Wednesday, February 20, 2008

1Esplanade

Reception:
1Esplanade – Recommended
$$$$$

Also considered: Coconut Palace (already booked)

We initially only wanted to get 1 hall, but since our guest list just seems to keep getting longer and longer, we decided to get the other hall as well (thanks to Auntie Meiling for sponsoring!)

We were the first ones to book 1E. As in that time, di pa cya tapos. We just saw how it would look like sa blueprint lang… but we took the chance na lang din. (We were supposed to get Coconut Palace but as early as June 2006, somebody already booked it for January 27,2008!!!)

1E gave us a lot of headache as well. Especially during the earlier part. As in Clarice was about ready to take out her claws na. Mabagal, magulo and most of all lost ang mga AEs nila. They didn’t have a process or procedure in place. Ang weird weird nila coz they have their own set of rules and regulations that I don’t think you’ve ever heard of from other venues.

For example, one AE allowed a wawie bride to have on the spot cooking while they didn’t allow it for our wedding. Things like that. They also had corkage fees for photographers and videographers. Ngeeieeee… Weirdo! And their payment scheme is way off!

Buti na lang when we saw 1E for the very first time, we loved what we saw… It was very spacious, elegant looking and clean. Ganda. I loved how it looked. It had the hotel ballroom look. Loved the clean lines.

Then I started hearing (or reading for that matter) rantings from fellow wawies on the smell and the ‘sound-proofness’ of 1E which made me panic more… hayyyyy… amoy manila bay daw kasi.

Fortunately during the day, there was no smell at all. Buti na lang coz the cocktails were set up outside and the guests had to wait for more than an hour before they could go in! (God was with us talaga that day…) And it was a good thing that it was windy enough so wala namang pinagpawisan sa labas hehe. (They let us use Pearl Hall for free)

The place looked great… but most of that I have to credit to Balay Kandila… but the restrooms were clean and very nice. Di mabaho… The room where we stayed while waiting for the guests and clean and cozy (sobrang lamig lang nga ng aircon).The airconditioning was strong enough din during the reception. And it was a great venue for sunset shooting din!

There was also ample parking. Wala tlaga prob with parking…

There were even one or two people who asked me about 1E… hehe nice daw ng place.

They took a long time to give back our security deposit. We had to go back twice and still didnt receive any money. In the end, they had to deposit it to our banks directly.

>>> pictures:

link 1
link 2

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