Two Grand Wedding Receptions at CDM this Month

Jambalos-Anonical Wedding Invitation

Two grand wedding receptions are scheduled for this month at CDM. The first one is the Calbario-Mariposque nuptial on March 18 ( Thursday). The wedding ceremony will be officiated by Most Rev. Reynaldo Evangelista, Bishop of Boac. It will be an afternoon wedding at the Boac Cathedral followed by reception at 5:30PM until midnight. There will be a live band for dancing. The bride is the daughter of Pedro Mariposque( deceased) and Aida Jao. There will be 10 principal sponsors. Three of the sponsors are active members of Marinduque International, Dr Rodolfo Jao, Mrs. Conchita Jao-Manalo and Mrs Vivian Jao-Herrera. The wedding is formal requesting men guests to wear a barong and the women a formal dress. The newly weds will spend their honeymoon night in the beach house adjacent to the Conference Hall-the reception venue.
I do like their invitation as it specifies the number of seats reserved for the invited guests. This will hopefully solve the problem of the Filipinos bad habit of bring extra guests to parties such as wedding reception and birthday parties.

The second wedding is scheduled for March 20 ( Saturday). The groom is Macrine's nephew( Edgar Jambalos-aka Nonoy). The bride is Yvette Anonical also a native of Marinduque. The wedding will be officiated by Fr. John Jovel Luna- a high school classmate of the groom, and also at the Boac Cathedral. The wedding will be at 10AM and followed by a reception at CDM Conference Hall. There will be only five principal sponsors, Macrine and I are two of the sponsors. Food will be catered by Mita Rejano Reyes of the Boac Hotel. I heard the wedding budget is closed to a quarter million pesos. Who says there is a recession in Marinduque? Two hundred fifty guests are expected with another 20 extra plates for those that tag along even without an invitation.
Jambalos-Anonical Wedding Entourage
The Jambalos-Anonical wedding invitation also provided for the number of seats reserved for the invited guests. However since most Filipinos had a tradition of bringing extra guests( bad manners in US), the caterer was instructed to provide 20 extra plates just in case.

I am looking forward for this two wedding receptions at CDM.Good day to you all!

Construction and Reforestation At Chateau Du Mer

Beach House-Photo taken 1/10/10
A Multi-Purpose 27 sq.meters air conditioned room is under construction in the first floor of the beach house with an adjacent 18 sq.meters patio facing the ocean. Photo taken during Garden Wedding, 1/30/10

With several tourist groups from Manila inquiring about accommodations at the CDM beach house, I decided to continue the finishing of the first floor of the beach house. First construction is underway for a 27 square meters air conditioned room with an accompanying 18 sq.meters adjoining pation on the side of the western MDQ sea. The room will also served as a meeting room for a party of 30 to 50 attendees. The second phase of the construction will be the kitchen area with spaces for sink and gas stove. The expected completion date will be the third week of March, just in time for our busy Easter tourist season. The beach house will now easily accommodate from 10 to 12 persons. The rent for the whole house will be 8000 pesos per day. This will turn out to be less than 700 pesos per day per person if there are 12 in the group. This an affordable rental considering there is air conditioning, hot water shower and cooking facilities if desired.

Regarding reforestation, Edwin and I just planted 13 narra tree seedlings last month. This will provide the needed shade at the Conference Hall during the summer months in the years to come. Currently MDQ is also suffering from the drought. Luckily I have 3 deep wells that provide the needed water for my gardens, I am still hoping for rain though. Have a good day and hope to see you in MDQ soon.

Selected Pictures from the Garden Wedding Album of the Sena-Dacumos

The following are selected pictures from the first garden wedding at Chateau Du Mer. The bride was Rheziel Sena and the groom was Ramon Chito Dacumos. The wedding took place on January 30. 2010. This was a historic event at Chateau Du Mer.

Nagahoy or Nabalis( Head and Stomach Aches)

Orchids in Front Yard of the House
Yesterday, our housekeeper, wife of our Chief Gardener and Caretaker, Edwin, here at CDM, suddenly started throwing up and felt dizzy. Macrine gave her an anti-nausea pill but still she did not feel well. I took her blood pressure and it was normal. She decided a stranger that saw her in front of our house about an hour ago gave her the bahoy/balis. Her husband decided to bring her to our local witch doctor and indeed confirm that someone was responsible for her headache and vomiting. Macrine and I thought she might be pregnant, but she told us no, as she is faithfully taking her birth control pills. The medicine lady gave her ginger and advice her to boil the clothes she was wearing at the time she saw the stranger in front of the main house. She was told to drink a tablespoon of the boiled water and the rest as a sponged bath. In the meantime, we gave her two tablets of aspirin and she went to sleep. The next day she was feeling better and her life was back to normal.

I personally do not believe in nagahoy or nabalis. However, this is not the first case that a similar incident occurred here in Marinduque. Sometimes, the cure is see the person that gave you the scourge and get a sample of his/her saliva and applied it to your head or stomach. Interesting day indeed!

