Datu's first birthday: Supplier review

We celebrated my dear son’s first birthday one rainy Sunday afternoon. August is the monsoon season and it was inevitable to celebrate one of his birthdays with stormy weather. They say rain during one’s birthday is a blessing. That would mean amazing blessings for my baby, then. We almost were not able to get home as we lived in a flood prone area. We really felt the love of our family and friends who braved the stormy weather to be with us to celebrate our son’s first year.

Let's get on with my supplier review, shall we?

We learned from Datu’s baptism that we need to book venues early to get the date and schedule we wanted...much like weddings. Di ppwedeng tatamad tamad. We booked our venue in June and then got our other suppliers nearer our date. More on the supplier ratings below.

Venue: Jollibee, Sheridan 

The birthday celebration was not extravagant at all. We wanted it that way since Datu will not remember any of it so we didn’t want to invest too much money and time for it. We plan to have a bigger celebration when he is older (if he chooses to do so and if our wallets permit). Contenders for our party venue were Jollibee, McDonald’s and Max’s. The only reason why we chose Jollibee was because it was cheaper than the other two. The theme we chose was Batman. We did not buy our cake there since I wanted a more personalized one. If you bring your own cake, you won’t be able to serve it to your guests though. That was explained to us when we made our reservation. We paid Php 1700+ for the party fee. The venue, host, Jollibee’s appearance, prizes and the balloons (30 pcs) are part of that fee. You have to pay extra for the party hat, place mat and invitations. I think that’s Php7 per set which isn’t that bad. We only got 30 sets, mostly for the kids. At this age though, I recommend not to get the invites anymore since we do most of our inviting through FB anyway.

It was a breeze working with the Jollibee staff. They catered to most of our simple requests like making sure that they don’t serve melted sundae ice cream. I attended another birthday party a month back at another Jollibee branch and we were served sundae slush.

By the way, you can also book the party online which makes things easier. We wanted to check the place out first, since we have never attended a party at the Sheridan branch before. And so we went there and made our reservations on site.

The day of the party, we met this guy Rain who said he was going to host the party. He made the event lively. There were times when I felt I was at a comedy bar. I am just glad that our guests took the host’s jests good-naturedly. Everybody had a good laugh.

We were asked at the start of the party if we wanted to have Jollibee stay for the games. I felt cornered so I said yes. For Php 550 extra, Jollibee hung around with the kids during the games. In hind sight, it seems to be 500 pesos well spent.

Why did I give a 4 instead of 5? There were few parking slots which made it difficult for our guests. We were told that someone was going to assist with the parking but some of our guests said nobody assisted them. Not sure if that was because it was raining really hard (yes, habagat level! It was starting to flood outside). The up selling attempt, though ended up to be a good thing, took me by surprise since that really was not in the budget and I felt should have been done when we signed the contract.

Overall, I think it was a good day. We had fun, the guests had fun and we didn’t spend too much for the party.

Rating: 4 (out of 5)

Budget: about Php 18,000 for 80 adults and 20 kids

Cake by Sweet Avenue Cake

I have been looking for cheap suppliers when I came across a deal in Ensogo. I read good reviews about this shop. I saw their final products in their FB page and decided to purchase a voucher. Our cake had a Batman design. We went to their shop in Malate to talk to Lawrence (the owner/baker) about how we want the cake to look like. He made a sketch and I think he delivered on the design.

We had to pay Php 500 extra for the delivery fee. They came on time but I still feel that the charge was a bit expensive.

We couldn't serve the cake to our guests due to Jollibee policy so we took it home and ate it the next day on Datu's actual birthday. It was a simple chocolate cake with caramel icing in between layers. It was not too sweet, which is good but it was dry. I'm not sure if storing it in the fridge overnight caused that so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Rating 2.5

Budget: Php 2999 + Php 500 delivery charge

Photographer by RAS Photography

I found out about Ras through N@W. He had good reviews and had the cheapest package so I decided to book him for our party. 

This was a last minute thing.  I have a photographer friend I asked to take pictures at the party but he said his camera had problems and can't do it for me. I don't want to have to think about taking pictures while entertaining guests so I decided to hire one. 

