Presenting Gitta - More than just a Sales Manager, she's a godsend!

I wish couple getting married would have a venue sales manager like Gitta Johannes. She runs the two-person team at the Agnietenberg Restaurants.

She is quite instrumental in helping our wedding in Holland take shape. We just love her!

I know I've raved about Agnietenberg before but a couple of things have happened since then. :)

John and I were looking for accommodations to host my entire family (three couples since I'm the last one to get married!). I ran across the website for the Agnietenberg camping ground and thought it might just be the perfect place - if I could understand the text.

I quickly emailed Gitta to ask if they might have a brochure in English that I could review. The same afternoon, she emailed me back apologizing for the lack of English materials - and then proceeded to translate the important parts for me as best she could.

John went to visit her yesterday afternoon to finalize some of the details and get help with sorting accommodations.   Apparently, the camping ground was managed by a different department - which made her previous email quite endearing. She could have referred us to the camping manager and made the translation their problem. :) She gave John a few pieces of advice and offered to help him book the chalets we needed as soon as the Camping Manager arrived the next day.

Gitta also told John that she had spoken to the Chef, and when we arrive in April - they're hosting a dinner for the both us with a surprise menu. From there we can let them know what our ideas are for food and wine for the wedding.

Among John's papers - she saw a small picture of the car we were driving to the venue. It was so like us to rock up in a car like that, she said. John was smiling from ear to ear. They talked about almost every other detail of the wedding like our cake and my dress, the flowers and our families.

I'm sure she's coordinated many weddings before, but there's a giddiness about her - like she's truly excited for us. She makes us feel like we're dear friends whom she's just happy to see get married. I wish I could bring everyone in Manila to the Agnietenberg wedding - I really think it would be something special and extraordinary - and much of that thanks to John and Gitta my wonderful wedding coordinators!

P.S. Gitta was the one who advised us to look at the City Hall's Website and read the bios of the civil servants do officiate the weddings. She said we can request for specific ones... We're hoping we can get Arie Donders. He speaks English, Italian German and Zwolse (Dutch - in Zwolle, the area where John lives)

Finding a Dutch Photographer

Finding other photographers to shoot at our wedding is a bit difficult given that I come from a family heavily involved in the photography business. Sacha's advice was to interview photographers and make sure they know that John Chua will be at the wedding.

The father of the bride happens to be a professional photographer with over 40 years of experience in advertising. The bride herself is a photographer, with a quarter of the experience but is also tough as nails. They've both got a booming voice and overwhelming personalities.

At Sacha's wedding, her photographer was initially shaking in his boots. Lucky for her, he was a good sport and listened to well meaning advice. Training from mom meant I needed to ask questions that people don't usually ask, even when they're recommended questions based on numerous websites. Our set of questions we found on  Wedding Photo USA. 

With this is mind, John and I set to interview a whole slew of Dutch photographers before finally settling on the perfect one. 

Among the many characteristics we were looking for, we wanted:

• A classic style - available light, some movement, candid and lots of emotions.

• A photographer that was either young enough to be eager and hungry for information, or seasoned enough to be confident and not buckle under pressure.

• We wanted raw files, and if they really feel they must submit retouched photos - then it had to be in 8-bit TIFF and not JPEG.

• Our guest should be allowed to take photographs if they wanted, even if they used a flash (which I doubt they would.)

• Options for with or without the photo album

• Flexibility in terms of style and direction

• Lastly, we were looking for rapport.

We needed to balance price with quality and our own impressions. Since we had no idea how much photographers normally charged for weddings in the Netherlands, John and I canvassed and averaged the price. Then we set our limit on how much we were willing to pay extra for someone we wanted. If it was within €200 difference, then we would consider - if it was more then we would keep looking.  

Of course, to help bring down the cost, we needed to make some concessions and made a list of what we could do ourselves - or have done at a later stage when we stop reeling from the expense of two weddings.

