Posts Tagged ‘Bicol’

Wedding In Time Of Global Recession

Many issues happened in the past few weeks, I almost forgot that the month of June is also the favorite wedding month in the Philippines. Since we are also terribly affected by global recession, many pinoys are having a second thought to get married or not this year or wait until recession is over.

My only brother who lives in Bicol with my mom, works as a waiter in luxury cruise company will be getting married on June 25, a Thursday. Their love story will surely touch your heart. To make story short, they are childhood sweethearts, a relationship started as best friends. They already have a 4 year old daughter and living together when she got pregnant. They want to get married years ago, I guess it will not be postponed again because everything was prepared already. They were my house guests last week. That’s why I seldom blog.

Their entourage consists of their daughter as the flower girl, a nephew as ring bearer, a maid of honor and best man (that are also for the cord, candle and veil).

There’s no invitation because guests only godparents, immediate families and close friends. The reception is for 50 persons only, the number of estimated guests. Printing jobs mostly accept a minimum of 100 invitations and since we don’t have that 100 guests, they decided not to make one.

Souvenir is for godparents only bought at regalong pambahay, wind chime in a see through sinamay/abaka box. We bought 16 pieces only, php 120 per piece and 30% discount on the 2nd item. Wind chime is also a unique giveaway, a lucky gift to the receiver and the giver.

The wedding will be held in a small chapel baroque style. According to my brother, the ambiance is like Ilocos (php 3,000). The souvenir box is also perfect for the occasion. The reception place is also Ilocos inspired although they are in Bicol, they will serve food at php 300 per head buffet style.

They were supposed to hire a wedding gown maker (mananahi) for php 10,000. Its cheap already and I suggested to try on ready made wedding gowns for as low as 2,500. They’re beautiful naman, I know there also cheaper for as low as php 1,000 in Divisoria. We end up for custom made wedding gown, also from my suki for only php 4,000 including veil, pillow, tiara, aras etc. Its cheap and she can choose the design she want, the gown will be ready in one week. We will be picking it up within the week.

My brother tried looking for a barong tagalog in a known shop in SM MOA, he was shocked when he was told that it costs php 14,000. To my suki, he got his piña barong (combined with other thread) for only 1,200, they normally offer it for 1,500-2,000.

The supposed to be budget of php 10,000 for the wedding gown only went to a complete set of wedding gown, groom’s barong, another 2 barong tagalog, kamisa tsino (barong tagalog’s undershirt), gown for flower girl and a dress for my mom.

We canvassed for wedding ring at known shops in SM MOA, a pair of wedding ring is php 10,000-15,000. That’s okay but when I asked the carat, its only 14K so I told my brother to go to mom’s suki. They choose 18K standard and costs 4,000, I made tawad and we get it for php 2,500 only, free engraving. Its a two tone white gold with 3 small stones. They use other money for the complete set of gold and pearl jewelries for the bride 1,000 from the original price of 2,500. 2 necklaces were also bought for php 1,000 each which they offer for php 2,000 each. FYI, when buying gold jewelries ask if its standard or commercial. If its commercial, the 18k is actually 16k only.

All of these can be found in Baclaran and my suki except for bride’s wedding shoes. I recommend Landmark, they have hard to find wedding shoes for the June brides and all of the pinay brides.

Barat ba ako? I’m just being reasonable for the worth of the items we bought. You can do that also. Best wishes.

Tubbataha Reef On 7th Place

My sister brought home a newspaper from the market, its not a popular newspaper but an article caught my attention. I was looking for the newspaper now but it was accidentanly thrown away by my niece. Anyway, the article states as far as I remember, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is urging Filipinos to vote for Mayon Volcano of Bicol as one of the “Seven New Wonders Of Nature”.

I don’t know if GMA is aware that Philippines have other entries for Seven New Wonders Of Nature other than Mayon Volcano such as Tubbataha Reef in Palawan, Chocolate Hills of Bohol and Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park in Palawan. I don’t have anything against GMA’s intention of having Mayon Volcano to be included to Seven New Wonders of Nature but it would be better if she promote all four entries.

As of this writing, Tubbataha Reef is on 7th place (29th place last 3/10/08), Chocolate Hills on the 9th (42nd place last 3/10/08), Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park on the 10th place and Mayon Volcano on the 31th place(not listed on top 77 last 3/10/08). Wow! Pinoy bloggers really did their assignments on promoting our entries. This article is a friendly reminder, I hope you could make a follow up article on Tubbataha Reef and other entries. December 31, 2008 (closing of votes) is seven months from now, I don’t think we should stop but encourage more votes from Filipinos around the world. If you haven’t vote yet, please vote now, don’t forget to confirm your email otherwise your vote will not be counted. You could view the live ranking here.

Go, Pinoy!

Nuestra Senora De Salvacion

Remember my article “What’s Behind Joroan Shrine“? Click the link for you to find out what was it behind the Joroan Shrine. Joroan Shrine is where the image of Nuestra Senora De Salvacion also located. According to my brother, when they speak of Joroan, they were also referring to Nuestra Senora De Salvacion. Joroan was known in Bicol because of her image and title as Nuestra Señora de Salvacion.

Every year, specially during the whole month of August until September, devotees from all over Bicol Region visit the shrine. The last Saturday of August is traditionally held as a special day of pilgrimage. During the vesper of the last Friday, devotees in buses and jeepneys from other provinces of Bicol are coming to the shrine of Blessed Virgin in Joroan, Tiwi, Albay.

technorati: christianity tourism

Halo Halo in Tiwi

Isn’t it mouth watering? In the Philippines, we call it halo-halo (from tagalog word halo which means “mix”). It is the popular native dessert among Filipinos specially on summer season. Why? Because Philippines is a tropical country and we have lots of fruits in season all year round. There’s no specific recipe for halo-halo, its a mixture of boiled sweet beans and fruits in season with crushed ice and milk. There’s a wide variety of ingredients Filipino entrepreneurs used. You can buy them anywhere in the Philippines. I happened to be the kind of person who wanted to try specialty food from every place I’ve been.

I could say that the best halo-halo I’ve tasted in my life is the picture above. The ingredients are red gelatin, boiled sweet bananas, sweet corn kernels, tapioca (sago) topped with crushed ice, leche flan, ube jam and lots of grated cheese. It looked simple and few ingredients but after tasting it, you’ll crave for another order. I don’t know if I could have another taste of it since the cafeteria is in Tiwi, Albay, Bicol. I’m in Manila now. Whew! Imagine, my mom who lives in Bicol almost all her life haven’t try the halo-halo in Tiwi. I am lucky!

What's Behind The Joroan Shrine?

We’re on our way to Joroan, Albay to visit Nuestra Senora De Salvacion Church until I saw her image along the highway. Its not normal seeing an image in a highway, I’ve told my brother to pull over. I don’t know why but there’s something in me that I want to take a better look at her. I got out of the SUV and climb up the stairs. After I took a closer look and offered her a short prayer… I climbed again reaching for the top of the stairs, thinking what can be seen at the back of the wall of the shrine. And this was what I saw… let the pictures speak for themselves.


I thought I was only dreaming seeing this beautiful view with my own two eyes. The week long Bicol vacation was indeed a good idea and seeing such a wonderful place made it worthwhile. I’m thankful that I brought along my children to made them see the beauty of the Philippines. I don’t want them to become strangers on our own country.