TinyWeeny Kitchen

If you're used to living at your parents homes that were built back in the 80s , you're quite familiar with the two kitchen system that most homes have. :) the dirty kitchen nasa labas usually ng bahay and the "kitchen" na nasa loob ng bahay na usually ay 'show kitchen" andun yung ref,pantry and all pero hindi kayo dun nagluluto haha, at most gagamit ka lang ng microwave oven :)

Pantry Love!

 

 

Last night, i was bbm-ing my former officemate who is like a big sister to me. i was nagging her i can't sleep bec i was thinking on how to organize our teeny weeny pantry. Mr. Panda was already in his dreamland, and I'm still wide awake bbm-ing one of my most domesticated friends and googling pantry inspirations  (yes, still using a blackberry na maliit ang screen ang tyaga ko diba haha)   :)

 

LifeHacks part 2!

I found some lifehacks that I would like to share with you guys! :)

1. yay for magnets!

2. We also do this at the shower room :)

50 LifeHacks! i love:)

I just want to share with you these life hacks that I read online :) the best part about their tips are these things are usually readily available at our own homes or offices :)

1. Favorite! :)

2.I use the cd spindle for my ribbons :)

Flowers of Hope for Jewelyn

Last night while waiting for Mr.Panda to finish his work, I googled for possible valentine gifts for my friends and my mom's amigas. Part of my 2013 goals is to always incorporate good deeds even in small things. (Our Company's mission Do well, Do good is really rubbing on me).

How was your weekend?

Last weekend was our first "not shuttling back and forth from our parent's homes" and though i miss my folks so much, last weekend was very relaxing for us. Weekend schedules are usually hectic for us! mas marami pa ko tv shows napapanuod pag weekdays compared to weekends LOL 

Parang may bidding war kung saan kami mag lunch and dinner and overnight for the weekend. But last weekend, Mr.Panda and I opted to go to the south friday night and go back to our condo sat night. At least we have Sat night and the whole Sunday just for the two of us and our growing to do list for our new home ;)  Our new home is small lang ha around 40sqm but ang dami pa namin kailangan gawin, organizing the kitchen cabinets pa lang, 3 beses ko na yata inulit yung kitchen cabinets to fit our kitchen things. But everytime I open the kitchen cabinets, part of me is itching to re-do everything again.

 

Anyway, last saturday afternoon I went to the PICC bridal fair with a good friend of mine who is getting married next year, December too! Yay for December weddings!

 

We saw this stall the LUXE Desserts http://www.facebook.com/pages/Luxe-A-list-Desserts/ and I saw their neatly packed Parisian Madeleines, I'm a sucker for nice packagings and tea pastries. I cant help buying a couple of these for my tea pastries fix at night.



Php 100 only :)

 

 





For Sunday Lunch, we rushed a bit to the mall, because we woke up at 11am and we were both sleepy and hungry to prepare brunch, we decided to take the short trip to Greenbelt fot Sunday Lunch. The first resto we saw which have plenty of seats available is Marciano's (so, even if I'm wearing denim shorts and mickey mouse shirt, nag Marciano's kami haha)

Mr.Panda's Lunch Tenderloin with Sausage

 

Mrs. Panda's Lunch Tenderloin with Prawns

 

 

Value for Money: 4/5









*** Ang payat ng prawns
*** I adore the ambiance of Marciano's
*** Tenderloin is A - ok :)


We went around since most stores are on sale and we still have a couple of things on our to-buy list for our new home. But I ended up buying non-home related items, Mango is on sale and Mr.Panda encouraged me to buy a few things for myself. Ang bait ng asawa ko hihi. I was supposed to buy slacks for my dying office wardrobe, but nagkakagulo yung mga tao sa pants when I dropped @gbelt branch. But i was able to score great finds sa bag area! :) i need new office bags bec i'm trying to preserve my other bags for the future lil panda haha excited....

Pink Canvass bag for less than Php 700

 

Gray Doctor's Bag for less than Php 1500

 

 

Value for Money: 5/5 :) :) :)

 

Mango Sale is upto 70% off na :)

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Part 3 of Wedding Reviews :)

14. Rockin Duo

** We booked Rockin Duo when they were fairly new and only have 2 videos on hand. We gambled on our p/v choice and we made the right decision J J J J J

Pros:

-          Vj is the so-called account person and despite of his uber busy schedule he still managed to get back to me within the day whenever I texted him.

