Recently, Blue Water Day Spa opened its first spa movie theater in Ortigas Avenue. This trendy new spa can accommodate 55 people at a given time, equipped with a Spa Theater, Couple’s Rooms, Common Rooms, Locker Rooms, and a Sauna. The Spa Theater, by itself, can accommodate 28 people at the same time.

A bridal shower might be a common thing for something like this—gather 27 of your girlfriends and party the night away at this unique new venue. The theater has High Definition cinema projectors with Dolby Sorround 7.1 sound (and plays the latest BlueRay releases), making you feel like you’re inside a real movie theater. While your maid-of-honor is belting out “I will always love you” on videoke or the girls are crying their way through a stack of chick-flicks, you can have Foot Reflex (With Back and Shoulder massage) and Foot Scrub done—the only treatments available at the spa theater. Which, I think, makes this spa theater really different from all the usual offerings of the Blue Water Day Spa in Ortigas.

Since the only treatments available at the spa theater are those that don’t require you to take off your clothes—something I’m sure you wouldn’t mind doing in front of all your girlfriends since all of you are girls anyway—the spa theater can cater to events for the whole family.

How about having your Despedida de Soltera at the Bue Water Day Spa theater?

Imagine having your “Farewell to spinsterhood / single-hood” at a spa theater. Despedida de Soltera is usually attended by the groom and the bride’s family and entourage. If you don’t have that many people in your crew, why not give them a relaxing treat? This wedding tradition is usually held a week before the wedding day—a day at the spa theater would be a great way to relax after all the months of tedious preparations. And since you have an entire theater to yourself, you can even show home videos from both sides of the family—an intimate bonding session where you can relive childhood memories, relax, and get to know each other better before becoming part of each other’s families come wedding day.

For more information about the Spa Theater at Blue Water Day Spa, you can visit Francis’ blog post. He also has more photos there.

We all know how difficult it is to plan a wedding. The easiest way out is probably to just hire a wedding planner to do all the legwork, but I’ve always been a hands-on type of person. I don’t want to be limited to what a wedding planner tells me and just do things on my own. But as I have said in my post about wedding planners, hiring or not hiring one will really just depend on you—and the time you have.

I was lucky to have the time to plan my own wedding. That’s one of the perks of running your own home-based company—you have the luxury of scheduling your work hours, and the hours you’d like to spend planning your wedding. I did my research on the Web, and just called up and met those I even considered getting. My husband and I also visited bridal shows and expos just to be sure we’re getting the best deals possible. It doesn’t hurt to canvass as much as possible, but the thing is, it can be quite tiring.

What if you can “visit” bridal shows and expos online?

I think that’s the concept behind Online Bridal Shows. You get to save on gas and parking expenses, not to mention the exhaustion from walking through booths and booths of vendors. Another thing I hate about expos are the annoying sales people trying to get me interested in their products or services—I prefer to look at what they offer at my own time. Online Bridal Shows gives you that freedom; you don’t need to listen to sales talk unless you wanted to—you click only those you choose to hear.

To run Online Bridal Shows, you will need to download a 3D software from their website. There’s also a listing of the participating vendors within a specific area, which lets you know which to download and look for within the 3D bridal show environment.

This is actually quite an innovative idea, if you ask me. Even Bridal Shows are going virtual, explored through the comfort of your own home. Most of us might still want to see the real thing, but for others who do not have the luxury of time but would like to play a big part in the planning of their wedding without relying on somebody else to do it, Online Bridal Shows offer great convenience.

Visit the Online Bridal Shows website for more details. You can even share your own bridal story or participate in the message board discussions. Unfortunately for my Filipino readers here in the Philippines (and me), Online Bridal Shows only have US or UK-based vendors. So if you’re living in the US or the UK, you might want to give this service a try. Philippine-based brides-to-be might want to take a look too… There are also tangible wedding products offered in the Online Bridal Show (you can always ask a relative to purchase a wedding product for you and bring it along with their luggage or pay for international delivery). Who knows? Maybe one day they’ll consider having Online Bridal Shows here in the Philippines

I have always been fond of Chocnut, a local candy distributed here in the Philippines. It has a flavor of peanuts and chocolate at the same time. I just really like it, so much so that I named one of my favorite dogs, Choknat!

Anyway, during the course of our planning, I thought of giving away personalized Chocnuts to our guests. Marc liked the idea, but it came up a little bit too late—just a month before our wedding day. We didn’t have enough time to create these little yummy giveaways.

Since it’s a local candy, Chocnut comes in packs that are pretty cheap. You can get raw materials for decorating it in Divisoria (again, materials there are very cheap). The cost for these personalized candies isn’t a problem—it’s personalizing them that would take up most of your time. But if you aren’t busy, and still months away from your wedding, you can give this idea a try.

What you’ll need:

• Chocnut candy
• Regular bond paper (or shiny specialty paper if you want to go fancy, but avoid using the scented ones)
• Sinamay cloth
• Satin ribbon
• Glue
• Cutter
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Disposable paint brush
• Color printer
• Graphic-editing software (ex. Photoshop or PaintShop Pro)

Here’s what you need to do:
Create the design you want using a graphics-editing software. Make sure that your print area for each of the labels is 2” x 3” inches. On the image below, the red marks indicate the folds of the label when you stick it on the candy’s silver cover. (Once I upgrade this site’s hosting, I’ll provide a link to my Photoshop template file download The Photoshop template file is now available at the Downloads page). Make sure that you put in tiny light gray marks on the edges of the document so you’ll know where to cut.

