Our Baguio Wedding: An Authentic Review of Baguio Cathedral

Finally, here’s the much awaited review of our Baguio wedding suppliers! I got married during March of this year. I, with my husband, are the head planners of our wedding. We interviewed our suppliers one by one, and handpicked them ourselves. For this review, the following criteria, with equal weights each, will be used.

Professionalism: based on communication style, work ethic, and ability to solve problems
Quality of Product/Service: ability to meet our agreements and standards
Flexibility and Customization: willingness to accommodate specific needs and preferences
Value for Price: cost is justified by their quality of service

If you’re planning your wedding, please take this blog post with a grain of salt. We all have different visions of our wedding, flow, expectations and standards. Enjoy reading and getting to know our Baguio wedding suppliers!

Ceremony: Baguio Cathedral

Professionalism

Ms. Jen was the one whom we talked to from inquiry to finalization and attendance to required seminars and interview. Upon our first visit, she handed us a document that has all the details and rules for wedding ceremonies in the Baguio Cathedral. She was straightforward but remained kind when we clarified and asked our questions. The easiest way to contact her was through calling the phone number of Baguio Cathedral. Also, she recommended the ideal time when we could have our seminars (Catechism, pre-Cana and Family Planning) which are all required before we have our interview with our presiding priest. We also had a wedding rehearsal a day before our wedding. She, with her team, handled it well. Instructions were clear and they were kind enough to orient our entourage.

Downside

The only downside was during our processing of wedding banns. This was done after our interview with our presiding priest. We waited at the church as she instructed because signatories weren’t available. I remember it was our presiding priest’s birthday so they were busy. We waited for less than an hour. The ending was Ms. Jen will just be the one who will mail the marriage banns to our parish churches. Mine is our church in my hometown in La Union, while my husband is in Nueva Vizcaya. My husband’s copy was received in less than week. I was surprised to see that mine’s status showed unsuccessful delivery attempts. We were panicking as it should be posted in our parish churches for 3 Sundays. With no objections, only then will the marriage banns reply be made by our respective parish churches. It’s a requirement before our wedding.

My mom had to personally go to the courier company’s office near our home, but my document wasn’t there. Mom had to go to their main office in the city to search for it. Upon receiving, she found out my phone number was different. Ms. Jen put my mobile number mistakenly. Had it been correct, it would have arrived earlier. We just had enough Sundays before our wedding. That was such a stress for us. There was also a mistake in my husband’s document because he was missing a name.

newly wed couple in front of baguio cathedral

Quality of Offered Product/Services

I’d say Baguio Cathedral as a wedding ceremony venue lived up to its beauty. We expected our Baguio wedding to be solemn and it sure was. This is despite the fact that the church do not close to public during weddings. We still felt that our wedding was intimate. We appreciate that there’s only a few items that were different from what was rehearsed a day before. However, that didn’t affect the wedding at all. The ceremony started and ended on time. Our priest delivered a resounding homily which highlighted that God should be at the center of our marriage.

Also, we appreciate that they went beyond what’s needed because they took over the marriage banns. However, as I’ve shared above, there was a lapse. I’ll give a 0.5 demerit for it.

Flexibility and Customization

Baguio Cathedral is quite strict. They have a lot of rules that should be followed. These are on punctuality, limitation of entourage to walk on the aisle, minimum age for bearers, decorations, and music. Also, cameramen only have allowed areas to take photos. There are also seasonal considerations that affects the decorations and wedding songs. There are additional costs for extra entourage who will walk down the aisle.

We still booked Baguio Cathedral after knowing these. After all, it was one of our non-negotiables. So, we had to accept all their rules. It’s a sacred place after all. However, would it affect us if some rules had not existed? Yes. We could have cut cost on our entourage fees. We could have made it more intentional if we chose our songs.

Value for Price

We think that the price we paid was fair. Mind you, it is a famous tourist attraction in Baguio. As non-parishioners, the financial support we paid for were reasonable and they were transparent with it.

Overall, we love our wedding ceremony experience in Baguio Cathedral. Everything went smoothly. Also, the ceremony was organized because we were well-rehearsed a day prior. It was solemn and beautiful as what we’ve expected. We recommend!

Recommendations for couples:

Ask your questions away. This is important specially if you’re doing the wedding planning and you don’t live in Baguio City. Raise anything that’s unclear. Mention your plans if it aligns to their rules. Better be sure than sorry. Also, let me know in the comments if you want a copy of their wedding guidelines.
Do what you can as early as possible. Just because you have more than enough time, doesn’t mean you have to delay what you can accomplish. Plot your timelines well by taking into account possible risks. Save yourself from the stress – like what we went through with the marriage banns.

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