Dave Banglos came from humble beginnings in his hometown in Siquijor. As a child, he would always gravitate towards flower arrangements and his hands would work fluidly and expertly for a nine-year-old.
“I was born with this talent. When I was in Grade 4, I loved arranging flowers and placing them on my teacher’s table. I would make our Christmas tree at home using materials that I can find.” Dave recalls.
His resourcefulness knew no bounds. On Christmas, he would look for a jackfruit trunk, wrap it in crepe paper and hang Christmas cards in absence of decorative balls. “We didn’t have much back then. Instead of Christmas ornaments, I would hang my aunt’s Christmas cards as decorations. I would also make homemade Belen for our home.”
Fast forward to high school, Dave would volunteer to make floral arrangements for the Church, especially during fiestas. His passion for designing flowers grew as the years passed by, taking him to different parts of the country and working with different stylists.
Groundbreaking florals
Dave found himself working for Bluewater Resorts in Cebu. He started out as a banquet service waiter before he found his true calling as the resort’s event stylist.
Bluewater discovered his talent when he helped one of the employees arrange flowers to float in one of the resort’s swimming pools. Since then, the company started assigning him to handle decorations, from simple table centerpieces to elaborate floral arrangements for special events. He was sent to different Bluewater properties to personally handle and style their clients’ weddings, and even went as far as Butuan to help design events for Bluewater Resorts’ sister company, Almont.
With over two decades of service, Dave is now a rising stylist and florist in the event industry. He designs special milestones from weddings and birthdays to intimate romantic dinners and corporate events to great acclaim, as evidenced by several of the resort’s online reviews specifically mentioning Dave’s work.
Dave works closely with the Bluewater Banquet Sales Team and when the wedding season starts, you will find his calendar packed with resort events to be styled.
Celebrating milestones
While some stylists prefer full and lush decorations complemented with lights, Dave prefers to keep it simple, elegant, and chic. He makes it a point that his designs and decorations will look good regardless of the lighting situation.
Dave works best when he has creative freedom as he usually improvises at the moment during the hands-on styling. Most of the time, this comes out impressive. “I usually plan out my designs in advance but most of the time I make changes during the actual styling due to some reasons such as space and resources,” he shares.
He has also worked with Manila’s sought-after celebrity event stylist, Gideon Hermosa. His attention to detail earned Bluewater Resorts the Gold Medal of Cebu Goes Culinary 2005 Table Setting and SunStar Cebu’s Best of Cebu 2016 – Best Booth Award.
This article originally appeared in GSpot.ph on June 2021.
