The Process
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I. Initial Wedding Gown Inspiration :
We understand that most brides have an idea of what design they want before they talk to me. We encourage future brides, whereever they may be residing, to contact us by email or, better yet, visit our shop, and discuss with me or one of my in-house designers to discuss how we can best help you make your dream bridal gown come true. If you visit our shop, we may be able to suggest some of our designs and show you how they could be revised to suit your style. Upon request, you may also try on one of our sample gowns on display and take a picture to help you decide. After an initial discussion, we will prepare a hand drawing of the bridal gown design, which we will send to you usually by email, within a few days.
Please note that we accept walk-in inquiries. However, we strongly suggest the following to minimize the waiting time in our shop: (i) call us to set-up an appointment and (ii) try to come to our shop on a weekday. When visiting our shop, please follow the parking instructions posted on our show window to avoid being hassled by the parking enforcers of the municipality. Please note that we place high importance to customer satisfaction and try to reply to 
email inquiries as soon as we receive it. However, being a clothing shop first and foremost, we do not have extensive computer support and may not be able to respond to your email messages right away. Should this happen, please accept our apologies in advance and please do not hesitate to send us a follow-up message. We will try to reply to your inquiries as soon as possible.
During our presentation, either in person or by email, we will also show you an inventory of my unique artwork and/or French lace from which you can choose from. We will be glad to reserve the unique artwork and/or material you select for a week to give you time to make up your mind. go top
II. Selection of Color Guide and Wedding Entourage Designs
While the bridal gown is being finalized, you may also want to discuss the color motif and designs for the wedding entourage, including the parents, should you decide to have their clothes made in our shop. Similar to the wedding gown design, we will prepare a hand drawings of the designs, which we will send to you, usually by email, within a few days. We can also send you swatches of the color motif to be used upon your request. If you are not able to personnally able to visit our shop, you can ask a relative or a friend to come to our shop to inspect the materials for you. For printed fabrics, you may select from our inventory and we will be glad to reserve the materials for a week to give you time to make up your mind.
Please note that as an incentive, should you book the bridal gown and the whole entourage in our shop, we will provide the bride with an embroidered wedding bag, first long veil, secondary veil, cord, blue garter, pillows and arrhae free of charge. go top
III. Taking Measurements:
Once the design is in place, measurements can be taken either of two ways:
- visiting our shop and having one of our staff take your measurements; or
- downloading the measurement guide from this website and sending us the completed form by email or facsimile.
IV. Quotation Form/Contract Signing and Down Payment:
Once you have decided to contract our services, we request that you return to us a signed copy of the quotation form we provided you together with the applicable down payment. We will treat the executed quotation form, as it is amended from time to time, as our contract with you. We usually request a down payment of fifty percent of the total price stated in the quotation form. For clients located overseas, we will send you bank wiring instructions should be desire to wire us the down payment. Please note that to be fair to all our clients, we cannot start cutting the fabrics without receiving the necessary downpayment. Once we have received your downpayment, we will make sure that all reserved material and unique artwork will be taken out of the inventory. go top
V. First Fitting
A first fitting is usually a fitting of the form of the wedding gown or the dress without the necessary embroidery and beadwork. This ensures that the gown or dress fits properly before we embellish it with the detailed artwork. We usually schedule a first fitting approximately a month or two after we receive an executed quotation form and applicable downpayment. However, we understand that some clients have limited time or have travel plans. Therefore, upon request, we try to schedule the first fitting within a shorter time frame, even as short as a day's notice, after we receive an executed quotation form and downpayment. We will try to contact you prior to your schedule to remind you of your first fitting. Please note that we strongly suggest that you bring the shoes you plan to wear during the wedding to ensure the proper length of the gown. If you do not have the shoes yet, please provide us with the estimate height of the heels of the shoes you plan to wear during the wedding. go top
VI. Succesive Fittings and Progress Reports
Successive fittings are usually required for gowns and dresses which have embroidery and/or beadwork or are technically harder to make, like gowns with drapings and crushing effects. We recommend that you schedule your successive fittings well ahead of the wedding date to avoid last minute alterations. Please ensure that you bring the shoes you plan to wear during the wedding so that the length of the gowns or dresses are measured and cut properly.
Please note the following minimum lead time required to prepare the embroidery and beadwork of the various designs from the first fitting date:
- Pina material - 60 days from first fitting
- Unique artwork (top only) - 30 days from first fitting
- Unique artwork (top and bottom) - 45 days from first fitting
- French lace (with electric pleatting) - 30 days from first fitting
- French lace (with additional beadwork) - 30 days from first fitting
- Grecian gown (with draping or crushing effect) - 15 days from first fitting
- Grecan gowns (with embroidery) - 30 days from first fitting
- Suit - 15 days from first fitting
- Barong - 15 days from first fitting
Please note that the lead time shown above are just estimates and may vary based on the complexity of the design and avaialability of the material to be used. Please note further that we may accept orders with a shorter time frame or on a rush basis, subject to price adjustment to account for personnel overtime. Also please note that during the months of November and December, we normally reach full capacity. As such, we may decline requests for new orders to ensure the quality of our products and the quality of life of our personnel. Should this happen, please accept our apologies. To avoid such situations, we suggest that you book ahead of time.
For brides living overseas, we usually send a progress report to our brides together with pictures of the development of the gown. This will not only reassure you but will hopefully help you keep your enthusiasm level high about the wedding preparations until the big day.
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VII. Final Fitting
The final fitting is usually scheduled at least two weeks before the weddiing, depending on the alterations needed during the second to last fitting and the availability of the bride. To ensure continued quality control of our products, we will avoid releasing any gown, dress, suit or barong without a final fitting. Please schedule your final fitting in a timely manner and ensure your availability to avoid any last minute alterations. We cannot be held responsible for any improper fitting of your gowns or dresses without the final fitting. go top
VIII. Final Payment
Please note that we request full payment of the balance of the contract price stated in the quotation form two weeks before the wedding date. For brides living overseas, please contact us with wiring instructions, should you desire to make a bank to bank transfer of the final payment. go top
IX. Wedding Day Preparation and Fitting Form
I receive a lot of invitations from my brides to attend their wedding. Unfortunately, primarily due to time constraints and to be fair to all my brides, I usually do not attend my bride's wedding. However, if your wedding is within Metro Manila, we will provide you with one of our staff to dress and support you on your wedding day, except if your wedding falls on Christmas day or New Year's day. We may also provide staff support for out of town weddings for a small fee.
In addition, if you contract our services for the wedding gown and the whole entourage, we will lend you a fitting form for the wedding day. You just need to give a two thousand peso security deposit which we will return to you as soon as you return the fitting form to our shop. If you did not contract the whole entourage with us, you may request the fitting form for the wedding day for a five hundred peso fee. You just need give us a two thousand five hundred peso deposit security deposity. We will return two thousand pesos as soon as you return the fitting form to our shop.
If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by telephone or email or by visiting our shop. go top