Girl with a tattoo

If you see a girl with a tattoo, what comes to your mind?
If I ask you, what do you think makes a person decide to get a tattoo?

A little intro:
Where I was raised, nobody has a tattoo and I can confidently say that nobody in our circle will even think of getting a tattoo (except for eyebrow tats haha)

Hi I'm Mel, I recently got a tattoo as a rebellious act - just kidding! hahaha! I want to share with you why I got a tattoo in hopes of convincing you to get one too because I'm opening a tattoo parlor - just kidding again!
Here's the real deal, here I go! Years ago, I started to fancy the idea of getting a tattoo because I thought it looked cute. As I was actually considering lifting my bottom and heading to a tattoo parlor, it went from wanting it because it looked cute to wanting something that will remind me or mean a great significance - cause after all it's permanent!
It took me months to choose what and where to put the tattoo. Choosing a design vs actually scheduling an appointment with the tattoo parlor was a really big step! What made me finally say yes to pushing through was, I wanted to remind myself to never stop living. Never stop pushing myself to do something I want and to not second guess everything! I wanted to take a risk. It wasn't so much what I got tattooed on my body but more of me, actually showing up.
For me, it wasn't just a matter of "I wanted to design my body with something to remind me of something." It was more of an accomplishment that this time, I chose to live. I chose to take the risk and just went ahead and live life because as we all have well memorized "life is short."

Some notes though:
I won't recommend the tattoo artist that did my tats because he has attitude and we all suffered a tattoo blowout (when the ink goes deep and creates a blue halo around the tattoo because the artist pressed the needle too deep) and mine looked the worst because it's really obvious. I had the blowout removed via laser it and got a little better - one more session and I believe it will look as though there was no blowout at all! Thanks to Oasis Tattoo Removal.
Laser place: Oasis Tattoo Removal

If you want to know more about tattoos, blowouts and laser removal feel free to message me! :)

Cheers!

xx,
Mel

A Wedding's Tale

Marriage is the union of two people; it is the utmost proclamation of love and commitment
to your partner. It is a promise to be with your partner through sickness and health,
through good and bad, 'til life takes its natural turn.

Last April 10, 2016, me and my boyfriend of 7 years decided to tie the knot!
So far the best decision I made in my life. The wedding was magical,
the day was perfect, everything was great!

Let me share our beautiful day with you...

Our wedding wouldn't be made magical without the help of these awesome people:

Photographer: Oak St. Studio
Videographer: Take Two Films
Hair and Make up: Ian Lipa
Venue: Blue Gardens
Cake: Carl Tiu
Prep Hotel: Linden Suites
Table Numbers: Mel's Collection
Marriage is a celebration of love. It is a curiously beautiful coming together of two families. It's an eventful day full of laughter, well wishes, and tears of joy. My heart is overwhelmed to see so many people gathered together to celebrate our love and to cheer for our future.
Details, details, details!
I did not have a wedding planner so I did everything on my own. Hey that's no problem, Google is around! I promise you you'll find everything you need there - just be decisive!
Linden suites is a nice place to have your wedding prep because they are very lenient. When other hotels hear the word wedding they want to charge you all the extras they could. Some even require you to buy food from them to feed your crew! Linden is nothing like that, no additional charges, you just book your room and that's it! The guards even congratulated us when we returned to the hotel to rest after the whole event.
Here are some photos from our Wedding Prep.

Now let's go on to the Ceremony at Blue Garden's! Blue Garden's is an enchanting place that is not a sore on the pocket. When I first saw it in photos I was fixated, when we visited the sight - I was mesmerized (we booked it instantly!).
They have ready made packages but we went with our own suppliers. They charge a minimal fee for outside photographer/videographer and outside catering.
Allow me to share with you a few amazing photos during our wedding ceremony:

The bride's entrance <3

My happy groom <3

The most beautiful and heart felt part... vows!

THE KISS!!!

"Mabuhay ang bagong kasal!"

By the way, here is what the wedding march area looks like:

There are so many photos that I want to share with everyone, this day was truly the best day of our lives and our awesome photographers were able to capture it to the finest detail!

They were able to translate the whole EMOTION of the event into photos! (not to mention, they were really kind and fun to work with!)

Here's my awesome entourage and ninongs and ninangs:

Aside from the mesmerizing location for our wedding march, let me dazzle you with the RECEPTION!

Enchanting cake made by my brother!

Custom table number design made by Mel's Collection

Yep! <3 by my brother (and his fiance)!

"1 Cor. 13" <3

Look at those gorgeous center pieces and wooden backdrop!

I hope you enjoyed this simple tour of our wedding!

