Initially we were thinking of doing our solemnisation on the actual day. However, David advised us that overall 2014 (Horse Year) is not good for my zodiac as both clash with one another. Hence, it will be good if we can separate our ROM and do it right by having it this year. After considering all the costs and stuffs, and due to my insecurity and "bantang" ness, we decided to ROM end of this year! This means I got more things to plan and lesser time to slim down!
Before I go on to talk about the solemnisation plans, I will blog about our AD banquet venue hunt first. Mar/Apr was the period for attending wedding shows. 1st hotel for the year is Pan Pacific Orchard. It's pretty ulu and about 10mins walk from Orchard MRT. Not to mentioned there are alot of foreign workers there at the shopping centres. They only have 1 ballroom which can cater to just 12 tables. The ballroom is newly renovated but there's a weird smell that smells like the carpet has been there forever. Food wise we're not able to comment bcos we didn't manage to taste anything. Saw many couples signed and I was once again tempted. Haha I'm fickle minded! Thanks to the stern zhai nan, he manage to talk his way through to me and I decided to KIV first.
And in April. we went to Mandarin Orchard just to see see look look. The Imperial Ballroom which look like a theatre took my breath away! It's so unique and suddenly I feel like I really wanna have my wedding here! But of course, to be realistic, the price for having a banquet there is way out of our budget. However, during the show they did throw in discounts per table and free flow wine perks. After all the discounts, it's still $1.4k per table and we decided that despite the beautiful ballroom and nice food. Here's a few pictures for your reference. Didn't manage to take the imperial ballroom though.
So after more research and budgeting, we shortlisted 3 hotels and decide to go down to check them out before deciding. They are: 1) Grand Copthorne Waterfront (GCW 2) Novotel Clarke Quay (NCQ) 3) Holiday Inn Orchard City Centre (HIOCC).
We had already signed up for NCQ & HIOCC wedding show so I just have to email GCW to arrange for a site visit. Turns out that even though we missed their Mar wedding show, they have a June show coming up which we'll able to enjoy perks offered even if we sign and confirm now. To me that is really great flexibility as it gives us more time to compare and deicde. So anyways, we went down to GCW and were looking at the Riverfront Ballroom which can cater to a min of 17 tables and max of 20 tables. The events manager is very friendly and is very generous with our requests for additional perks. We manage to negotiate for a package that can match that of NCQ and HIOCC. I was very keen on confirming GCW cos the food is confirm good and ballroom is pillarless with Singapore river view. When we first came for their wedding show last Oct, we already think this is our No. 1 choice. Only concern then was the price per table for a weekend dinner banquet. We also manage to tour all the function rooms and venues for solemnisation if we are keen to have it in the hotel. However, the cost is out of our budget as the package is $2088++ which includes buffet lunch & free day use room.
Anyway, we didn't wanna make a rash decision so we told the events manager that we will confirm with him again. He gave us a 2 weeks time frame which is great as we were going for NCQ and HIOCC's wedding show that particular weekend. We did go for NCQ's wedding show and the cinnamon ballroom w hich can cater to 16-22 tables is very grand and nice. I got tempted again!! haha..but after considering everything else including the hefty deposit sum of $5k to be made that day..We decided our AD venue shall be Grand Copthorne Waterfront! And here's a picture of the chosen ballroom! More pictures will be taken at the June's wedding show~
Riverfront Ballroom
