(2010) 2010 Brides

[thommy]

I think as a general rule of thumb, if u are really concerned abt making losses then u ought to look for less pricey/posh venues. Me and wife also put this point into consideration when choosing our venue and we ended up with our hotel which matched the ongoing market rate of APs which most ppl tend to give nowadays. I think it is pretty sad to see a lot of my frens selecting those 5-star hotels just to save 'face' and ended up mired in debts after their wedding. Is it really worth it?

not that we cannot afford it...we just felt that the $$$ lost can be put to better use elsewhere. getting married, everything also needs $$$...and yes, we managed to make a profit after our decision to hold ours at a value-for-money venue

 

[ellentg]

Memorable > the rebate should be credit deduction, not by cheque de.

oh you may wanna check that if you need to sign the whole bill on UOB card in order to get the additional wine? but anyway, 6 bottles of wine is not so expensive also...

 

[thommy]

memorable: think I spoke to u before in other threads..ur nick sounds mighty familiar

I have ard more than 10 bottles of red wine left after my banquet, are u interested?

 

[deborahng]

haha im thinking of not having wine but just champagne throughout.. how many bottles do u think is needed??

 

[memorablechocolate]

Thomas> Ya ur nick look familiar too! Dew Springers? Grand Park City Hall? Haha. anyway i ever been here b4 but somehow get lazy to keep up with this thread, too fast. Regarding the budget, ya i think for my hotel is still w/in reasoable AP range. Seeing so many ppl lost $ which trigger me to get abit worried also. Thats y we didn't plan for HM yet. Will see if it can cover or not first. I'm still thinking how many bottles of wine I need. For normal, is 2 bottles per table enough? or require more? What is the average?

Ellen, Haha. my friend actually got that card too, he told me, he bought a furniture for arnd $3500, jus a few days later, he got the cash rebate already, i think he just nice hit the quarter date ba.

 

[codenn]

Memorable: my hotel oso giving me 1 wine per table, but if not enough then i will get it from the hotel. Cos i have seen many ppl get many 2-3 ctns of wine, then end up bringing home 1 ctn or more.

 

[memorablechocolate]

Coden, I'm thinking of order from hotel too but hotel charging $25/$30 per bottle whereas if buy outside $15 can get.

BTW, must buy back the same wine or can mix?

 

[deborahng]

memorable> can buy outside cos usually cheaper and can buy on consignment. That is whats im gonna go

 

[memorablechocolate]

deb> my friend told me about consignment too. Sound reasonable. Any reasonable vendor to recommend? I know nothing about wine. =/ I think i better ask my hotel manager on what kind of wine r they supplying. So can alteast get the same one if it taste not bad.

 

[thommy]

deb: depends on how many drinkers u have as guests haha

mine was quite surprising, had quite a lot of red wine left. Beer I heard also not many ppl asked for. Prob my guests all very well-behaved hahahha...

memorable: shall call u MC in short ok? too long to type lol. I also planned for my HM after we settled all our bills. Actually if u have a table full of wine drinkers, 2 bottles def ain't enuff. likewise if no drinkers 1 bottle also too many LOL. For my friend, he can down 3 bottles at one go so really diff to gauge like that haha.

 

[bluerosie]

darrel: how come 20k? 9 tables chalk up to 10k then the rest? Ur angbaos was not given average 100/pax? Mine was 60% 80/pax then a few lower than that n all relatives give few hundreds..thats why my side lose abit...
thomas: ur wife fall sick coz not used to the weather? haahah I fast hand fast click ur photos n peek..

memorable: oh grand park..is around that price..for wine, u see whether ur guests are wine drinkers anot..moreover is Sunday and many wun drink more than 2 glasses max...for me, I used up 42 red wines and 2 white..including 12 from our own, we left 1 carton back home lol

deb: I think champagne not many will drink leh..smore champagne is drink in small qty unless hotel got enuff glassess but if really want, maybe 15-18 btls for 30 tables?

 

[codenn]

memorable: unless u can cfm that ur guests are all good drinker and will finish more then 30btls of wine. then u get xtras.. if not no point.. plus not all will drink wine, some will take tea, some will take soft drinks, some will take beer.. so if vendors are able to consign all the wine that u are getting then it will be good.

for me i will rather to get the same wine then mix.

 

[thommy]

jaq: ya not used to the weather...too cold and dry le.

 

[darrelandgeri]

jaq > cos my table seat 12 pax... give 9 tables around 14K liao. but overall, it was within what we budgeted for and we set the money aside long before the wedding... thats why no debt. The one that overrun the budget was the reno+hidden costs.


my wines, i took consignment too. my vendor was minimum 20 bottles consume, but can consign 50%. We took 50 bottles, and consumed 19. returned 25 bottles. the remainder we have to keep. This is on top of the 1 bottle/table that the hotel give. We used a different wine (from the hotel) but the hotel will serve out their own wine first.

Also, my beer consumption was 2 barrels.

 

[deborahng]

thomas> i got about 20 tables. so advisable to have champagne in place of wine??