Allow me to give you some tips and tricks on planning your wedding :)

1.SET A BUDGET per item - be as specific as possible!

(e.g. 10k for lights and sounds, 15k for video, 15 for photo, etc.)

2. BE DECISIVE! There are a lot of suppliers out there, if you always want to find a "Better one" and is always curious of "what else is out there" maybe, just maybe, you won't finish planning your wedding HEHE. Decide today! If it fits the budget set in item #1 and you like the work of the supplier, GO ON AHEAD AND BOOK IT!
3. Hire or appoint a wedding coordinator that is decisive and strong-willed!
On that day, you won't be able to execute all the plans you had in mind (because DUH you're the one getting married :)) ) The coordinator will be the one to decide for you, he/she will stand as your mouth piece so be sure to hire someone capable to do that and has the same mindset as you!
4. Ask for your fiance's help. Let me tell you this, he USUALLY (again I will stress,not all) will not voluntarily help out (especially in choosing what color or design will go with what) - Ask him to help you, give him SPECIFIC tasks ;) - this will save you hundreds of fights hahaha
5. Don't just prepare for the wedding, prepare for your marriage (the most important part of it all).

6. On your wedding day, don't forget to breathe in, step back, and enjoy everything that is happening because this will be one of the best moments in your life <3 Don't stress out about anything, just enjoy each other, this is your day!

xx,

Mel Chang ;)

Marriage Magic Jelly Bean

Last April 10, 2016, I got married to my boyfriend of 6 years ++.

The age old question people ask, how is married life? is it any different from being boyfriend-girlfriend?

My answer is always no - aside from the fact that I have to maintain our house, do chores, write a different surname and cook meals.

Marriage is not a magic jelly bean that when eaten, suddenly changes your relationship. Marriage will not take away your relationship problems, it will not take away the things your partner does that annoy you. It will most definitely not make your partner surprisingly more responsible than what he was before. On the same note, marriage is not an automatic blind fold that will surprisingly remove his/her desire to flirt, be with other men or girls.

If so, what change does marriage bring?

First, let's define marriage. Marriage in a general sense is the utmost commitment one can publicly do for his or her partner. Marriage is declaring to everyone (including the law) that this is the man or woman I've chosen to be with for the rest of my life. Take note of the word CHOSEN.

Marriage is beautiful, but it does not change your mindset, your view of things or even your decision making. Marriage does not change anything about you - only your civil status.

Reality check. It is you that SHOULD change. Marriage will not MAKE you change, it's just a ceremony, it's YOU that should activate and decide to change.

You should realize that your world does not revolve around just you anymore instead it should revolve around the two of you. You have to always decide to think of your partner in any decision that you will be making whether good or bad. Marriage is the ceremony and you are the mindset changer.

Marriage does not magically make you monogamous or always in love with your partner. You're human, you are you. It is you who has to decide to be monogamous, it is you who has to decide to stay in love with your partner, to stay committed, to be loyal, to be understanding, to work each and every issue out even when you feel like giving up.

Yes, it's a series of decisions that you have to make everyday. The classic reason people give when divorcing or separating is "I fell out of love." Falling out of love translated means you decided to stop loving, you decided to stop making things work, you decided to stop forgiving.

Love is hard work, Marriage is hard work but both reap beautiful things.

Never forget to love and choose to love each other everyday.

xx,
Mel

Clothes buffet Big Reveal

It's my time to share my clothes buffet experience 


I was sooo excited for this event and was literally counting down to 8:20PM of oct 17 which was my "wave" schedule. Im sad to say that the 2k I paid for was not worth it at all!! While preparing my mind pre-event i was a bit panicky because i didn't know how to get everything i want and put it inside the bag in just 15 mins. it wasn't like that at all. I was finished looking through ALL the racks, and i didn't even like anything. I checked the clock and i still have 10 mins left!! My worry on the actual event is that i wont be taking home anything! i browsed the racks once again and tried to "shop" and take the items i "liked" at the very least. What bothers me the most is that, i saw people posting about what they got and there were no items like that AT ALL during our wave. i was looking at the people i was with during the wave and nobody had the look of thrill on their faces. from what i saw, almost everybody was disappointed. Notice also that i didn't even take photos of the clothes i got. I know i took the later wave, but we paid the same amount. We should be given the same no. of choices too! The quality of the clothes left really suck. All items were branded but they looked old and cheap. Definitely not recommending this event to anyone.

If you really want to try it out when they set up something like this again, I would recommend the VERY FIRST WAVE ;)

xx,
Mel

Unspoken truth about Selling at Zalora

I've been with Zalora Marketplace for around 2-3 months + now and I want to share my experience with you.

