The Wedding Fact Sheet

Summit Ridge hotel, Tagaytay

Our family went up to Tagaytay this weekend to savor the cool breeze and stayed at Summit Ridge hotel.We enjoyed our stay here because of its modern amenities (free wifi!) and the scenic view of Taal volcano from our fourth floor balcony. Summit Ridge is the newest hotel building to rise in Tagaytay and its advantage from competitors like Taal Vista is the mall-promenade beside it. No need to go far because everything is beside your hotel – restaurants, coffeeshops, boutiques, even a hardware store and supermarket. Parking is also very convenient.

Because of its big space, the ten-storey Summit Ridge makes for an ideal wedding venue. In fact, it has three ballrooms and three function rooms for special celebrations like anniversaries, birthdays and weddings. The biggest ballroom, Raintree A, can accommodate 240 persons while Raintree B & C, can seat up to 150 people each. All three ballrooms combined has space for 400 to 500 people.
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Based on reports from the Department of Tourism, a big group of wedding professionals from California planed into town recently and looked at the prospects of the Philippines as a wedding destination. They only had good words for it.

“A basic wedding in the US costs around $ 50,000, while in the Philippines you can hold weddings for less than half of that, with a honeymoon holiday thrown in the package,” Richard Markel, President of the L.A.-based Association for Wedding Professionals International, was quoted as saying.

Outside of the US continent, Hawaii is a popular wedding location for Americans, but still expensive. With the recession in full swing, either people are cancelling weddings or holding it in other locales.

Distance notwithstanding, I do believe the Philippines has got what it takes to be a cheap, affordable wedding destination for the following reasons:

1. Availability of inexpensive talents who can do all the work. Be it a singer, a band, a florist or even a fire dancer, labor is relatively cheap in these parts. The choices are simply diverse and impressive too.

2. Existence of all-in-one packages which can make tying the knot relatively hassle-free. Major cities have professional organizers and coordinators, or if you don’t want to hire one, there are one-stop shops for this purpose where you can get everything you need – from gowns to catering to wedding accessories – in one roof. Okay, don’t forget the one who will take care of your wedding papers too.

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