FIRST LUCKY BRIDE

Dr. Katherine Duque's natural beauty and grace made her very memorable. Every fitting date with her was always a silky smooth experience. Photos by Oliver Soliva and Dr. Carlo Nasol

Cat-eyed Katherine Duque was the first bride who received a stunning complementary Michi Calica Fresh Flowers bridal bouquet made of farm-fresh roses and ostrich feathers. She booked her Mignonne Lace wedding dress within the first hour if meeting me. She was incredibly stunning on her wedding day.

Best home and office flowers that make your heart sing

Don't these beauties simply make your heart sing? I put these statuesque Calla Lilies on my molave design table every time I meet a bride-to-be on first consult. It reminds me of how a bride looks on her wedding day - simply elegant and perfect!

Mondays are great days to bring fresh flowers to the workplace. Experiment on which flower suites your office and stick with it for a while until you feel it's time for a change. Glance at them while you go about doing your memos or making your phone calls.

Come Friday, make sure you've got your flowers for the home, setting the mood for a relaxing weekend with family. Choose different flowers than what you have at work and see what happens.

How about brightening up your living and work space with our elegant Calla Lilies (Php 1800+) or graceful Yellow Orchids (Php 2000+) arrangement inspired by Georgia O Keeffe's paintings. Just give us a call at 09178979759 or email us at michicalicaflowers[at]gmail.com for your orders.

Our home and office floral collection is also available online!

Free Wedding Bouquet for You

You won't believe this sweet offe brides-to-ber! Check out these beautiful wedding bouquets from Michi Calica Fresh Flowers-they can be yours for free when you book for a wedding gown on the spot, or within the first week of consultation.!

Wouldn't you love to win my exquisite designer wedding bouquets by Michi Calica Fresh Flowers?
Brides who book the order of their wedding dress on the first day of their consult with us automatically get a free rose bouquet on their wedding day! A bridal rose bouquet retails for 5,5ooPhP.
If you prefer a bouquet of tulips, stargazers or of another variety than roses, all you have to do is add 1000PhP to upgrade your rose bouquet. This offer is only good for brides getting married within Metro Manila, Philippines. What are you waiting for?

WIN A FREE BOUQUET Q&A

Q: What is the duration of the promotion?:
A: Promotion will start on November 15, 2009 and end on December 15, 2009

Q: Who can join this Promotion?
A: Brides, grooms, anyone who avails of a Michi Calica wedding gown within the first week of consultation. This means booking the order with a 50% downpaymant.

Q: How do I avail of this free bridal bouquet?
A: After booking for a customized gown within the first week of consultation with Michi Calica Bridal, the purchaser is entitled to a designer bouquet.

Q:What is the duration for the free wedding bouquet?
A: If the purchaser books the wedding gown between November 15 to December 15, 2009 the purchaser will receive her wedding bouquet on her wedding day. THis is for brides getting married in Metro Manila only.

Beautiful Bridal Jewelry that Won't Break the Bank

Beautiful, AAA-quality freshwater pearls. I can't get over their roundness, size and luster. You will be amazed how reasonably priced they are.
I have been in love with South Sea pearls for a long time now, collecting them mostly from pearl giant Jewelmer since I was in my twenties. I have all sorts, and colors, mostly perfectly round or baroque pearls. Name it, and I have it, white, ivory, champagne gold, peacock green. I love wearing them because they alter my mood instantly!
Over the last year, I discovered a very special quality of natural pearls - they amazingly look like South Sea pearls in luster and size, but are actually freshwater pearls! Freshwater pearls are cultured pearls, they are genuine mind you. The variety I sell in my Toccata store is from Palawan, the Philippines, and I am immnesely proud of the quality I carry. Only a very trained eye will be able to distinguish the South Sea pearls from my freshwater pearls. You be the judge.

Toccata's White Orchid Bolero Winner Revealed!

After a suspenseful five day wait, Rock 'n Roll Bride announced the winner of the Toccata White Orchid Bolero Contest! Ladies and gentlemen, here she is (and the drum roll pleaze...)
Rachael Green of Los Angeles, you are one lucky bride-to-be! Here's what she wrote:

My wedding is 3 weeks away and THIS is the EXACT item I’ve been looking for to complete my Mad-Men-meets-Indie-bride look {pearls, lace, feathers, and touches of leopard print}. Stunning! WAY over budget already {or else I would have the White Orchid Delux wedding dress I’ve been eyeing for an eternity}, so I’d be forever grateful to be gifted such a mindblowingly spectacular piece, but rest assured, I WILL have either the angelique or the white orchid bolero on my wedding day!

Check out Kat Williams post on the White Orchid Bolero winner here.

