Mommy 101: Francesco Matteo's Baptism

Before I gave birth to Cesco, as early as 6 months in my pregnancy, I started planning his baptism. Yeah...I know, I am a very excited mommy. Anyway, the first thing I thought of was the church and venue. Because the possible dates for my son's baptism will fall on the rainy season, my husband and I agreed that the venue should be covered and the proximity of the church from the venue is near. =)

Church: Santuario de San Antonio (Forbes Park, Makati City)

We narrowed down to 2 churches, Christ The King in Greenmeadows or Santuario de San Antonio, and my husband and I decided the latter mainly because of the venue proximity. It was easy booking baptism in SSA. You just need your baby's birth certificate, your list of godparents (max of 5 pairs) and 4,000 pesos for the baptismal fee. Candles and baptismal booklets should be bought from them. Candles are priced at 50 pesos each and the booklet at 35 pesos each.

Venue: Santuario de San Antonio Social Hall (Bays 2 and 3)

I inquired a lot of possible venues near Christ The King and Santuario de San Antonio. Though there are a lot of nice subdivision clubhouses near Christ The King, we chose the social hall of SSA because we will just walk from the church to the venue. We booked 2 bays because we planned on inviting 150 guests. Booking was easy, you just need to go to the parish office and look for Ms. Alice. The venue rental is 7,500 per bay inclusive of sound system and 4 hours rental of the place.

Catering - Queensland Catering

After reading a lot of forums regarding catering services, we decided to book Queensland Catering because they offered the most affordable packages and the quality of food according to the reviews were great.  We attended their free food tasting which they hold every Sunday afternoon at Ysabel's Garden to make sure the food was good. True enough, I got raves from my family and friends on the food.

Our Menu:

Steamed Rice

Roast Beef with mushroom gravy

Pork Spareribs in BBQ sauce

Fish Fillet with Tartar sauce

Chicken Flambe

Garlic Sotanghon Pasta

Buco Pandan Salad

Decorations - CreativeMinds Event Management

Canvassing for decors really paid off for me. After countless email inquiries from different event stylists, I finally found the most affordable package with nice styro artwork design and balloon decors. It was easy transacting with Luchille from CreativeMinds, everything was done via email and text messages and payment was made thru bank deposit. 

Giveaways - Little Bites Cupcakery (Red Velvet Crinkles)

I first tasted these red velvet crinkles from my officemate and had the idea of ordering them as giveaways for Cesco's baptism. I contacted Charmaine and finalized my custom order. It was easy transacting with her. I just paid 50% for downpayment and the balance was paid during delivery at the event. I also emailed the tag I wanted to use and she did the printing and packaging. The red velvet crinkles are also available at SM Megamall and SM Makati Marketplace.

Photography - Photo Carousel Weddings

I first thought only photo coverage for weddings are expensive. Man, was I wrong. Little did I know photo coverage for kiddie parties are also expensive! They could go as high as 15 to 20 thousand pesos and this only includes the raw files stored in a dvd. Good thing I researched until I found Darlene Joy Huab of Photo Carousel Weddings and was able to grab their promo that includes baptismal and reception coverage, 8x8 coffee table album (30 pages) for only 6,000 pesos. Darlene was 1 hour early at the event and she did her work right away when we arrived until the end of the party. I received the dvd with all the raw files from her cameras 4 days after the event and they are in very good quality. The coffee table album will be delivered after a month.