RECEPTION VENUE: PHILIPPINE STOCK EXCHANGE AUDITORIUM

Rating Legend:

5 – highest

1 – lowest

We (pencil) booked our reception venue first prior to (pencil) booking our church.

When M decided her once non-negotiable church (Nature Church, Las Pinas) was not non-negotiable anymore, we started scouting for a reception venue which would fit R’s non-negotiables – not too pricey, indoor, and has high ceiling. M started looking for venues within Quezon City, then Manila; but couldn’t find anything which would fit all three criteria.

Few weeks after we stumbled upon photos of Tektite Auditorium and learned their rate, we decided it was THE venue. We were supposed to take our time in booking them, until we decided to hold the wedding in 2012 (instead of 2013).

Based on photos alone, we asked one of our friends to pay the venue a visit to settle the reservation fee.

When we went for a visit last July 2011, M was surprised that the ceiling was not as high as she expected. But since R was very much sold with what he saw, she was more than contented. Besides, it was R who set the three criteria for the reception venue. Given that there was a seminar at the same time we visited, we were able to, more or less, tell whether we could fit all our guests without being too cramped up. We were initially planning on having 200 guests but were able to trim it down to 160. Here’s the final layout our caterer sent us.

Four months prior to the wedding, we changed our time of ingress 4 hours earlier than what we initially placed in our reservation form, and the auditorium personnel changed it right away.

The other time we went for a visit was a week before the wedding, to settle the remaining balance and pay the security deposit. Even without any advance notice from us, we were accommodated to have a look at the venue (again) so we could visualize better where to put where. We also double-checked the time of reservation, both for the ingress and reception proper, and we were glad to know our request was accommodated (thinking we would’ve done some more paperworks and/or follow-up calls if it was any other venue).

On the day itself, we were told by our drapes supplier that they were able to start the set-up at 6AM and didn’t have any problems with ingress.

When our OTD came to the preps venue, we overheard them saying the caterer wasn’t allowed to enter the venue yet, however when they gave them office a ring, they were told the caterer has already started setting-up. Whatever the real story about this one was, we never really knew the full details.

Being an office building and our wedding being on a Friday afternoon, we knew there will be a lot of people there when we start our reception, but for some reason that didn’t really bother us when we came out of our bridal car. We heard one of our suppliers said they did not have enough power outlets – whatever they did to solve this problem, we also do not know.

We paid for a 1 hour "use" of the fountain to be able to have some shots there prior to starting the reception proper but weren’t able to do so as we arrived a little bit late.

We were greeted by smiling security personnel, both of the building and the auditorium.

We finished the program proper sometime between 9:30-10:00PM, and their toilets were still very clean.

Package Cost: ~PhP 20,000 (PhP 4,000/hr rental fee, PhP 250/hr set-up fee without aircon but with lights, PhP 500/hr fountain, PhP 150/convenience outlet, PhP 85/hr personnel fee – janitor, technician, AC technician, security) + PhP 20,000 security bond/deposit.

Package Inclusion: Use of venue with lights and airconditioner, 2 toilets.

R&M’s rating: 5