hi everyone, so happy to see so many sept 2007 bride! I am a 22 sept 2007 bride. I have booked Yishun Lake Garden Resturant for my AD. Haven book the bridal package yet.
As i was reading through this thread, I saw some of the path i took b4...hahah... i also have been seeing hotel ballrooms, to country club to in the end i choose a resturant.
Would like to share my experience, hope it would helps some of you who are off by the idea of resturant but left with no choice.
Initally i wanted a hotel ballroom because of the grandness... but considering nowaday the ang bao can be quite miserable. Even if u have dinner in a hotel, it would not be surprising to recive a $60 ang bao. Per table cost of a simple hotel can easily cost $600+ (before adding alchol and beer cost). Initally i almost sign up with HIPV because of their attractive rates and free flow beer.
My family side is quite hugh in no, relative alone is abt 30 tables, if i insist on cutting the no, my family might not be happy, and moreover the purpose of having a customary is more for the elderly.
So i give up the idea of HIPV as i might have more than 35 tables which would be so cramp in that ballroom. So we proceed to look for bigger ballroom. I send out numerous email and enquires abt the rates, none of them fall below $700 range. A married fred once advise me that i should set aside 20% of the entire dinner cost in case the ang bao is not enough. So after i work out the sum, per table $700 is really too costly.
My next alternative would be either resturant or country club. of course i choose to look at country club first. So the same process repeat and to my dismay, country is not much cheaper than hotel. if the hotel charge abt $700 per table, country club can cost abt $600 per table and all these is b4 including the alchol and beer charge. And better still ang bao would also suffer for country club.
I look around for resturant as well, although they are much cheaper but most of them do not have hotel stay. My flat is BTO and wont be ready by sept 2007 so tentative we would be staying with parents. I do not want to spend my wedding nite at home!!! so if we choose a resturant we would have to book a hotel room, and that would mean traveling time. its a very tedious job..
My search for resturant is not any easy task. Nicer resturant which meet my budget would not have big area for 35 tables. Bigger venue resturants are not nice enough.
My experience with country club is not good neither. Although they have big ballroom and provide 1 nite stay in the resort but they are not flexible enough. I will be doing my solemisation and customary on the same day. But i want it a separate event. Meaning mid day or evening time for solemsation and dinner is separated. But i realise both hotel and country club will make u pay for that extra slot. I work out my sum, for that few minutes (solemisation), we would need to fork out extra few more k. Standing in the woman point its is a very impt few minutes in her life, but standing from a man point of view, its a waste of money.
In additional to all the above on monentary aspect, the deco is another consideration. Country club and resturant dun use real flowers. We wanted very much the deco to be all real flowers, somehow we feel its really nice to have the real flower.
So in the end, very luckily we came across this resturant inside the orchid country club (venue passable). Although they are not very big, at least they are the same kitchen that supplied the country club ballroom (food passable). Most importantly i feel comfortable and at ease arranging my special day with them. They are very flexible and frank in how much they can do. Of course we as consumer should also understand that we cant possibility ask for hotel standard in a resturant. Most and most importantly, they provide 1 nite stay in the resort!
So sometimes it really take some tough road in the beginning to realise the good ones awaiting for you!
Although my ultimate choice of resturant might not be a great choice to some, at least it meet my 3 main requirements, venue(at least in a country club), food and 1 nite stay. So most importantly is to understand wat you really want and in the path of searching, some compromises have to be done.
Eversince i booked my venue and start telling freds. I heard comments like why you choose a resturant, hotel isnt that expensive wat. U worry too much liao.. wont lose money with hotel one... But i choose to ignore these remarks, because i know in the end, we are the one footing the bill. If i have to set aside 10k for hotel and 5k for resturant. Of course i choose the safer side.
After all it really depends on one piority and wat is most important. No one is wrong in insisting what they want as long as one get the piority right.
