We Finally Found the Castle!

I went to Philippines last November 5-7, 2010 to do an ocular visit for the possible wedding venue. Since I've got a limited time we planned to check only two venues - Light of Love and La Castellana in Intramuros. Since we have an appointment with Hizon's on November 5 we agreed to visit Light of Love first because Hizon's and LOL are both  located in Quezon City. Then the next day we'll go to La Castellana. 

From Tondo we have to take two jeepney rides to reach Quezon City. When we alighted from our first ride Jay suddenly told me we could visit La Castellana first because we are already in Intramuros. Since according to him we'll just take few minutes walk, I okay'ed. It was actually my first time to stride on that famous place and I was really amused to see all the scattered kalesas on it's streets. It was also nice to see securities dressed like guardia civil. I felt like I was brought to the 16th century. Hehe. 

It was not a long walk, we reached the place with no trouble since it was just located near the Manila Cathedral. La Castellana's AE, Christian, toured us around the vicinity and it's really amazing! The place was clean and looked like it's newly painted. According to him, it was built last quarter of 2008 so it's relatively new. He first showed us the reception and ceremony area. I was wowed by the crystal chandeliers (I wasn't able to take their sum but according to the website, it's a 20-piece chandelier) elegantly hanging at the ceiling. The granite floor  plus the exquisite arches were also outstanding. Standing there, I felt like I'm a princess!

Next stop was the caterer's cooking/preparation area. The area was pretty big and looked like it is well-maintained. Then we stepped next on the guests' washrooms which like all areas we've seen, were also so so clean. Washroom for the suppliers are also separate (bongga!). We went upstairs to check the bridal suite. It was actually bigger than I've imagined. It was beautiful and I loved it! I actually wanted to park myself there overnight. Haha! We were not able to check on the veranda since we need to rush for our food tasting appointment with Hizon's. Ooops - I almost forgot the courtyard just beside the ballroom area was also lovely! Jay instantly fell in love with the place. He told me he doesn't want to look for another place anymore. I pleadingly told him we have to check Light of Love also but he really liked La Castellana. But there are just some drawbacks we've seen:

1. It has no parking lot. Our guests have to park their car on the street. But we were assured that there'll be uniformed securities to look after the vehicles so they'll be safe.

2. It is not air conditioned. 'Mainit' is the only negative feedback I have heard about the place so far. That time the ventilators/aircoolers are not turned on so it's really 'mainit' considering that I was wearing a sleeveless shirt. Christian told me that the huge fans (about 10..not sure) will be turned on an hour before the event. But I was quite worried. Good thing there was an event when we came back the next day. I purposely wore a long sleeved shirt pero hindi naman sya mainit.

3. The ceremony and reception will happen at same venue. I really wanted to have a separate venue for the ceremony (a garden) and reception. But the ballroom hall is L-Shaped naman so okay na din. O sya hindi na ako mag-iinarte. Hehe.

The place was generally fantastic, in fact I dropped my jaw. Plus factor was it's just a 15-Minute travel from Jay's place, so I told him 'sige book na natin bukas'.

I've always been fond of the fairy tales and castles and frog princes and I've always dreamed to be a princess wearing a beautiful gown with tiara on my head. In fact I've named one of my blog sites 'princess without castle'. It's fab that we already found the one (God is good!). Looks like we have a theme already... ^^

The Courtyard

Salon de Joaquin Ballroom

Huge air coolers

Guests' washroom

Heading towards the bridal suite

Bridal Suite Receiving Area

Overlooking the ballroom hall

Stairs to the room