Eternity, Weddings and Celebrations Fair 2019

Enderun Events, in partnership with Kiss the Girl Events, invites you to join the Eternity Weddings and Celebrations Fair 2019!

We’ve handpicked 80 of Enderun’s most trusted event suppliers and they’ll all be offering exclusive deals and packages just for you. From stylists and photographers, to event planners and makeup artists, you’re sure to find the right suppliers who will turn your dream function into a reality.

The best part about all this? The fair is absolutely free of charge! Drop by Enderun and enjoy an amazing day of building the perfect custom wedding, debut, birthday party, corporate event, and more.

Eternity Weddings and Celebrations Fair will be held on June 15 and 16, 2019 at the Enderun Tent and The Atrium, McKinley Hill, Taguig City.

Save the date and we’ll see you soon!

Save On Your Wedding By Using Your Souvenir As Table Centrepiece

Flowers are an integral part of wedding receptions.  But, if your on a tight budget, choose a souvenir that can become a part of your table decoration.

Image Source: Pinterest

First things first, I wouldn't advice you to do this on your wedding day.  Create a mock set up and assign someone to do it for you.

Potted Succulents are best suited for this.  If you're not giving them individually, allocate a set per table.

Start by adding a sliced wood for stability.

Create height using inexpensive crate boxes.

Place the potted succulents strategically so that you have one on all sides.  5 or 6 per table would be ideal.

You can further enhance it with loose arrangement of flowers that you can just cut and shoot.  Use recycled jars and bottles as container.

Lastly, add candles to set the mood.  LED candles on plain paper muffin cups is a good alternative.

Add leaves or logs for long tables.

Image Source: Pinterest 

You can use the money you save for your honeymoon!

Hope this was helpful!

Image Source: Pinterest

Visit www.brideguide.ph for your succulents souvenir!

Comment your suggestions below!

The Advantages and Disadvantages of All In Vs DIY Wedding Package

In the Philippines, you only get married once, and every couples dream is to have the best Ceremony and Reception.

A lot of vendors are offering All-in packages and its understandable for couples to take this option for the following reasons.

1. Convenient

Having to search for individual suppliers can be tedious.  Especially if your wedding dates fall on the peak season.  You have to go through their individual price, availability, location and inclusions.  With an all in package, you just communicate with a single person that has connection to all these vendors.

2. Fast

I your pressed for time, and only have a few months to prepare, this will save you time.  Since you only communicate with one person, its that persons responsibility to get commitments from their partner supplier.  They can easily find replacements to fill the missing details.

3. Affordable

These bundled packages are secured through special tie up rates, making it more affordable to couples.

Based on this photo published by Bridal Gallery, the average wedding spending ranges from 269K to 1.2M.  Anything below this range is a good deal.

But of course, there are disadvantages with this option.  Most of the wedding scams fall into this category.

1. Limited Options

Since, the rates are discounted to begin with, there's little room for customisation because it entails additional cost.  They can probably  accommodate as far as adapting to your color scheme, but if your color choice is hard to match, you would just have to settle with the closest available option.

2. Common

Some can offer thematic options, but this would totally depend on the availability of their existing props and materials.  These rates are based on their basic offering, and theres a big chance that this is the service availed by most of their clients.  Be prepared to shell out more if you have special requests.

3. Risky

Since you communicate with one person, the control of your budget also falls into their hands.  In the extreme case that she ran away with your money, you're left with nothing.

Here are some valuable tips to prevent you from getting scammed.

1. Background Check

Don't get hooked on the lowest price.  Investigate on the supplier offering the service.  Don't limit yourself to their Facebook profile because this can easily be changed.  Check how long they have been in the industry, whether they have a valid address, a landline supplementing their mobile numbers and the feedbacks from previous clients.

