One of the biggest challenges of a couple planning their wedding especially those who are based overseas like us concerns supplier payments. Since news about fraudulent transactions, security breaches, scammers, and identity theft are everywhere, just like what happened to an OFW couple who got duped by their “trusted” wedding coordinator after getting an All-in-Wedding Package worth around a million pesos has been all over Facebook a year ago. Because of these couples have been doubtful and afraid to transact with strangers especially those that they have just met online, lalu na kung malaking pera ang pinag-uusapan. Trust is something that needs to be built, but can’t be acquired in an instant. But even if unfortunate things do happen, if equipped with proper information, one can ensure that supplier payments can be made without any problems.

When booking event suppliers these days, different portals are being used. Based on our experience (and a lot of other couples that we know), these Payment schemes other than paying cash on-the-spot are great options for couples to use:

• Online Bank Transfer – this is probably the easiest way to send money to your supplier for your deposits and other payments.

• Remittance – for overseas-based, the receiver would be your supplier complete with all their bank details (account number and branch)

• Credit Card – there are third-party booking sites who use this but be aware of the added 10-20% interest

Also, since it’s common to pay your suppliers in installment basis because generally, not all suppliers would want for you to pay them in full just like Lights and Sounds suppliers who prefer to be paid in cash on the day of the wedding because they need it to pay their crew/staff on a daily basis, it is highly advisable to create your own OTD Supplier’s Balance Payments List and give it to whoever you trust to pay your balance.

In our case, for example, since we have managed to create our Wedding Turn-Over Lists, we included it there and informed our OTD wedding coordinator ahead of time that we would want them to pay our wedding balance to the rest of our suppliers on our behalf. To ensure that it will be a hassle-free supplier balance payment process, we placed our cash balances on sealed money envelopes that we bought from National Bookstore for Php 15 per pack. Detailed information such as Supplier Name, Supplier Contact Info and Amount of Cash Balance to be Paid was also included so it will be easy to distribute. Our checklist was also included where once the supplier receives the money, he/she must sign so it will be easy for us to counter check later for any possible issue.