 

[bluerosie]

thomas: never bring heat pad and moisturiser?

Looks like is a rainy thursday today...

for those looking for wine..I do recommend this 1 from toh guan road, alot of couples get from them including me,and they can recommend u cheap n good wine..even taste it also..
www.onestopliquor.com - golden hung hoe

 

[memorablechocolate]

Thanks all for your advice, I think for me, only afew drink wine. So i guess 2 bottles per table is just nice. Beer/tea/soft drink is by hotel free flow. If i really run out of wine, the hotel can always tell the guest. I ever get that when i attend my friend's wedding. The waitress told me "no more wine", 20min before the wedding last dish.

 

[memorablechocolate]

deb> i like the idea of serving Champagne instead of wine, something new.

Does anyone buy from Carrefour? Sometime i see their wine, so cheap wor...

 

[bluerosie]

memorablen average 1 bottle of 750ml wine can serve up to 8 glasses...so is almost 1 table of 10s..
I bought a dozen from carrefour, kangaroo ridge merlot, that time got offer $15.90 per bottle..I think they allow you to return the wine if any unused also..

 

[bluerosie]

darrel: then ok la..conrad is not cheap also..

 

[bluerosie]

thomas: urs lunch mahz of coz alcohol consumption nt that high..I'm surprised our guests drink up 44 bottles of wine lor coz ours is only 1.5hrs dinner kind of banquet..

 

[memorablechocolate]

I have decided to apply for StandChart Manhattan C.C. for the $300 rebate, will ask my brothers to do so too. Keke. Will apply on the date that is just nice so the next month will end the first quarter, in order to get that rebate sooner. Keke. November wedding, apply on Sep, so first quarter end on Nov. Dec come bill and pay then Jan will have the rebate n can spend. Keke. So don’t hv to wait so long.

Ya all, can call me MC in short, easier for all too.

 

[thommy]

jaq: got bring...but still dry lol.

haha maybe I made the right choice haha

deb: I think there are more wine drinkers than champagne nowadays...

 

[ellentg]

memorable > but MC sounds like fall sick then take MC le.... hahahaha

btw do put in a buffer of ~2 weeks for the processing of application. their standard is 14 working days as stated on website. i got it slightly after 2 weeks. my HTB forgot to submit his latest payslip, so waited 3 weeks liao and still waiting...

deb > you have expensive taste... champagne is quite a bit more expensive than wine rite?

 

[thommy]

ellen: there are cheap champagne ard too...not sure how their taste will be like as compared to the exp ones though.

 

[memorablechocolate]

Ellen> Haha i was thinking of Emcee instead. Lolx. Is ok lar. Jus a nick. Ok will note on the buffer period. Thanks

 

[happy106]

Memorable> I prefer to call you Mem. My post comes a bit late, too many meetings in office nowadays.

Mine is SCB's Manhatten, 5%. For each quarter, only max $300 rebate. So I only get $600 (1 card each by hubby and me). SCB has a higher credit limit, so I didn't up my limit at all.

Then remaining, I pay by SCB extra saver (debit card) which is 2%.

Good choice to pay by Manhatten.

An avg guage is 1.5 bottles per table. I also have 12 bottles of red wine left, selling at $15 each.

Thomas> So fast back from HM. Must be so nice to see the sakura blooming.

 

[bluerosie]

Ya champagne got cheap one too, I tried 1 $16 kind before, not bad, fruity and sweet, so doesn't go well with banquet food.

 

[memorablechocolate]

Booy> I don't understand abt the SCB extra saver (debit card) 2% thingy.

1.5 bottles per table. Actually i can don't buy wine at all. I got 1 bottle wine per table by hotel. Then additional 6 bottles from using UOB (jus for deposit) n 10 bottles from changing a $250 F&B voucher to wine.... I'm looking at 28 tables. So i will get 28+6+10= 44 bottles for 28 tables. Is roughly 1.5 bottle average too.

I think i may not even need to buy wine. Unless some friends went crazy who wana drunk my hubby. Which is unlikely, i ask my hubby to try to "siam" all the drinking session by saying "ok i will come back later, need to take pic" den nv go back, after pic taking will go out n say bye bye to guests liao. haha.

 

[bluerosie]

memorable: like that don't buy lor, else got leftover difficult to sell also..
hahaah I also do that, coz ours 5 course nia.so chopchop each table take photos liao, my side almost all my frens tables' got stuck abit, ask me to drink n got some funny funny 'invention' ask me to gulp..but told them time running out, by then take photos for all tables liao then come back..end up I need to rush out to shake hands liaoz..so only 1 hardcore table bring the wine out to the recep area n ask us to bottoms up LOL..heng ah...if chinese course confirm gone...

 

[darrelandgeri]

*phew* ... out from meeting. my brain is overloaded with tons of things i need to run :S

finance minister has approved camera spending. later go and buy camera loh .... yaaaaaayy..

