Jon and I talked about a cinema theme since we both love watching movies and spent most of our bonding time in movie houses enjoying action flicks, 3d cartoons etc. So we agreed to do the wedding ceremony in a movie house (preferably in Eastwood or Greenhills since this is where we watch often) and then have the reception somewhere nice.
- Rockwell – what a disappointment in handling inquiries. They should never allow an ill-mannered person to answer their phone. Guard man sya or hindi, they should train everybody who's authorized to answer calls.
- Greenbelt – Ms. Lisa was obviously busy but professional enough to answer my questions.
- Resorts World – Hard to get a reply for the rates.
- Galleria – couldn’t get through in all their lines.
- Shangri-la Mall – The one I spoke with was very accommodating and honest. He gave me the rates for blocked screening but said he would have to check if management would allow a wedding.
- Greenhills – never done an event like that and they’re not sure if they can accommodate us
- Eastwood – out of everyone I spoke with, Charmaine of Eastwood was the most informative and accommodating. She gave me all the rates and limitations (like we can only use the cinema for 3 hours (inclusive of ingress and egress)). She sounded excited with the idea but would still need to get an approval from management. It was through her that I found out that there is such a thing as Primetime and Non-Primetime rates (and my golly how huge the difference in rates!).
There’s still the SM MOA cinemas and Director’s Lounge but Jon said the place is too far already. We’ll just focus on QC / Pasig or Taguig area.
Then I found out (yes, just now) that Fully Booked BGC has a private cinema room and an event place (rooftop) in one building. That’s worth checking out, good thing they’re open until late in the evening (we both wanted to attend church service first and our couple’s victory group session before we go to BGC).
When we got there, I kind of knew that a wedding event here might be a bit of a challenge. If the wedding would be a simple and kind of casual or if it would be an early morning event, then we could surely pull it off. However, if people in semi-formal attire would start coming in 4pm, find their way through book shelves and squeeze inside the tiny elevator – hmm… Still, we pressed on.
Their private cinema is located at the basement. Low ceiling and could house about 50 pax. Cozy. Just a tad bit suffocating because of the low ceiling. We find that this wouldn’t be a good place for a wedding but it would be a good place for a seminar or a private viewing (exactly what it’s meant for obviously hahaha) and a prenup :) So we moved on to what they called the Top Shelf.
On our way home, Jon and I talked more about the concept and what would be really feasible and meaningful at the same time. We already know the running rates for cinemas and our limitations and explored some venues (tomorrow will check Casa Camba).
Then Jon made a suggestion which seemed off at first but really made perfect sense after. He suggested we do the reception at Autohaus BMW or if the cinema would turn out too costly and embarrassing, we’ll do both ceremony and reception at Autohaus BMW (or AQC). I then realized, ‘why not? BMW is where we met and Zeno (in-house caterer) was one of the first places he brought me to for a date and we both love their food.’ Jon continued, “It just feels weird at first because lagi tayo andito and parang second home or hindi ganun ka-special but if you think about it, there’s no other place na magiging mas meaningful pa than this!”. He beamed and oh boy, my boobear is indeed a good salesman, I was so sold with the idea! Hahaha!