Christmas Comes Early

...with Bridetastic.com.ph!

15 winners stand to win any of the 6 prizes:

First Prize – one 13" Cambridge Satchel. A classic satchel design handmade in the UK using the finest quality English leather.

Second Prize – a Php3000 gift certificate for a pair of Michael Antonio shoes. Michael Antonio is the brand of affordable, fast-fashion footwear that offers the ultimate shoe value for fashion-conscious women around the world. Frequently worn by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and featured on runways at New York, Miami, and Los Angeles Fashion Weeks, and in the pages of Elle, Glamour, Lucky, and Essence, Michael Antonio's sexy, modern, and edgy designs are a fashion favorite.

Third Prize – SSI Purple Card. Shop at any of Store Specialists specialty boutiques, ranging from Anne Klein to Zara.

http://heart-2-heart-online.com/2007/12/14/the-color-of-the-perfect-gift-purple-card/

Fourth Prize – The Spa Gift Certificate. Get a luxurious spa treatment in any one of the convenient The Spa locations.

Fifth Prize – Nail Spa Gift Certificate

10 Consolation Prizes – 250 peso Starbucks gift certificates

In an effort to grow the community and help future brides make informed decisions when it comes to vendor selection, Bridetastic is running "Share to Win", and will be giving away fun prizes which makes it all the more fun to collect quality reviews from former brides.

Here's how to join:

•Create an account with Bridetastic and write at least 2 vendor reviews. Remember, you can use your Facebook login credentials to create an account. If you cannot find your vendor in our directory, simply add them by going to http://www.bridetastic.com.ph/vendors/add_vendor

•Like Bridetastic on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bridetastic.phils

•Go to the Bridetastic Vendors page (http://www.bridetastic.com.ph/vendors) and click on the Like button or Tweet button.

If you clicked on the Facebook like button, write the following comment and share the link on Bridetastic's wall so we know: " To my friends who are planning to get married, check out reviews of my wedding vendors. I'm 'username'! ”

If you clicked on the Tweet button, write the following: "To my friends who are planning to get married, check out reviews of my wedding vendors. I'm 'username'! Follow @Bridetastic_PH too. ”

Contest will start on 10/25 and end of 11/25. Winners will be announced on 11/28.

The top 15 reviews will be selected by the Bridetastic Team. The selection will be determined by the quality of reviews.

The more reviews you enter, the more chances of winning! Remember, you can win more than 1 prize!

* Maximum of 2 prizes per reviewer.

For more details, check out Bridetastic.com.ph's Contest Page! For updates, LIKE Bridetastic Philippines on Facebook.

Bridetastic is Fantastic

When I was preparing for my own wedding, I honestly didn't know where to start. I knew that the church and the reception venue were the two most important things to start with. Because those are the two main anchors of celebrating a wedding. But when it came to the rest, like the photographer/videographer, make-up artist, designer, florist, wedding organizer, how does one sift through all the possible choices?

In my case, I went the word of mouth route and asked family and friends to recommend suppliers that they have worked with and liked in terms of output and rapport. I figured, if a lot of them are saying nice things about their supplier, then they must be providing great service. And you know what, this tactic worked. Except for our photographer Nelwin Uy, who we chose solely based on the fact that we liked his photos and he was charging reasonably, we went with tried & trusted suppliers. The result was a seamless, no kidding, a seamless wedding. No horror stories, everything went according to plan. Everybody had a great time. It was amazing. And I am not saying that because it was my own wedding, but because, it really happened without a hitch.

So this is why I am excited to share with you my friends Cathy & Jon Lim's wedding website, Bridetastic.com.ph!

Cathy & Jon have been our friends for a long time, in fact Dada has known Jon since they were little kids. Like us, they were based in the US when they were preparing for a wedding in the Philippines. Let me tell you, their wedding was gorgeous and so tastefully done. I really admired Cathy & Jon for pulling it off, because I knew it could be a challenge planning a wedding by remote control while abroad.

Cathy shares, "Before going home in mid 2007 to meet up with potential vendors for my September 2008 wedding, I joined the most popular online bridal community in the hopes that I could learn the ropes from current and past brides. To this day, I consider this to be one of the most invaluable resources in my wedding preparation process. The camaraderie that I felt with my fellow brides made an otherwise tedious process fun and exciting. As with all things however, I felt that the site could be improved to make it a much more efficient tool for brides."

And the improvement she thought of was a review process for vendors, in the spirit of Yelp, a website where users submit their recommendations and reviews, in order to "help people find great local businesses".

So more than just a wedding website where brides can converge and get tips and ideas from fellow brides, Bridetastic has the powerful tool of sharing and learning from various user reviews and recommendations on wedding suppliers, which by experience, I know is the best way to gauge a supplier's reliability. Wedding vendors stand to gain from this too, since they can build a reputation online even without having their own website.

I don't know if it's a girl thing, but 3 years since our wedding, I still get a high about weddings, and looking at wedding gowns, photos and videos. So upon the invitation of Cathy & Jon, I joined their site and posted reviews as well, because I had a pleasant wedding planning experience and I thought a lot of brides could get some use out of those. I think you should sign up and join too, so that you may teach or learn from others too! Look for me there, I'm cd_mfo!

Past, present and future brides and wedding suppliers! To join the Bridetastic community, visit http://www.bridetastic.com.ph