Reception Venue: The Mango Farm

Lex and I were already on the lookout for possible wedding venues as early as July last year. At that time, we were already settled to book Christ the King Parish in Greenmeadows for our ceremony and The Glass Garden for our reception venue. Problem was, CTK were not entertaining 2012 bookings at that time. Even with persistent pleading, they still wouldn’t budge. It was kind of scary too since it wouldn’t be that long till The Glass Garden increase their rates. I already made up my mind to make a downpayment with Glass Garden and just wait till early January to book CTK. However, Lex persuaded me not to go hasty with the bookings. It is much better and less risky to book the ceremony and reception venue at the same time.

Fast forward to six months later, we were informed that CTK have already opened their 2012 calendar for reservations. I asked for another quote from Glass Garden and true enough, they have increased their rates. Although we were already opting for a morning wedding, I was really hesitant to let go of a large sum of money for both venues (CTK rates are also high compared to other churches). In an effort to scout for more venues and probably save money, I suggested to look into other options.

We haven’t really included The Mango Farm in our list of prospective reception venues because we were really not sure where our wedding ceremony should take place. Nonetheless, we still took a little side trip to The Mango Farm one Saturday morning.

The Mango Farm is located inside Kingsville Court subdivision along Sumulong Highway. It can be a little confusing to go there since there is another Kingsville Subdivision before Kingsville Court if you are comming from Masinag/QC area. Once you have realized this, getting there will be easy with the map provided by their website.

We were supposed to meet Mike, the owner and General Manager of The Mango Farm however, when we got there, we were told that he was out delivering flowers to a client and wouldn’t be back until the afternoon. Nell, their secretary, was gracious enough to show us the place on Mike’s behalf.

The place is really lovely and really big. The farm stretches to about 1-2 blocks wide. It somehow gives out the country club feel without having to travel outside Metro Manila for such a place. Also, other venues will just let you in one grand ballroom or event hall but with them, it’s one corner after the other — each with their own “functionality.” There’s a place for cocktails, dinner reception and photobooth. And the guests can freely roam around the farm grounds because it’s rented for one whole day for the client’s exclusive use! I’m pretty much sold at that idea since Lex and I are such private people and we really don’t want to share our special occasion with strangers across the hall. The rates are not that bad, either. Granted that it is not dirt cheap, but the rental is for about 7 hours which is more than enough for cocktails, dinner, reception program and a small dance party… or videoke (we still haven’t polished that part of the wedding).

The Mango Farm is such a great place for weddings and it really has all the things we need for our special day. And about the ceremony problem, as it turns out I missed out one tiny detail during our initial reception venue hunt. The St Therese parish, orignally located at Filinvest East, is building their new church along Marcos Highway near Masinag. Travel time to the Mango Farm from the new church site will only take 10 minutes tops. It may not be airconditioned like CTK but the high ceiling and wide area is very conducive for air flow. And because airconditioning is not included, the rates can be considerably lower than CTK (yay!).

And with that new realization, we booked both the church and reception venue a week later. Just as Lex would want it