Tag Archives: wedding catering service

#RealWeddings: Modernized Elements Of Greek Mythology Brought This Couple’s Dream Wedding To Life!

About the couple

How did you and your husband meet?

“We met way back in August 15, 2010 during AJ’s mall show with his previous boyband, XLR8

“My cousin, who was their friend, invited me to support them since they were just starting out in the industry and could use a lot of support. He got my number from my cousin a month after that and started texting then calling me. It all happened so quickly! After a very short time, we were already officially dating!”

How long have you been together?

“We’ve been together for eight and a half years. Our relationship was about to turn eight when he popped the question.”

What are your current occupations?

“AJ is an actor, and I run our own cheesecake business called Sugar Baby.”

What do you enjoy doing together or bonding over?

“We are not very outgoing. AJ and I are both introverts so we mostly keep to ourselves. Although we enjoy going out sometimes, we prefer going to places which aren’t crowded. Most of the time, we just bond over binge watching movies and series, but nothing beats our love for reading and eating. Oh, and yes, we both live for iced coffee!”

Preparing for the wedding

Why did you choose a Grecian-inspired theme for your wedding?

“It was based on our most favorite book series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. We are both fascinated by the books because they revolve around Greek mythology.”

How long did you prepare for your wedding?

“Nine months! We started preparing around August 2018, a month after he proposed to me.”

What were the challenges of organizing your wedding?

“I guess everyone would agree with me on this: the hardest part is the guest list! AJ and I both come from big families and with him being an actor, our network was just so big that it was so hard to shortlist who we both want to invite.”

What was the best part about getting ready to get married?

“The best part was spending a lot of time planning everything together. We were very hands-on when we were planning everything. It was fun for me that we both got to pitch our ideas and play around with them until we reached a decision.”

How did you decide on the wedding venue?

“I wasn’t very particular with the venue. AJ and I just both wanted it to be in Tagaytay. Ate Charisse (Tinio), the owner of NicePrint, suggested Club Ananda. AJ and I went to check it out and we just both got the ‘This is it’ feeling. It has lush greenery, a serene ambience, and our visitors didn’t have problems with the parking space.”

What were the highlights of the wedding ceremony and the reception?

“There’s too much that I want to say but I would say the best part was when I walked down the aisle and saw AJ looking so dashing in that all-white suit. He was smiling and crying at the same time!

“On our way to the reception, our energy was dropping. We stopped by Starbucks to buy our iced coffees first to give us more energy for the day!

“I also got goosebumps when I saw what FJ Sionson did to our reception area. It was just how we both wanted it to be. AJ and I, along with our best friends, also prepared a choreographed piece for our first dance. The food was amazing and the program flowed smoothly. The reception also ended with a bang as we had the screening of the final episode of Game of Thrones along with our guests who are also fans of the series.”

Share some tips for other couples preparing for their own big day.

“Set a budget and stick with it as much as you can. If you have to splurge on anything, splurge on your photographer or videographer because you will look back at these images in the future.

“Also, choose the best caterer because your guests will thank you for it, and they will all go home with happy tummies.

“You also should invest on a good on-the-day coordinator because they will make sure your program goes smoothly all throughout.

“The guests that you’ll invite should also be people who you want to be there—the ones who are really close to your heart. It’s your day and you have all the right to not invite the people who do not contribute to your lives as a couple.

“Aesthetics will only come after these. Enjoy the process no matter how tiring it gets because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

The wedding outfit

Tell us something about your wedding gown.

“I actually had a design in mind when I came to Vee Tan. When I saw her work years ago, I already had my mind made up that she would make my wedding gown. She helped me with the details and made my dream gown come to life.”

What were other noteworthy details about your wedding look?

“I didn’t have many accessories for the wedding because I wanted the dress to stand out on its own.

“I just wore simple teardrop-shaped faux diamond earrings that my sister, who was my maid of honor, bought for me. AJ gave me a bangle a day before our wedding.

“The look that I had was simple; I just told my best friend and makeup artist, Hernan Soriano, to try and make me look like a Greek goddess and trusted him to do the magic.

“AJ wore anchor and helm cufflinks from Rodel Briñas and a customized gold handmade trident pin made of wires by Macky Combe.”

Details

Number of guests: “Originally, the plan was to have only 80 guests but since we both came from big families, the number shot up to 150.”

Church: “Our wedding ceremony was held at Iglesia Ni Cristo Lokal ng EVM at Tagaytay, while the reception was at Club Ananda, Sandari Batulao.”

Wedding date: “May 20, 2019. It also happened to be AJ’s 27th birthday!”

Wedding coordinator: “Events Embassy was the one responsible for the smooth-sailing program.”

Photographer: “Only the best, NicePrint Photo!”

Invitations and other printed materials: “We picked Print Divas for our invitations. They also designed our wedding monogram.”