Once you’re done, lay out the labels on a 7.5” x 9” inches graphic canvass. That way, when you print, you won’t waste paper and maximize the entire page. Print it out and leave the sheet to dry. Cut the labels carefully using a sharp cutter and a ruler.

Remove the labels on the Chocnut candies, but leave the silver cover on (the candy will break apart if you don’t). Put the labels you just made around it and seal with a bit of glue using a disposal paint brush (the bristles tend to harden if you don’t clean it properly afterwards, so it’s best to just get a disposable, cheap one). Don’t put too much glue, or you’ll smear the print.

When you finish labeling, cut a small piece of Sinamay and put a few candies in the middle. Take the four sides of the cloth and bring them up on top of the candies so they will be covered. With one hand holding the make-shift bag, tie it up with a satin ribbon. You’re done!

Chocnut isn’t the only candy you can personalize. Personalize any candy bar you want, just make sure you don’t remove the inner cover—glue on candy isn’t healthy You can even put tags and jazz up the candy bag as you see fit. Let your creativity run wild!

The best way for you to spice up the desserts you will serve your guests is to add some of these dessert alternatives. Some of them sound pretty expensive, but really, most aren’t—you just need to get the right supplier

Chocolate fountain / Chocolate fondue
Chocolate fountains are a common sight in wedding receptions nowadays. I can’t remember attending a single wedding where there isn’t a chocolate fountain or fondue served near the buffet table. Heck, my own wedding reception had a chocolate fountain.

Typically, suppliers use Belgian chocolate for the fountains (but the more cheaper ones don’t, and these non-Belgian chocolate fountain can cost as low as P3,000). They provide bowls of bite-sized fruits, marshmallows, bread sticks, cream puffs, wafer sticks and other pastries that could easily be dipped or coated with chocolate (sticks are used for soft dippings like fruit and marshmallows), all decoratively arranged around the chocolate fountain apparatus.

The best thing about chocolate fountains is that they provide a bit of grandeur to your buffet table. The flowing chocolate is just a sight to see. It’s not only attractive, but mouth-watering as well. I guess there’s just something about chocolate flowing on a fountain that people find attractive—I can still remember my guests crowding around the chocolate fountain at our wedding. Luckily, the waiters took it upon themselves to serve us the chocolate-coated delights, or we probably wouldn’t get a chance to taste it.

Dessert Bar
Another new dessert alternative I’ve been seeing is the Dessert Bar. Hizon’s Catering recently showed off theirs at a food-tasting event they had last March 18. Noemi and I will be sampling Josiah’s Catering’s Dessert Bar soon. Although the taste of their desserts will most likely be different, I’m guessing that the presentation would be quite similar.

So what’s a dessert bar, anyway? As the name implies, it’s a bar that has an assortment of different dessert delights: salads, mousses, crèmes, pastries, etc. Just looking at it from afar is already mouth-watering, so you can definitely be assured that adding such a dessert alternative can spruce up your reception buffet. Unlike the chocolate fountain, your guests need not crowd around it. All they’ll have to do is grab the dessert that they like.

Ice Cream Bar
The Ice Cream Bar is actually a dessert alternative that my husband and I seriously contemplated on having instead of the Chocolate fountain. We are both ice cream-lovers, but unfortunately, our reception venue wasn’t that big to accommodate the bar.

We first heard about this dessert buffet at a bridal fair where Fiorgelato showed off their ice creams. I remember the cost of the bar being around P7,000 (about $140) with I think around three or five (I can’t remember, sorry) flavors of ice cream served, which is practically the same as the chocolate fountain service. But then, that price range was a year ago (most likely they’ve already increased their rates, I’m not sure).

Crepe Bar
As the name suggests, the Crepe Bar is a dessert alternative that features different crepes. It’s kind of like the Dessert Bar, only this one has crepes instead of cupped desserts. Your guests can choose from a variety of fruits and sauces, and the attendant will prepare it for them. Normally, fruits are already pre-wrapped and all the attendant needs to is to add the cream and the sauce. That way, your guests won’t need to wait too long on the line at the Crepe Bar.

Halo-halo Bar
If you’re having a Filipiniana-themed wedding, a Halo-halo Bar is a great idea. I’ve already seen this more than once in restaurant buffets, but rarely on wedding receptions (probably because I haven’t been to a Filipiniana-themed wedding yet). Aside from the fact that this dessert alternative would best fit a themed wedding, you could never go wrong with your Filipino guests with this popular and very Filipino dessert!

Bibingka and Puto Bungbong
Here’s another great alternative dessert idea for a Filipiniana wedding. Puto Bungbong and Bibingka are all-time Filipino favorites—especially during the Christmas season—so these would be another sure hit with your Filipino guests. It’s not a very common dessert alternative; if you’re going for being “unique” I’d say you can’t go wrong with this. Having a Puto Bungbong and Bibingka stand on your wedding reception will definitely be an eye-catcher. Robert Camba Catering offers these Pinoy delicacies as part of their added service just in case you’d want to consider this alternative.

These are just some ideas you can use to spice up your wedding reception menu—be creative! Just don’t forget the other factors to consider before adding dessert alternatives such as these, factors like venue limitations. Some venues can be too small to accommodate additional tables or stands, and some don’t allow cooking within their premises (there goes the Bibingka and Puto Bungbong idea). In such cases, you can always just stick to whatever your caterer has on the menu if you really can’t think of any other alternative. Dessert isn’t the focus of your wedding reception after all

CREDITS: Chocolate fountain photo by Tri-Color Studio. Dessert Bar photo from Josiah’s Catering.