2. Check the Budget Allocation for Each Vendor

This will help you manage your expectation.  If the bulk of your budget goes into the food and venue, you know that your flowers or maybe the other services are compromised.  You add only to the things important to you which can be your Video inclusion to include aerial shots.  Don't expect a 3 layer cake to be fully edible if only 1K goes to your cake vendor.

3. Manage your payment schedule.

Most of the services are delivered on your wedding day and there's no reason that this had to be settled immediately.  Suppliers can not impose this on you, because you want your money to be spent on your wedding and not a revolving fund to serve others.

Pay not more than 10% to reserve the date, and the rest in progression as you meet the other vendors.

Meet the other vendors!! This will allow you to check if your instructions are communicated, and if possible, settle directly with them.

Pay 50% to the caterer only after you had your food tasting and actually seen the venue.

The only suppliers that needs to get paid immediately are those that would require pre production, like your invitations, which you would need weeks before your wedding day.

In return, you have to prepare all the remaining balance in cash to allow them to settle their individual obligations and make room to cover unanticipated expense incurred.

If they delivered beyond your expectation, words of gratitude are enough but a monetary tip speak volumes.

It saddens me to hear news of a wedding scam.  Marriage only happens once, and you cannot put value on a memory wasted and the would be celebration you just want to forget

Im hoping this advise was helpful.

Feel free to add more, or comment whether you agree or not.

As a caution, here's a link to the recent wedding scam in the news:

10 Tips On How To Gain Online Presence On Instagram For Wedding Suppliers

The most efficient way to reach soon to wed couples is still bridal fairs.  But, for a starting business like ours, it can be expensive especially if you are still working to generate sales.  The next option for wedding professionals is to promote on social media.  Although not entirely free, it generates popularity and convenient.

My first year in building the online directory for www.brideguide.ph gave me the opportunity to study my online presence as well expose myself with the accounts of wedding suppliers.

This experience allowed me to gain best practises on posting and shortcuts on gaining followers and engagement on my posts.

Weddings are very visual, and Instagram allows you to showcase products for free.

Tips On Using Instagram

1. Create a Business Account

Compared to a standard Instagram account, the business format has an added functionality wherein contact numbers, email, and locations are indicated.  It is best to complete this information, because the more you can be reached, the more secured your followers feel.

2. Link your Facebook account on settings.

This allows your IG posts to appear on your Facebook timeline instantly.  It saves you time on uploading photos and composing post description.  Its important to note however that tagging on Instagram is different on Facebook.  What I do, is edit the FB post immediately after, for proper tagging.

The text box for Instagram is also shorter, and only two lines appear on the mobile browser.  Make the first sentence of the description short and as attention grabbing as the photo.

3. Web Links does not function on IG.

Web links that takes your users directly to a website section does not function automatically on IG posts.  Instead, include that they visit your bio for the website link.

4.  Group your photos through hashtags

Unlike Facebook, Instagram does not have the functionality to create albums to group your photos.  This can be done by creating a unique hashtag, which you can type on the search box to generate the photos you tagged for future reference.  Something unique ensures that posts from other users will not be included.

5.  Use hashtags wisely!

I personally use a generic hashtag to describe the photo and narrow it down to the specific description.  This allows a wider audience at the same time capture those that are looking for specific
items.

6. Check your profile page.

Apart from your posts, your profile page is also your branding.  I would normally post in sets of 3.  You can group them in terms of colours or content.  This make your page look curated.

7. Use a variety of posts.

Compelling photo gets the most reach.  I defined compelling as something that appeals to the emotion.  Ask yourself how the photo makes you feel.  Cute and Funny photos are guaranteed to generate likes.  For variety, use videos and quotes.  You can convert photos to videos with an app called ImgPlay, and Quotes Creator includes a collection of quotes, background and styles you can
use.

In taking photos, especially of a product, make sure to capture its essence if you have access to it.  They to consider its background and lighting.  Snapseed is a good photo editing tool.  Its also best to provide a scale reference, like a popular item so your followers can grasp its size.  I have encountered photos with watermarks blocking the item.  This would be ok if your highlighting your brand, but generally, its the product that needs to stand out.

