Details and details!

Checking something off your list is not as easy as checking it off your list. Since penciling our wedding date back in December, we are still in the process of finalizing the details with the Shangri-la. Their wedding packages allow for 5 inclusions in a list of 13 choices. They range from stays at the hotel, to cake, flowers, an emcee or different drink related options. You can check out the full list by going to their website or clicking here.

I had initially picked options by eliminating other options. We didn't want one of their emcees, their musicians, a spa retreat for the bridal couple, or some of the drink options. That left us things that we needed, but didn't care enough to have another supplier. This was flowers for the tables, cake, a lechon (roasted suckling pig - Rodney's choice), and two drink option.

Then of course, my coordinator made a lot more sense, by pointing out that some items I checked off were really expensive and we should consider it.  Namely a stay at their hotel, can easily be $720/night for what they are offering as an inclusion. And then I started to think..ok the morning of the wedding, is Rodney and I  going to be getting ready together in our rental house? Nope, so I'm going to go with the room inclusion now. Isabela and I, and my girlfriends who can make it from Toronto, will spend the night in the luxury suite instead and get ready there in the morning. It'll be awesome for pictures, too.

Next, Rodney wanted a lechon, so I added that in our inclusions. I first thought it would be easier to just have the place do it, but apparently this can be one of the catering items you can bring into a venue. Our initial venue discussions revealed that most venues have you go with their catering and that was that. But since we can get an outside vendor, we might want to look for the best lechon in Cebu to be at our wedding. If you didn't know, Cebu is known for their hella delicious lechon. So if the best lechon in the world is in Cebu, than we could possibly have the best lechon in the world at our wedding!

Finally, I picked cake and flowers to have the Shangri-la do it. My planner asked me to send her some pegs (I assumed that meant jpg examples?) of what I'm looking for to see if the venue can do it. Ok, so that takes some thought into the details. Luckily, I had already been looking at different cake ideas. Anyways I thought I'd get back to her a cake first because what I want is fairly simple. I would like a square shaped cake, layered crooked, with a green ribon on the tiers. Simple no? Rodney looked at a picture of a square cake and he seems to agree too. I think the shape gives some uniqueness, and to have the layers staggered, takes off some of the stiffness.

Here is a picture, I found from The Knot that I liked. Our cake will be similar just without the flowers or French dots.

To add that uniqueness, I am going to be looking for a unique topper when we arrive in the Philippines (the to-do list is growing!). A monogram is not us, because I'm keeping my last name. A bride and groom cake toper, isn't us, becasue us includes our daughter. Maybe it sounds crazy, but I really want to find a cool wood carving in the Philippines that we can top our cake. Obviously, something not that big, but something interesting and worth taking home with us as another souvenir of our balikbayan wedding. A small version of something like this, would add height, keep the simplicity, but add uniqueness and tie into our Filipinana theme. This particular piece, I found by just googling, and it actually looks like two people. But is one helping the other up, or is one a base for the other person? Sounds like what a couple needs to be for one another. I'm sure we will find something that speaks to us.

It's Official!... well.. It's Penciled in!

My reception venue and ceremony venue are both pencil booked for November 19th, 2011! We have a date!

So I made a ticker...

Deposits and Payments ..from abroad

An issue that will come up again and again is remitting money to pay for deposits from abroad. A best case scenario would have been for me to dump thousands of dollars to a super trust worthy relative, pay one fee, and they would do domestic transfering and such for me. Alas, as with everything, that best case scenario doesn't exist, and although I would love to trust my coordinator with something like that, I'm too scared - and not financially secured, so likely I will be remiting money as it comes along.

I have started my research, since I need to send my deposit to Tisha. I'll update with another post when I actually do it.

Note: Obviously, people who do this on a regular business or OFW's who are trained by the Philippine government on leaving, probably have way more knowledge on this. So anyways, this is what a single Canadian-born Filipino girl researched, all by her lonesome.