Racheal if you're reading this, you will get your size zero White Orchid Bolero just in time for your Big Day on November 20! Congratulations!

Quintessential Princess Bride

Photos by Carlo Cecilio and Toetoe of Imagination Photography

I always imagined that Dotty Gosingco-Cu was a Paris socialite incarnate. She is possibly my classiest bride of this year and here's proof: she looked stunning during her October 2009 wedding to the dashing Jerome Cu. She wore a French taffeta ball gown, sprinkled with French chantilly lace and Swarovski crystals. Her bustled skirt was blooming with handcrafted silk English roses.

Since she is an interior designer, she knows a work of art takes time - a lot of time to blossom. She would show up for fittings promptly with her creamy skin glowing and an exuberant smile of a bride-to-be in love. She knew the process of couture could take six to even ten fittings before perfection unfolded. Unlike other panic stricken, drama obsessed brides-to-be, Dotty was always a picture of cool and cheer. Ah, love. Just like the movie the Princess Bride where true love conquers all.

I wish there were more brides like Dotty, she is a rare one. Unknown to Dotty, she also helped a good number of my production staff who suffered during the Ondoy typhoon by picking up her gown a tad bit early. Dotty is indeed the timeless classy bride, beautiful inside and outside.

Star Wars Theme Wedding

Hands down I must say Issa and Tiger's Star Wars theme wedding is hard to beat! There was much buzz about this thematic wedding when popular TV host wed the dashing young doctor a few months back. I had the pleasure of creating Issa's iconic wedding dress including her Stormtrooper fiberglass breastplate.

Some behind he scenes trivia:

When the first sample was done, I showed it to my husband and he commented: "I think it's too matte, it needs some more oomph" I then looked outside my house for inspiration, and lo and behold, saw my neighbor's shiny sapphire BMW. Incidentally this neighbor of mine is Jay-ar, the Prince of R&B, I asked his driver where he got the paint job, Jay-ar had a car painting shop down the road! Then I had the fiberglass breastplate painted with frosted ivory car paint to match the chiffon of her Star Wars wedding gown - the rest is history.

Pat Dy shot these. Here's his link:

http://patdyphotography.com/

Loving My New Work-Life

When all I have to do is design, I close my eyes for concepts, can come up with dreamily textured pieces.
I used to call myself a 'multi-tasking virtuoso': running a made-to-order bridal salon, a flower shop, a pret-a-porter boutique at Greenbelt 5 (Bonne Bouche), and for a year now my newest business baby is an booming online bridal boutique. By the way, I am also a family woman and a mother of three.

Recent events have pushed me to move my working venue from a commercial boutique to my airy private home. It got sooo crazy, especially when my business became running the store. I started accepting ALL jobs from walk-ins. This was not a good decision. I had no idea where they were from and what they were like! I became a maniac of perfection as to how retail processes had to be done. I even hired a corporate 'efficiency expert' to help me out. Despite my passion for good service, unfortunate incidents with retail employees have urged me to say: enough is enough.

I had a bright solution. bring back my operations home, which is right in front of my production area. No more transporting the clothes, no more alterations and requests lost in translation. No more hungry designers trying to sell their own goods to my clients.

Meanwhile, business wise, what gave me the courage to close the Oasis boutique is the fact that my www.toccata@etsy.com is gaining ground really fast!! It's mind-blowing. Within a year of doing e-commence I realized: this is so much more worth it and pleasurable! My brides now hail from Northern America, Canada, Australia, The UK, France, and recently Dublin. I will announce when my kick-ass www.michicalicaweddings.com goes live this month!

I must write about the three month night class at AIM called the Maven's Secrets class which was an internet marketing class taught by famed blogger Anton Diaz. I think this class changed my life. It shifted my outlook from offline, brick and mortar business to ONLINE! I met so many successful e-commerce mavens, and business people succeeding online. My classmates rocked too!

Back in my new home set up, I am relieved and liberated. It's as if I have a new lease in life. For local clients, I plan on only meeting my repeat clients and VIP's of years and years.
I'm still booked locally until December 2010 for about fifty weddings. I definitely will give it my all creatively and service-wise to these brides who have booked with me, because I made a commitment to them. I am also very big on commitment. As long as I have my signature on the dotted line, I will deliver. I will enjoy the process this time because I do not have to RUN a store. Hopefully after that I will be very scarce locally. The world is my market from now on.

It is time to enjoy my craft once again, not only for commerce sake, but for why I entered wedding design in the first place - for my sheer love of creating beautiful things from scratch. This time around, I am no longer a 'multi-tasking virtuoso - ' I am a family woman who happens to be a 'fashion e-tailer'.