We opted to:

• do the retouching ourselves if cost could be separated from the photography

• put together our own album (so we could include the photos from the Philippines)

• and forego the standard canvas printed photo (we can do that ourselves once we figure out where to put it)

• Trim the number of hours required from the photographer

• Do the pre-nup photos ourselves

In the end, we needed to be very fair with ourselves - so we chose our photographer the same way we chose our church and venue in the Philippines. John and I plotted all the photographers together on a spreadsheet (thank you Numbers for the modifiable car loan comparison sheet). We rated them per criteria on our questionaire plus one for rapport. The ratings ranged from best to bad, with three more steps in the middle (excellent, good & fair). These ratings were automatically averaged - you could do the same on any other spreadsheet by using a scale from 1-10.

In the end, Stephan won us over with his promptness, professionalism and his ability to make us utterly comfortable. He was also the very first to reply back to our email inquiry, and called us straight after to say hello. We found it wonderful that he ran an operation similar to ours, four photographers a studio and an excellent reputation. He also had a working history almost as long as my dad's and expressed that he'd be comfortable even when most of the guests might turn out to be photographers. John and I also asked around, and his was the name everyone mentioned off the top of their heads. 

We loved the way he and his team welcomed us into their office. It was nice that they asked us about who we were and what we were envisioning for our wedding. After that, they showed us who they were and what their portfolio was before talking about business.

I learned to look at contact sheets from my dad, so I asked to look at a set from one of his more current weddings. He shoots digital the same way he would have shot in film, a few key photos here and there, then a change in location. This is good since it saves time with sifting through photos. We also noticed that his he had a different set of portfolio pictures than those found in his website - this gives us a good indication that he's got more good stuff than we had already seen.

John and I felt comfortable knowing that they had a standard rate sheet for work - and they weren't going to over charge us because they thought we could afford it. It also felt good that Stephan took the time to research about us beforehand. He saw the Adphoto link on my email and decided to visit the site before we even came.  The conversations came easy, and when we left - John and I both felt that they were people who could possibly be like friends. On a day that is reputedly stressful, a couple could always use more of those.

His website just needs a bit of work, but I'm sure if you meet him you'll like him on the spot. 

http://www.stephanjansen.nl/

We've picked out a car for Holland!

John and I had quite a discussion about how we were going to arrive at the wedding. Apparently, in the Dutch tradition - the groom picks up the bride when he give her her bouquet. It seems to make sense that we'd arrive together, since we're both coming from the same house...

My initial suggestion was a horse-drawn carriage. I love horses. However, it was exorbitantly expensive and we'd both have to wake up an hour earlier if we wanted to get to the venue on time.... :) On the opposite end, it would have been a classic beetle. That's me.

His initial suggestion was one of those grand classic vehicles, like an old Rolls Royce, or a Jaguar Mark V. He's more classic that way...

Like everything we've ever chosen for the wedding... we had to be able to see the both of us in it. After poring though countless bruidsauto / trouwauto websites... we finally came across a car where we could see the both of personalities. 

It's a replica of an old porsche speedster. Not as ostentatious as a new porsche, and not as loud as a traditional classic car. The smooth rounded curves remind me of Herbie (a volkswagen beetle), yet elongated to more refined proportions. It's nice and blends discreetly into the background...

It will be perfect for the spring, we just hope it doesn't rain :)

Thanks John for finding our car!

http://www.trouwautos-elburg.nl/

Agnietenberg Wintertuin

This is the map to the wedding venue. I think you guys will like it, it's a small glass house that they call the winter garden. Black and white tiles, black and red seats... Very striking, but small and intimate - just like the wedding.

We chose the Agnietenberg for sentimental reasons. The first time I met his parents, we had dinner there. It was such a beautiful place in the summer, more so in the spring.

We absolutely loved the way they handled our initial interview. Gitta Johannes, their Banquet Manager, is amazing. She's like a wedding coordinator - very gently leading us through the decisions we need to make regarding the venue. She's reassured us that if any of our guest have dietary restrictions, they will work around it. It's our day after all.