There are essentially two ways (to my knowledge) to remittance - a bank wire transfer or a "door-to-door". A bank wire transfer is whern they will wire money into a bank account, or wire from your account to the receivers account. A "door-to-door" service is where they will litterally send the money to the person's doorstep in cash. I am guessing this is a wonderful service for more rural families who are receiving money.

Here is some information from my initial research:

One of the "Big Five" Canadian Banks:
I do not officially bank with one of the big five full service banks because I don't feel the fees and restrictions is worth it, frankly. I bank with a basic financial institution that is well known in Canada, but does not have actual full service banks. I do most of my banking online and it offers a comprehensive chequing, saving and the GIC and loan basics. Anyways, because its a basic bank they do not do account to account international wire transfers.

If however you do have a bank account with one of the Big Five in Canada- Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank or CIBC - you could inquire regarding their international rates. I walked into CIBC just to feel it out, and they let me know you must have an account with CIBC and their rates begin generally at $30.00 for a wire transfer into an international bank account. They did also mention it depends on the amount remitting. You'd have to discuss further and have more details because there are other restrictions and may be some other fees.

MoneyGram:
Their website has a nice calculator for their services. Depending on the service you use, the fees vary, but for me from Toronto to Philippines the fee was $17.84 for their Account Depost SMARTMONEY service and $25.00 for their 10 Minute Service. Unfortunately, their website doesn't explain what these services actually are, for you to make a decision. They also note "In addition to the transfer fees applicable to a transaction, a currency exchange rate set by MoneyGram or its agents may be applied. Prices subject to change.", so it may be more.

Western Union:
Very similar to MoneyGram but they have the ability of doing a transaction completely online without the use of their agents. I do remember seeing ads for this new service as being 24/7 and therefore more accessible...well according to them. From my understanding, you need to use a credit card to do it online, and it is not deposit of cash. Unfortunately to use this agentless service will cost you, with the fee (for me) at $29.04. To use a Western Union agent the fee was $20.33. Note, they also have a similar disclaimer in terms of additional fees:

Payments will generally be in local currency (except that in certain countries payment may be in U.S. dollars or other alternate currency at participating locations). In addition to the transfer fees applicable to this transaction, a currency exchange rate will be applied. Local currency is converted into the payout currency at an exchange rate set by Western Union. Any difference between the rate given to Customers and the rate received by Western Union will be kept by Western Union (and its Agents in some cases) in addition to the transfer fees. Please ask a customer service representative for information concerning the currency exchange rate applicable to your transaction.

Remittance Agency:
According to Statistics Canada's latest Census, in Canada Filipinos are the 4th largest visible minority group and one of the top source countries for immigrants to Canada. These statistics don't even speak to those not reported, such as Temporary Foreign Workers and Live-in Caregivers. From my personal and professional experience, this adds to the Filipino population but also drives some characteristics of the community. For example is the number of different remittance agencies in Canada that fulfill the need created by current or former OFW's in Canada.

PNB Remittance is the global remittance branch of the Philippine National Bank. I've seen them throughout Toronto's "Filipino" neighborhoods (there are few of these compared to other communities, but I could go on about that later). I reviewed their website and as I suspected, its not very informative. What I think is their fee schedule, shows fees based on the amount of money you are sending. Despite a website with a lot Canadian info, the amounts are in USD. For $499-1000USD for example, the fee is around $20USD.

I checked out the website of one of the bigger ones in Canada, iRemit. Their fees are less than the options described above. Door-to-door and bank-to-bank costs $10 if sending to Metro Manila, while $12 everywhere else in the Philippines. They also have a "iRemit visa" service where you can send your recipient a "visa card" but you load it with money, and they can use it like a debit card around the Philippines.

Close to my work is Mabini Express, that I did a walk in on my lunch break. Their door-to-door fees are $8 for everywhere in the Philippines, but their bank-to-bank fee is $12 and they work with "most" banks in the Philippines. You'll have to inquire with them for specifics, but the bank I needed to deposit my coordinator's deposit, they work with.

