Jay & Theresa's Wedding (Reception)

Right after the wedding ceremony, all of us went our way to Promiseful Farm in Bacnotan for the reception. It was a hot and sunny day, but the place was set up real good to accommodate all the guests. Us relatives wanted to share one table, but staff didn't want to move any chairs as everything (they said) were already set up, so Aunt Julie, cousin Karen and her husband Dylan stayed at a different table.

Uncle Caesar (dad's younger brother) was the master of ceremony, and because it was already noon time and everybody seemed to be hungry already, the introductions were short, and right after the principal sponsors and close friends gave their messages to the newlyweds, we were all served lunch.


Lunch was catered by Muchas Gracias, which also has a restaurant in San Fernando, La Union (sister and I loved their bibingka, by the way). They served quite a lot for this reception, and we had:


Pica-Pica - small cupcake cups filled with variety of finger foods: sweet beans, corn chips, bread sticks, banana chips, mixed nuts, and peanuts. Something to munch on while watching the first part of the ceremony. The beans and banana chips also became a desserts of sorts for us as well.

Lumpiang Sariwa (Filling) - it's quite noticeable that big celebrations call for lots of meat dishes, and having this on the table provided the much needed fiber to balance the feast. The vegetables were crispy, the sauce had a light sweetness to it, but after the first serving of the dish and the wait staff refilled the plate, there weren't enough sauce to the dish anymore, but since we all needed vegetables, we still ate it with gusto.


Lechon - This wasn't part of the catering; Tere said one of her uncles gave this as part of his wedding gift. The meat was tender and juicy, the skin was sinfully crispy... but we weren't able to eat much of it because there was no sauce.

Dinakdakan - A classic Ilocano dish made from grilled pork (usually the fatty part - pig's cheeks and ears) and liver seasoned with vinegar, salt, pepper and onions. The real Dinakdakan also has pig's brain mashed into the meat slices (some restaurants uses mayonnaise, though), but I am not sure whether they added pig's brain into this or they went for the vinegar and other condiments. It tasted great, by the way... among the dishes served at us, this was the one we ate a lot of, though, some relatives complained that it had quite a lot of liver... but that's because my sister Jenny took only pork slices and left the liver slices on the plate. Haha.


Chicken Cordon Bleu. It was a little dry for my liking, so I only ate 1/4 of the slice I took.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs. Another great dish that day, it had a great balance of flavor!


Breaded Fish Fillet. Given the time frame between cooking and serving, it's understandable that this wasn't that crispy anymore. The fillet was slightly bland in terms of seasoning, which the aioli sauce made up for.

Lumpiang Shanghai. Another big hit for us at the table - the filling wasn't too much, but it was so flavorful and delicious that we kept on munching and munching. A big plus that the sticks were still a little crunchy.

Pork in Creamy Mushroom Sauce. It was okay, but it didn't make a big impact on us.

What I loved about the reception was that each table had serving plates of all the dishes, no need for the guests to line up at the buffet table, and should any of the plates get empty, anyone at the table can just call on the wait staff to ask for a refill. All of us had so much to eat, but because the reception was set to 200 people and there were only more than a hundred of us there, there were a lot of leftover, which the family took home after the event. All in all, the reception cost about 60K... not bad at all.

After the feast came the usual ceremonies during wedding reception. There were a few boo-boos as far as the music was concerned... it was just weird to hear the song "Someone Like You" by Adele, and that Tere hoped for her nephew Marco and niece Louianne to sing their first dance as a couple, but it didn't push through and they danced to a different song. I guess every wedding has its own boo-boos...making it unique from the rest.

It was near 2pm when we ceremony ended, but us at the table still went to the bride's place after for some chit-chats. Gotta savor the day because I will be traveling back to Manila the next day.