priorities & venue hunting

one of the first few things we did when we started our wedding preps was to list down all the suppliers we needed (venue, food, photo, video, etc.) based on my brother's wedding worksheet from the previous year, and individually rank them based on priority. luckily, bryan and i had the same top three priorities-- church, venue, and food. but everything else after that was a mismatch! :P

so in an effort to secure ourselves the date he wanted (ah, yes agreeing to "the date" is a different story altogether :P) we set off in early january to search for the perfect church and reception venue. we went around manila looking for an old/ historic church, not too big, not too small, should have a beautiful altar, with decent parking, and lastly, it had to be airconditioned! (these were bryan's requirements btw :P) it took quite a few weekend trips around manila and makati before we finally decided on Manila Cathedral and Manila Peninsula's The Conservatory. but before that, i wanted to share with you some of the venues we also considered. venue-hunting photos are posted here c/o bryan.

Chapel of San Beda (Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat)
the san beda chapel to me feels like home. i grew up hearing the 7am sto. nino mass here with all my cousins and titos/ titas from my mom's side. after mass we would buy puto and kutsinta outside, and head off to mcdonald's in greenhills to have breakfast. good old days. i remember the latin songs, the smell of incense, and the smell of newly cut grass in the morning. i just love this church. too bad they do not hold weddings here anymore.

National Shrine of the Sacred Heart
gorgeous, gorgeous altar ;) unfortunately when we did an ocular, we saw that there wasn't enough parking space and the entrance didn't feel so grand. i dunno, i just didn't get that "this is it" feeling i guess...

Diamond Hotel
when we pencil booked Manila Cathedral, this was one of the other venue options that was close enough to the church, big enough for 200-250 guests, and it was airconditioned! i think walking around intramuros at 12noon looking for other venues made us realize we definitely weren't going to have a reception inside intramuros! so diamond became an option. we both loved that the pool area/ fountain was right outside the ballroom and had a good view of manila bay. but as with the other venues, i was a bit hesitant. i somehow knew i did not want to have a ballroom wedding reception. heehee.

so after weekends and weekends of going around in circles and debating over this and that, not to mention being fickle about my priorities, we finally made a choice. and here's a sneak peak of how they both look like, and perhaps why we chose them in the first place.

(Photo from The Peninsula Manila website)

i love it, yay :)