ROUTES TO TAGAYTAY

Alternative routes to Tagaytay

Detailed Tagaytay Map from E-Z maps

(click on images for larger view or to download)

YOU'RE INVITED!

The story of our invites involved a long and tiring process of frustration and subsequent elimination. At first, we didn't want to go to Recto-based suppliers, due to a perception of substandard output quality. In the end, due to several mishaps with other printers, we ended up with Printlane (they have shops in Recto and Cubao), where we surprisingly found both the flexibility and quality that we wanted at a reasonable cost.

It was a challenge trying to merge the classy/simple design that he wanted versus the casual and fun summer theme that she (moi) wanted. Luckily, my sister was able to piece together our seeminly unmergeable demands :-)

envelope flap w/our favorite quote

main invite

entourage page

rsvp card

DIY map

THE SCENT OF SUMMER

It took hours of debates (one-sided monologues actually) a couple of aspirins and several drops of eye-mo before we finally settled on a theme ;-) Being two highly polarized individuals, the hours we spent "communing with our inner child" yielded only a general ambience rather than a specific theme like modern filipiniana, chocolates, travel, beach, etc.

As mentioned in an earlier post, we fell in love with the vibrant hues of coral pink, amber and apricot yellow and settled on a summer garden atmosphere. Come rain or shine, we want our reception styling to capture the light, cheerful and carefree feelings evoked by a clear summer day, and based on the sneak peak our stylist Teddy provided , I think we're almost there :-) You can almost smell the citrus fruits, apples and roses ...

HAVIN' YOUR CAKE & EATIN' IT TOO!

Having overspent (he said) on some elements of our wedding - which is actually money well-spent (she said) - I had to restrain myself from going overboard on the others just to keep the peace :-)

So the gameplan was: go for simple AND delish. However, having "simple" doesn't mean we have to settle for those pretty but barely edible fondant concoctions so popular for weddings. And since going for all-edible cakes from wickedly hedonistic pastry shops will simply bankrupt us, we opted to settle for just small portions of our tried-and-tested favorites.

In the end, we got an unassuming satellite cake from Bizu composed of 3 different flavors, which we know we'll love. Fortunately, Audrey and team Bizu were creative and flexible enough to agree to incorporate the above design in our wedding cake. Can't wait to see (and taste!) the end product :-)

OUR SPLENDID NEW VENUE

Finally conceding defeat to the unpredictable Tagaytay weather, we decided early on to start looking for a covered reception venue, for our own peace of mind, and for the convenience of our guests .... our options were sadly limited - we wanted a spacious covered venue, with ample parking and which is, at the most, only 15 minutes away from Caleruega

Fortunately, the newly-constructed Splendido Taal Country Club was already open, albeit still a few weddings shy of gaining the "experience" we wanted in terms of handling such events. Still, it had all the elements that we wanted, plus a bonus: a view of the majestic taal volcano.

The place was very homey and relaxing, fitting the casual and intimate ambiance we wanted for our wedding.

The main entrance hall

Parking lot

Cocktail area

Bell

Tower

Fountain at the courtyard

Ladera Golfer's Lounge (interior)



Veranda

View from the top

Taal view

Spectacular greens

CAKE TOPPER CRAZY

I'm pretty sure all brides feel an instinctive need to add a personal touch, a unique stamp to their wedding which will differentiate it from all WGB (weddings gone before).

Obssessive-compulsive bridezillas would want to personalize EVERY little detail. More rational ones would settle for a few tastefully chosen elements. On my good days, I'd like to think I belong to the latter category :-)

Of all the items in my "nice-to-have" list, a customized cake topper is among the few that I'm trying valiantly to fit inside our budget. After seeing and falling in love with Karla Magbanua's sugar creations and Charity Rue's clay couples, who can fault me?



Those cute, cartoony sugary creations from Claycakes are guaranteed to melt hearts left and right. I'm just not sure if Karla will consent to create just the toppers or if those sugar-based confections can be preserved at all.

Fortunately, happy raves from w@wies Berna and Leslie brought Angelkind Creations to my attention. Just look at the level of detail in each topper - my mind is positively spinning with possibilities! :-)


Obvously, I'm not a fan of life-like caricutures, though Angelkind offers that as well :-) Aside from these adorable "smilies," there are also "doll" and "cupcake" styles which simply cannot fail to illicit smiles even from the most jaded wedding guest :-)


Her prices are actually not that steep compared to other similar manufacturers and if you have a friend in the US, you can save on shipping costs. If ever we decide to have one of Charity's unique creations, our klutzy black lab Ginny will definitely be a main fixture :-)

OUR ALTERNATIVE STRINGS

Wedding music was previously a big dilemma of ours - though we both appreciate and sometimes crave for the usual sentimental love songs, we are, at heart, more of the alternative_rock kind of people. (One of us is just pretending though, guess who, haha)

Obviously, the songs we wanted were not in the standard repertoire of popular musicians and choirs - and having specially arranged pieces would seriously deplete our budget.

Fotunately, a former officemate (my eternal gratitude to you Fritz!) introduced me to vitamin record's string quartet albums ... and several p2p downloads later, we had our ideal playlist! (hey, to be fair, I bought some of the hard-to-find ones in the US)

If you want to hear samples, please visit my multiply account :-)