-          We kept on moving our prenup shoot L but they were very patient and understanding.

-          During the prenup shoot, Vinz was really patient with me (the anti-photo person haha) he gave us no-brainer directions and we were pleasantly surprised when sa the outcome of the shoot. Vj even assisted me that day and acted like my PA. hihi J J

-          During the bridal preps, their team worked silently and my parents commended them for that. My mom like the fact that despite they are a big group we can hardly feel their presence except for the flash of their cameras.lol J

-          Their team also calmed me down when the priest was late. Again, this team treated us as good friends.

-          I’m grateful that they are impeccably dressed J

-          Their SDE captured most of my favorite people in the world. J Most of our guests raved about our SDE as well.

-          We did not hear a single complain from them.

-          For the price we paid, we felt we paid thrice for the service they gave us.

**we’re still waiting for the raw video and the wedding shots J **

 

15. Triplex Tent (for the courtyard buffet)

Pros:

-          very affordable compared to other tent suppliers

-          communication is smooth

-          HONEST – sumobra ang final payment namin to them, and they texted me agad na sobra and nagulat pa ko sobra pala ng around P1,500. They immediately deposited the ff weekday.

 

16. Transportation

*** I don’t want to use our family cars to prevent further stressJ

Bridal Car: FORD EVEREST (fairly new)

-          I don’t like the traditional bridal cars, I wanted a hummer or e150,but my mom is super nega about it. Haha J when she finally agreed, wala ng available. I found a white ford everest P2,500 inclusive of GAS and Driver! For 8 hours!  Succeeding rate is 250 per hour  only J J and super bait kausap the owner, he is also the driver, and ang linis ng everest nya. Here’s their number: 09187829957. tell them you were referred by Ann, the enderun bride last December J

Groom’s Car: BMW (fairly new)

-           Mr. Panda wanted a CAR naman. Yup, baligtad kami ng taste when it comes to wheels. I found a bmw that is fairly new and only P3,500 inclusive of gas and Driver also for 4 hours J the owner is easy to deal with also  J 09436387858 . tell them you were referred by Ann, the enderun bride last December J

 

Family Van: Toyota Hi-Ace (brand new)

-          my officemate have a van rental service, I got his brand new hi-ace for less than 2k inclusive of driver J we just provided them a very minimal amount for the gas J if you want his contact number, pls feel free to inform me J

17. Metrotech Projectors

*** w@w find! J

-          very easy to talk to and very smooth ang transaction namin.

18. Milas Lechon

** lechon is one of my must-have. Its like 1church 2.reception 3.lechon hahaha J

-          we booked them thru a single phone call and we deposited our payment to their bank account. Very smooth transaction also. J

-          thumbs up for their lechon!

 

19. Global Invitation

Pros:

-          very affordable

-          the owners are very nice to talk to.

-          they have the exact design we wanted.

Cons:

-          delay of the first draft

-          revisions of draft took us more than a month. Paulit ulit ang errors. Minsan tama na, pag email nila ulit ng draft iba naman ang mali.

-          Hindi sila consistent sa emails nila L

-          Delay of the final printing

-          Quality of the invites is so-so, different from what we saw at the expo.

20. Save the Date Cards – QP

** we were supposed to diy our std cards, but Mr.Panda wanted an embossed std card, we dropped by at the QP branch in Parksquare Makati and we liked the classic double happiness design J for less than 20 bucks, we got an embossed save the date card with colored double happiness logo foil print plus a matching envelope J we inquired with other suppliers before and they quoted us 40pesos and up!

 

21.    Hotel Intercon ( 2 nights and 3 days)

** we booked a state suite and a junior suite 7 months before the big day, I wanted a big suite bec I need the space for my entourage when they have their hair and make up done at the hotel and space for my DIY’s turnover to KTG.

