CHURCH WEDDING and PARTY
07 February 2009
Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, Cebu City
Shangri-La Mactan Resort & Spa, Cebu
Details are coming together, the date and location have been confirmed!
We plan:
Church Wedding (Catholic)
We will be married in Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral in Cebu City, about 30 minutes drive from the hotel. The wedding service will be at 13:00 hrs on February 7th, 2009 and will last approximately 1 hour. Transport will be organised from the Shangri-La hotel to the church and then back to the hotel. We will also arrange transport from a few other key hotels. It takes 45 minutes to get to the church, so I expect the pick-up time will be around 11:30 (more to come on this. Grab a snack before the church as there will not be any food put on until the evening. Dress code will be FORMAL for the church, no major differences between UK and Philippines here (suits or barong for men - no shorts, dress for women).
Transport to hotel and break
Following transportation from the church to Shangri-La Mactan, or your hotel, there will be a short break to freshen up and change to more comfortable beach clothing. The church service will finish at about 14:00 hrs and you will be back at your hotel at around 15:00 hrs. we will then pick you up again for the evening do at 17:00 onwards - so pick-up time maybe 16:30 hrs (more to come on this).
In the evening we encourage people to wear white or beige 'formal' beachwear. For women this means white dresses, pareos, or sarongs. For men white shorts or pants (trousers), white shirts, polo (no tie), or barong. Slippers / flip-flops are ideal as beaches are sandy (if staying at Shangri-La they usually provide some for free!). See sample attires below...
For Men
For Women
Sunset Cocktails
At around 17:30 hrs we plan for people to gather on the beach for the reception. This will be a perfect opportunity to chat and enjoy alcoholic or non-alcoholic cocktails as the sun sets. It is also a perfect photo opportunity!
Meal and speeches on the beach!
After the sun sets, at about 18:30 hrs, we will enjoy a buffet meal on the beach. Buffet meals are usual for weddings in the Philippines and you'll enjoy a wide range of quality food - the Shangri-La hotels have magnificent food! It will predominantly be seafood - please see the menu. We will have some light live music to accompany the meal.
As the meal begins to draw to a close we will have a few speeches and toasts, but keeping these reasonably short and relatively informal.
Cultural Dance
Following the speeches we will have a Filipino cultural dance section. These are really good fun and perhaps we will be invited to join in (don't practice the fire-on-head one though). When we've seen these before they involve waving fire around and jumping your feet between wooden poles being banged together!
Fireworks
We will have a brief firework display, which will be at about 21:40 hrs. Following this we move inside to the Ocean Pavilion. Why are we moving? Well we want to make a lot of noise and not be thrown out the hotel!
Party time! Live band!
Following the fireworks, the party will be held in the Ocean Pavillion (about a minutes walk from the beach). We'll have a live band from Cebu, playing a wide variety of music from the 60's to the current hits! A bar will be situated immediately outside the venue.
The party will continue to around 1 am. Depending on demand, we will lay on transportation to other hotels after the event - let us know in advance where you plan to stay and we can work out whether we should hire a bus. Taxis can also be booked from Shangri-La and cost around 500 peso to Cebu City centre.
Some Notes:
February is a dry month in the Philippines, so we are not expecting rain! If, however, we do have rain the beach event will be moved indoors.
If you wish to stay at the Shangri-La Mactan or other recommended hotel then please do your booking through us. By block booking we will get a discount that we can pass onto you. There are hotels to suit every budget in the local area.
Guests from Manila - Transfers from the airport to the Shangri-La are PHP 150.
Whilst in Cebu you can simply enjoy the beach, but you may wish to do some Action Sports or perhaps a variety of Island and City Tours. Also see Islands Banca Cruises.
Any questions then contact tere@filfashion.com or aubrey@tektites.co.uk