I got married! (plus reviews)

I'm back! I can't believe that my last post was more than 3 months ago. I'm so sorry, guys... I just got so busy preparing for my wedding then of course I went on my honeymoon then I needed to complete my requirements for immigration so I can follow my hubby in Canada... so yeah, I lost track of time & wasn't able to blog for so long. =(

As I've said, I got married! yay! I have been waiting for that time to arrive for so long. Me & hubby had been together since we were in college and we were a couple for 13 yrs & 7 mos to be exact before we got married last April 14. God is good because everything was perfect... well almost perfect... but I am still happy with everything. :)

It was actually a budget civil wedding and I can't believe that I was able to pull it off with just a month of preparation & with a limited budget. We were both able to get our dream wedding-- hubby wants it to be intimate & an eat-all-you-can buffet while I wanted to invite all of my closest family & friends with a garden set up. I was also able to achieve the white & blue motif which are both my fave colors. 

My wedding was held in an enclosed space in Dads World Buffet (Dads, Kamayan, Saisaki) at West Avenue. I was able to get a 30% off discount for my 110 guests, so that's only around Php50k+ for an eat-all-you-can buffet! Everyone is full & satisfied because there's around 300 dishes to choose from & everyone will definitely able to find something they like to eat. This is way cheaper than if I went the route of hiring a catering service because 7 dishes may cost me Php700/head plus the rent of the place. The staffs of Dads are all very friendly & accommodating. It was a really hassle free transaction since everything was pre-paid (you need to pay in full at least 3 days before the date) so I just need to pay any additional corkage on the day of the wedding itself (we brought wine). There are also a lot of freebies-- setup & decor plus sound system -- and are all done by them, they just asked me what is my motif & if I have special requests (I needed an altar for the ceremony & an isle to walk). There's also no corkage for my cakes & cupcakes, no corkage for the flowers, no corkage for the sound system like in other establishments.

I arrived there on the day of my wedding & got floored because everything was so beautiful & perfect...I got my wish of the garden theme with blue accents on all white. I didn't even need to think how to set it up/decorate coz they did everything. They were also able to give me an isle to walk with which made me so happy.
 

DADS WORLD BUFFET: 5/5
Perfect place to held an event - hassle free! The food are great & the price is affordable.  Plus, no one can beat the happiness of being able to feed everyone up to their hearts (or stomachs) content hehe :)

My wedding cake is a gift from my sis-in-law Steph, so I don't know where she got it. All I know is that it was home-made & designed by a very talented tattoo artist & it tastes superb. The sweetness is perfect even though it is made of fondant & the chocolate cake inside is moist and very delicious. This is also 5/5 :)

The chocolate cupcakes that I gave away were made by Baked!. I asked for it to be not too sweet since a lot of my guests doesn't have sweet tooth & Ms. Heidi created a cream based icing for me (it was really light & fluffy...and very pretty!). All of my guests have commented that they loved the cupcakes because they were moist & is not overly sweet like others in the market. Also, I was able to bring home a couple extras at home & I stored them in the refrigerator. It became hard but if you let it stay in room temperature for a couple minutes it will thaw & become moist again which is awesome!  I'm just sad that I wasn't able to put all of the ribbons that me & my sis made coz we lacked the time haha. I will definitely order from Ms. Heidi again since the quality & price is really good. :)

BAKED! 5/5 - Aside from the fact that the cupcakes are perfect in look & taste, I love the fact that I know she used good quality fresh ingredients. Plus, Ms. Heidi was able to get the perfect shade of blue.

My bridal car is our Land Cruiser 60 series & my dad placed a bouquet of peach carnation in front. This is such a sweet gesture from my dad since I forgot about it. My bouquet is a gift from my Ninang Mayet. She made my wish come true because I wanted a simple bouquet & we have chosen plain white stargazers that is just simply tied with a ribbon. They are so pretty. The flowers are from Dangwa & are not expensive.

I got my dress from Landmark for only under Php3k! It's a mermaid cut white dress with gems on the neckline. Very classic & it fits perfectly as if I had it made for me. Very flattering on my figure too which is always a plus. I also didn't need to wear high heels so I just wore a jeweled silver sandals haha very comfy. ^_^

My hair & makeup was done by Angelica Amante which is also affordable since her rate is way cheaper if you go to her studio (which I did since it's just near my place). I received a lot of compliments that I looked beautiful & that my makeup was perfect. I opted for traditional makeup & not airbrush because my wedding w/reception will only be 3 hrs max & it was air-conditioned so i really didn't need to have it last long. She was also on time & very professional. I will definitely recommend her to anyone who is looking for a good makeup artist that has a more affordable rate. 5/5 too :)

Overall, I think we just spent around Php80k for everything from the marriage requirements to the food & cupcake souvenirs & our wedding attire. And since we have 110 guests, I believe that is an achievement to be proud off :)

Meet my hubby! :)

Thank you for reading this personal post. And now that everything is back to normal, I am hoping to be back in posting weekly again. I have also been reading a lot of books and I'm guessing i will be uploading a couple of book reviews soon. Also, there's a lot of great dramas that has or will be aired so watch out for more drama reviews too.


Till next time! 

Review: Island Massage Mobile & Day Spa

Hello everyone! I wanted to share this review with you so that I can warn you about this well-known spa in Makati called Island Massage Mobile & Day Spa.

My mom and her friends went there last Sunday (July 29) to have their regular session of relaxation & bonding time. They were given gift certificates by their client a long time ago and have just decided to claim it now so they called the spa 3 weeks prior to set an appointment. So knowing everything is set, they came in around 11am and on time for their appointment.

