Virtual Year-End Party No More: Modern Filipiniana [2022.12.06]

After two years of going virtual, my company finally held an in-person year-end party this year! The last time we did this was in 2019, read all about that here. This year’s party’s theme is Modern Filipiniana. After looking through the possibilities of what to wear, I decided to recycle the same black infinity gown I used in 2019, bought Filipiniana sleeves and some accessories. The theme of the night for me was black, per usual.

We had to cram our preparation for the festival competition, two weeks before the party. Four teams competed and I volunteered to represent my team. I decided to do that because personally, it would be easier for me to control my own schedule. Our team was assigned to do a performance for Pahiyas Festival. Me and the rest of my team helped with making props assigned to us, which is the carabao head. We dubbed her, Bella Hadid Carabao and she is beautiful! We also assisted in making the costume for the main character. I sewed the skirt and helped with the sleeve of the top. My team helped with the leaf skirt on top of the green skirt.

Two of my teammates, Lovely and Angelie, also assisted during the performance. I am so thankful to my team for all the support before and during the performance. We performed last and I made a mistake in the second set of our group’s dance, but I enjoyed it and had fun! We lost, but I will be thankful for the friendships I formed with the other teams.

April helped us make the leaf skirt a few hours before the party and then helped us get prepared for the party. I’m in awe that she was able to get the fours of us in hair and make-up in 2.5 hours. We thought we were going to be late for the party! We were coming from the office which is like 1 kilometer away from the venue, but I guess everyone was booking at the same time and it was rush hour! Luckily, we were able to flag a cab. That driver was actually really problematic, but we were desperate at that point – we needed to get to the venue before 6pm!

The night was really fun! The highlight will always be dinner and anticipating if you will win something in the raffle or not. Spoiler alert: I didn’t win anything. But April did! At least someone from our team won something! At the end of the night, we took home some leftover dinner and I even ended up taking home the flower centerpiece. LOL!

It was another year-end party to remember and I cannot wait for the next one!