Conclusion: There are a lot of options out there, and I'm glad I did some initial research. I didn't realize how much the fees varied and the types of services out there. If you have any first generation family, recent immigrants or recent arrivals from the Philippines, I would suggest asking them and finding out their experience. I don't have that luxury, so am figuring this out on my own. I will likely go with iRemit or Mabini Express for this time around for a direct bank-to-bank deposit. Mabini for door-to-door situations in the future. I am not sure what would be the difference to choose one of the other options with higher fees. Maybe some people are concerned about reliability and the possibility of fraud or scams, but like I said these other agencies have a history and service thousands in Canada daily. If it was a new smaller company, I would have reservations. Obviously because of these fees, I am going to have to add a little bit more to my budget to deal with them and also have a plan on how to pay the vendors when I arrive.

Note: the Shangri-la takes credit card. No fuss no muss. Nice right?

More Venue Debates!

I finally signed the contract today and sent it over to Tisha! Eek.
Now to figure out how I'm going to get the downpayment to her... but that's a whole other post on international wire transfers, remitting, etc. Now that I think about it, I should probably get on that, because Balikbayan brides are going to have to figure that out!

So Tisha, gave me a few ideas off the top of her head to add to the venue debate.

First is Abaca resort, which is actually also beside BE Resort that I had blogged about before. I had checked out the website of this resort before and sort of ruled it out because there was no beach, at least from the pics, and if a resort is not promoting their beach, what are they promoting? Well this one is also promoting its style and sheer architectural beauty. I also had ruled it out because it was expensive, so I thought out of my range. Tisha said they do have a great restaurant space, that for an intimate reception would be all ours. So I put it back on the radar for the reception at the very least.

She also suggested one of the private islands that are part of Maribago. I did mention that Maribago was an option I had thought of, but she brought up the option of this private island. I loved the idea, except that she mentioned we'd have to take a raft to get to it, and if its in low tide, you have just walk across the water because its too low for a boat to go across. Um. Kinda wack for everyone.  So I'm not really considering that.

Maybe I'm not as good at communicating what we're looking for as I thought, so I just left Tisha know that we want some where with a beach for a ceremony, and good FILIPINO food for the reception. I also mentioned that maybe she has to propose places that are ok with us getting catering, if we decide to not go with their menu. That might not work out with all locations.

Balikbayan Wedding Tip#1:

Clarify everything that you want in a venue. What is a deal breaker, what is flexible? You have to think of these details through! 

 

Not Quite Perfect

In a previous post I talked about how everything seemed to forming nicely.. in my mind. The dream was that, we would have a wedding on the beach front and the reception at the Ocean Pavilion at the Shangri-la in Cebu.

Unfortunately, I got an email from the coordinator at the Shangri-la that told me that they don't do wedding on the beach. Something along the lines that their beach closes early and anyone in a bikini can walk through our ceremony.

UGGGGGHHHHH! I was so down in the dumps after reading that email. The beach ceremony is the thing we will not compromise on the wedding. Something tiny and intimate is what we wanted on the beach. Like this:

Anyways, so after a day of being down in the dumps, I started emailing other locations to get some ideas. Of course I let my potential planner in on it, so maybe, even before we sign anything she can think about how to make this happen.

Here are some ideas:

1. Ceremony and Venue at a different location. I got some quotes from other resorts in Cebu. So far, the ones that are the most reasonable (priced and looking) include: Maribago Bluewater  and the Hilton.

They both seem to be able to do a beach front ceremony. Maribago and Hilton also does a beach front ceremony, but from the Hilton I actual requested a quote for their restaurant as a reception venue:

I wanted something indoor/outdoor, like the Ocean Pavilion, and in case of rain. The both major downside in both of these locations is the food! Do people really NOT want Filipino food in the Philippines? Its a European menu and that's exactly the opposite of what we want. So we'll have to work around trying to get a caterer if we do it here too. I haven't even asked if THAT's possible. And that is something we're also not flexible on. Note: Shangri-La DOES have a very yummy sounding Filipino buffet menu.

