Wedding: Wedding Banquet

I swear (for now) selecting the banquet is the most headache decision but finally we've settled it today.
Well, I guess in the later stage, there will be more headaches to come.

Actually I was thinking of delaying the wedding ceremony.
However, while chatting with sis, I voiced out that we didn’t want to have wedding ceremony and getting the house at the same time.
We will be heavily debt if we do so.
My suggestion is that you can have a time frame of few months to a year – hold your wedding ceremony first then wait for your house to come.
If you are lucky to break-even the banquet cost from the hongbao money, the money can help to cover your house renovation expenses.
If you can’t break-even, at least you have a time frame to save up for it.
I think it quite make sense, don't you think so?
I am the CFO of this marriage, so all the accounting stuffs is managed by me. LOL!

Okay back to topic… so why do I say selecting wedding banquet is the most headache thing for me?
Because there are so many factors that I have to consider - Price, Venue, No. of Tables needed, etc.
We use websites like Singaporebrides and KiasubrideWebsite to narrow down our selections.
As I was busy juggling with school, assignments and work, G was the one who do the email liaising with the coordinators.
I am thankful to have him helping out and most of the time he accommodates with my ideas and opinions and we didn’t have much conflicts.

In the initial stage, I was considering Orchid Country Club (OCC) and Rendezvous Hotel.
OCC was because my dad wants me to choose, but dropped the idea later due to the inconvenience for our guests.
While, Rendezvous hotel was due to the good location and rather good price. However, the dates that we looked into was booked.

At last, we narrowed down to M Hotel and Novotel Hotel and went for hotel inspection respectively last month.

M Hotel
We viewed the Anson Ballroom and Banquet Ballroom and I really like Banquet Room.
Banquet Ballroom is spacious with high ceiling and it can accommodates a minimum of 25 tables.
I don’t like Anson Ballroom because it is low ceiling and it looks cramped.
The layout of the room is in a long rectangular shape.
Banquet Ballroom has a VIP room and bride can do their changing of gown there instead of going up to the bridal room.
As we will be holding our solemnization on that day itself, the downside is that the Banquet Ballroom area doesn’t have a small room to hold solemnization and they will be using part of the reception area to hold it which, I thought that it might be quite rush.
Other than the ballroom, the coordinator who is a lady, was really nice and I felt really comfortable discussing related issues with her.

This is the look of the Banquet Ballroom (Source: Google image)

Novotel Hotel
We viewed the Phoenix Ballroom and Cinnamon Ballroom.
Phoenix Ballroom is the bigger ballroom in Novotel, however minimum number they can hold is 30 tables which we don’t have so many guests.
Hence, we can only look at Cinnamon Ballroom.
The Cinnamon Ballroom is better than the Anson Room as it is more of a squarish layout.
It ceiling is quite low but overall looks okay.
The downside is that, it has a pillar at a part of the room which might block the view of the guests.


This is the look of the Cinnamon Ballroom (Source: Google Image)


The small pillar in the Cinnamon Ballroom (Source: Google Image)

Final Decision
Both prices and perks are almost similar but it was quite difficult to decide which to go ahead.
We did soft booking for the dates we wanted for both of the hotel.
I really wanted M hotel however, the other couples before us decide to book with M Hotel, so we loses our chance.
The coordinator of M hotel did try to convince us to change to an earlier date but our budget will not be enough to cover if we bring forward.
G also does not want a later date.
In the end, we decided to go ahead with Novotel.

All in all, I can say, it is finally beginning...