The best of the best gather to create picture-perfect celebrations
Where there are two or three Pinoys gathered in the same vicinity, there will be revelry” is not at all how the old adage goes, but it seems accurate enough. If there’s one thing that Filipinos love doing, it’s coming together, connecting and celebrating.
Take, for example, the grand year-end family reunions that are essentially an eruption of food and laughter and tradition, heralded by the familiar notes of a beloved Christmas song as soon as the “ber” months arrive. Take, for another example, wedding receptions that pull out all the stops to resemble fiestas in scale and dreamlike grandeur. But even intimate dinners hosted just because speak volumes of our fondness for festivity, family, friendship and food.
“We all love to celebrate. And, really, we should celebrate, especially after what we experienced the past few years,” events curator Marbee Shing Go told Lifestyle. “Now, I feel like people are really into this kind of [mindset]: While you can, you really celebrate.”
This also seems to be the reason people now throw parties for nonlandmark celebrations, added Go. Debuts, for example, are huge affairs reserved for one’s 18th birthday. But these days, debut-sized parties are held even for 16-, 14-, 13- or even 8-year-olds “because we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
Go, who has spent much of her career immersed in the wedding industry—from working as a wedding magazine editor to producer of a wedding show; she even published a wedding book and, for a time, kept a wedding blog—has embraced all types of social affairs with “Let’s Celebrate: A Grand Events Expo for All Celebrations,” happening this weekend (Sept. 21 to Sept. 22) at SMX Aura Convention Center in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
Dream events
The fair brings together in-demand names in the community, both established and emerging (all vetted and verified, of course), to present picture-perfect possibilities when it comes to making dream events for milestones like weddings, even kiddie and pet parties, into reality.
Ten styling visionaries (including Teddy Manuel, Gideon Hermosa, Michael Ruiz, Bhem Meijer, Nikki Chatto and Dave Sandoval) will transform the SMX space into 10 different themed setups, highlighting how the hall could function beyond exhibits and trade fairs to fulfill extraordinary party fantasies as well.
“Our market is everyone, whether it’s a kiddie party, an 18th birthday, a baptismal, a milestone celebration,” said Go.
Imagine holding a banquet at the convention center. Is it odd to walk around the mall in formal or even wedding attire? Maybe. But celebrants don’t really have to. The convention has separate access for that coveted grand entrance. (As for the guests, it actually sounds kind of fun going around an upscale mall like SM Aura Premier all glammed up and aglimmer.)
According to Go, SMX can pretty much provide anything other events venues can offer. The space, of course, is enormous, a perfect blank canvas for experts stylists’ imagination. Its accredited caterers include favorites among celebrants of major life events, like Juan Carlo, Creamery, Bizu and Hizon’s. There is ample parking, and the location is pretty much also a plus: SMX is accessible, with branches in Manila, Taguig, Bacolod, Clark, Davao, Mandaluyong, Cebu and Olongapo.
And if there’s time before or after the event, guests can actually spend it getting coffee or a snack or even window shopping—not just getting bored while idly waiting until the program starts.
For Go and her partners, “Let’s Celebrate” will actually be hitting two birds with one stone. While she connects the best of the best creatives and storytellers with would-be celebrants, by putting relative newcomers alongside veterans, she’s also promoting her advocacy of discovering promising young talents and supporting their growth in the industry.
“This is how we help the next generation. This is how we help the industry which we don’t just love, but which has really loved us back.”
‘Salami tactics,’ the Philippines, Ukraine and the ‘tyranny of time’