 

Pros:

- spacious! The state suite is a single bedroom suite with a Jacuzzi,sauna room with its own shower and cr, 4 seaters dining area, 6 seaters living room, against the wall bar and  kitchenette

- the bedroom is quite big also! They have 4 closets and its own mini bar.

- my entourage and friends were able to change @ the “3 changing rooms” the Jacuzzi/Cr/sauna room J

- my entourage, mommies, auntie had their make up done in the suite and we still moved freely together with the HMUA team (4 heads), p/v (6 heads),KTG ( 5 heads), Couturier Team (3 heads) plus my papa and kuya.

- hosuekeeping service is excellent

- breakfast buffet is A-ok J

Cons:

-          the guy at the reservations is poor in math,  I called him four times and still got the wrong computation.

-          My papa got really pissed off on our 2^nd night, we requested for a trolley and it took them almost an hour to bring the trolley, apparently, there is only one bellboy on nightshift on the 1st Friday of December LL

-          We left a couple of things at the suite, it was only when we called them 3 days after our check out that they told us, that they found it in our suite. Di ba dapat tawagan nila agad ang guests kung may naiwan kami? L

-          When we checked out Saturday afternoon, parang downtown lang ang peg sa dami ng tao sa lobby. You have to hold on to your bags kasi parang mahoholdap ka anytime sa dami ng tao.

(pictures grabbed from google)

21.    Flower Girls and Bearer’s outfits

-          for the FG, we bought their outfit at Rustans Makati. At least, they can still use it after the wedding J we just asked their usual sizes from their parents.

-          for the Beares, we sourced out their outfits at Landmark Makati. My youngest bearer wont fit to the set I provided, his mom, a very good friend of mine form High school bought him a new set a week before the wedding. Thank you mommy jhules!

 

 

21.    REALM HMUA

- I love how my hair is done and its very light despite of the 30plus hairpins na nilagay pala nila J

- make up is 7/10 bec (1).they don’t have the lipstick shade I wanted (sinabi ko na sa knaila before wine red) buti na lang I have my favorite mac prolong (2) tuned oily even before the ceremony started.

- smooth transaction, readily accepted my additional request for 6 extra pax a week before the wedding, the owner reassured me every time I have queries J

 

22.    DIYS

***labor of love with Mr.Panda, family and friends esp to my wedding partners J

 

Souvenirs:

Principal Sponsors

–    we purchased tea sets from CBTL para aligned pa din sa Oriental theme. J

-          chocolate truffles by Lois as place cards at the VIP table

 

Guests:

-          Chinese take out boxes with our favorite childhood chocolates plus candy cane

-          A good friend went to SF for the black Friday sale hihi J and she purchased several bags of Christmas theme chocolates for us J sweetest gift for our wedding J

-          My best friend, Josan, handwritten the labels for our take out boxes J

-          Lois bought the pretty gold and white cards and Mymy got me the red pens! J

Guest tables: (Décor Budget: less than 150php per table)

-          I bought all the glass wares a year before the wedding from Landmark and s&r J

-          Gold Picture Frames from American Bazaar at atc

-          Table napkins by enderun, but we provided two rolls of ribbons for the knots J

-          Cupcake Cups from divi P1.50 each J  served as escort cards

-          Mr. Panda bought petals of red roses from BF and we placed them at the glasses with the floating candle from Watsons P149.00 for 50 pcs

Cocktail Buffet:

-          Three ball jars from truevalue P250.00 only!

-          Oval plastic servers and round appetizer plastic server less than P100 from s&r

-          Round glass containers from Uniwide Sucat P25.00

-          Apothecary jars, borrowed from mymy, she bought them less than 300 each from Ever grocery pque J

-          Cake Trays P500 each from Gourdos, mymy bought one for her wedding and I loaned her mine during her eco chic wedding for her cake buffet. J then I borrowed hers last december for my cocktail buffet

-          Yogurt Powder Sticks from candy corner

-          Butter Biscuits, Choco chip cookies, Ice gems from le doux c/o lois and mymy

-          Purple Oven Brownies placed in red cupcake holders c/o lois

-          Pringles, chips, oreos, fish crackers, heart shaped mallows from Landmark

