WeddingsAtWork began as a product of a dream…a dream wedding that is!

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 . . .