Venue-hunting in Tagaytay

Last Saturday, my brother accompanied me to Tagaytay to go venue-hunting (many thanks to Kuya Nico, who was always mistaken to be my fiancé, hehe!).

Our first stop was Chapel on the Hill. Neither of us had been there, although we had both been to Caleruega, and we knew that both churches were almost next to each other. We got lost of course...but at least I can now make a fool-proof map.

Initially, I had wanted a church that had a long aisle for me to walk on. But I realized that I probably could not handle a long walk down the aisle without tripping.:) I love the simplicity and the serenity of this church...without the marble floors, bright lights or gleaming altars. The breathtaking view of Taal is just a plus. We got to the church just as a florist was starting on the decorations for a wedding. Too bad we didn't see the finished look of the church...I'm sure it would have been beautiful.

After settling the downpayment and asking Lorie all the questions I could think of, we proceeded to Splendido Taal to meet with Jonah. A wedding reception was in full swing when we arrived, so she was pretty busy making sure that everything was okay. She asked us to wait for her at the restaurant while she checked on the on-going event. While waiting, my brother and I got hungry just by going over the menu because we had not had our lunch yet, and we each ordered a sandwich. The food was good and the servings were plenty...neither of us were able to finish our sandwiches.

Jonah arrived just as we had gotten the bill, and she proceeded to give me her spiel on Weddings at Splendido (pronounced as Splendid-o...or something like that). The pictures of the table settings were really beautiful, and I especially loved the Katrina package. Its a little bit too expensive for our budget though, but I pencil booked them nevertheless. Jonah took us to the reception area afterwards to see the actual setup (although it was a customized one, and not one of their fixed packages) and it was pretty nice. The only drawback we noticed was that the wind was really strong, because the veranda doors were open, which made it difficult to hear the person who was speaking. I wasn't able to take pictures of the actual reception area, because the wedding was still on-going and we didn't stay too long afterwards so that Jonah could go about doing her work.

We then proceeded to Colossian Gardens, to just really take a peek at the venue. The road to the gardens got a bit rough towards the end, but it was just for a short distance. The place itself was pretty nice -there was a zigzag path that led to the garden, which looked really beautiful especially from a distance. I actually liked it, but was not that impressed by it.

Our last stop was supposed to be Sonya's Garden, but my brother suggested to go to Nurture Spa instead. I have no idea why he doesn't like Sonya's Garden, but I trust his taste, so we proceeded to Nurture Spa. And I was really glad we went, because the garden was so beautiful, serene and relaxing. I took a look at the pictures of some of the previous weddings held there, and the garden setup was simply breathtaking. The garden looked a bit too small to fit 200 guests though, although the staff mentioned that it can accomodate up to 250.

As of this writing, I still haven't chosen a venue yet...Hopefully I would be able to make up my mind really soon!