-          Pretzels from Santis

-          Serving tools (tongs and scoopers) from Cooks Exchange Rockwell

-          Red Tissues from Uncle Bills store

-          Just married lanterns from Oriental Trading

-          Love is Sweet, take a treat Post – diy by lois J

 

 

Registration Table:

-          Just married lanterns from Oriental Trading

-          A and P letters from marketmarket

-          LOVE picture frame from 168 mall

-          Birdcage from Metro Dept Store

-        Guestbook – Chocolate Book from Booksale perfect for chocoholics like me and the gold cover is perfect for our theme

 

      -     Sharpie – from mymy

 

 

Kiddie Guests:

 

-          Souvenirs for the kiddos: Mickey mouse and Minnie mouse head from 168 mall 75 each only! sa landmark , more than 200php. Filled them with drinks and sweet treats.

(photo grabbed from google)

 

 

-          Entertainment kits – plastic envelope with coloring books and crayons

-          Bubbles and Startrek toys from toys r us

-          Cotton candy tubs from landmark

 

Here Comes The Bride Card

 

- Illustration board and gold markers – diy by our creative director from the office J

 

Car Snacks

-          We distributed car snacks to the guests after the ceremony because it’s the first Friday of December and we already anticipated the traffic at edsa and mckinley. We bought boxes of mineral water and mymy & lois bought me boxes of breadstix and eggnogs. J

 

Powder Rooms

 

-          we placed extra hand liquid soaps, lotions, spray alcohol and  hand santizers at the powder rooms J

-          I purchased from oriental trading packed tissues in red brocade covers and placed some of them at the powder rooms and some of them at the pews of the church with little notes like “Tears of Joy” J my closest niece told me she liked the idea of the Tear of Joy Tissues J

 

 

Arrhae Pillow

- Von provided an arrhae pillow, but I removed the silver arrhae that is included with the pillow and placed a clear plastic chest box which I got for free when I bought chococoins from downtown J

 

Surprise Reception Video

- since we are not into the surprise dance number entrance fad for weddings, we opted to make a mini story clip of our love story. Video plus editing by best friend’s hubby. And the preggy best friend is our director/scriptwriter J

 

 

Overall, our wedding is a success simply because natuloy siya! Kaht nag stop ako during my bridal march because nawala ang music…….. J LOL J my forever gratitude to my parents and brother for extending their patience to my OC-ness, to my suppliers who arrived on time, to our elderly relatives from the North who took the time to travel to makati/taguig , to our relatives and friends who flew home, to my flower girls (lorraine, louie and ishy!) and bearers (ky, rj and tylerlove!)  and my here comes the bride boy(thirdy, you are one the best wedding giftsJ) who walked without making a fuss (and their stage mommies too!), for my bosses who were very patient and supportive, our former officemates, our high school friends who even made a surprise video presentation for us! which brought us to tears by the way ( we love you guys), our friends who stayed until the end of the reception (thank you J) my wedding sisters/partners – ladies, you are the best! J and lastly, to Mr. Panda for being my Mr. Panda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 2 of Wedding Review :)

 

7. Pink Smile Photobooth

 

We got this photobooth supplier at the wedding expo together with my HMUA. I believe Pink Smile and Realm are sister companies

 

Pros:

 

-          they were able to customized our preferred layout, the Lucky Chinese Couple logo J

-          we only coordinated with them thru emails and sms but everything went smoothly

-          price is very reasonable

-          good quality printout

-          we DIY’d our ribbon wall as a backdrop instead of the usual tarp, and they helped us to install them J

 

 

8.  Onesimus

 

We’re supposed to book Mr.K , a tailoring shop at BF Homes, but we decided to buy their suits at Onesimus. My papa and kuya are happy with their tux J Mr. Panda had his suit made at Onesimus too but we bought his cloth at Benson @ylaya. Our family buy cloth from them since the 1960s J we bought the cashmere cloth for more than a thousand per yard, but if we bought it at Onesimus its double the price J if you’re paying cash, you can ask for a bigger discount pa J

 

 

9. Flowers of May

 

Pros:

-          they were able to customized our needs, since I’m allergic to flowers, we have to minimize the use of it.

