Wedding Preps Series: Church Booked for the Big Day!

The most important booking of the wedding done! After days of calling their office to check if we can already book our wedding for next year, finally Archbishop's Palace opened their 2015 calendar for bookings. And we're the very first couple who booked for that year!

I was on my way back to office from warehouse when I called the chapel and got the good news. Since August 31, I have been calling their office daily to check if booking for 2015 is already open because I certainly do not want to risk losing out on the slot for our date. We decided that we do not want any other church as Archbishop's Palace definitely is perfect for what we wanted - a solemn and intimate wedding ceremony in a small air-conditiondioned church or chapel.

We can just imagine spending our Sunday family mornings here with our (soon to be) kids :)

To be honest, we booked the party venue first. It was the very first thing we booked. It was because we did not have any church in particular where we wanted to have our ceremony then. So we booked the party venue hoping there would be a church nearby that would fit our criteria. I guess it's all meant to be. After booking Light of Love, I researched on possible churches where we can hold our ceremony. My top choice was Sanctuario de San Jose in Greenhills. It's also small and the area is very private, being inside a posh village. The rate is very posh as well. :p  It's at 30k or 35k if I'm not mistaken which was too high for me. I told myself I'll keep looking. I am so thankful for this blog I chanced upon where I discovered AP. It's the first time I've heard of the place and when I saw the photos (and rate), I immediately knew this is the church. I was so excited. I couldn't believe it's real to get to have our wedding in such a beautiful and private place without  having to shell out big bucks. It seems too good to be true. So I researched a bit more. I crossed my fingers hoping that it's a feasible partner with our party venue in terms of location. We attended mass one Sunday, to see the place for the first time, and test the route from the church to our party venue. It's not bad at all. On that day we went to AP, my fiancè said that we will not do an actual church hunting anymore. This is our church.

I read from GT and some blogs that AP only accepts reservations for the following year starting September. So I waited patiently. Until we came to the day we were finally able to book it! :)

Being inside the villa makes me feel like I'm in a retreat house,  far from the city. It's so serene inside. One can really say that the property is well-maintained.  I never thought we can find something like this in Manila.

Sunday mass at the big chapel

If you are not familiar with AP, let me give you a brief background. It's Archbishop's Palace then when it used to serve as home to archbishops, but now it's called Villa San Miguel. It's patron saint is St. Michael Archangel, which happens to be my birth patron saint. It's a private villa with beautiful landscape which houses two chapels, the big and small chapel. The big chapel is air-conditioned and can accommodate up to 150 guests, it's of beautiful modern white and gold interior. The small chapel is on the second floor and can accommodate 70 guests. It's non airconditiondioned and of dark wood interior. It's also beautiful, perfect for really small weddings.

Big Chapel

Small Chapel

We booked the big chapel. The aisle is short, but we can extend the red carpet up to the garden outside the chapel.  They do it all the time.  It looks really nice to walk down the aisle in a garden, for a moment there you'll feel like you're having a garden wedding ceremony. Here are the wedding requirements of AP. 

The fees are the following:

Use of big chapel and its facilities (1.5 hr) - Php 8,000

Cover of chairs (optional, but we'll surely avail of it) - Php 1,500

Priest stipend (though the priest will not be provided by them) - Php 1,000

Reservation (non-refundable and not deductible to chapel fee) - Php 500

Total: Php 11,000

For the small chapel, fee is Php 5,000.

The fees do not include the flowers, choir or vocalist, pianist and you must get your own priest. Though they will provide the sound system, piano and microphones.  They don't have a player. Since they are only a chapel and not a full-pledged parish, they also do not hold pre-cana seminars. Good thing my mom is active in our own parish and she can definitely help me with these things.  There are also additional requirements you need to secure from AP's parish which is the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Acacia Lane (nearby). And there are requirements you need to pass to this parish as well.

It was Bro. Mart who's in-charge, but he said that before our wedding day, he could be replaced by someone else as he's going back to the seminary. He's very nice and patient with our questions.

We paid the P500 reservation fee which is not deductible to the wedding fee and he explained the requirements above.

I'm just so glad to book the church we wanted. It felt like we've made the right decisions since day one of our wedding preps. Thank you, Lord. Happy preps! ♡

Archbishop's Palace (Villa San Miguel)

Shaw Blvd., cor. Jaime Cardinal Sin St., Mandaluyong City (beside Toyota Shaw)

5317034

See all wedding preps series posts.

See also posts from travel, food and health & beauty. Enjoy!