Entourage’s outfits: “I let my maid of honor and bridesmaids decide on whatever design they wanted. My only instruction was that they look for flowy dresses because I wanted them to look like Greek goddesses as well. I helped them by adding a few details here and there to go with our theme. We had it made at Mercy Tongol’s dress shop. The best man’s and the groomsmen’s outfits were decided by me and AJ. We didn’t want it to be too complicated but wanted them to look clean, simple but still crisp. Gladly, we found the linen shirts at Uniqlo and asked them to bring any cream-colored pants that they own.”

Groom’s suit: “The suit was made by Rodel Briñas. He was very easy to work with and helped us find the best materials for AJ’s suit since he’s very particular when it comes to the fabric and the fit. Rodel also had the monogram embroidered in gold at the back of the suit.”

Bridal shoes: “The design of the bridal shoes was simple; I was very particular with finding a pair of gold gladiator heels to go with our theme. I couldn’t find any so I sought the help of Raymond Bragais.”

Florist: “The bridal and entourage bouquets, plus the boutonnières, were made by Dusty Rose Florals. They were handmade using faux flowers. The set designer, on the other hand, was FJ Sionson. He did a very beautiful job and even added Greek pillars and statues to go with our theme.”

Host: “Two of our friends, Algerome Asuncion and Ton Soriano, served as the hosts. Together, they balanced the reception from the solemn parts to the fun and entertaining ones.”

Entertainment: “There wasn’t a dull moment as we had performances from Mark Mabasa (a grand finalist of X Factor), our friends the Magno Twins and Sam Mangubat (Tawag ng Tanghalan first runner-up), Alyssa Muhlach, and Alonzo Muhlach. We also hired the band Shades of Revery to play for us.”

Officiator: “The wedding ceremony was officiated by Ka Herbert Bolaños.”

Caterer: “The guests enjoyed our mini cocktail area prepared by Dirty Dogs while the scrumptious dinner was prepared by Juan Carlo the Caterer. The beautiful cake was made by Honey Glaze Cakes.”

Giveaways: “Linen sprays that come in two scents. For our male visitors, we chose the Sea Breeze scent to symbolize the god of the sea, Poseidon. For our female visitors, we opted for Olive scent to symbolize the goddess of wisdom, Athena. These were handmade by Rej Aquino.”

Hairstylist and makeup artist: Hernan Soriano

Wedding hashtag: #AM2AM

Original article courtesy of Metro Style

Ways to Make the Most Out of Your Wedding Catering

How do you make the most out of your wedding catering?

Have a concept in mind
Go for what’s in season
Do as much as you can on your own
Work within a budget

Many couples leave the wedding food catering necessities to the experts. All they end up doing is paying their dues and letting the caterers do the magic. But most of these packages are not usually tailor-made for you. Chances are, it’s not going to meet your standards of style.

If you want to make the most out of your wedding catering, you should be hands-on. You should have a solid plan and stick to it. This way, you could make your wedding reception a much more magical occasion. How do you make the most out of your wedding catering services? Simple: work hand in hand with the catering services Here’s how:

Have a Concept in Mind

One must lay out a detailed plan when catering a wedding. The food, theme, and the number of guests, while essential, shouldn’t be the only thing in mind. You must have a concept that covers every single detail that would help the wedding catering services fulfill your needs. Providing a comprehensive checklist for the wedding catering service will be of great use for them to fully execute your dream wedding catering.

Without a clear concept, you may end up spending much more than what you initially expected. Following a plan prevents you from making too many changes over the course of your wedding planning. Of course, at times it’s inevitable that you’re going to make some changes. But with a concept in mind, you can stick as close as you can to your original ideas.

Here are some common questions to ask to develop your own wedding catering checklist:

When is the date of your wedding?
Where will it be held?
How many guests are you expecting?
What food will be served?
What food style would you want at the event?
Are there special foods you want to be served?
How much staff do you need at the event? What is the theme of your wedding?

These are but a few questions you need to ask yourself. You can start with these basic questions and then develop your own wedding plan.

Go With What’s in Season

Similar to the approach of choosing seasonal flowers to maximize your total wedding budget, going with in-season products can be applied when choosing ingredients for your wedding catering. To make the most of your budget even more, you could opt for in-season local food or ingredients. It isn’t necessary to really go for offseason food and ingredients to satisfy your guests. There’s always some good or better in season meal and ingredients during the time of your wedding.

Food that is in season is more likely to taste better and easier to order. Keeping your food in season means that you get fresher ingredients at a cost-effective price.

Do as Much DIY as You Can

Your wedding catering service will probably offer to decorate the place with their own furnishings. However, this will obviously come with a price. To cut costs and save more money, offer to provide your own decorations. Crafting your own decorations may take up a lot of your time, but it gives you the chance to incorporate how you really want the place to look. You could even ask a couple of friends to help you out to speed things up and have a good time.

