Bridal gown, mothers’ dresses: Reggie Gaba
Peso Power: Php25,000 for my bridal gown, Php3,500 for each of the moms’ dresses
It took me a long time before settling on a designer. You see, I’m not really the typical bride who wanted a lot details on her gown. I’m a no-frills kind of girl and I wasn’t really willing to spend an exorbitant fee for the kind of dress I wanted.
I found Reggie Gaba through w@w. I was encouraged by the positive reviews he had in w@w so I set an appointment with him. He won me over with his dress design—it was exactly what I wanted within our set budget. I specifically told him that I only had two rules: there should be very minimal beading for my dress and a well-prepared timetable.
Reggie was supposed to get our measurements on October but then, Ondoy hit. My house among those flooded and I asked Reggie if we can re-schedule until things were back to normal. I contacted him again on November and told him that we were ready but he told us that he was swamped because of the weddings he had for December. He asked me and my mom if we can schedule the taking of the measurements on January. Pumayag ako because I thought I owed him that much since I was the one who was unavailable last October. I just told him that we can re-schedule as long as my mom and I can still get our dresses two weeks before the wedding. My MIL is based in the US and I wanted him to focus on her dress when she comes to the Philippines before the wedding. He assured me that the dresses will be delivered on time.
Come January, I was surprised by the negative feedback posted by his former w@wie clients. It was also around this time when I had a hard time trying to contact him—he didn’t reply to my text messages and he didn’t answer my calls. Finally, out of sheer frustration, I confronted him. He told me that he was fully aware of the negative feedback in w@w and that he wanted to “make bawi” with his other w@wie clients. He also apologized for not returning my calls…he had a lot of excuses for this which I now can’t remember. Basta marami syang sinasabi na dahilan kung bakit hindi nya ako nasasagot.
In fairness to him, I noticed a significant improvement in his service after we talked. Sumasagot na sya sa mga text messages at phone calls ko. There were even several times when he would go to our house in Antipolo for the fittings. As in sya talaga ang bumibyahe papunta sa amin from Parañaque with our dresses.
During the fittings, wala akong masabi. I was happy with the progress of our dresses. Maganda yung fit nung mga damit namin ng mom ko.
He promised that he will deliver our dresses before Holy Week. On the Friday before Holy Week, he called and asked me if he can deliver the dresses next Monday na lang. I said okay. He didn’t show up the next Monday but he asked if he can re-schedule on Wednesday. I was getting nervous at this point because my wedding was two weeks away. On Wednesday, he didn’t show up again. I called him, frantic this time, and he again asked for another extension: Friday na daw. Promise.
mac&hazel 