City Garden Suites and Great Eastern Hotel

The package we reserved for City Garden costs 83,100 for 100 guests, and pretty much offers everything. The banquet specialist who assisted us upgraded our package at no extra cost since we reserved our slot during a bridal fair in PICC. 

Sample set- up ♥

Sample Ceremony Set - up ♥

From Mark's camera -- lobby

Their booth during bridal fair

Function room we have reserved ♥

Facade of the hotel - super visible electrical wires and narrow roads are minus factors

Here are the inclusions:
1. Overnight Accommodation in a Penthouse Room for two with FREE Buffet Breakfast **
2. Doves **
3. Guest Book with pen and logo**
4. Wine for the ceremonial toasting**
5. Floral decorations on stage, buffet & individual table centerpiece**
6. Sound System and Lights for background music & program support**
7. Free function room rental for 4 hours**
8. Torch Parade**
9. 50 pcs giveaways
10. Free Food tasting for Two persons
11. Three layer Fondant cake
12. FREE Chocolate Fountain
13. FREE Bubble Machine
14. Bridal Car w/ Car bouquet
15. Dedicated professional events personnel to attend to all necessities.

On top of 100 guests, we have to add 695 pesos. It was a good deal though, but since we are expecting more than 100 guests, then I think we have to allot more money than 83K. So we have set 100K for the food, since we are expecting 150+ guests. Aside from the food, we also have to pay for our P/V, our attire, the church, invitations, and other misc fees. When I computed everything, we would roughly go beyond 150K. I thought City Garden was the best package we have scouted, but when I came across Great Eastern Hotel, the urge I felt with City Garden suddenly vanished. Though it has never been my first choice, I was truly persuaded by the packages they offered me. Finding this hotel was like a matter of coincidence since I only found their contact information while I was browsing the yellow pages, and just tried to call them to compare the packages they have.
When I called them up, I was really convinced by their packages. When I told this to Mark, he was kind of hesitant because we already shed 5K for our reservation with City Gardens, but then I promised him that we can save more if we go for Great Eastern Hotel.
Inclusions:
USE OF FUNCTION ROOM FOR 2 HRS.
KARAOKE W/ 1 MIC
WEDDING CAKE (2 LAYERS)
ONE ROUND OF ASSORTED SOFTDRINKS
50 PCS. GIVEAWAYS
FLOWER PER TABLE
DOVES
GUESTBOOK
BRIDAL TOAST
But of course, we upgraded everything. Yes, their packages are more reasonable as compared to other hotels, but they a lot of corkage’s too! Good thing we were able to squeeze everything, and now can accommodate 200 guests.

Winding Staircase (Mark really loved this!)

Strike a pose babe! ♥

Lesson I learned from attending our 1st bridal fair

Bringing money during bridal fairs most especially if the wedding is not less than 6 months is probably the number 1 lesson I have learned from attending bridal fairs. I myself is such a fan of huge discounts and easily fall to marketing strategies.  

When Mark and I attended a bridal fair last February in PICC, we instantly reserved our slot in City Garden Suites for our reception, without even having second thoughts. The AE offered us free upgrades and waived all the corkage fees; and she even promised that we won’t be affected by their price increase for this year. 

Receipt! sigh, good bye 5,000 pesos!

We were actually enticed by her offer, and I can pretty tell that the offer was really good! From Bridal suite to penthouse, from 3 hours rent of venue to 4 hours and so much more. We even went to City Garden Suites to see how it looks like. After signing the contract, Mark and I were pleased by our decision.

City Garden Suites - lobby

City Garden Suites booth

City Garden Suites

However, after a few months, Mark & I had a mutual decision to move the venue from Malate to Makati due to money-matters. We were actually dismayed that we had to let go of our 5k reservation which is no longer refundable. Hehe. So to cut it short, I should have listened to my friends that we shouldn’t give in with the supplier’s offers easily. Come on, 5k is still 5k, and we can buy a lot of things from that amount.  But in fairness to bridal fairs; the suppliers really offer huge discounts that really tailors to a budgeted wedding.

Reception Hunting

Church dilemma has been resolved, and just like the nerve-racking decision making, we even experienced this with choosing the wedding reception venue.

Truly accepted; the first days of our planning stage was really unorganized. We started with the invites, cakes, photographers, without even thinking of the church & reception. It was like a patching planning stage, we suppose.

There was an idea of Ibarra’s Garden, Bali Garden, Intramuros, Palacio de Maynila, Ysabel’s Garden, Endramada, Monti de Portofino and so much more. But since we have decided to book Don Bosco Parish, looking for the reception venue comes in handy.

Since Mark and I thought that we are going to have the wedding in Manila, we reserved our slot in City Garden Suites, Manila during the bridal fair. However, since we had to start from scratch and disregard our previous plans, we had to look for a new reception.

And that's where Great Eastern Hotel took its place. My friends weren't convinced that much with the sudden change of plans, but then, this time around, we really have to make sure and decide about this, since this is really no joke. Some couple might get our slot, and preferred date. WE ARE ALREADY RUNNING OUT OF TIME. Remember, I have a wedding calendar to follow, since Mark and I are both busy and should stick with it. At first, we had doubts about it, and kind of hesitant to book it, but when we visited the place, we both agreed that we want really want book the place. We booked the church and reception at the same time.

We decided to get the Grand Ballroom function hall that has a winding staircase. Mark and I can really tell that the place is so pleasing to the eyes. We immediately fell in love with it and thought why we had to decide to book City Garden Suites in the first place.

Of all the quotations and venue we had researched for the past few months, (to be exact, 4 months) we finally made up our minds to have our reception in Great Eastern Hotel. Their wedding package offered everything everything we need. No need to think of the miscellaneous and venue set-up; which was actually part of the major problems we had before while scouting for the venue.