Updates on ROM/Solemnisation Venue, Photographer & Wedding Cupcakes

Been busy again for this past 1 month researching for ROM venues. Finally zn and I decided on this small and cosy restaurant near Hong Lim Park called Shoebox Canteen! I'm so glad the search for the perfect venue is over! I've seen so many restaurant pics and reviews and whatnot till I'm so tired~~~Thanks to CF for her advice to scrape the idea of a chinese style lunch and go for more western style restaurants/cafes. Even though the place doesn't fit into our solemnisation theme - Garden theme, I guess ultimately cost and quality of food are the more important factors that we are considering. We can always try to decorate the place to look like a garden? I've already order paper pom poms in shades of pink and white to decorate the place. 

So why Shoebox Canteen? First, it can cater to our no. of pax requirement of 30 guests and we get the whole place to ourselves. It's newly opened last year and food reviews are good. The chef is able to come up with customised menu to suit our tastes and preferences. And the marketing manager provides good service. We went down for a site visit and we were overall very happy with the place and the menu. And all these are within our budget of S$2k. Moreover, I'm thinking of booking Parkroyal Pickering for a 1N stay on our ROM. And it's like 5mins walk from Shoebox Canteen. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone!

The pics below are taken off their website and we'll post more pics when we visit them during the day. 

Besides my update on the venue, I've also confirmed our ROM photographer with Samuel Ng Photography. He's a freelancer and I like his pictures. He does couple shoot as well and we might be engaging him next year for our Save the Date photoshoot. 

And on top of that, I've been meaning to have a wedding cake after seeing my friend's solemnisation had one too. However, I don't want a conventional 2 tier wedding cake. I happen to come across a wedding cupcake tower with a round cake on the top tier. (See pic below) So these few days I've been searching for freelance bakers who can do this for a good price. Thanks to my photographer Samuel Ng's facebook photos, I came across this freelance cupcake baker called The Cupcake Party. Her cupcakes look very nice and she recently added ombre cakes to her portfolio! 

Those of you who do not know what is an ombre cake, let me explain to you. An ombre cake is a cake with layers of cake in different shades of the same colour. (refer to pic below) Apparently this is the new trend for cakes and I was so inspired after attending Grand Copthorne's wedding show today! (Their wedding show theme is Ombre too in shades of green) 

Anyways, the owner of TCCP, Zyee charges are really reasonable as compared to the more popular bakeries out there which charge a ridiculous fee of $100 just for delivery and setup. So if anyone is interested in cupcakes for any kinds of occasions, you may visit her instagram page for her contacts. http://instagram.com/thecupcakeparty

Pink Ombre Cake

Cupcake Tower with Fondant Cake

Solemnisation Venues on 22122013

Ever since we've decided to have our solemnisation separately this year, I've been busy researching and reading forums, emailing restaurants for ROM lunch packages. My ideas have been changing and changing and till now I can't confirm what I want.
From hotels to Fort Canning/Hort Park function rooms and to chinese and western restaurants, I've thought of so many different ideas. I've cancelled out solemnisation at hotels because they are too expensive and my budget is around $2k for the reception plus photographer. So next then would be function rooms in Hort Park, but the room is more like a meeting room which I find it very plain and so not romantic. I even thought of just ROM at the Registry and go off for a restaurant lunch with family. 

Ultimately, I do wish I can have it at my ideal location and it would have a garden feel. But I don't want an outdoor venue cos it is just not practical in Singapore. I don't wanna be drenching in sweat while saying my vows. So that leaves restaurants as the best choice. But there are so many restaurants around and I was really hoping that I can find one with nice interior garden feel.

So here's a list of the restaurants I was considering:

1) Tung Lok Signatures at The Central Clarke Quay

• Pros - Good food and has a balcony with shelter for a "outdoor" solemnisation
• Cons - Might be too hot as our ROM is at noon time and price of the lunch package is expensive

2) Peony Jade Clarke Quay

• Pros - Good food and solemnisation can be done outdoors by the Singapore River or onstage in their restaurant / Price is cheaper than Tung Lok
• Cons - None so far

3) Shin Yeh at Liang Court (under Tung Lok Group)

• Pros - Serves taiwanese food which has a more unique menu than the above 2 restaurants / Indoor solemnisation has a romantic ambience / Price is cheapest among the 3 chinese restaurants
• Cons - Solemnisation area is facing the entrance and passer bys can peep through

4) Blisshouse Theme Restaurant (at The Central)

• Pros - New restaurant with indoor garden theme and very nice decor for photo taking 
• Cons - Need min 35 pax to waive venue rental charge and this will burst our budget of $2k / Food quality unknown

Before I came to know of Blisshouse, I was more or less leaning towards Peony Jade or Shin Yeh. And then last night I happened to surf a website and saw the pictures of Blisshouse. It is so nice! And it's exactly the kind of garden feel I want! And which is not at the expense of us drenching in sweat! I am still trying to work out the budget and maybe do a one time site visit for all the restaurants since they are all within the same area. 

I'll leave you with some nice pictures of Blisshouse restaurant. :)

Updates (10/6/13): We've went for a site visit to Blisshouse and the venue doesn't look as nice as what the pictures shows. On top of that, we simply don't want to invite the min no. of 35 guests as we wanna keep it cosy and within close family and friends only. Worst of all, the lady we were liaising through email for the site visit did not turn up and couldn't be contacted through her HP. Very bad impression of their service. Like can't be bothered and super unprofessional. Therefore I've went on to search for other venues after that. 

ROM venue

Happy new year and happy chinese new year everyone! It's been a while since my last update. Had been busy with Christmas and my bestie's wedding. We were suppose to go for Orchard Hotel's wedding show last Dec but didn't make it. Anyway, there's more to come in 2013 and we've signed up for a few in Mar.
Hopefully that gives us more ideas and options on where to have our banquet.

We did manage to head down to BOWS 2013 in early Jan and checked out Holiday Inn Orchard's package which is very attractive with free flow wine and beer. Not to mention they also have nice ballrooms. Only concern is the food cos they doesn't seem to have an in house chinese restaurant. I also can't find any solid reviews on their food online. So I guess gotta KIV first. Another venue I'm considering is Peony Jade Clarke Quay which alot of my colleagues raved about how good the food is and how cosy the place is. If I eventually go for restaurant wedding, this would definitely be my top choice.

Anyway, banquets aside..this entry is to talk about the ROM venue which I'm considering now! hah..I dunno how I have the idea but it somehow just came across my mind that I could have my ROM at this place..and where is this place? It's none other than Music Dreamer Cafe (爱琴海民歌餐厅). I've been there a few times to chill and listen to live performances by their singers and I love the place alot. I've just emailed for a quotation on the rental for the cafe and hopefully it will be pretty reasonable. For decor wise, I might get my aunt who is a florist to help me out. I happened to come across the decorations done up for a ROM event back in 2009. It's pretty nice and this gives me a chance to deco the reception table, something I've been brainstorming every now and then. Also, if rates reasonable, I might wanna engage their in house singer to perform. Or I can actually perform a song too! I think this is quite fun. 

Another alternative ROM venue if this option is too expensive will be at the hotel. After attending my fren's solemnization ceremony at the hotel, I don't quite like the setting and venue. Having indoor solemnization is too enclosed and outdoor though nicer might be too hot. MDC is really my ideal ROM venue for now. Keeping my fingers crossed!