Wedding Attire

Every OC bride wants her guests to follow the prescribed attire for her wedding, right? But Filipinos are known to be adamant when it comes to this part of the wedding. State a Semi Formal attire and you'll get guests wearing jeans, rubber shoes and shirts and casual blouses. State a Formal Attire and you'll see some guests wearing short sleeved polo and black rubber shoes comouflaging as leather shoes (This one we experienced in our wedding.) And state Strictly Formal and you'll get guests wearing cocktail dresses. See the pattern here? Filipinos almost always dress a step down of the prescribed attire! To defend the guests' side, especially the women, only a few stores carry cocktail and formal dresses that it sometimes so taxing to look for one thus resulting to being underdressed in a wedding. I experienced scourging two malls last week looking for the perfect "wedding chick" attire for W@W Anniversary Party and I have gathered a list of stores where one can buy that perfect wedding attire.

1. Kirei
This is where I got my beautiful cocktail dress. Very feminine and wedding chick if I may say so myself! This store specializes in cocktail and formal dresses that you can spend hours looking at their collection. Prepare to spend P1,200-P2,000 plus for a dress here. They also have accessories.

Me and Jay at the W@W Party

2. Lhasa
This is my next favorite store to shop for cocktail dresses. Why? because they are cheap yet pretty! You can get a cocktail dress here for as low as P800 since their market are teens and young adult. Their deesigns are trendy too. But don't expect them to last for a long time. Remember that cheap can equal to low quality. But if you intend to wear it only for a couple (meaning, two or three times tops) of times then dresses in Lhasa will do.

3. Sari Sari
Sari Sari also specializes in selling cocktail and formal dresses. They even have shoes to match the dresses they sell. Unfortunately, their dresses are also costly just like in Kirei. Actually, some are even more expensive! So prepare to spend a lot if you are planning to buy a dress here. But the upside is they have a lot of designs ranging from the classic to the trend today so you have more to choose from.

4. Karimadon
I thought Kirei and Karimadon are sister stores but apparently I was mistaken. They also carry a lot of cocktail and formal dresses here. But their designs are not as trendy and as many as Kirrei and Sari Sari. A bit pricey, too.

5. Shapes
Shapes clothes range from casual to Semi Formal. Unfortunately, their cocktail dresses are limited in designs usually just ranging from the usual tube and sleeveless types. A bit pricey too from P1,00-P1,600 considering their simple designs. Usually, you can also see those kind of dresses inside the department stores of malls so don't expect to be a stand out if you are sporting a dress from Shapes.

6. Petit Monde
I was dissapointed when I went to look for a dress in Petit Monde. Instead of a lot of coctail dresses what I saw are a lot of summer dresses. Don't expect a lot of designs here to choose from. Actually, their designs can be a little oudated com to think of it.

7. Forever 21
If you want a dress on the daring side, get one from Forever 21. But if you want a decent one then think twice if you don't want the bride to shoot daggers at you. As expected, I didn't find my dream dress here. Very pricey too. I think they have a dress worth P3,000-P5,000 in this store.

So before turning up as a wedding guest nightmare, scourge these stores first. You might find your wedding chick attire here just like I did.