Ras said he was not available on the day of the party but could send someone else who was also good. I had another choice but she was more expensive by Php 2000. I looked at the guy's FB pictures and they were ok so I took the chance.

What I liked about RAS photography is that he tried to enhance as much of the photographs taken unlike with the others where they only take 20-40 pictures to edit. However, this effort takes time and it took almost a month for us to get copies of the photo. Although, from time to time, he'd text us to say that he had posted some of the pictures on his FB page.

After a couple of weeks, we finally got our copy of the pictures burned in a DVD with our family picture as cover. It was a nice touch and was a pleasant surprise. He even made a video montage for us, which again was a freebie. To be honest though, I felt that the pictures could have been taken better. There were a lot of candid shots but only a few actually told a story. Even the posed shots were somewhat lacking. Even my husband said so (he said he had a feeling that would happen when he saw the photographer--who was Ras' sub). 

Looking at the photos, I almost wish that I booked the other photographer instead. But to be fair with Ras, he gave us a free outdoor shoot a week after our event. He said that it was to make up for the fact that he was not the one who covered our event. There were a lot of good pictures that came out of that shoot. 

I would still book Ras in our next event but will make sure he covers it himself.

Rating: 3

Budget: Php 3000

Balloons

This was a gift to us by an officemate who does party planning.

Rating: 5

Budget: NA

Outfits

Baby's Batman Costume - Baclaran

Parents' shirts - SM Department Store

Budget: Php 1000

Overall, I think it was a pretty fantastic party. We stuck to our budget and everyone had fun.

Family Lounge and breastfeeding station at Greenbelt

I never really found the need to find a breastfeeding station when I am in malls. I found it was too complicated to look for one and by the time I got to the place, my son would have been screaming his lungs out. So when we're out together, I make sure that I either wear a nursing top or something that would give my baby easy access to my breasts. I  always have my trusty nursing cover in our baby bag too just in case. Then, we find ourselves a seat somewhere and we're good. I have even tried nursing Datu while he was on a sling and I was walking. I think I've done that at least thrice. Breastfeeding and baby wearing rocks!

We were at Greenbelt to have our trial class at Gymboree. At the escalator from the parking lot, we saw the notice about the Family lounge and where it was. We were up for a diaper change and feeding so we decided to look for it since we were at the mall early. The Family lounge was at the 4th level at Greenbelt 5 near the Nail place (forgot the exact name) and a Dental clinic (also forgot the name I think it's Metro Dental Clinic). When you enter the lounge you are welcomed by relaxing music. It looks like the business lounges at airports but better. There weren't a lot of people inside. There were only 3 when we got there. I guess it is because it was a VIP lounge. You need to have an Ayala card, VIPinoy card or BPI-Ayala credit card to get access. However, special access is given to Nursing moms (yay!) and PWDs. For us, we can only use the lounge for nursing and changing nappies for FREE.

What are the other things you can do at the lounge?

1. Well, malling is tiring. It can be difficult to find a place to sit that is not in a restaurant. If you go that route, you will have to order at least something to drink even if you are not thirsty. If you had access to this kind of place, you won't have to shell money out.


2. You can leave the boys there. There is free wifi. There is also a business center-like area where a desktop was available for use. There's TV too. So while mommy is shopping, dad can wait for her there and not bug her to go home when she's not done shopping yet.

3. There is a play area. If you do not want to shell out money for places like Gymboree, you can just leave yaya and baby there while you shop.

4. You can nurse privately. It was a really nice breastfeeding station. There is a comfy chair and stool so you can even raise your legs if you want to for extra comfort. The chair is spacious enough that you can actually lay on it and put baby beside you on a side lying-position when breastfeeding. There is also a socket in case mommy needs the area to pump milk or charge her phone :). 

Inside the breastfeeding station

5. Clean changing area. This can be problematic for us at times. There are restrooms that do not have changing area or are plain dirty. There are times when we find ourselves changing baby's diapers on his stroller. It is a bit challenging but better than having to lay your child in some dirty table. The lounge saves us from this. The restroom was clean and spacious.



If I were in that area again, and need to nurse or change, I will definitely use this facility again. I may even try to get a card so I can access the lounge for reasons 1-3.