Wedding Supplier Review: Tales of Music
Tales of Music of Bojo Luzentales provides music from duo, trio, quartet to full band set up for any event. They have top rated pianists, violinists, percussionist, guitarists, flutists and singers. In fact, during the reception, we found out that one of the guys performs with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.
We called them up and turned out that Bojo is very easy to deal with. We went and listened to them perform (the undying Canon in D, what else?), reviewed their repertoire, and selected songs. They have a pretty comprehensive repertoire and they were willing to practice songs not on the list. In no time at all, we closed the deal.
On the wedding day, they arrived on time and in neat barongs that matched the requested attire. Most importantly they were able to play all the songs we requested very well. And what’s more, they were even able to do excellent vocals for a surprise song.
I have just one very minor issue: I requested for a string quartet and they agreed. But on the wedding day, they arrived with a keyboard :P Still, the music ended up very nice. Like I said, it was a very minor issue.
Cost: P13,000 for a quartet plus P3,000 out of town fee
Rating: 5/5
Bialetti Dama
We got this Bialetti Dama as a wedding gift from Bing. It is a stove-top coffee maker based on the classic Bialetti Moka Express. The Dama is the newer, slightly modernized model.
The differences are actually pretty subtle: silicone rubber handle and “soft-touch” plastic knob instead of bakelite and a slightly rounded tank instead of octagonal. Both are made of aluminum and are functionally the same.
To make coffee, pour water (preferably filtered) into the tank, drop in the funnel, and put some coffee grounds (espresso grind but not too fine!) on the funnel. Screw the pot onto the tank, put on top of stove on low to medium heat (my preference), and wait as the water boils. Because of the gasket on the tank, the pressure and heat is higher. Once the water boils, steam drives through funnel into the coffee grounds, up the pot stem and into the pot. Remove from heat when, or preferably before, you hear the characteristic gurgling sound.
Pour and serve your freshly-made coffee! Okay, it’s not exactly espresso, since the pressure and heat is not high enough to produce crema and the thick consistency of true espresso. But it’s as close as you can get without spending a lot.
After use and enjoying the coffee, just wash with water. This lets the coffee oils coat and season the metal so that your espresso gets better and better as the years go by. You might want to clean the tank a bit more vigorously though since all the boiling leaves stains and calcium deposits. But, aside from replacing the rubber gasket, that’s about all you need to do to make it last.
A classic piece of coffee gear that you shouldn’t be without.
Wedding Supplier Review: Don Robert
If you’re looking for vintage cars, there’s practically only one place to go to: Don Robert’s Bridal Cars. I personally preferred a modern bridal car such as a Chrysler 300C (incidentally, they have those too), but there’s a reason why they call it BRIDAL car and not couple car or groom car :P
Our first choice was the 1932 Studebaker. But it was no longer available. Our second choice was the 1953 Adenauer. Guess what? It’s also no longer available. So we settled for the Jaguar Mk II . Word of advice: book far ahead in order to get the car of your choice. Don Robert is nice and easy to talk to so it shouldn’t be a problem.
On the wedding day, the car and driver arrived on the scheduled time. Which is to in time for pictorials. However, the photographers decided not to do any pictorial with the car before the wedding so it ended up just sitting pretty in front of the hotel. And pretty it was. It was clean both inside and out. And though the new-car aura was a long faded memory, everything was completely functional and comfortable. There were no shakes and rattles even from the engine. It definitely was well-maintained.
A word of advice though: One thing with vintage cars is that no matter how well-maintained they are, the more vintage they are, the proportionally higher then chance of breaking down. So make sure to keep a reasonably presentable white car as backup bridal car. My own car, driven by Jim (thanks fafi!) was pressed into service as backup car. We didn’t have a breakdown but the driver was careful and drove slow.
Which takes me to another word of advice: Allocate enough time for the slow drive as well as pictorials on the way when you do your booking. Otherwise you’ll end up having to pay for the excess time and doing a financial transaction from inside the car. It’s like taking a taxi cab ride right on your wedding day. Not nice.
But all in all, good service and experience.
Cost: P12,350 plus P4,000 for excess time of 2 hours
Rating: 4/5
Wedding Supplier Review: Cardprints
I’ll say it right away: if you’re looking for a wedding invitation supplier, DO NOT get Cardprints! They absolutely suck. Sure they have a nice display and, at the time we were looking for invitation suppliers, they were offering a seemingly generous anniversary promo.
But after you pay your deposit, you get to a frustrating situation where you can only get to talk to the sales representative at their booth. You can’t talk to their designer(s). But they were so inept that even if you could, it would still be frustrating. They kept doing everything wrong. You correct something, they take their time fixing it, and when they get done, another error pops up. You correct that and the previous error pops back in. It was so frustrating.
We eventually ran out of time and had to go to print with a less-than-satisfactory proof. And we even had to pay a rush fee just so we can make up for the lost time. You have been warned.
Cost: P9,600 plus P1,920 rush fee
Rating: 0/5