I was very excited because Zalora is somewhat of a big name and quite a number of people are aware of the said website. I felt a great honor when their marketing executive contacted me and wanted to meet with me and carry our brand.
After discussing all the benefits and what the contract entails, I was very excited and my answer is a 101% yes. *I won't be disclosing details of the contract*

Alas! This amazing opportunity is finally at my grasp when I officially said yes and signed the contract (I appreciated the marketing executive a lot because she was very understanding and flexible in scheduling the training and all)

On-boarding was okay, we spent few hours learning the seller center which is where sellers upload pictures, stocks, descriptions etc. Now my shop is ALL SET.

I tried to check in with the seller center every so often until I got tired because nobody was ordering. It dawned upon me - how will customers know your existence just by visiting zalora? (the answer is they won't).

Days, weeks, months went buy and I'm happy to report that there are customers who bought almost everyday but the sad thing was, far from what I expected, there was not much of a market in Zalora since they don't know your brand, the question still remains - "how will they search your brand if they don't know you exist?"

During the training a lot of promises or rather "promising" words were let out and we (or at least I) had the impression or inkling that somehow zalora will look for a way to promote new brands or make your brand known (well nothing like that happened haha).

The things I said above are arguably dependent on situation, your product, sales that season or what customers in Zalora are looking for, but the things I will expound on below are quite different.

Here's the process you go through when you are a marketplace seller. What happens is, you are informed when somebody orders (thru email/sellercenter). The next thing you have to do is set the status to ready so that someone will come in the next day and pick up the items then after which they deliver it to the customer/s - all well and simple. The problem is (and mind that this happened more than thrice already) sometimes, well a lot of times, it takes more than 2 days before the courier actually picks up the items at our place. Literally, I have shipment plastics piling up and falling down because (just this week) it took FIVE FREAKING DAYS before the courier picked the items up. Just imagine what the buyers feel while waiting for their delayed package.

As we all know, Zalora offers such flexible terms when it comes to shopping like free returns (YES FREE RETURN NO MATTER WHAT YOUR REASON IS) and Cash on Delivery. While these privileges are great when you're the buyer, it's not good when you're the seller (like me). Why?

1. CASH ON DELIVERY.
While this item seems harmless to us and you ask (what's the problem? instead of bank transfer or Credit card payment we just pay when we receive the item) well yes that's fine when it's simply stated like this but the problem here is, since the customer did not pay for the item yet, they could reject it or not show up at all when the delivery comes in because they changed their minds or something. The item gets returned to Zalora and sellers have to pay a shipping fee so that these items will be returned to us. (don't even mention the mess up in our inventory and the waste of a perfectly good item because we won't be getting it back for more than a month or so!)

2. FREE RETURN - No matter what the reason is
Again, while this is great for the consumers, and in an ideal world where customers are decisive and reasonable - I'm also okay with this. It's fine if customers return it because it is damaged or the size is wrong but what the hell! Sometimes the reason for return is (test deliver) What?! I've wasted time making the item, printing the waybill info (well with that being said, ink is expensive!), and packing the item!
I'll give you a sample scenario of why I think Free return is a problem:
Customer A buys an item from Zalora under Shop ABC - click click click, CHECKOUT! after that the customer continues to browse and sees something he/she likes better - being indecisive as we are humans, this customer decides to wait for the item to be delivered and when he/she gets the item, he/she will return it (well what the hell, it's easy to return cause it's free!) and purchase the other item they want. While reading this you may think, what's wrong with this? Well what's wrong here is, it's a bunch of hassle for the sellers like me. Aside from wasting our inventory, we have to pay a shipping fee so that the items will be returned to us. Also we don't get the returned items right away! I've waited for more than 2 months now and most of the returned items are not yet with me - talk about waste of inventory.

What happens now?
I'm still part of Zalora and while we are allowed to terminate the contract any time, I think I'll stick around just until the end of my contract.

Bottom line:
I don't feel that it's worth it. I expected a whole lot more from Zalora and they did not live up to my expectations. The simple fact that items purchased lies for up to 5 days in our place waiting to be picked up feels so sloppy. I'm letting you in a big secret, you won't earn much either - I get a whole lot more sales in my own online shop than on Zalora (like a week = 1 month in zalora). I'm not sure if it's just pumped up flowery words but they mentioned that I was one of the top sellers last month and I was very surprised because I felt like the sales was disappointing.

Am I saying don't sell with them? Not at all. I just want you to be informed. It's a good experience and if you want to, go ahead and try it out. This is just my experience, maybe it'll be different for you ;)

xx,
Mel