Also, Regina did not speak highly of the Hilton. I can understand by looking even their pictures. It looks like it needs some renos and redecorating. The rooms are nice but is it classy enough for a wedding.

The other option, which I hope is super possible is:

2. Beach Ceremony at a different location, Reception back at the Shangri-la.

I was thinking that maybe we could the beach ceremony at the Microtel that Regina had talked about in her blog. It is a few kilometers from the Shangri-la, is newly built, has a beach front and the accommodations is affordable at the equivalent to about $65CDN/night. We were actually following Regina's lead and going to have our Out Of Towners (i.e. all of our guests) stay here, so to have the ceremony here would make it so easy for everyone! Check out her blog for her personal pictures of the place, its perfect.

Do I really need to explain why a reception at the Shangri-la will still be perfect?

1. No bad reviews of service or location.

2. Amazing Filipino buffet offering.

3. Beautiful location. The Ocean Pavilion is an indoor location that can spill outdoor, giving us the freedom of both, but also a backup indoor location that will work if the weather does not cooperate.

4. Somewhat affordable.

So lets hope we can work something out so that this works, because frankly, I don't know what to do if it doesn't!

All ready to go!

I'm at an official starting point where I'm ready to just jump into the wedding planning. So I emailed the Shangri-La Cebu, where I have come to the conclusion I want. Yes, the SHANGRI-LA.

I came to this conclusion for a few reasons. First, I was scouting over the internet different resorts, trying to find something less... grand, in other words, less expensive. I would find places, think maybe it was ok, and then would read a few reviews of people complaining of service, inability to swim in the beach waters, peeling paint, etc. I didn't want to fly, or have people I knew fly, half way around the world for something that people would not feel comfortable in. But no one ever once crticized the Shangri-la.

I also started to get stressed thinking...would people be able to afford staying here for a few days, could we afford it? Would they have activities to do? Would I be stressed out trying to entertain them? Would it be a hassle to get there? The Shangri-La answers all those questions.

First, it's 15 minutes from the Mactan International Airport. No worried about flying to Manila, transferring flights, taking a taxi and then a boat to some other resort.

Second, Lapu-Lapu and Cebu City is one of oldest cities in the Philippines, with lots of historic sites to visit. Also because its adjacent to the city there are lots of restaurants, bars and clubs to go to. There is also a playarea for kids and toddlers in the Shangri-La itself. Finally, because it is a beach island, the ability to do scuba diving, boating, etc, are there too. The stress of entertaining guests, or having activities for them to do - gone.

Lastly, thanks to my saviour Regina, she mentions another resort (as well as post pictures) that is close to the Shang where she is planning to accommodate her out of town guests. The cheapest room at the Shangri-La is $240CDN. The rooms at this resort/hotel close by is $65CDN/night. Bingo, another worry gone. And for us, because of this stupid 10 day waiting period to get a Marriage Licence, we'd have to stay in Cebu for an extended period of time. Because of where its located, we should be able to find a vacation rental - someone's empty property - that they rent out with weekly or montly rates. In an initial google search, I found a townhome - a whole house! - for $17CDN/day! Everything is coming together (in my mind) that this wedding is actually POSSIBLE.

So the next step is to get things in place. So I emailed the Shang's event email with an inquiry. 24 hours later, still not response. So I sent another email, with more precise details for a more comprehensive quote to a contact Regina suggested. No response yet, but its only been two hours.

Yesterday, I started to email different wedding planners, again based on a list provided by Regina of local coordinators. Like me, she's not in Cebu, so she needed someone that is there and is an excellent communicator with an out of town bride. Out of the .. 10?... I emailed, only one replied back. Funny enough, it was Regina's planner! (He actually said he was working on a big wedding at the Shang - i.e. Regina's, so I replied, thanking him for responding so quickly, but also to congratulate her from a blog follower. I hope that makes her smile, instead of creeping her out.).

Anyways, so I've just been formulating plans (with Rodney's help of course) in my mind, but have nowhere to go without hearing back from the venue and/or a coordinator. I'll just keep bouncing at the starting line, all ready to go.

<3/ Camille