October 11, 2009 -- finally, Migo was baptized. Thankfully, the weather was fine that Sunday. After the Ondoy scare and Pepeng's U-turn, I sort of became paranoid of the rain. I even prayed the novena and asked Infant Jesus to please, please, spare us that day. Obviously, it was an answered prayer.
I am writing every bits and pieces of this occassion, and of course the experience behind our Migo's baptism.
Church: St.Peter's Parish (Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City)
We already chose Good Shepherd Cathedral to be the church, but the people there were so unprofessional. Rewind to October 1, I called Good Shepherd to have October 11 pencil-booked for a special baptism but the one who talked to me (unfortunately I was not able to get her name) told me that they do not pencil book. Afraid that I won't be able to get the date, I told her I will just go to the church a little later to pay for the baptismal fee, problem was I did not have the requirements on hand. I so wanted to pay to book the date but she did not allow me, but instead she assured me that October 11 was fine. Fine then, so I printed the invites and distributed them already. Come October 3, Elmer and I went to their office with the pay and the requirements ready only to be told that October 11 was already booked for a whole day event!! Huwwaaaat??!! I was already fuming mad and Elmer was obviously wanted to blame me for this (syempre, ako in charge sa event na ito e). But the staff just went on to what they were doing, not even offering any other option. I told the guy who we were talking to that I already phoned two days back and a girl assured me October 11 was open. I insisted to no avail. We then thought of St. Peter's. We head there straight. The staff were all friendly and easy to talk to. They accommodated us as if we were very special people. We were treated like a celebrity, or a politician hehe.. and I noticed that it went like that to everybody they assisted. Nice treatment, really!! Come the baptismal day itself, we were ushered to the baptismal room that really looked great!! Aircondition is cool. I mean, even if we were cramped up inside, malamig pa rin. We had a small "talk" or in other words, seminar, about baptism. And the baptismal room had this fixture which I so love:
Food: CCME Homemade Food Stuff --- www.homemadefoodstuff.com
Suki kami ng CCME. Bonifacios (Rockville) as well as Kimpos (Fairview). Their food was soooo yummy and the price was amazingly low for such a delightful dish. Before deciding on CCME, we considered Shagrila Finest Cuisine in West Avenue, Tramway in Timog, Pandan in Capitol Hills, and Martha's Plate in Marikina. CCME beat all of them. But honestly, I also had some second thoughts whether to really get them or not, for no doubt their food is delicious, however I was quite hesitant of their catering service. I asked around regarding their catering service but mostly, like us, they just availed of the food delivery. Bahala na si Batman! became my attitude. Maging palpak man sila sa catering, bawi naman sa food. That was my consolation. Good thing they proved me wrong. Aside from the sumptuous food, their catering service was good enough for a simple handaan. Not much for the set-up though, but we were informed about that already. Kasi nga, sa food talaga sila concentrate. Nora, the one in charge of our account, told me she would be deploying 8waiters but 10 waiters arrived to serve. All of the waiters were polite, even asking permision from us if they could go out for a while to relieve themselves. Nakakatuwa kasi pati pag-CR nila nagpapaalam pa. They really asked permission pa ha ;) As for the food, do I need to say more? Yum, yum, yum!!! Guests were telling us the food was impressive. And even though the guests went back and forth to the buffet table, there were still leftovers enough to last us for a week!! Meaning, CCME had big servings. We had four courses (no dessert) and paid p37,400 good for 150 heads, making it 249.35 per head. Mura na yan kasi bawi naman sa mga natirang food e, which as I have said, could last us for a week.
Centerpieces: Letters/Alphabet Blocks and Sesame Street Characters
Since CCME did not have appropriate centerpieces for baptism, I let out my labor of love and made my own centerpieces. I decided to make blocks, some of them spelled MIGO, and put sesame street characters to add more color. I enjoyed making each centerpiece, though I should admit that I was close to getting a fever due to sleepless nights just to finish it. It was hard focusing on the project while taking care of Migo. So everytime I had free time which mostly started at around twelve midnight when Migo was in full deep sleep, I would sit on the floor and do my thing. I finished around twelve centerpieces. Brian, the ever creative nephew of Elmer, made the additional seven centerpieces which were balloons with sesame characters.
Tokens: Straight From the Heart Prayer Companion Book
Elmer and I decided to have this as our token because this prayer book was my strength when I was still pregnant. Back to my last trimester, I had complicated pregnancy all of a sudden and I prayed like five to six different novenas in a day from this book. When I was in labor, I was holding this prayer book all throughout the ordeal. And everytime Migo gets sick or feel uncomfortable, I run to this book and say a prayer. I also prayed for a good weather during Migo's baptism, again from this book, and it was granted. It costed us less than P200 each. Available at St.Pauls in all SM Stores
Guests' Tokens: Papemelroti Notepad
I was contemplating whether to give towel cupcake or notepad as token for the guests. I was browsing over towel cupcakes and I found myself liking it everytime I looked at it. I was set to go to Divilandia and buy my stuff and make my own towel cake, but then Ondoy hit Manila. The storm obviously made it impossible for me to get out. Paranoid that a storm, or a heavy rain for that matter, would fall anyday soon, I just opted to go to the nearest SM store and looked around for a token. I found myself inside papemelroti and liking almost everything in there. I found the notepad useful, so why not give it out to the guests? We availed of the 20% for every 50pcs purchase. We bought 100pcs. We paid around p1,520 for 100pcs.
Outfit:
He wore a mini pair of barong from So-En Bebe and white shoes from First Step.It costed us more or less p550 for this get up. He then changed to his reception outfit when we got home. Nangati kasi sya sa barong fabric and he was so uneasy. He wore two kinds of Oshkosh shirt, p249.00 each and boy's pants, around p250.00
Entance Piece: Rubbermats
We bought rubber puzzle mat because Migo now wants to lie on his tummy and is already starting to crawl. Then I just thought that since my theme was alphabet blocks, why not form these puzzle mats into blocks, spell the name MIGO, and put it in the entrance area. Bumagay naman sya sa pwesto nya. And later that night,madami nang nagpapapicture sa tabi nung puzzle mats. One pack constists of 26 mats and it costed us around p200 only.
Others:
Lechon---Lydia's lechon courtesy of Ninong Eric
Dessert --- Mister Donut courtesy of Tito Edmund
Fresh Ubod Lumpia --- courtesy of my mommy (mamu for Migo)
Tanduay Ice (for the manginginoms) courtesy of Tito Edwin
Balloon Decors --- courtesy of ate Eileen, arranged by Brian
