Yamee's Baptism - Stories and Reviews

Because my parents and hubs' sister were home from abroad during the Holidays, we decided to have Yamee baptized despite the fact that we're still reeling from all the adjustments to being parents of two kids.

Invitation: DIY by Me
... and only sent through e-mail and Facebook. I learned a lot from having so many invites printed before which we never got to distribute. Plus, nobody keeps invites anyway.



Ceremony: Malate Church
Malate Catholic Church
Our Lady of Remedies Parish
2000 MH del Pilar St. Malate, Manila
400-5876; 523-2593; 524-6866

Of course, it was a no-brainer that Yamee will be baptized in the same Church that Yakee was, which was also where Pappie was baptized. It's a good thing that they had a christening on December 26. We attended the seminar for parents in December 11 and I think I actually listened more to it that time.

As usual, I found the Church hot. The baptism was at 11:00 AM and we were there at 10:30 but we were 12th to arrive already (with Yakee, we were 2nd). But we got to hold onto the ceremony candle this time :)

Most of our godparents were late. Christmas hangover, hehe, which we understood full well. We just made use of the time to pose by the fount before the actual ceremony.























The priests at Malate Church, being Irish, were on time and the baptism was finished within 45 minutes or so. The officiating priest was also very kalog and even flicked Holy Water on my face from the fount.

Tarpaulin: Mitsubishi Photo Developing





At P375 for a 5 feet by 3 feet tarp, it's fuss-free to get from their developing center rather than go to Divisoria for the same prize.

Giveaways: Feeding Bottles with Chocolate Lover chocolates
Feeding bottles were bought from the Ylaya area in Divisoria. I wanted the plain ones only but there was none available. These ones were decorated with ribbons around it so it already cost P9 each (P10 in most stalls).

I intended to put imported candies or chocolates in it but my mom's balikbayan boxes were delayed so we bought chocolates instead at Chocolate Lover. We bought the flavored chocolates in cubes instead but could only put four of those in the bottles. So we also packaged the chocolate balls to give away.





I was not really happy with the giveaways but I had no energy to do more for it. I just printed a tag (Yamee's name meaning) to put in the bottles.

For the chocolates, buy from Chocolate Lover:
http://www.echocolatelover.com
Main: 45 P. Tuazon St. cor. C. Benitez St., Cubao, QC
Tel. No: (632) 411-7474; 724-5752
Branch: #2 Kitanlad St., Quezon Avenue
Tel No: (632) 732-8576

Reception: Aristocrat Restaurant

Having a reception at Aristocrat is kinda expensive (for us) especially since we just gave birth. But since we saved some on the delivery costs and I didn't have the energy anymore to scout for a possible venue, we already went ahead and booked Aristocrat. It was a squeeze though because December is such a busy month.

We could have lunched at Max's instead but you already sort of know what will be served to you at Max's eh, hehe. Both are walking distance from Malate Church.

We just got their cheapest packaged menu for 100 pax and we didn't get souvenirs, signature frame and invites from them anymore. That was about P2,500 we could have discounted from the total package price but we used it instead to order 10 Belissima and 10 Caramel mini cakes from their bakeshop. The cakes, we gave to the ninongs/ninangs of both of our kids that were present, the rest we gave to those who had us for godparents.

Aristocrat bakeshop cakes are super, super divine!









The cake that came with the package was mocha and it had some caramel crunch and buttercream inside. Unfortunately, there was no picture of the food, hehe, but suffice it to say that nobody who eats chicken do not adore Aristocrat's chicken barbecue.

Some annoyances with Aristocrat though... they told me that we only had two hours in the function room but the food was not yet ready to be served at 12. It was almost 1 PM before the food was served and we were provided with a microphone for prayers. Also, I gave them a list of things to do (like provide the mic, arrange the souvenirs, etc) but all they did was put up the tarp. Still, the waitstaff was very accommodating and courteous.

I don't think there was a table that finished all the food served, most really had to take their leftovers home. I guess that's one upside of throwing a party in December, your guests aren't that hungry anymore.

All in all, we loved having our reception there because we know everyone enjoyed the food. The Continental B hall can accommodate 100 pax but there's some air conditioning limitation at the back, I was told.

Photographer: Dennis Mendoza

One problem with having an event in December is that photographers are already booked or also on holiday. Dennis was a recommendation by a N@Wie friend because he usually covers Unilab events. At P4k, he was a photographer we could afford. Plus, again, I didn't have the energy to obsess over who we book. I did text and email a lot of photographers and I just said that whoever is free for our event and within our budget will be it. Dennis was it.

Dennis is such a good kid (haha, he's only in his 20s I think, and I guess am old na talaga since I think of him as a kid) and they were at the church early. We didn't have proper portraits of Yamee with his godparents but well, his godparents were mostly late, hehe.

I loved that they set up a soft of Photobooth with lights and umbrella. Had I known, I'd have created a backdrop for it since they just set things up with the crowd as backdrop. And that kind of backdrop is noisy. Still, our guests had something to do while waiting for the food to be served. And we ended up with great pictures of the people who took the time in their busy holidays to celebrate with us.

We got to pose per table too! :)











Dennis also brought his laptop and burned me two copies already of all the pics so I got the pictures immediately after the event. No more waiting time!

The only minus points for Dennis though is that he shot the pics at a setting of small/fine. I'm used to pictures in the highest resolution possible so that was a sort of bummer for me. But I still loved the pics and Dennis and his friend were very easy to work with. I would definitely recommend them to friends :)


After the lunch, my in-laws took an hour deciding on where we'd go after. We ended up at SMX Convention center, camped there for over an hour, attended Mass at the church nearby, camped at SMX again then went home to Las Pinas where my Yakee opened all the gifts waiting for him.

*~*

Story 1 - we decided i'd lead the prayer this time (because at Yakee's baptism, Pappie sorta invited our guests already to Yakee's birthday too, haha) and I wrote one up. I started crying though when I got to the part where I was asking God for continued healing for us (coz the following day was Pyro's 4th death anniversary). Hubs later on told me that they couldn't understand what I was saying since I was talking so fast, and our guests probably got confused why I was crying, hehe.

Story 2 - an old college friend wondered aloud to her hubby why we chose a blue-colored theme. She repeated it to me later because all the while, she thought my baby was a girl. There were actually a lot who thought Yamee was a girl, this despite having announced very early to everyone that we're expecting another boy. Hubs is now teasing me that once Yamee starts complaining that his name and nickname sounds like a girl's name, he'd say it's all my fault. I told hubs na lang I'd teach Yamee to retort, "Ay, you're not as well-read as my Mom?" :D *bad*