Wedding preps venue at the Sofitel Corner Suite

Rating: 5

We requested all of our rooms be situated on the same floor for our preps. Our account exec at Sofitel found this weird because usually, the bride and groom are placed in different floors to avoid an accidental meet up between them. For us, it's the ease for our coordinator, videographer, and photographer who will be shuffling between rooms as we move through our early 1am call time.

The corner suite was roomy and had a great view. This was where we spent the night after the wedding reception. Internet was free for the room and we had Hermes toiletries in the bathroom! Aside from that, we can access the Club Milleseime where we were able to refill unlimited drinks, and had our meals.

The groom's room was just the normal hotel room with a king-sized bed. This was one of the battle rooms when we were completing our seating plan, program, giveaways, and the rest of the little details for the succeeding day.

Our prep rooms were comfy and spacious. I heard from Liz most of the suppliers were able to move freely at the receiving area. Rating of 5 is well-deserved for our accommodations. 

This is where we held our gift opening photo op. We just cleared one corner of the suite and dressed it up from our portraits displayed during the reception.

Aisle 1401

Rating: 5

Aisle 1401 was one of the last suppliers we booked. If not for W@W recommendations, we wouldn't know about this team. We almost booked a different supplier even though their work samples were just on the ok side. We were already over our budget and we decided on scaling back on videography.

We consider ourselves lucky for chancing upon Anna and the boys of Aisle 1401. We got their Essentials package which featured an SDE and full coverage... the most basic but important videos needed for the wedding.

Fortunately for us, Anna extended their promo to us and we got ourselves a free prenup video!

The prenup video shoot was our first face to face meeting and we already felt at ease with the team. Prior to the shoot, Anna sent us a very loooong email as an assignment so that they could capture who we are as a couple. Her goal was for us to remember what it felt like when we started going out.

Corkulous

It was a fun exercise for us and it led Liz to buy her own iPad 3rd gen because of the Corkulous app. It's a cork board app that lets you layout pictures, text, and labels to make information overload simpler. We exported these cork boards to PDF and synched it to a dropbox folder we shared with Aisle 1401.

Anyway, we always wanted a light feel to our wedding. The songs we chose took a very long time to finalize. When the new Jason Mraz cd came out, Everything Is Sound  made an impression on us. We almost used it for our SDE but decided to stick with our chosen SDE song.

The result of the prenup shoot is nothing but awesome. When Anna said they will make something that will stand the test of time, they really meant it. We love the fact that our video is also "functional" as a karaoke clip.

Matt Nathanson's "Faster" wasn't our first choice for our SDE. We wanted something else but Anna mentioned that it will be used by one of their clients. Although it was ok to reuse a song, we wanted our song to be the first song that Aisle 1401 will work on. Liz suggested on using Faster and only  two SDEs used the song that we found in Youtube.

We knew Aisle 1401 during the prenup shoot that they were continuity junkies. As we are too, we suggested to continue were we left off during the prenup shoot. We suggested to continue from the Mraz outro and fast cut sequences of our prenup from the intro of "Faster". These fast cut sequences are our favorites... check out their videos on where they used We Found Love by Rihanna. Knowing how they're capable, we wanted those cuts in-synch with the beat of "Faster". The result was, again, amazing.

Outside the usual video shoots, Aisle 1401 posted in their Facebook page they wanted to do Gangnam Style video while the song is still hot. Liz volunteered our Sunday wedding if they were game to give us another freebie. We were actually driving to Lucena when the deal was finalized. So during our wedding preps, we shot sequences for our PSY parody. We were also blessed with family and friends who were brave enough to join us as our backup dancers. The video shoot became an after party for our close friends. There were no food served but everybody was entertained just by being silly and foolish. We were also able to get our other suppliers to join in the video.

We love Aisle 1401. The kind of love where you want to get married again just so you can get them to work with you... again.

Hair and Make Up by Trisha Mercado

Photo from the Facebook page of Kiss the Girl Events

Rating: 4

During the course of the wedding preps, we worked with Trisha three times. Once for the prenup photoshoot, then for the prenup videoshoot where she used her free trial, and during the wedding. The list of HMUA suppliers is our longest list and I asked Liz to decide on her own. It took about a week to finally settle on Trisha. What sealed the deal was her pricing and the recommendation by our KTG account exec, Abby.

