She's been scoping out the interwebs for a couple of months already trying to look for a supplier that will give us the most bang for our bucks. We're a bit tight on cash, so we want to make sure we make most of whatever we will be spending for the party.
It seems that booking One Cafe for the reception leaves us little to spend on dessert and cookie buffet suppliers. If we get them, we'll end up with a menu that's very light and very few for our 100+ guests.
So that leaves us one option: Try to set up our own dessert and cookie buffet which doesn't sound as easy as it seems.
Aside from getting suppliers for the cookies and the desserts, there is the issue of buffet stylings. There are buffet designs in the internet that we can easily ape, but that means spending for the very same decors. Not to mention the plates and holders needed for the pastries
So what do we do? Start by canvassing the items that we will need.
First on the plate? Plates. Yes, we need plates to put the the desserts on. Our first stop? Uniwide Sales Club. Yes, they still exist. And fortunate for us, one such branch exists near our place.
Last Saturday, 03/02/2013, we went to Uniwide Sales, Novaliches. I knew they had cheap ceramic plates there likely imported from China. When we got there, we found several square and rectangular plates. We also saw some jars we plan to fill up with small cookies. And there was another pleasant surprise: cake stands! And pretty cheap to boot.
Now that we've checked out Uniwide, our next destination? 500 Events Shaw for a Mommy Mundo event.
We arrived at the place past 2pm, and we looked around. We managed to buy a new pair of shoes for Thirdy, but other than that, the event was mostly for toddlers and older kids.
It was past 3 and we were already hungry, but we needed to drop by Lia's Cakes in Season at Kapitolyo.
But on the way there, I wanted to drop by Regalong Pambahay in Pioneer. They always had amazing home decors that you can always use for buffet decorations.
When we arrived there, it was no longer the warehouse it was used to be the last time we visited when we were planning our wedding back in 2004 (although we do drop by at the same location for perfume and toy sales). It was now a showroom. But that wasn't the surprising part. What really surprised us, was a few of their items.
It seems that one of the event stylists we've fallen in love with the past few days, sourced some of his items from Regalong pambahay. No wonder their services are expensive. The decors they use are expensive too. But with a secret, maniacal laughter (mine of course), I thought gleefully, that we can get the exact same things to decorate our buffet tables. Mwahahahaa (there I go again).
Now, on to Lia's Cakes.
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| Cakes! and cupcakes! Oh my! |
Chea wanted to know if they cater parties. Unfortunately, the owner (didn't get the name as I was erstwhile distracted by cakes) told us they don't have the manpower for catering parties. So I guess we'll just get some cakes from them.
By this time, it was 4pm, and since we didn't take our lunch yet, we looked around Kapitolyo for a cheap but fulfilling meal. We ended up at Tropical Huts. I ordered the dinuguan meal, while chea went for the bangus. Ahh, the simple joys of life.
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| Pig's blood. blah blah blah. |
After the brief late lunch, we headed over to visit my brother's remains at Divine Word Columbary at Christ the King, E. Rodriguez Avenue which we do every weekend.
I then prodded my wife that we hit Suki Market in Mayon Street, Sampaloc. I wanted to check for vintage items we can use for decorations as well ceramic plates for the buffet. Unfortunately, they were'nt as cheap as we hoped they'd be. For the last few years, the place simply started to sell items at premium prices. It's just cheaper to buy at some malls nowadays really, like the ones in Binondo.
We did find, however, a dog's bed, that we will be using for , er, Thirdy's photoshoot the following weekend. It was 3 feet long, a foot wide, and about 6 inches deep. And we managed to get it for only 100 pesos. Quite a bargain. Unfortunately, we arrived there already around 5pm so we barely managed to see everything before the shops started closing down for the night. We'll just try and visit again when we decide to go to Divisoria.
With still some hop in our step, we passed by Papemelroti in Roces Ave. I loved their products when I was a kid. They hearken back to simpler times, where everything was well thought out, and every gift had a personal touch.
We wanted to find some photo frames, decors we can use as center pieces, and anything vintage that related to our party theme. We did find a few, but they were expensive. So we took note of the prices, and decided that we need to concentrate on the important ones first and see how much is left of our budget that we can use for the decors.
So after that, we went on our merry way home. But along the early night drive to our house in QC, my wife wanted to drop by S&R to buy baby wipes.
As it turns out, they were having pre-sale (Mar 13-17) sales that day, and quite a lot of them had marked down prices already. We lucked into a 3-tier pastry holder for only 600php that originally sold for more than 800php. We bought 2. Another was a 3-tier stainless serving platter for only 400php, which was originally 600php. So with that, we now had 3 serving dishes for our dinner buffet. So I guess, we're definitely going with doing the dessert buffet ourselves.
Steeled with determination, we then looked for desserts being sold for a discount. We got our hands on a box of M&M cookies and a small bag of Hershey's nuggets. We decided that we needed to go back on the actual sale dates and see if we can get more cookies or chocolates we can use for the buffet.
After grabbing the baby wipes, and a few other items, we paid with the cashier, and then had a small dinner composed of S&R cheese pizza, french fries and a tumbler of OJ.
Tired, but happy with a very productive day, we headed home for the night and managed to have some quality time with Thirdy before we hit the sack.
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