“Lunch is the new 2 a.m.,” declared fashion designer Rajo Laurel last week at Tim Yap’s birthday lunch for 50 of his closest friends at the his hot new club, Valkyrie at The Palace in Uptown BGC.
So if you can’t bear eggs at 1 p.m. on the weekends but have no problem quaffing champagne, then you may be more of a lunch person than brunch. Besides, Yap’s lunch – which had a royal theme – specified a color of the year dress code, which happens to be a deep, dark shade of red called Marsala.
Brunch tends to be effortless and easy; a themed lunch automatically involves more deliberation.
“I did an all-out lunch that day,” said Yap, who does so many things that he defies definition. He’s been called an eventologist, a socialite, a celebrity and a philanthropist; it’s probably accurate to say he is a multidimensional, multiplatform personality with an irresistibly broad appeal. How he managed to limit his most intimate circle to 50 alone is a feat in itself.
Later in the evening – the real 2 a.m., Yap continued to welcome more guests to yet another birthday celebration at Valkyrie, with German DJ sensation Quintino on the decks. The theme remained the same, and all guests were requested to use the hashtag #OnceUponATimYap on all social media postings.
“For a change, we thought, let’s do something different and big,” said Javi Martinez, who was production manager and director for the whole event.
Big is an understatement. Martinez tapped Barbara Pardo and Tess Villareal to do the décor, with the collaboration of Jun Ablaza; Pinky Yee and Terry Paje of Goldilocks for the cake; Miabloomwood did the spectacular flower arrangements, including an oversized crownshaped floral structure. In the biggest surprise of the day, Lea Salonga, in collusion with Martinez, showed up for lunch after telling Tim earlier that she had a previous engagement. She performed a beautiful rendition of “For Good” especially for Yap, who was completely floored. And touched. Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of the event, Martinez recalled that he had “more than 1,000 kg of equipment for staging, 250 crew working nonstop, more than 16 trucks, more than 60 performers, 3 months of preparations, and around 7,000 flowers.
And balloons? What’s a birthday celebration without balloons?
“I have no idea,” he chuckled, “because I was already dead by night time ha ha ha.”