Romantic nature gives rise to big business
AMANDA, eighth from left, with her wedding planning team
Once she meets the one for whom she is intended, the typical single girl begins to construct in her mind a “dream wedding”—her version of it.
She would craft everything with great care, from the flowing wedding gown to the designer cake to the music play list.
25 years ago, the dream wedding would be executed in a mostly do-it-yourself way by the prospective bride and groom, with some family members and friends pitching in.
Today, weddings have evolved to become a major production involving a coterie of professionals and specialists who have made a business out of the services they provide.
According to Serenidad Lavador, trustee and technical adviser of the Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation (Serdef), “the business of weddings has emerged from today’s fast-paced living, where expediency and efficiency are always called for.”
Who are those who have made it their business to translate weddings from the realm of the imagination to reality? Aside from the traditional ones —couturiers, bakeshops, printers, photographers/videographers, hair/make-up artists, and caterers—new wedding professionals like planners, stylists, day-of [the wedding] coordinators and DJs have emerged.
These entrepreneurs have learned not only how to cash in on the “I do’s.” They have also found that weddings can be a romantic, exciting business— full of challenges on their resourcefulness and creativity.
Here are some of their entrepreneurial stories.
Amanda Tirol, wedding planner
Herself wed in a fairytale wedding in Boracay in 2002, Amanda Guidotti Tirol is the person to go to for couples who plan to say their vows in this iconic island.
She used to be a school teacher who ran a pre-school in Makati and counted on going back and settling down in the big city with husband Bong Tirol, a Boracaynon.
Fresh from her own wedding, however, she found herself saying “yes” to a cousin whose friend was getting married in Boracay, too, and wanted Amanda to organize it. She hardly had time to breathe when another and yet another request followed.
OH HAPPY Day partners Jenn Hernandez and MC Sison
The following year, she did the inevitable: Set up a wedding planning business which she called Boracay Wedding and Events Management.
Twelve years into the business and now a full-time Boracay resident, Amanda has lost count of the weddings she has organized. Most of her clients are balikbayans and foreigners who get married to Filipinos, or vice versa.
Widely regarded as the architect of the best weddings in Boracay, Amanda must be doing something right. Exceptional attention to details and timely response to each request define her team, according to her.
A successful wedding starts with the couple’s vision of how they want the day to be.
Whether simple, elegant, whimsical, traditional, quirky— the wedding is all about them, their personality, their dreams.
Her role is to give suggestions and put all bits and pieces together. She would give a rundown of unique Boracay spots and features like sailboats, sunset backdrops, sand sculptures, fire dancing, fireworks.
She would ask the couple too what their budget is and work with the allocation, regardless how big or small. Knowing the island like the back of her hand, she can say which venue or supplier can provide the best fit.
Amanda offers several options in services.
The full package means being involved in the event from the time the couple decides to take the big plunge until the last guest has left. It means coordinating with the suppliers, confirming venues, sending save-the-dates, tracking RSVPs, assistance to the couple and guests in booking flights.
The partial package will have the team involved in the middle of planning.
Yielding to persistent demand, she has lately offered a third option. This is where Amanda’s team takes on coordination tasks on the day of the wedding itself.
Among the hundreds of weddings she organized, Amanda singled out a recent one as particularly memorable. The newlyweds surprised their guests by asking all couples present to take part in a ceremonial renewal of vows.
“It was a sweet gesture to celebrate love!” she said.
Carla Ocampo and Lester Valle, visual artisans
Habi Collective Media, which specializes in wedding photojournalism and documentaries—as well as corporate AVPs—gives generous discounts to couples who weave in Filipino elements to their wedding. These can be Philippine landscapes, traditions, music, clothes, and food.
Habi’s partiality to weddings that look, feel, taste, and sound Pinoy derives from the uncanny like-mindedness of its co-owners, Carla Ocampo and Lester Valle, recent winners of the Urian best documentary award.
“We are both fiercely Filipino,” Lester said.