Trisha does airbrushing and her assistant does the hair styling. With just the two of them at the helm, you can just imagine how slow the make up process had been during our wedding day.

I already messaged her on how I liked her makeup on Liz. It's not too thick and still looked natural. Liz recommends Trisha but keep in mind that her process can be very testy to impatient clients. Also, if the makeup or hairdo is not comfortable, let them know as early as possible.

The rating is still highly recommended. What can take it to a higher level is more consistency in communication, openness to suggestion of clients on hairdos, and work faster and still maintain the same quality of work.

Wedding Reception at the Sofitel Luzon and Mindanao Ballrooms

Rating: 5

We started with having 300 guests and booked Luzon Ballroom. A few days before the wedding, our guest count ballooned to 356. We tried reconfirming with guests and we were able to settle with 326. Since we already know we require two additional tables, we asked our Sofitel account exec to set it up for us. In turn, she opened up Mindanao Ballroom and threw in an extra room we could use. Opening up the other ballroom made our reception spacious and more grand. 

Despite the hiccups of our lights and sounds, which played whatever music they wanted instead of pulling the songs from a specified MP3 folder of carefully chosen songs from our wedding playlist, the cozy setup of the ballroom made up for it.

Photo by Allan Nacion

For arriving guests, the table was setup with biscuit and pretzel knick knacks that were loved by the children who attended.

The well-thought table setup also made the reception warm. With Full Blooms table centerpieces, lanterns, mood lights, and Eiffel towers, to the touch of details my mom insisted on with the blue menu cards, and nameplates for the primary sponsors... everything came around nicely. 

Photo by Allan Nacion

We got lucky Sofitel was able to come up with new glass lazy susans. During our food tasting, we would've had 10 tables with wooden lazy susans. In our final meet with our account exec, we were told that all tables will be glasses, and the primary sponsors will sit in executive chairs as the other guests use our upgraded silver Tiffany chairs.

Hosts Chico and Delamar

Rating: 4.5

The Morning Rush has been one of the staples when we were growing up since the 90's. We decided that they will be one of our non-negotiables if the price was right. For someone of their stature, their rate was competitive enough for consideration. 

It took awhile to get them to respond to our inquiries. It took Twitter to finalize our booking with them. Of all the suppliers, we met them last (in this case, only Chico because Delle was not in the studio that time). We met Chico six days prior to our wedding. They never asked for a reservation fee and preferred to settle everything on the wedding day itself. This lack of monetary assurance worried us because there was no second choice in case they didn't show up.

Come wedding day, Chico and Delamar were as professionals as they can get. No script and just a program flow, they made it look like everything was running as scheduled when in fact, we were already losing time.

During our meeting at the RX studios, Chico suggested to do a Top 10 on our wedding and we decided to give the top 3 entries a copy of their #1 book. The Top 10 Unusual Advices for Louis and Liz was one of the highlights of our wedding. It captured the light and relax feel of our wedding. Their ad libs were impeccable and both have very sharp minds to quip funny comments during the announcement of the top 10. This made the guests feel they are part of the program and everybody were laughing from the unusual and, sometimes, bordering obscene advices.

After the program, our friends made sure we were just ordinary again as they flocked to C&D to get their books signed. It was alright, we were as starstruck as them. We're just glad that we were the instrument to bring C&D and our friends together.

The 0.5 in the rating is just for the difficulty in trying to contact them. Since we're far away, it's hard to meet them up when we're in Manila. I still highly recommend them and they do an excellent job hosting.

Our Gangnam Style Parody

Aisle 1401 posted a random free giveaway to a couple who are willing to do a parody of the current "it" song, "Gangnam Style" by PSY.

Liz jumped at the opportunity and the rest is this:


Thank you to our families and friends who were open enough for us to get silly on a very solemn day. This one is for the books!

Prenup Session with Raymond Fortun

Everything is Sound (the prenup video)

The Prenup Video Screecaps