If you ran out of original material, try reposting.  Purchase the app called Repost for Instagram so you can take out the watermark, but still include the original caption in the description to acknowledge the source.  Don't get material from the same account.  Your users will just migrate to your source than follow you.  Instead, I follow hashtags and bookmark photos that appeal to me the most.  I try to alternate original with a sourced material.  Instead of choosing the most popular, I would opt for the most recent.  The most popular gets bookmarked more often than the recent ones.

8.  Use less text.

As much as possible, use short text on the photos and add more to the description.  If you are challenged to compress the thought, use smaller fonts.  Posts with less text gets noticed more.

9. Use IG Stories

Although, its only available for only 24 hours, It allows for more engagement through the use of questions, polls, rating, gifs, mentions and tagging.  Followers can also reach you through messaging.

You can now archive your stories through the use of highlight.  Use icons as your archive cover for a better appearance.

10.  Study your insights.

Insights provide valuable information on your performance and the behaviour of your audience.  You can check the time when you get the most engagement and whether your reaching your target market.  If you have a physical product being sold on an online store, you can reach more audience by promoting a specific post.  Promotions allows you to reach people who are not following you, therefore gaining followers as well.

If your budget allows, try to spend on advertising.  There was a time when all this functionality is available for free, and with the improvement of technology, developers will just figure out a way to monetise every opportunity.  Spend on it right now, because it will just get more expensive with time.

A Year In The Life Of Bride Guide Philippines

Bride Guide Philippines, had been in my mind since 3 years ago.

I realised that by May of 2016 I am eligible for retirement and tried to weigh my options whether to stay with my corporate job as an Assistant Director for Sales and Marketing or pursue the path of Entrepreneurship.

My passion for events and wedding started even before that.  I would take on hosting jobs for supplementary income and tried my hands at event planning on my spare time.

After extending a few months in my day job, I decided to leave my company of 10 years to start my own business.

I know its a huge risk, but I cannot postpone my dreams any further.

The idea of an online bridal shop came, when I was asked to help plan the wedding of a former colleague based in Papua New Guinea.  They chose Boracay as their wedding destination for December 28, 2015.  Being based in Manila, I had to find a beach front resort that would accommodate them, during peak season and closed off dates because of the holidays.  I also need to make sure that the venue availability matches with the church schedule.  Search engines provided me with a list of hotels, but I still had to narrow it down to those that accommodate weddings.  I was finally able to book the church and Fridays Resort in Station 3.

Then came even more challenges, searching for the essential suppliers like Photographers, Makeup Artists, Flowers, Outfits etc.  I'm aware that this can be done by wedding planner, but a hands on bride could have easily done this given the right information.

Among the task that I do on my previous job involved monitoring Online Travel Agents, and it gave me the idea that booking for wedding suppliers should be as easy as booking for hotels online.  Online bridal directory had been in existence but it does not have the convenience of selecting the right supplier based on the budget.  I also realised that travel agent transactions were done manually in the past, and Wedding Agents must follow.

To get a better grasp of the wedding industry in the Philippines and establish connections, I joined my event stylist best friend Teddy Manuel in running the operations of his business after my retirement.  It gave me a better understanding of the brides behaviour from proposals to closing the deal up to the event execution.  I learned that Weddings are very personal and relationships with suppliers is essential for a successful outcome.

This become my take off in developing the site.  To make it convenient for brides but not take out the aspect of human connection to the suppliers.

In September 2017, I started building the site but eventually changed it just 2 weeks after going live.  The first platform I chose is not designed for selling so I changed it to a store format.

Our Facebook account, Bride Guide Philippines was created September 14, 2017 followed by the Instagram account 3 days after.  The website www.brideguide.ph currently being used went live on September 25.

As we approach our first year,  I would like to celebrate on milestones instead profit.  Our Facebook reached 7,606 followers, and 802 on Instagram.

