Cecilio Abad is the 2008 Supplier of the Year!

Another gown designer took home the “W@Wie”!

From up the stage, we could see Cecilio Abad as his name was announced. We saw how all the girls he dressed-up went around him to kiss, hug and wipe his tears away (parang Miss U!). We also saw how all the photographers aimed their lenses to that table to capture the moment.

Cecil was still in tears as he made his acceptance speech. What made it more touching was that he brought his whole staff with him up the stage. He also made mention of how Veluz (2005 Supplier of the Year) helped him in running his couture business. Truly, a testament of the industry’s community spirit which is essentially the “theme” of the whole event.

We asked Bob Nicolas to do the W@Wie Awards AVP for this year. To say that Bob simply delivered is a great disservice to the guy. He (with his wife Lette) rented a state-of-the-art studio for the interview of the Top 10, and even went to actual weddings (not his clients’) just to capture clips of these suppliers at work. Really, the guy is always all about pushing the limit.

Below, we present The 2008 W@Wie Awards video in order they appeared in the program.

(TOP 10 in order of appearance: Jayson & Jo Anne Arquiza, Clarice Avinante, Phoeboen Teocson, K by Cunanan Catering, Nice Print Photo, Josiah’s Catering, PartyPics Live!, Threelogy, Raymond Fortun & Cecilio Abad)

(TOP 5: Josiah’s Catering, Jayson & Jo Anne Arquiza, Raymond Fortun, Threelogy & Cecilio Abad)

But before we announced the 2008 Supplier of the Year (SOTY), we called up on stage the past SOTY winners (from 2003 to 2007) to elevate them to the Hall of Fame. A video was shown to honor them especially done for us by Threelogy. It’s basically a montage of photos and text. Boring right? But not when it’s made by these guys. See what I mean…

(SOTYs: Alex Franco – 2003; Jason Magbanua – 2004; Veluz – 2005; Paul Vincent – 2006; Mimi + Karl – 2007)

Immediately after that, the winner was announced through this video and this humble guy from Ormoc went up the to join the Hall of Famers. Same surrealism. Same stage. Same trophy.

(Cecilio Abad – 2008 Supplier of the Year)

Congrats, Cecil! Benz & I are truly proud of you and the work you do! 🙂