About Weddings at Work
We are John & Bennette Rana, newlyweds who embarked on the
couplehood bandwagon on October 26, 1998. We had 16 months to prepare
and realize our dream. A long and tiring experience but someone's got
to do it.
We began our long journey by scouting for possible suppliers
for the Big day. We've bought magazines, read the newspapers and even
attended bridal fairs just to look for prospects and know what they can
offer. We found out that not all potential wedding suppliers are out
there advertising their wares in the market. Some are just in a remote
barangay making quality souvenirs. We ourselves found candles made by
prisoners of Muntinlupa. The wedding industry in the Philippines (John
used to call it the 'wedding mafia' until most of them became our
friends) is relatively small with an atmosphere of friendliness and
willingness to help for those who just ask. Looking back, we observed
that the most reliable wedding professionals were the ones referred to
us by previous brides or recommendations by fellow suppliers
themselves. We know we wouldn't have realized our plans without their
valuable help.
A goldmine of new and creative ideas is the Internet. From a
release of butterflies instead of rice & petal
confetti to having a SHE as a 'bestman(!)'. Really, the possibilities
are endless! Webpages, mailing lists and newsgroups are our source of
inspiration for the creation of our own personal wedding page we
called: 1026 Online !. Since, many people (locals & foreigners)
sent us e-mails asking questions about getting married in the
Philippines, who made the gowns and souvenirs, etc. The number of
visitors to our site stunned us and we concluded that these surfers ask
us these questions because there is a very little information about
Filipino Weddings over the net and they grab whatever stuff they could
lay their hands on. Filipinos have a way of making their own weddings a
production number compared to other countries which don't turn the
special occasion into an extravaganza. It's really surprising and sad
to note that sources of wedding information in the country are still
relatively few.
That's why we felt the need for this website. We want to help
cut down the couple's time in the scouting process, braving the weekend
traffic in search for their perfect supplier. Here, we let the mouse do
the clicking & picking so brides have more time to attend to other
wedding details while the groom budgets for their options. We present
every wedding professional side-by-side and ultimately have the couple
decide. We intend this site to be a virtual one-stop-shop for any
aisle-bound couple…and for the curious, a site to showcase what
Filipino Weddings are made of--so expect this site to be ever evolving.
The contents and substance of this site will be based on what we
perceive are needed by the Filipino community and if there are things
we've missed-out, we'd be very happy to hear from you about it.
We at Weddings@Work hope to be the couples' best friend. A
been-there-done-that duo willing to share the tricks of the trade. We
will be here to help as much as we can without taking the place of your
wedding coordinator. We don't pose a threat to anyone in the industry
instead it's our desire to have every wedding professional promoted
here. We will create our own niche within the industry and hope to be
everybody's friend.
A word of advice: before choosing the right suppliers, make sure you've chosen the right partner . . . (I'm glad I did!).
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Themes and Motifs
History & Background
Themes & Motifs - The Special
Events Co. was formally registered and licensed as a company in July
1999. After mounting highly successful special events and coordinating
functions for various corporations as a marketing services
professional, Sharon Parreño-Fabian, Themes & Motifs' General
Manager, decided to professionalize and turn her craft and skill into a
business enterprise.
Executives' Profile
Sharon Parreño-Fabian is a marketing services professional who
graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in
Communication Arts. She has done various marketing services and public
relations functions for her previous employments which included a major
bank (PCIBank), a major advertising agency (Dentsu, Young, &
Rubicam-Alcantara), a publishing house (Asian Sources Media Group), and
a financing company (Jardine Pacific). Sharon has attended various
career enhancement seminars both in the Philippines and the U.S. Dodjie
Fabian is a marketing professional who attended the Executive
Development Program of the Asian Institute of Management on full
scholarship from the CommGroup of the Lopez Group of Companies. His
undergraduate studies were at the Ateneo de Manila University where he
finished his A.B. in Management Economics. Having spent all his
professional life in product management marketing locally manufactured
food stuff and managing imported consumer brands, he has developed a
keen sense of the Philippine consumer market. He has done extensive
travelling as a marketing practitioner having visited almost all the
major cities of the Philippines, U.S., Europe, and Asia. He has also
acted as resource speaker on various academic symposia and has been an
adviser on several college theses.
The Coordination Team
The coordination team is composed of at least 5 events specialists and
headed by Themes & Motifs' Founder & General Manager, Sharon P.
Fabian, who will be present on the event day itself to oversee
implementation of plans. Her hands on style helps ensure smooth
proceedings through decisive and prudent troubleshooting.