-          For the church, I requested for the asters bec I wanted the all white look

-          For my bouquet – Red Ecuadorian roses and paper roses with green berries, but some of the edges turned black already by 5pm…

-          For the reception, I ordered floral arrangement for the VIP table,  expectations were met J for the couple’s back drop, I requested for two twig trees (P1,500 per tree only!) and waterfalls (P2,500 only)

-          Price is incredibly low, miss tess is easy to talk to regarding discounts

Cons:

-          they forgot to install the waterfalls L until now I haven’t received our refund for that.

 

 

 

 

10. Kiss the Girl Events OTD

 

I booked KTG a year and a half before our big day. I met arbee at atc with my parents, my mom liked arbee and she told arbee what are her likes and dislikes (na medyo marami haha)

 

Pros:

-          booked them at their promo rate, feeling ko medyo nalugi sila sa dami ng meetings namin :P

-          prompt in responding via emails and sms

-          during the almost 2 years preps, arbee checked on me from time to time and she gave me suppliers despite the fact I only availed of their OTD services.

-          She remembered I’m allergic to flowers and she even emailed me pegs of a non-floral bouquet

-          She accompanied me at the wedding expo where I booked my florist and mobile bar and to enderun also, for the final detailing. While miss cece went to the rehearsals naman J

-          She helped me with the missalette, I was supposed to DIY it but I’m two weeks away from the big day and hindi ko pa nagagawa haha J arbee stepped in and did the missalette for me.

-          I have tons of DIY, even my guest table centerpieces are DIY, KTG did the set up of the centerpieces for 14 tables, the cocktails buffet and the registration table J

-          Arbee assisted us during our tea ceremony (Mr. Panda is 100% Chinese)

-          Arbee accepted my turnover of DIY and props. They are 24 boxes…… J

-          KTG distributed to the guests the “car snacks” (mineral water and breadstix)  after the church   ceremony

 

-     The young lady who stayed at my side, i believe is anj ;) she's really nice :)

-     KTG’s concern for us is more than a supplier’s, they treated us good friends. J

 

tips:

- for the OC-ness level of my friends and mine too haha J 8.5/10 J

 

 DIY: Registration table (from the A & P, just married lanterns, bird cage, LOVE picture frame)

 

 

11. Bridal Shoes

 

Ninewest – gorgeous..but a bit uncomfy bec its 4.5 inches. I wore it at the pictorial sa hotel haha J

Charles & Keith – perfect and comfy fit J reasonably price J

 

 

12. Shots Mobile Bar

 

We booked at the wedding expo and availed of their package good for 100 pax.

 

Pros:

-          I love their bar J

-          Good looking bartenders

-          They accepted our request to serve sparkling wines, I provided them 5 bottles of chamdor na lang. No extra fee J

 

Cons:

-          a bit difficult to communicate with them

-          confusion on our package

 

 

 

13. DIY by my wedding partners Lois and Mymy

 

Lois and Mymy are Mr.Panda’s friends from gradeschool. I met them around 4 years ago even before Mr.Panda and I became friends, I met them thru my bestfriend’s then fiancé. They all went to one school nga pala J we see each other from time to time, birthdays, holiday dinner, outreach projects. But it was only last year that I got really close to them, when they learned of our engagement, lois and mymy reached out to me and extended their help with the preps. My maid of honor is based in the US kasi.

Then mymy got engaged and we started sharing ideas for our weddings, lois is a total sweetheart, managing two brides with two completely different themes. Mymy had an eco-chic wedding that deserved a spot at the Martha Stweart website J

 

 

The ring pillow was provided by Von Lazaro, I just pinned my english hat (gift from mymy and lois)  from my bridal tea party. J

 

 

I’m afraid I don’t have better pictures of the chocolate truffles ( the gold box is the chocolate truffles) that Lois made for our principal sponsors but I can’t help raving how yummy they are, and our principal sponsors even asked us where to order them. J

 

Mymy, the creative one, fixed our candles and matches. I bought the double happiness ribbon at Wrap Shop Rockwell Branch and with our trusty gluegun, Mymy fixed our candles and matched in 1 hour.

 

 

Our Cord by mymy too J

 

My wedding sisters/partners kept me sane during the preps and upto the last minute I walked down the aisle :)