OH HAPPY DAY styles shabby-chic themed wedding
Habi clients have something in common: They want to act themselves rather than put on a show. Like, for their pre-wedding portraits, they won’t dress up as high-fashion models or as a US marine saving a damsel in distress.
Such couples choose Habi to document their wedding because 30 years from now, when they look at the photos and videos, they want to see their authentic selves rather than the pretend versions.
Lester and Carla were casual acquaintances until they met again in 2008 while trying to recover from their respective heartbreaks.
They discovered in each other a common passion for the Philippines and its great outdoors.
In a year, they became “officially a couple.”
From frequent camping and mountain-trekking trips grew an interest in photography.
“It is a skill we developed together,” Lester recalled.
The pair put up Habi in 2012, with help from Carla’s father who financed most of their initial equipment.
All too soon, obsolescence caught up with the business. In two years, the partners found themselves feeling reluctant to serve clients with equipment no longer at par with industry standards.
When the pair won a grant from the Cine Tutuo Documentary Film festival to produce their award-winning project, “Walang Rape sa Bontok,” most of the proceeds went to the purchase of better equipment.
While shooting their film in the Cordillera, they had the chance to document a traditional Bontok wedding. It was another dream come true. “And we fervently pray to document more weddings like that in the future,” said Carla.
Word-of-mouth is how Habi promotes its services. According to Lester, clients find their style refreshing, as they keep to the sides—moving Ninja-like, hardly directing.
“The newlyweds should be out there, celebrating with their guests, not whisked away for an hour of glam shooting,” he added.
The best feedback to them is when customers say the photos turned out very well even if they hardly felt the camera’s presence.
Their advice to newbie entrepreneurs: “Let your business be a reflection of yourselves.”
MC Sison and Jenn Hernandez, wedding stylist and planner
College friends MC Sison and Jenn Zulueta-Hernandez left their respective jobs in January, 2013 to form Oh Happy Day Events+Design.
The name signifies the company offers both coordination and styling services for a happy wedding day.
To the oft-asked “what is wedding styling,” Jenn answers: “It is ensuring the wedding looks beautiful. A stylist will help a couple define the color, style, theme, and mood of the wedding.”
“Some brides know exactly how they want their wedding to look like, envisioning every centerpiece and flower arrangement. But there are others who could use a bit of help,” she continued.
Jenn is Oh Happy Day’s creative director, while MC handles client relations.
Leaving their jobs—MC as associate producer for a TV network, Jenn as acknowledged creative brand genius behind a photo studio—was not easy. They had to weigh options carefully before taking a leap of faith.
MC describes starting a business as a marathon.
“We learned to live with ambiguity and get up after falling on our faces. We had to be creative to keep money flowing. At times we wanted to run back to our old jobs,” she said.
Fortunately, they had a network of family and friends who helped them financially and helped spread the word around about Oh Happy Day.
Over the years, the network grew to include couples who refer them to other couples and other suppliers who have become business associates.
“Now that our business has grown a notch,” said MC, “we plan to travel more and take up short courses related to the business. We need to keep ourselves updated and inspired.”
There are challenging moments in every wedding, times keeping their cool required all they have. “For example, we have felt the ire of parents who find fault with some of the arrangements or fail to see an element they suggested which the bride and the groom later overruled,” MC said. Both she and Jenn have learned to stand aside and let things cool down when temperaments flair.
The rewards surpass the bad moments: A bride thanking them for making her dream wedding come true and guests saying they were impressed and promising to refer Oh Happy Day to their friends.
A recent event the partners styled had a rural shabby chic theme, where Jen used imperfect layers of fabric with soft hues and distressed finishes, golden bird cages, and vintage pieces like books, pearls, and musical notes. The couple celebrating their golden anniversary thanked them in their speech, saying what they did surpassed expectations.
It pays to do things with TLC, MC concluded.
(For more entrepreneurial stories, visit the SERDEF website at www.serdef.org.ph .)