Post Garden Wedding Depression at CDM

My Brand New Picnic Table

It has been very quiet here after a week of hectic and chaotic preparation for the first Garden Wedding of Chateau Du Mer. I missed the excitement and adrenalin rush of hosting last week historic event in this resort. This week, life here is relaxing and even depressing. I could only hear the sounds of mowing, vendors selling balut, fish and bread and occasional jeepneys and tricycles (except during rush hours). Do you have any suggestion what I can do to relieve this feeling of depression? Oh, yes, I could go swimming in the ocean or do snorkeling. I could do gardening by mouth and I could supervise maintenance projects in the resort. Oh well, just thinking about this already gave me an adrenalin rush and my depression is gone. Anyway, if you want to view the latest pictures of our activities here at CDM since December 2009 to the present, please visit my Face Book page and album, MDQ 2010. Good Day to All! From Your GrandPa Blogger!

Garden Wedding at CDM- a Historic Event

The bride with Parents on her Wedding March

The wedding ceremony started with the bride transported by a white horse-drawn open carriage from the nearby beach resort. This reminds me of Cinderilla riding in her golden carriage on her way to the Ball. On her arrival she was met by the groom and her entourage( includes 6 pairs of primary sponsors) at the balcony of the beach house. The groom stayed overnight in the beach house. The wedding ceremony then began with a ballet dance on the bridge, followed by songs, prayers and homily. It lasted for two hours. The wedding vows and ritual ( cord, veil and candle sponsors) is similar to the Roman Catholic Church, except for presentation of gifts to the parents of bride and groom. In addition all the primary sponsors were required to give public advice to the newly weds. The pastor is from the Born Again Christian Church from Manila.

The reception in the hall had a printed program distributed to around 200 guests. It included several musical and dancing exhibition as well as public dancing. Music was provided by a live band of 10 musicians. At the end of the reception 4 hours later, the newly weds spent another hour at the beach house and ocean just relaxing and taking more pictures. There was a videographer and several photographers.

The ceremony ended with the bride and groom riding the open horse-drawn carriage back to the nearby resort where the bride stayed. The next day, I was told, they are flying to Hongkong for their honeymoon. A most memorable and grand wedding event -the first event here at Chateau Du Mer. I hope more garden weddings in the future.

Wedding Preparation at Chateau Du Mer

The Beach House

The bride from Southern California arrived yesterday and informed us specifically the venue for her wedding ceremony. It will be at the foot of the Japanese simulated bamboo bridge under a giant balete tree over looking the ocean and the beach house. The entourage (plus six couples of sponsors) will march from the spiral staircase of the beach house and then cross the bridge. The bride has hired a decorator and I am looking forward for the transformation of the bridge into a wedding altar. I am very excited since this is a historic event at CDM. For the last two years, we have hosted more than 50 wedding receptions at the hall, but this will be the first wedding ceremony at the resort. I hired two extra helpers to clean the creek, mowed, paint and scrubbed the bridge floor and also constructed a cement picnic table and bench in the area. The park bench will be topped with tiles and decor from our travels in US. There will be a small tent in the sorounding area to accommodate around 200 guests. I will post pictures of the wedding ceremony and reception soon.

News from Chateau Du Mer This Week

Center Stage for the Bride and Groom
The Red Carpet Runner

Our first wedding reception and party was last Sunday. The young couple are from Marinduque ( bride) and Batangas ( groom). Both are OFW workers from Saudi Arabia. They exchanged their wedding vows at the Boac Cathedral at 10AM, followed by a grand reception of about 200 guests here at CDM. Everything went well and smooth until the program started, when low and behold there was a black out. Edwin my manager told the guests now to worry, as he will start our generator. Indeed in three minutes we had our own electric power and the wedding celebration was saved. Thanks to my diesel generator, the wedding celebration and party went well till the end of the afternoon.

I finally learned more about the other couple who requested a Garden Wedding and Reception at CDM for January 30. The bride is originally from Marinduque, but is now working and residing in the US. She happened to be the niece of our good friend Clemen Lardizabal Perez of Gasan and Manila. Clemen will be one of the sponsors in the wedding. The groom is also from Marinduque but is working in Manila. The groom has already visited Chateau Gardens but the bride just recently arrived from the US and will visit the wedding venue next week. Indeed, we are really excited about this garden wedding, since this will be the first time we will have a Garden Wedding Ceremony at CDM.

Our third wedding reception contract for this month will be on January 24. Both bride and groom are locals.

So far we have no activity for the month of February, but we have three wedding receptions scheduled already for March. I did received several inquiries for availability of the BEACH HOUSE from honeymooners in England and US for next month, however. I am glad that our 2010 year start with three activities for the Hall. It looks like CDM will have a Prosperous 2010 if this trend continues. Cheers to All!