Monday, February 16, 2015

If YoU Like It Put A Ring On IT!!! (a.k.a Ring Hunting)

This is it my long term boyfriend and I are finally tying the knot this coming March 21, 2015. There are so many things to do and arrangement to accomplish. I am channeling my anxieties and pressure that is building up within me in this Blog to prevent my Inner OC Bridezilla from coming out. You know don’t want to scare me Groom off teheehee…

Worst comes to worse! Breath in breath out nostrils flare and smoke comes out hahahah! (must’ve been my self-image upon hearing the news) 1 week and a month before our awaited wedding my hubby’s aunt who was supposed to shoulder our wedding ring, informed us that she could not make it to the Philippines by our wedding which is March 21st, due to some Health issues. 

Poof! There go our free wedding Bands. Now the problem would be is that we did not allocate a budget for the wedding rings. As the idiom goes “Magtiis mamaluktot habang maiksi ang kumot” Of course the the wedding rings is a very important part of the ceremony of the exchange of vows we have to make a budget to buy these promise rings.

Breath in Breath out and get over it! There is no use crying over spilt milk (that’s supposed to be 20-30 thousand pesos of value were talking about here). I decide to wipe the remnants of “panghihinayang” in my mind. We,

o        My H2B and I decided to opt for a simple but not too shabby pair of wedding bands;
o        A pair that would fall within 9-15 thousand pesos only.
o        Preferably white gold or two tone (for the reason that we don’t want it to be too “takaw tingin”(you know sooo… many bad guys lurking out there nowadays).

Armed with these in mind we started researching on possible ring supplier. Google and I spent a whole of a lot of time together. We became BFF’s. I discovered the following things:

o        There are a lot of jewellery makers in Bulacan.

o        There are stores over in the internet that offers to do any design of gold and silver jewellery.
®               Contact online store or person
®               Give design, measurements and give down payment
®               Wait for order to be finished, give last instalment
®               Meet-up or shipment for finished product
o        Ongpin has a lot of jewellery stores where 

you can also haggle with their set prices. (you just have to beware of shady stores that sells fake or below karat jewelries).

Hmmmm…. We have to make Decisions Decisions Decisions. With, a Bevy of information, we narrowed down our choices to two using the consideration of Price-range and location. We scratched Bulacan because it’s too far and when I inquired from a few shops the quotation they gave me was above our prescribed budget. We also scratched online sellers because we were afraid of being scammed. We found this two:


o        DIAMOND FIRE MANILA – Physical store MAKATI
o        YTY JEWELRY – Physical store ONGPIN

We actually found them online Diamond fire has a Facebook page and that was where we saw the designs and price range. They had an album of 14+ thousand pesos and below set of wedding bands. The designs looked decent enough, best of all it fits our budget. Yty jewelry I discovered via OLX. Then, later on I found out that they also had a Facebook page and from there I saw that they had a website. This website has a wide variety of Jewelry. They had Rings, Earrings, and Necklaces and more, they even do made to order jewelry. My H2B and I Chose different designs from both stores, We compared prices, weight, make of the rings. We saw a certain design from Diamond fire that was also available from YTY and it was cheaper from YTY. Voila there you go! I meant we found it. We found the store where we are going to buy our wedding bands.

YTY wins by KNOCKOUT! Boom! Get Get Awwww!

My Hubby and I Settled for a Day/Date. We went to Ongpin Feb. 15, 2015. The Store was easy to find, it was just at the far end of ongpin if you’re coming from Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Luiz. (That was the road we took, But if you happen to know another way going to Ongpin that’s greatJ).

This is their address and contact number from their website: https://www.ytyjewelry.com.ph/home.php

Stall#H China City Gold Center
1071 Ongpin Street, Santa Cruz, Manila, Philippines, 1014
(Across Sta. Cruz Plaza / Church along Ongpin Street)
(Easily accessible from Carriedo LRT station)
+63917-777-7104

We have already decided on a certain design before going there but we were still open for changes if ever we found a better design or did not like what we chose upon seeing it in its actual self. Upon arriving in Ongpin we were bedazzled by so many stores that sell Jewellery in all sizes, colours and designs. That was the most number of Gold I’ve seen in my lifetime. Nonetheless, we still headed to YTY and decided not to ask other stores to avoid confusion in our part. In my mind I just prayed that YTY was not of those shady stores that the internet warned buyers to be wary of.

YTY Here we come!

YTY was just a small stall. We have easily identified the ring of our choice from the glass shelf. My hubby and I Instantly liked it. It was Gorj. Simple yet not too shabby 2 tone white gold with trimmings. The best part is my hubby with his haggling skills (The one I did not know he possessed – truth to you would now know a person fully until you live with him/her in one house – but were not yet living together, I’m just saying that you will discover more of each other as time passes ♥). We (But basically just HE-Haggled) got it lower that our set Budget and lower than the price advertised in the website. Im not going to disclose the actual price but it’s lower than 10k that’s all im going to say. (The Lady Store owner might hate me if I do “baka dumugin sya ng mga barat isumpa pa niya kame, Knock on wood! LOL!”)

With a winning smile we left YTY! “Wagi”
To Cap off our day, We had our merienda at Benavidez St. We Ate at LAMIEN it’s a shop that specializes in noodles. They make it on the spot. Fresh dough being stretched and pounded can be seen over their counter near the kichen.

We were in the mood for dry noodles so we ordered
  • Lamien guisado with spareribs (good for 2-3) php180
  • Steamed dumplings (15pcs/order) php 160
  • calamansi jusice @ 30 Ea.

The Lamien guisado had a generous serving there were 4 big chunks of ribs. My H2B and me were so full we could not even finish off the dumplings and had it for take-out.

Note: to couples going to Binondo/ Divisoria/ Sta Cruz is to never miss out on the different eats/ restos here. There are lots of carinderia style of eateries here especially in Benavidez area that offers authentic Chinese food it’s just minus the ambiance and glamour but the taste is superb for like ¼ or 1/3 the price of what you would pay in Big Chinese restos. Foodies flock this place heed my word!

Hope you will enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing this blog entry… love love and toodles lovelies and gents.


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