They first had their foot spa before the body massage. According to my mom, the staff attending her were so quiet and not smiling so she joked her to please smile coz clients prefer friendly staffs so they would go back to the establishment. The staff forced a smile and then continued to ignore my mom while doing the foot massage. My mom didn't feel relaxed after the foot spa but didn't commented on it and just proceeded to the body massage.

After the procedure, it is common practice that they will put foot blush/tint so that they will appear pinkish and clean. Guess what my mom's feet looked like after...just check out the picture below.

 The flash actually washed out the intensity of the color but I'll try my best to describe it. Have you ever stained your fingers with a salted egg's (itlog na pula) red coloring? It was how my mom's bottom feet looked. It's as if she dipped her feet on the same coloring they used on the itlog na pula to make it red. And it was so hard to remove. When my mom noticed it, she was already in the car and she tried wiping it off with alcohol and cloth but to no avail. She also tried washing it off with soap and water and scrubbing it when she got home but it was still there. My mom was wearing Fitflops that day and it was so embarrassing walking around the mall with feet as red as that and since my mom was really fair it was so obvious even from afar. I think the staff got annoyed that my mom asked her to smile and give a good service so she over applied the foot blush to have revenge. That's so unprofessional, don't you think?

So not knowing anything is amiss, my mom went into the body massage room. Again, the staff/therapist who attended her was quiet and doesn't smile. It's not actually that that made my mom angry. It was because after she lied down on the bed, the staff just automatically pushed hard on her back without asking if the pressure is okay or if it is too hard. That's a common protocol to all massage centers, to talk to the client first before doing anything. She didn't even told my mom that she's gonna start already. My mom has a minor scoliosis and she can't have too much pressure so she really got mad at the staff for doing a very hard push on her back without any warning. It could have caused more problem to her spine and it really irked me that such incompetence happened.

Actually, it's not only my mom who experienced this but everyone in the group had some kind of a bad event happening to them during their stay on Island Massage Spa. As I've said earlier, they were scheduled at 11 am and that was set 3 weeks prior so everything should be prepared when they arrived, right? Well, guess what, they don't have any therapists available when they arrived. They were even given a guy to do the massage while it is pretty obvious that they were all females. They should have at least explained what happened or htey could have called the day before that they lack people for the day and if they could just reschedule but they didn't say anything good to make things okay. Of course they would be pissed, all of them came from the North area (QC, Bulacan, Valenzuela, etc) and they went to the spa very early in Makati (which is on the South) and the drive is long and they haven't eaten yet and they are expecting to relax but ended up getting stressed. Who would be happy?

Seriously, I don't know what happened and this spa became well known. Maybe the advertisements and promotions are good but the customer service sucks big time and the staffs are all irritating as hell. They didn't even tried to alleviate the complaints of their clients and just stayed there doing nothing. Personally, I would prefer to go to an establishment with friendly and accommodating staff. So, my mom told her client/friend who gave them the GC (they were expensive too) to stop buying GC from that spa coz the service sucks and it's just a waste of money.

I shared this here on my blog because I want to shout out a warning to all my readers. Please look for other establishments and steer clear away from this one. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of spa in the area that will provide you with good accommodation and customer service :)

Thanks for dropping by!

Review: Club Manila East Resort & Hotel

Another post for today!

Me, my bf and some friends went on an overnight outing at Club Manila East (Taytay, Rizal) last weekend and it's my 3rd time going there. The 2nd one happened 5 years ago and so much had changed! Here are some pictures taken during that day ^_^

We stayed at Don Renato Villa... it has it's own bathroom with hot/cold shower, TV with cable, airconditioner, refrigerator, dining table, comfortable bed and it's own swimming pool outside the room (which is constantly warm so you can still dip in it even at night).. there is also a free breakfast for two. This villa costs Php3,050 only. Time in is at 2pm and checkout at 11:30am the next day.

There is also a covered pool so you can still swim even if the sun is too high. Pardon the picture. I set it on timer mode and placed it in the floor haha ...you can't know how scared I was that it's gonna fall on the water if someone walked by it haha ^_^

There is also a pool for cayaking...although there are only 5 boats available when we went there (the others are still being fixed) we still had fun rowing our boats around..that's a picture of my bf enjoying his exercise ^_^

And their famous wave pools..They have two: Oceanwave and Beachwave. These two have their schedules everyday so just check the time posted. This picture is taken at Beachwave..I really enjoyed this pool. I think I've spent a long time just riding the waves haha ..actually, I think this is the reason why my whole body ached for a couple of days hehe ^_^

CME also have a kiddie pool, a diving pool, a running pool (I don't know what it's called) where you can just ride a "salbabida" (floater) and rest and also a pool with slide.
There are also food establishments inside the resort so you don't have to worry about food. They are prices reasonably so it's okay. They have Jollibee, Chowking, Shakeys and their own restaurant that delivers food in your room.
Our dinner was from Shakeys... a 14inch hawaiian pizza in thin crust and a box of mojos. Yummy! I really love hawaiian pizza haha ^_^
We actually ate this beside the pool outside the room :)

TIPS:
-Don't bring any food or water from the outside since it is not allowed.
-If you are not planning on staying overnight, just bring a padlock for a locker. They have free lockers for swimnmers to keep their stuff while they are in the pools.
-If you plan on staying overnight, I suggest that you reserve a room in advance because it is summer season and you might not have an available room when you come.

Over all, I give this resort 4.5/5...I could give it 5 if only they allow you to bring snacks inside hehe...I hope you'll enjoy your summer too! Bye!