My cousin and a close friend, @whimsicalsoul, shared that in the US, it is the birthday celebrant who gets treated to a meal on her birthday. In the Philippines, it is the other way around. This time, my work team went the US way and treated our dear Branch Head to a surprise birthday party. All she had to do was show up!
This series is called "Party in the PH" and I take you to parties that I have been invited to. The goal is to replicate the enjoyment that I felt at the party in the write-up 🥂 Here's to you finding out some bits and pieces of party organizing too.
It all started with the mastermind, Jaja. She kicked off the plan with a group chat for all of us on the team to join. With the venue, the decorations, the program, the food, and the coordination in place - the plan was set. She told the celebrant that she would need her help in closing a big client. It was fun to think about it because the celebrant was really particular about the client. What product will you pitch, what is the profile of the client, and how should we approach the client? - questions that the mastermind had to answer to not blow our cover 😂
Let me take you through how the big day went and how the plan went through.
First things first, we had to go get the flowers. I went to Sweet Lilies for the fresh bouquet and the team decided to get her red roses this year. Last time, we got her lilies from this shop still. Both were priced at Php 1500. Aren't they pretty?
The celebrant quickly asked, "Who is in charge of the flowers?" I better get one for my daughter there too. It's almost her graduation day! I took it to mean that she loved the flowers. It was amusing to notice how she was still thinking of other people when the event was about celebrating her. It's amazing how a mother's brain works.
The Venue
Many Hivers have featured Tamp Café and Co. and their unbeatable Piso Cake promo. It was a delightful discovery to have known about their function hall services too. The Pelican Event Hall caters to celebrations both intimate (20 guests and below) and medium-intimate gatherings (21 to 42 guests). We were a group of less than 20, that's why we availed of this package:
It was on a weekday when we got there and for us, the 4-hour use of the hall and the 10k consumable rate was a good deal. Tamp required us to order a week ahead of the schedule and they gave us 8 spots of parking too. It was a pretty quaint area to celebrate intimate gatherings. For groups of 21 to 42, the ala carte menu will turn into a buffet that will serve dishes according to your choice of either Filipino, Asian, or Western.
I got there early and so I had the privilege of taking the first mirror selfies! This was how we wanted the arrangement to be so that we can make use of the empty space for the games and the middle part of the room as our celebrant's throne. We prepared a short program just to keep things interesting and I was also in charge of that. I planned for three games and it was nothing out of the ordinary: trivia about the celebrant, a bring me game, and the longest breath. I will tell you how that went in a bit. You can actually alter the arrangement of the tables, depending on how you would like the setup to be.
The Food
Tamp's food is really really good. I have included the menu here for your reference so that you could also see how much they are priced. I have tried their chicken parmigiana, beef stroganoff, torched salmon and quinoa salad and so I was up for something that I haven't tried before. This time, I ordered seared marlin in calamansi and butter sauce. My teammates ordered twin chops, tamp pork ribs, glazed salmon donburi, caramelized Asian pork donburi, torched salmon and quinoa salad, and beef stroganoff. The food came out fast because we had made the orders the week before.
Since the celebrant had no idea that she was walking into a party, she ordered on the day and the restaurant gave her a grace period of 15 minutes to cook her food. Sadly, some of the guests' orders also weren't available, these guests also had to order on the day.
The Surprise
Everybody was slowly coming in, including the family of the celebrant. The time they had initially planned to meet with the mastermind was also nearing as well, we had the cake and the balloons already prepared. Everybody was in place. We knew that the birthday celebrant was a smart cookie and she could easily piece the tiny details together. We had to call the mastermind to meet her and the plan was in motion.
They went through the door and boom, the celebrant's face was in shock. She wondered why her daughters were there, why her sister and the rest of the team were singing "Happy Birthday" to her and it was just laughs all over.
The team then took turns in taking a picture with her isn't she lovely? Before all of this, I had to ask the team to write messages to her on a tiny sheet of paper. They all obliged :) She then went on to say that she was surprised why our teammate's car was in the parking lot. She just thought that "Oh, maybe he has a meeting here." As they were going upstairs, she asked, "Why are we going up?" the mastermind answered, "Because my clients are a lot."
A few seconds after, everything started to make sense for her. She understood why she was greeted by "Happy Birthday" even if her birthday was still a few days after. She felt relieved that as she was preparing for stuff to do on her birthday, she realized that she only had a few days left to plan. I could really tell that she was really happy about it because it saved her the struggles of planning everything and the cost to do so as well :)
It wasn't long until we said grace before meals, we ate lunch and after a bit, we turned to hear some speeches from the people near and dear to her heart. I anticipated that no one will volunteer to go first and so we did a little twist. We would be playing some games and those who will participate will forfeit the chance to make a speech. Everyone was suddenly up on their feet and ready to participate. The first game was a trivia game and all her family members were ready to dominate. It was fun watching her daughters and sister compete to miss the chance to make a speech 😂 Her brother-in-law especially enjoyed the longest breath, I had a lot of fun watching him compete to win the game. Their family is so competitive! I can't even!
The highlight of the day for me was the part when we all had a surprise dance number on the spot for our birthday girl. She gave her speech and she shared how she felt so loved by the people around her. She truly deserved the surprise 😍
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That US culture of treating the celebrant is also the same here in Japan. I really think it's only the PH that has this opposite culture.
Glad you all seemed to enjoy the party! Those lovely smiles say it all. Those flowers and cakes are awesome!
I didn't know about Tamp Cafe until I read your blog. I must have missed reading those Hivers' posts. Glad I came here and read about it. 😄 Bookmarking for future reference 😉
Cooool! Traveling and living in other countries really opens up our minds about how different cultures do it. From a practicality perspective, it makes sense to treat the celebrant because the group can pitch in together and make the celebrant feel special on her special day. If it were the other way around, the celebrant would have to shell out a huge amount to feed a lot of people.
I'm glad to share about Tamp. The piso cake promo is still up. When you buy one dish plus one drink, you get to buy a slice of their cake at one peso. Hope you can try it out sometime 😊
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PH culture has its twists. Filipinos love group celebrations (i.e. parties, fiestas) and so there's usually a birthday celebration at home where people get invited to. However, as not everyone is able to prepare a feast by themselves, some opted to treat the others outside (i.e. eat out). Hence, the expectation that when you have a birthday, you get to treat others out. ("libre naman diyan~")
I think giving the birthday celebrants a treat instead is better. Usually in office settings, at least people give them a cake. :)
Yes! Coming from that standpoint, it is easy to understand where the "libre naman diyan" came from 😊