifer Behr's site



Sunday, March 15, 2009

A Fairy Tale Wedding

Almost every bride wants to feel like a princess/queen on her wedding day thus the theme A Fairy Tale Wedding is one of the most popular wedding themes there is. Venues have started to cater on this whimsical theme by having ballrooms designed in Italian and French architecture. One famous venue for this theme is Fernbrook Gardens.

Some shots:

fernbrook

Photobucket

Photobucket
from Smart Shots blog

Photobucket
from Smart Shots blog

A Fairy Tale Wedding is also very popular abroad that Hong Kong Disneyland has jumped into the band wagon and started offerings its castle for this kind of wedding. Check out their packages here.

Fernbrook Gardens is located at Daang Hari, Las PiƱas, Metro Manila.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Reason

I have been a bride that rainy yet beautiful November 9 when I walked down the aisle of St. Francis of Assisi in Quezon City to the waiting arms of my handsome and loving fiance. We started the preparations for the much awaited wedding February 2008 but I haven't thought of documenting my escapades and adventures in putting together my dream wedding. I have been a writer since grade school and I maintained a blog for three years so why haven't I made a blog dedicated to the most important and much awaited day of my life? Well I only have one reason and that is putting together a wedding is very, very stressful that it drained all the creative juices in me. Yes, you may argue that it is just for a day but a wedding is very detailed oriented. Heck, you even have to decide if you will be putting your monogram in your napkin or not!

So after four months of being married, I create this blog for the sole purpose of sharing everything that I have learned and researched during my nine months of wedding preparations. This blog is dedicated to all the Pinay bride to bes out there that aim and strive to have their perfect wedding. Here's to a happy and hopefully stressfree preps! Cheers!

happy preps