Thank you to all the wedding suppliers, namely Vincent Duke Photography, Boy Kastner Santos, Weddings at Camp Benjamin, and Teddy Manuel  who took risk with me in taking the Wedding Industry into the Digital Age.

To our followers, WEE-Commerce The Wedding and Events, Electronic Commerce has arrived.

Thank you also to my partner and family for their patience and support.

The next year is dedicated on converting soon to wed couples to go digital.  I know that through God's grace, It will it happen.

Happy Anniversary to all of us!

Omar C. Palero
Developer and Owner


Logo evolution:

Meaningful Journeys at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila

Celebrating love through new heights

Experience moments brought by remarkable celebrations with Marco Polo Ortigas Manila’s Meaningful Journeys fair on 21 October 2018 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

The event fetes how love is celebrated at new heights, as it showcases Life’s every milestone with a curation of the finest elements that make up a meaningful occasion—from cuisine and  design to entertainment and cherished trinkets and souvenirs. Marco Polo Ortigas Manila is proud to work with some of the most well-respected personalities and organizations in bringing intimate festivities to life. These include Gideon Hermosa, Michael Ruiz, Teddy Manuel, and 7 Lily; photography experts and film producers Mayad Studio, Nice Print Photography, Chestknots Studio, Forevermine Wedding Films, and Baicapture Inc.; boudoir designers Jo Rubio and Francis Libiran; cake designers Pastry Bin by Penk Ching, Naked Patisserie and Cake Concepts; event organizers Kutchie Zaldarriaga and New Victory Trading; hair and makeup artists Winn Ramos and Mariah Santos; jeweler extraordinaire Matus; stationery and giveaways by Print Divas and Knotsville; beverage leader Moet Hennessy; musicians 3^rd Avenue and Bernie Pasamba; host Atom Ungson; bridal car services from Don Robert’s; and technical and production teams from B&K Professionals, LX Events Pro, and LST Mobile.

Registered guests will get to interact with both Marco Polo Ortigas Manila’s experienced events professionals as well as experience different activities during the day of the event. Select keynote speakers will also be on-hand to share insights for soon-to-weds regarding the journey towards happily ever after. Guests will also enjoy a boudoir showcase featuring unique bridal gown concepts.

Take the first step towards forever with Meaningful Journeys. To learn more about the hotel, visit www.marcopolohotels.com. Follow the Hotel in Facebook at facebook.com/MarcoPoloOrtigasManila or @MarcoPoloManila on Twitter or Instagram.

*           *           *

For more information contact:	Kristine Facto
	Director of Marketing Communications
	Marco Polo Ortigas Manila
	Tel: (632) 720-7777 loc 6314
	Mobile: (63) 917 823 5268
	Email: kristine.facto@marcopolohotels.com

Taking The Wedding Industry To The Digital Age

The Philippine Wedding Industry generates a multi billion pesos of sales annually. On an average, close to 500,000 couples get married yearly with an average spending of 350,000 pesos. In a span of 10 years, it has grown dramatically and has give rise to global popularity of local icons in the wedding scene. Event stylists are now going international with demands from foreign clients, and destinations extend beyond the Philippine shore.
It is with this premise that Bride Guide Philippines created a digital platform for wedding suppliers to expand globally by making its information and services available online. It runs on a mobile compatible format without requiring any downloads.

Through the website www.brideguide.ph, soon to wed couples can access a directory of suppliers grouped into the services they offer.

It also functions as a bridal shop with a variety of wedding and event related products sold online. All major credit cards are accepted with options for bank deposits.

