Search for The Venue Part 5 – Light of Love

5. Light of Love

Location: 1163 Santol St., Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines

Catering Service Options: Hizon’s, Eloquente, Josiah’s, Juan Carlo, K by Cunanan, Manila, Tijoe and Via Mare Caterings.

Telephone Numbers: (632) 714-3871

Email: lightoflove.eventsplace@gmail.com

Website: http://lightoflove.com.ph/index.php

Here are some photos to view from their website:

The Atrium can accommodate 180pax.

Cherish – an outdoor venue that can accommodate 250pax. Also good for garden wedding ceremonies.

The garden – their recommended venue for wedding rites.

Integrity – good for 150 pax with its own balcony for cocktails.

Love – good for 150pax. This venue also serves as their backup venue for the garden (ceremony set-up will be moved here in case it rains).

Loyalty – a tent (fully air-conditioned) venue that can accommodate 300 pax.

Trust – another tent venue good for bigger parties. Can accommodate 450 pax. Like Loyalty, this venue is also fully air-conditioned.

Light of Love all inclusive wedding packages ranges from P140,000.00 up depending on your chosen caterer and package inclusions.

Pros:

• A lot of venue choices and catering packages to choose from.

• Light of Love is an exclusive gated venue.

• Parking available.

Cons:

• Outside of Light of Love is a residential area. We almost got lost searching for the place.

• Taxi’s passing by Light of Love are very limited. Guests without vehicles of their own would have to wait for 30mins or so before luckily getting a cab.

• When we got there for our ocular, dried leaves where everywhere. A little cleaning will do a lot for the aesthetics of the place.

• No feel of exclusivity. Since there are a lot of available venues expect that there will be 4 more events simultaneously happening along with yours.

The venue was nice enough and the packages were within budget but it did not give us that “this is it” feeling. So we decided to just head home for that day. Have a good rest and deliberate another day over which we will choose as the venue of the biggest day of our lives.

Search for The Venue Part 2 – Blue Gardens

2. Blue Gardens

Location: 28 Samonte Street, via Zuzuaregui Road, Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City

Catering Service Options: Hizon’s and Lina Vintan

Telephone Numbers:  430-5982  /  931-1628

E-mail: bluegardens@gmail.com

Website: www.thebluegardens.blogspot.com

Here are are some photos courtesy of their website:

The garden area during the day.

The garden area at night.

The Chateau with its European inspired interiors and tall French windows. This venue can accommodate up to 150pax.

The Groom and Bridal lounges – free to use with their all inclusive package for preparations.

Here are additional photos that we took during our visit:

The “Majestic Door” as they call it. For the Bride’s dramatic entrance to her ceremony.

When guests arrive, they will be welcomed by this relaxing garden.

The “Garden Wall” nearby to the restrooms where guests can lounge to get away from all the party action for a while.
They also have a wheelchair ramp next to it.
And there is my fiancé getting into the details with their Account Representative while i take some photos. 🙂

Actual set-up of combined ceremony and reception at the garden area.

Their “Worry-Free” wedding packages ranges from P139,000 up for 100 guests, P161,000.00 up for 150 guests and P187,000 up for 200 guests. Prices vary depending on the caterer and the package of your preference.

Pros:

• Very photogenic architecture.

• Cozy and relaxing ambiance.

• Perfect for intimate celebrations.

Cons:

• Next to the road, you could hear vehicles and people passing by. The area is a bit busy as it is surrounded by industrial and residential buildings.

• We got lost going to the location, their directional signboards were not that obvious and helpful. (As i remember they only have 1 along Commonwealth Avenue, and we have to guess our way once inside the area.)

• Limited parking space for the guests, any vehicles over the capacity will have to park their cars outside on the side of the street unprotected.

• The Chateau, their main hall, is going to be too crowded for our planned layout for our reception, which includes a dancefloor and band area provision.

I cannot comment about the food because we did not have a chance to have a foodtasting with them. As soon as we were leaving, we were pretty much sure that the place was not for us. So off to the next location we go.

Search for The Venue Part 1 – Grand Terrace

Looking for the perfect venue for your special day that has these – affordability, elegance, comfortability and accessibility, is very tough especially nowadays that the prices for any wedding related aspects are skyrocketing through the roof. You have to be very resourceful and practical for you to be able to stick to your budget and find really good deals.

For us specifically, we wanted our venue to be “all-in-one”. Where the ceremony and reception venues are adjacent to each other for us and our guests’ convenience. And since we are having a Christian Ceremony, getting married in a church is out of the picture. We are pretty flexible as to how we envision the ceremony would be, it could be indoor (as long as it is not in the same venue as the reception) or outdoor (for that garden wedding feel). Unfortunately our budget was not as flexible as our venue preference so we researched for venues that are within our budget and decided to check them out personally.

In our blogs we will show you some of the places that we have seen with photos and information of their rates and packages as well as the pros and cons of getting the venue as we saw it.

1. Grand Terrace

Location: 5 Villanueva Drive corner Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City

Catering Service: VS&F (Exclusive)

Telephone Numbers: 937-1037  /  932-7408  /  932-7409  /  461-6182

Telefax:  037-4980

E-mail: info@grandterrace.com

Here are some photos to view, courtesy of Smartshot Photography: www.smartshotstudio.com

Pickup and dropoff point.

Zen-inspired interiors.

The Grand Ballroom with its high ceilings, surround fountain glass walls and elegant chandeliers. It can accomodate 400-600pax.

Their Bridal Salon that comes free with the venue. Complete with en-suite bathroom and make-up area.

Here are some more photos that we took when we did a food-tasting with them.

The connecting path from the Bridal Salon to the Grand Ballroom for dramatic staircase entrance.

Actual setup for a debut with 260 guests at the Grand Ballroom.

Another venue they are offering. The Venus Garden, an indoor airconditioned garden venue with mezzanine that can accomodate 350pax. At the time they were holding a food tasting and this is their chosen setup.

Their all inclusive wedding packages ranges from P179,000.00 up for 150 guests inclusive of free use of half of their Grand Ballroom for 4 hours.

Add-ons:

Venue Rates

(Prices may vary depending on package and venue offered and may change without prior notice)

Palma Hall (Half of the Grand Ballroom) –              P30,000.00

Lotus Hall (Other half of the Grand Ballroom) –      P30,000.00

Whole Grand Ballroom –                                         P60,000.00

Venus Garden –                                                      P80,000.00

Pros:

Accessible location and convenient proximity to churches.

Relatively new facilities.

Zen inspired architecture.

Available venue valet and parking.

Free use of the Bridal Salon for preparations.

Cons:

We were not so keen with the food that were served to us. It was hefty but the quality and taste are just not what we are looking for. (*this may vary per person’s preference, if you are planning to get this venue it is still adviseable to do a foodtasting with them).

Too close to the main highway that you could hear the traffic.

No place for your guests to lounge, their dropoff and pickup point also serves as their lobby, which is just only 5 steps away from the venues.

With all the above-mentioned things in mind, off we went to our next location.