Don’t think you’re limited to decorations when you want to DIY, either. You could also help your catering services with the food, provide your own utensils, plates, and table decor. Though this requires a lot of time, effort, and organization, it’s the most fulfilling of all wedding DIY’s to do.

Work Within a Budget

Establishing an amount of money to spend is not only important for you but for the wedding caterer as well. It will be easier for the caterer to come up with a perfect menu if they know how much their client is willing to spend. Many caterers can whip up astounding menus with any budget. Leaving them clueless about your budget will be a disaster for you and the caterer.

Finalize a set amount of money you’re willing to spend and let your wedding catering services know about it right away. Don’t make too many shifts in the budget allocation as this will mess up with the plans of the catering services. Don’t forget to give an allowance for a few more people, adjust your budget accordingly.

Key Takeaway

Maximizing your budget when it comes to food catering is always possible. Make sure to coordinate everything with your wedding catering services. It’s key to never leave them out of the blue. Working accordingly with everyone involved from the wedding to reception will bring out the most of your big day. This special day of yours doesn’t have to cost millions to make it special. You could work with a tight budget and it can turn out as grand as any other expensive wedding.

6 Questions You Need to Ask When Booking a Wedding Catering Service in the Philippines

What are the questions that you should be asking when booking a wedding catering service?

Have they already worked on the same venue before?
What, in particular, makes up their catering package?
Are they flexible with the menu? Or can you only choose from the set of deals that they have?
How long does the service take?
Are they willing to provide a food tasting in advance?
What does the caterer and the staff wear?

With the variety of choices for a wedding catering in the Philippines, the task of finding the best service can rather be formidable. This is especially true considering there are a lot of things you have to do to test them out, including food and beverage tasting and checking out the tableware.

Admittedly, doing all of these things can get stressful. However, some of them are really necessary in order to ensure that your big day will go as seamless as possible. Hence, it may be useful to perform a mini Q and A with your potential caterer.

Question #1: Have they worked on the same venue before?

The venue is an important factor for a caterer, hence, it’s important that you ask them on whether they have already worked on the same venue before. This is in consideration of the handling that they may need to go through in the actual day. If they will be cooking on site, it’s important for them to be able to check the kitchen, the electricity, the space, and many others that they may need for the service to run smoothly.

Even more so, there are cases that you may need to supply them a few things in the venue. Therefore, in order to make sure that you will not be surprised with the billing, it’s essential for you to be informed of this beforehand.

Question #2: What, in particular, makes up their catering package?

As mentioned above, there are instances that will be supplying a few things to the caterer while they are setting up your venue. Thus, it’s only important to also ask them about what things in particular will make up the package (or what wouldn’t). Here are some examples:

Tax
Staff
Tip
Service charge
Bartenders
Cake cutting charges
Beverage service
Alcohol
Table
Chairs
Tableware
Linens
Serving ware
Facilities
Garbage bins

With this information, you’ll be able to pinpoint which of the items listed above may be considered as an additional expense for you. Thus, enabling you to be prepared for it.

Question #3: Are they flexible with the menu? Or you can only choose from the set of deals that they have?

Flexibility when it comes to the menu is an important factor when choosing a caterer. This is due to the reason that you also have a few things in mind that you want to incorporate into the menu. For instance, you would like to serve a family dish or your spouse’s favorite food at your wedding. You have to take this into account because more often than not, the caterer will not have these food items available on their menu.

Whether they have it or not, you’d know this information beforehand, allowing you to adjust or think of something else.

Question #4: How long does the service take?

When it comes to planning your wedding reception, it’s an important factor to be mindful of the time that your wedding catering service may take up. This is given the fact that you’re also renting a venue with only a limited time. Furthermore, starving your guests isn’t something you wouldn’t want to happen on your wedding day. With that said, you should ask the caterer about the specifics. After all, a great catering service knows how long specifically it’ll take them to complete a particular event.

Question #5: Are they willing to provide a food tasting in advance?

Of course, above all, food matters. Thus, it’s only as important to know what they can offer you and have a taste of the food they will be serving your guests at the event. It’s also important that it’s not only a sample of the food that they are capable of cooking, but also the exact food that you’d want to have on the menu for your wedding day.

A good catering service in the Philippines should have a variety of options and will be willing to offer you this; therefore, you shouldn’t think twice about asking them.

Question #6: What does the caterer and the staff wear?

It’s also important to know how your caterer’s staff will look like in the event. This is to ensure that they’ll go with the tone and theme of your wedding. After all, they’re a huge part of the event.

Key Takeaway

Asking specific questions to your caterer may be intimidating, but it’s standard to do so. Basically, it is because you wanted to ensure that you’re getting the right service and avoid a poor one.

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