I looked at carrefour wines before. they only accept 25% returns, and most of the lower priced wines are quite light. If you have friends who are wine drinkers, then those will never make the cut.
I got mine from "the wine mansion" at eu tong sen street. $18 a bottle. Its actually a dessert wine, so quite a lot of people liked it. (incl my grandpa-in-law)

 

[happy106]

Mem> For retail, SCB Extrasaver also cashback 2% and cap at $300.

http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/cb/deposit/xtrasaver_calc/dep_xtrasaver_rates.html

I paid $12,000 using SCB Manhatten (rebate $600), remaining by SCB Extrasaver (rebate $300). For some reason which I dunno what is it, SCB gave me another rebate of about $50 - $100.

Since you have a lot of wine, prob dun need to buy more.

Darrel> I hate meetings, only gave me more problems and more issues. With my number of tasks on hand, I need to have at least I, me and myself to cope. haiz.

 

[bluerosie]

darrel: buying which dslr? D700?D3S?

 

[darrelandgeri]

booy > today's one was a major disaster. i'm getting my team size reduced cos of manpower re-allocation. from 7 to 3 :S

jaq > buying a olympus E-PL1 for my wife to use

 

[memorablechocolate]

Derrel> I'm using Canon 1000D, the most elementary one. Bought it for my hubby to learn as he show slight interest... but up till now, I'm using it more but we two haven’t really pick up the skill yet. Haha. Too busy and too many other hobbies liao. Haha. We picking up roller blade recently, still learning. The 3 mintues heat!

 

[bluerosie]

darrel: wah cfm? hehe ok...have fun manz~~
me tot of going helix bridge maybe on sun to take some photos..

 

[thommy]

booy: haha yup, it was splendid to see the sakuras up front and personal. I even got to hold the buds before they bloomed!

me looking at buying a DSLR also for my next trip with wifey...any recommendations for an entry level one? no need to be super high end models cos I dun intend to dig deep into this hobby haha.

 

[darrelandgeri]

thomas > when I was there 2 years ago, the really inspiring moment was when the wind blew, and all the sakura petals started falling to the ground... too bad i was standing that admiring the scene, forget to lift up my camera :S

you wanna check out the one i'm getting ? its going for around $900.

 

[darrelandgeri]

the reason why i'm getting a E-PL1 is
1) got flash
2) its small and light. My wife can use it
3) not too expensive.

Of course, this is as opposed to the gear i use for shooting weddings larr.

Maybe i buy liao, sat go science center take photos, you can judge for yourself.

here's the link...
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/olympusepl1/

 

[codenn]

wow... E-PL 1 nice...

 

[bluerosie]

thomas: pengz..y u never get at japan! It's cheap there lol...

think my dslr obsolete liaoz..2yrs already...but still in v gd working condition..hahaha

 

[codenn]

Thomas: if u dun intend to go in further to photography, u may like to check out on Canon G11, its similar to DSLR but a smaller version. i m presently using G10 and i m loving it..

http://www.canon.com.sg/p/EN/322-Digital-Compact-Cameras/824-PowerShot/1201-PowerShot-G11/

 

[thommy]

darrel: hahaha...ur model is DSLR? is it easy to use?

jaq: u want my wife to nag at me ah? I oredi got 2 black labels there leh whahahahaha...

 

[bluerosie]

thomas: pengz..u black then she blue la...aiyo...
if u wan entry DSLR..read about the reviews in dpreview.com bah..then decide which brands to go..n ur budget..canon n nikon most popular followed by sony nowadays

 

[darrelandgeri]

jaq > 2 yrs ok marr ... i think my 5D is around 3 years+ and i still got a 10D (now 50D liao = 5 generations later) sitting in my dry cabinet

a G11 is not too bad too. or a LX3.

mine... its not exactly a DSLR. You can change the lenses, and the sensor is bigger than the regular P&S cameras (profession think : bigger sensor = better. Normal user think: more megapixel = better). but its quite close. features+functions, won't lose out.

 

[happy106]

Talking abt cameras, I always wanted to pick up some basic knowledge.. hmmm.. Have a canon DSLR now, but so many functions that I dunno how to use..hee..

Darrel> That's a drastic reduction. I have no reduction in manpower, but increase in manpower by 1. However, my workload still increases tremendously with the amt of projects on hand.. haiz..

Thomas> You make me sooo gian to go Hokkaido again.. Quick quick post photos.. hee..

 

[ds_gerl]

thomas> i wan to see ur HM photos!!!

booy> did u juz apply for the manhatten card? cos nw if u apply, they will auto credit $50 after ur 1st use of the card... maybe that's y u hv the additional $50-$100 rebate...

darrel> i'm also thinking of getting a DSLR camera... any gd recommendations for a beginner?

i heard that the panasonic lumix DMC-GF1 is very gd... is that so?

 

[deborahng]

ellen> lol not that I got ex taste but tried the champagne at my friend's wedding and it was really good. So toying with the idea

but need to find out the cost per bottle first

 

[ellentg]

deb > hahaha...

i think gals will like champagne cos it's sweeter... but guys probably will prefer wine or beer~

 

[darrelandgeri]

moooooooooorning ! ... 1st to report in. =)