At the end of our meeting, she wanted to give us a small sample of Proseco to try for the toast. They couldn't find any already open bottles - so she gave us a full bottle on the house. We had it over Christmas dinner.

More than all of that, we think you'll really fall in love with the area. The winter garden is situated right at the edge of a small forest. It is also quite historical. A chapel was built in the area in 1395, and a monastery was founded soon after. Thomas Kempis lived there for awhile. He is best known for a book called "Imitatione Christi."

A huge fire razed the complex in 1991 though, destroying many of the centuries-old buildings. The new ones were built with the old-style though. On the brighter side, I'm sure the plumbing and the kitchen equipment would be quite modern. We'll have the best of both worlds!

The cuisine is quite modern. Agnietenberg offers seasonal menus, so we'll only really know what we're serving about two weeks before the wedding. If you guys have any dietary concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us so we can warn the chef. :)

We really look forward to having you with us as we officially start our lives together as husband and wife.

Much love,

Kathy & John G

Stuff to See Around Zwolle

Around Beelstraat:

1. There's a pocket forest in Zandhove which may be interesting to walk through. 

2. In the park across Staatssecretarislaan, there's an area around the bend with a few farm animals, like goats and rabbits. I know it's for the kids, but I always have fun just watching them. 

3. Park benches can be found all around that area too!

4. John may have a bicycle that you can borrow - just make sure you follow the road rules and learn the different hand signals for turning. I don't think you'll find better bike lanes in the world than there are in Holland. :) The Dutch are crazy about their bicycles.

5. I love exploring supermarkets if only to see the differences between theirs and ours. For example, they have a whole section dedicated to cheese, and milk.

If you have more time, for less than two euros you can catch a bus into the city. The ticket is valid for one hour, and you can switch buses as long as you're going in the same direction.  From there you can explore to your hearts content. Just make sure you make it to the bus back. 

To catch the bus going back, all you have to do is catch the one across the street from where you originally alighted. You'll find the bus system easier to use than the one we have in Manila. You just need to pay attention to the number of bus stops, make sure you got the name of the place correctly. names of places in Dutch can be very long - only because they write the word street or lane together with the name. It's like saying - Epifaniodelosantosavenue instead of EDSA.

In Zwolle City Center you can explore the following:

1. Sassenpoort - It's the city gate built in the 14th century. The size of the gate indicated how wealthy the city was at that time. Zwolle was famous for making church bells. Sassenstraat 54 Tel. +31 38 421 66 26

2. City Walls - You can find this near the harbor. There's a former library of a medieval dominican monastery located near there. Like many other Dutch cities, Zwolle was built like Intramuros. You'll actually still see the moat around it. 

3. Peperbus - is a small beautiful church in the city center. I think for a small fee you can actually climb all the way to the top of the bell tower and take an aerial view of the city. It's breathtaking. John and I did that one day, and it can be quite a climb up.

4. Grote Kerk (St. Michael) - It's a Gothic church that was built between the 14th and 15th century. It's now a protestant church

5. VVV Tourist office - You can get pasalubong from there! As well as find out what else to see. Because it's a tourist office, I'm sure you'll be able to find a good map of the city and the surrounding areas there. Tourist Offices are normally my first stop in any travel.

6. Grote Markt -  On saturdays, they have an open market at Grote Markt, if I'm not mistaken it's near Media Markt. I think you'll need to switch busses to get here unless you'd like to walk from Sassenpoort which is the bus station I know. John might be able to help you work out the bus routes, otherwise you can ask around. Don't worry, people can be surprisingly friendly.

7. Stedelijk museum - It's in the center of the old town. Drostenhuis was built in the 16th century. It's about the history of the city. Melkmarkt 41, Tel. +31384214650,
 www.museumzwolle.nl

8. Ecodrome - It's a themepark about nature and the environment - Willemsvaart 19

9. Harley Davidson & Indian Museum, Oude Almeloseweg 2-4, Tel. +31 38 453 41 36