The creator, Architect Omar Palero combined his knowledge on Group Buying Sites, and Online Travel Agents, to Event Planning/Styling and custom made the site to adapt to the local wedding scene. According to Omar, "The challenge right now is to convert the wedding market to go digital. To educate couples of the convenience of shopping and buying online." Among the advantages identified includes: 1. Budget Preparation. Seeing the best rates, couple can allocate their expense and efficiently prepare and track their budget. 2. Convenience. Through this platform, you can conveniently communicate or inquire without having to leave your desk or home. You avoid traffic, looking for parking spaces and having to sort through the leaflets and flyers you've collected which eventually would end up in the bin. 3. Save. The site offers, exclusive rates and promotions solely available to online clients. The site went live September of 2017 and went on a trial run until the start of 2018. Much of the effort during the first three quarters were to build the directory and get suppliers to sell. As it moves forward to the last quarter, the focus is now on driving traffic to the site and promoting directly to couples themselves. Catch Bride Guide Philippines this September 28-30, 2018 at the ABS-CBN Vertis Tent for the Getting Married Bridal Fair.

Day 163 to 40: Bride Guide Discount Card

It has been 8 months since I launched the site www.brideguide.ph.

Apart from the 3 orders I received last February, I have not made any sale for the last 2 months.

My business permit is due last April 20, and I have not processed my the BIR registration.

I am beginning to doubt my decision to leave my job and start a business.

But quitting is far from my mind.  I just know I need to make a better strategy to reach more couples.

I'm now developing the idea of creating a discount cards for Brides and Grooms.  It will make partnerships with suppliers less complicated, and it will help drive people to my site.

I was inspired y this photo:

Photo Credit to the Owner

I want it to be distributed as a pair but can be used individually by the Bride or the Groom.  I am now in the works of having it laid out to be able to get the attention of wedding suppliers as well as the bride and groom themselves.  I want to create discount bundles not only for marrying couples, but their individual needs as Bride and Grooms.

Will this be my break to go viral?  Im hoping it would.

With God's grace... I know it would!

How To Register Your Business Name in Mandaluyong

The first thing you need to do is get a business name registration form from the Department of Trade and Industry.  You can fill out forms online, but its still best to visit the regional office close to you.  They have rules on the business name composition, and you can revise and edit on the spot.

Step 1: Register your Business Name

The closest regional office is right across SM Megamall.  There's a DTI Satellite Office within the city hall complex, but if your area of coverage extends beyond the city, you need to visit the Area III office.

I'm registering Bride Guide Philippines, but ended up having a totally different business name.

DTI Area III Office

Tips in visiting DTI

1. Make sure you bring a valid identification with you for verification.
2. Come early, depending on the influx of applicants, they usually stop accepting after 12 noon.
3. The area has limited parking, my suggestion is to park either at Starmall or Megamall, then walk your way to the building.
4. Make sure you know the Barangay where your business address is located.  It does not have a bearing on the scope of business, but will affect the processing of your Mayor's permit, because the pre requisite is a Barangay Clearance.
5. Fees are dependent on the scope of area of your business, whether its Barangay, Citywide, Regional, or Nationwide.
• Barangay: 200 pesos
• Citywide: 500 pesos
• Regional: 1000 pesos
• National: 2000 pesos
6. Make sure to bring extra 15 pesos for the documentary stamp.

The process is relatively easy.  They will first usher to the pre assessment desk.  They will review your documents and when everything is cleared, will give you a number for processing.   You just need to wait for your number to be called.  Here, they will review your business name.  Once you agree on the format that's acceptable, they will direct you to the cashier for payment.  After paying the correct fees, they will call you again for the release of your DTI Certificate.

It is important to note, that the certificate cannot be reprinted throughout the duration of its validity, so be careful not lose or damage it.

Surprisingly, I was in and out of the agency in no time.

Now Selling Online: Cakesicles by Bite Me Cakeshoppe

Cant wait to get my hands on these cute Cakesicles from Bite Me Cakeshoppe.  They are adorable to look at, but they taste just as good.

They can now be purchased online at www.brideguide.ph at only 100 pesos each.  A minimum of 12 pieces per order is required with additional 350 pesos delivery charge within Metro Manila.

Visit the site now!