Santacruzan sa Office

And here we go again, another theme day sa office.

Bakit may “Theme day”? This is sort of a stress reliever for the employees. Minsan compulsory, minsan it’s up to you if you wanted to join. There’s the wear anything red, minsan shorts day (pero iyong decent shorts ha, hindi super short shorts), flip flops day, at marami pang iba (kung ano maisip ng mga bossing).

And since May is the fiesta month, a competition in regards to the Santacruzan theme was announced across all accounts being handled by our Senior Operations Manager.

A little trivia:

The Santacruzan or Flores de Mayo (Spanish for Flowers of May) is a month long celebration of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This was held in honour of Helena of Constantinople (known as Reyna Elena) and Constantine on the Great finding of the True Cross in Jerusalem.

And of course the winning team will get a free a free lunch as their prize. And the prize is…. Shakey’s Monster Meal!

But it’s not all about the prize (well, partially), its more on the prestige. It’s more on how ECare team (our team) and our effort would be recognized. Sa madaling salita, we are after the popularity! Hahaha!

Our team already won two theme days, the Pyjama Theme Day, where I won a gift certificate from Starbucks and shared it to the rest of the team (kung saan nag share ng additional 500php ang aming ever supportive Coach Vince. Actually, plano kong solohin yung GC kaso nahiya na ako kasi nga nagshare na si coach. Hahaha! Selfishness!). The other one was the Mother’s Day Event, just submit a mom and daughter/son pic with a heartwarming quote, our teammate April won this one (GC din ata ng Starbucks prize niya).

So, if we get to win this Santacruzan Theme, it’s the third straight win!

And now the exciting part (exciting nga ba? parang mas nastress ata kami, hahaha!)… we need to decorate our bays (or stations), and make a floral arc. So, we need flowers to set things up. No, we are not going to purchase any flowers from the famous Dangwa market in Manila. Instead, it is all going to be DIY (do-it-yourself) paper flowers. Thanks to Google and YouTube I was able to search for some easy patterns.

One of our teammate, Jecille, did a little research on the characters of the sagala. After selecting our characters, our next problem… the gowns.

Oh, yes! It’s not that easy looking for one. Our first option, manghiram sa mga friends or family ng gown. Unfortunately, none would fit to some or talagang walang maipahiram.  I decided to rent for my gown. A red and black combination with 3 black roses as a highlight along the waist line and a spiral glitter design along the black tool fabric of the gown’s skirt. How much did the rent cost, 1,400.00php with the 700.00php will serve as deposit and will be returned to you once you return the gown. Not to mention the dry cleaning cost of 350.00php, and you would get the gown after two days (it will double the price if you would like to have it rush). It’s really quite expensive, but I’d rather rent than buy one. Besides, its only for a one day (or should I say night) event, so renting, if you were unable to borrow one would be preferred. I would not be wearing the gown everyday anyway.

And of course hindi pwedeng mawala ang props! (Effort kung effort! Career mode ang peg! Hahaha)

May floral headdress, keys made of illustration board, flower bouquet, pati wooden sword!

My headdress

Rau's Headdress

Actually, suggestion ng kateammate naming si Rau ay gumamit na lang kami ng broccoli for the bouquet, tapos lutuin na lang daw niya after the event. Kaloka di ba? Hahaha!

Up to the day before the event gumagawa pa rin ako ng decors, wala na akong plans gumawa ng arko, kaso gumawa iyong ibang team kaya gumawa na rin ako. Hindi puwedeng wala kami!

At eto na, May 28, ang araw (or gabi) ng theme day. Bihis ng gown (pero mga naka-chucks. Hehehe!), ayos ng buhok, lagay ng simpleng make-up and after a few hours, pumarada na ang mga sagala. Not once, but twice for the judges to decide kung sino ang dapat maging winner.

gowns and chucks

After a few hours they have announced the winning team. And yes, we made it! The ECare Team wins! We got our Monster Meal (though the next day na namin nakain dahil may free food din ng mga panahong iyon. Sayang tuloy ang mga pasta, napanis lang.) and a treat from our Coach Vince days after the event (promise niya iyon, manalo, matalo treat niya kami).

It was fun, lumalabas ang pagka-creative naming lahat. Another theme day is coming up and we are looking forward for it!

photo credit to my teammate Rau.  :)