Choosing a hotel.

Oh god. This is tough.

This is an expensive and impt decision to make.

Top most priority:

Budget

If this helps, i really wanna say, every wedding is special no matter what the budget is. (:

1. Find a hotel that fits your budget. If you don have the means, skip six star hotels.
2. Eliminate those that you cant meet their/your requirements for the number of tables.

Different hotels have different requirement for the number of tables. Do check if you can meet their minimum requirement! Don end up in a situation where you book a hotel which you love and can't meet the minimum number of guests. You will have to pay for the empty tables. That's OUCH.

Ballrooms:

You should only find hotels where you can meet their minimum number of required tables.

Some big/prestigious hotels have a few ballrooms w different minimum number of tables for each ballroom.

Big ballroom usually require a bigger number of tables. And big ballrooms are usually pillar less with a higher ceiling.

On the other hand, smaller ballroom have a lower ceiling/less grand/pillars blocking.


Lunch or dinner?

Lunch:

• Cheaper.
• Some ppl say you have to be prepared to make a loss for lunch. People have a tendency to give less ang bao for lunch too.
• Cannot include ROM video for the march in as the videograhers dont have time to edit. I wanted it to be part of the event. Suppose i didnt get to play the video during the banquet, then it kind of defeat the purpose right. LOL.

Dinner:

• Expensive.
• However, my body cant tahan until a dinner banquet. I will be sleepy and moody at the end of the day cause i need to wake up so early to start the day with gate clash etc.
• While many assured me that i will be high on adrenaline that day, my fears wont come true. Well, i know myself too well.

Against all odds, i decided to go for lunch banquet instead.

I will still have a videographer who will record down the gatecrash and short tea ceremony with my parents. My ROM video shall be kept for my own personal consumption. HAHA.

How many to invite?
Wedding is a happy occasion. I stay firm to my view that wedding is a private and intimate event. Only close friends and relatives should be invited. Why invite ppl who are gg to be emo and moody because they have to give you ang bao?

Keep your guest list small is one of the ways to cut "your loss" too.

Your genuine friends will be happy to share the occasion w you as well.

I told xx to ask his parents to give me the number of tables needed. I come from a small family and I don have a lot of close friends. But we still end up with 28 tables, at least. (I was aiming for 20 tables initially!)

We need a buffer of two or three tables, so that you can include friends you meet along the way etc. So the task was to find hotels that can accommodate 30 tables. (The min could be 20, 22, 25 etc. but should have the option to add more tables if needed.)

Ask yourself what you are looking in the hotel:
I have the following criteria when I shortlist my hotel:

1. Price. (Obviously! Must fit budget) 
2. Pillar less and high ceiling. (This is super impt to me) 
3. Near MRT. 
4. Reasonable and comparable perks. 

After a round of elimination and comparing the perks indicated in their brochure online, xx did a table for us to compare. Rofl. I almost go crazy looking at the pdf files. Really.

 There aren't many hotels that have a high ceiling and meet my budget. Most high ceiling hotels exceeded my budget or i cant meet their requirements for minimum number of tables. In the end, we have 4 hotels in mind.

• Crowne plaza 
• Conrad continental
• Swiss Merchant Court
• Carlton hotel. (They renovated their ballroom And reviews said the ballroom has super hot gg ceiling!)

Wedding date:
I have a specific wedding date in mind.

4 June 2016.

It's our 7th years anniversary. Or it can be 22 October 2016. That's the date xx proposed to me in Japan. However it doesn't fall on a weekend. So I am praying hard that 4 June 2016 is available.

Calculate wedding date?
I didn't go to a master to calculate a auspicious wedding date.

To each and its own, I nv believe in all these.
But I respect XX's family and told them that they can go ahead and take my particulars to count. I will consider that dates given thereafter. Haha.

 They went and told me this after the consultation.

 "The heaven book is not out yet. That being said, Year 2016 is not a good year to get married". 

My house is getting ready and I can't afford to wait for another year. If year 2016 is not a good year to tie the knot, then technically no one will be booking the hotels. Therefore, rates will be cheap! But that didnt happen.

That's it. I am gg to choose 4 June 2016.

Email the hotels to make an appointment:
This is important. All couples will sign their hotel wedding package during roadshows. But on the day itself, you may be pressurised to sign the package as you know you wont get the perks again.

Make sure you love the hotel Give yourself time to consider. View the hotels beforehand. You can sign and pay the deposit on the roadshow itself.

You can tell the coordinator to lock your preferred wedding date. They will reserve the date for you till you sign on the road show.

So I started to email the hotels, hoping that the hotel's ballroom are available in the dates i wanted.

• Conrad continental. 

They took 2 days to reply my email and sent me a vague email. Their requirements and conditions are confusing.

I had to forward the email to my English pro buddy and she commented that it's not clear as well.
In any case, my preferred date is currently locked.

I sent them another email to clarify and they did reply me immediately. After that, I replied and asked for a date to view their ballrooms.

They replied me eventually, after THREE weeks and informed me that the email was sent to the wrong folder.

It sounds like an excuse to me. I didn't reply and rejected the hotel straight. Haha. These email exchanges didn't give me a good impression of Conrad and that's it.

• Swiss merchant court.

I am seriously considering this hotel. The price is good and the perks are UNBEATABLE.

They replied a few days ltr and informed me that their ballroom will undergo renovation from end April 2016 to December 2016. I cant to afford until 2017 as it will clash with my house renovation,

Nonetheless, the thought of a new ballroom sounds really enticing.

Unless I were to do my wedding in April 2016. I thought it was a little rush for me. So I declined the idea.

• Carlton hotel 

I nv email them in the end. I had my NUS chemistry prom night there. To be honest, I am not very impressed w them. This shall be my last option.

• Crowne plaza 

 

This is the hotel I wanted initially. But I eliminated it cause their ballroom is too small. I wanted a long march in, so I can only have a maximum 25 tables. Since I have 28 tables (crowne plaza allows 28 tables, but short march in), So I eliminated this hotel from the start.

At this point of time, we are running out of hotel options so I told xx if he can reduce his number of tables. AND HE DID. Yay.

We have 25 tables now. It's a risk to take. I can't invite more than I wanted to. Hahahahah.

I love the hotel when I attended Valerie's wedding. The ballroom has a high ceiling and offers poolside Solemnization. I dont like my ROM to be held in a room.

On 5 March 2015, I emailed them and their manager, Ms Alina Han replied me ON THE SAME DAY. The happiest news came when i was informed that my desired date is available!

THIS IS IT AND MEANT TO BE.

Fixed a date to view the hotel.
10 April 2015


Very pleased w my hotel inspection. Although truth is I didn't have any other hotel in mind alr. Alina told us the perks and said that we can sign at the road show at the end of the month if we wish.

Yes, i decided on my hotel by just visiting ONE hotel.
LOL.

Love at first sight. I fell in love with it 2 years ago.