A garden shower for
BabyAlonzocoming in September
Sunday, 25 July 2027
Sonya's Garden, Alfonso, Cavite
Until the shower
--
days
--
hours
--
minutes
--
seconds
“We have been waiting for you for four years, and we would have waited four more.”
Camille and Job
Save the date
The scan, and the fuss after it
Forty seconds of the last few months. The reaction at the twenty-week scan is worth the whole thing.
The afternoon
A long lunch, essentially
Two games, both short, both optional. Camille is thirty-two weeks along and the whole thing is designed so she can sit down for most of it.
11:00
Guests arrive
Drinks in the herb garden
11:45
Lunch
The long table under the trellis
1:00
Two games
Ten minutes, then we stop
1:30
Cake and the wishes wall
2:30
Opening the gifts
3:30
Coffee, and home before the traffic
Where
Sonya's Garden
Sonya's is down an unpaved lane and the pin drops in the right place, which the road signs do not. Follow the map rather than the signage.
Sonya's Garden, Barangay Buck Estate, Alfonso, Cavite
Getting there
About two hours from Manila on a Sunday morning. Leave by nine.
Parking
On site, but the last stretch is gravel. Low cars, go slowly.
Weather
Open-sided pavilion. It rains in July and the lunch carries on regardless.
What to wear
Buttercream, sage and blush
Garden dressy. Something you can eat a long lunch in, and flat shoes, because the whole venue is grass and gravel.
- Buttercreamf2e3b8
- Sagea8b79a
- Blushe3b7ae
- Creamf6efe1
Heels sink into the lawn. Every year somebody learns this and it may as well not be you.
The useful part
Registry, games and the rest
The registry
Linked in the RSVP confirmation. It is short and it is mostly unglamorous things: bottles, a steriliser, muslin by the dozen. Everything on it is genuinely needed.
If you would rather not
A book with your name written inside it is the other thing on the list. The nursery shelf is empty and Camille would like it filled by people rather than by a shop.
The games
Two, ten minutes, no measuring anybody's bump and no melted chocolate in a nappy. You may sit both out and nobody will mind.
Bringing children
Yes. There is a shaded corner with books and someone watching it, and the lunch has a plain pasta option.
RSVP
Let Camille know
By 11 July. The kitchen at Sonya's sets the table for an exact number, so the count matters more than usual.
Well wishes
A note for Baby Alonzo
Printed and tucked into his baby book rather than read out on the day. Write to him, not to us.
Tita Denise
2 days ago
Your mother once drove four hours to bring me soup when I had dengue. You are going to be raised by someone very good.
Lola Fely
4 days ago
Apo, I have already started your knitted blanket. It is sage, because your mother said no to yellow.
The Ilagan family
1 week ago
We filmed this at the garden the week we booked it. Congratulations, both of you.
Job
1 week ago
To my son: your mother has been talking to you for seven months and you already know her voice. Lucky.
Photographs
The garden album
Everything you take lands here. We will send the full set round afterwards, and again when he arrives.
One more thing
If you cannot make the drive, the wishes wall is the part that matters and it is open from now until he arrives. Camille reads them at about three in the morning, which is when she is awake anyway.