Hi Mandy, i feel sorry for u & totally understand the bad experience you have encountered with Violette.I'm also another of her victim, imagine she showed her unprofessionalism & nasty attitude on my wedding,just few hours before my banquet starts. What else can be worse than that??
I had my wedding last month with Amara, indeed the Banquet team has done a good job especially Jeffrey & Allan. Overall my wedding was a success & glad most my guests enjoyed the food and the programmes we've planned. However, nobody knows that just few hours before the banquet starts, i actually cried & was very upset with the wedding team, it was my WEDDING NIGHTMARE.
Ladies, if you are considering to hold your wedding at Amara, PLEASE THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU REGRET! After i've signed with them, then i realised the management is very inflexible. Do note, you've to pay the banquet bill on the wedding night, while most hotel allows you to settle the bill before check-out. Also inflexible on the menu, especially after food tasting, if you require to make changes, mostly cost will be incurred or else the dish will end up looking bad & not presentable on your wedding. Have you ever seen a menu with 2 vegetable dishes & strictly not allowed to change 1 of them to other type of dish, only vege to vege. The wedding favor, invites may not be the same as what they've showed you. I was told that this year there are new & more choices of wedding favor. However upon my selection, OMG the nicer choices are mostly no longer available while the newly added favors are almost CMI. The colour of the invites I wanted are no longer available too. I was having a fairytale, ivory, gold & pink theme. With all the sudden changes 3 months before my wedding, i was left with limited choices & later was told that i can top up additional $$ to have the favor that fits well for my theme. Have you ever heard of couples topping up extra for wedding favor, just because the choices given by hotel are AWEFUL!
Amara wedding team & the coordinators are very unprofessional. The 2 coordinators do things differently, having their own set of rules & almost double standard. Coordinator A will be a NO to everything, she can't make the decision in almost all of the request. While coordinator V can be almost a yes to everything, she is able to accept certain request & give suggestions. But why a same request has a different reply from both coordinators? Why they do not have a set of standards & rules to follow, while some say yes & some say no. Isn't that very unfair to us as customer, or rather it depends on your luck or the mood of the coordinators. I experienced it when i've changed from coordinator A to V, just 3 weeks before my wedding. Many couples are requesting for Coordinator V & while previously i was still trying to be patient & have faith with Coordinator A, until a certain limit that i longer can stand anymore.
Coordinator A did not turn up on my food tasting, i've to call her twice to explain & remind her on my request, also to fix for final appointment. She assured that she will get back with alternatives during our final meet up, which was 3 weeks before my wedding. As we had the 9 course menu, me & family felt its difficult to digest 2 solid vegetables dishes at almost end of the whole course, therefore seeking Afifah's help & advice for other alternatives or request for cheaper meat dish if possible. During the meet up, to my surprise she did not come up with any option. Just a No & next option is to pay extra! I was so furious as it was 3 weeks to my big day & yet she gave us an empty promise. I immediately feedback to his superior & the reply from the wedding team was:" If you go to market..chicken & vegetables, which are more expensive?'' This is the kind of reply the gave to customer! When my menu was already on the higher cost, i was merely asking if i change the vegetable dish with crabmeat to a cripsy chicken or something at lower cost! I was so disappointed with Afifah's & requested Violette to assist me instead. At first she was good, prompt in replies, giving me alternatives on the dishes but if she feels she's right, she will argue back & show no mercy.
On my wedding day, something went wrong. The front desk staff gave my bridal suite by mistake to another couple. The manager upgrade us to the club suite quietly while trying to cover up their mistake. Imagine after my shower, when i need to use the mirror then i discovered there is no dressing table for me to makeup! It was a round long desk, with high arm-chair, small round mirror & dim lamp light. I've called Violette to check, i don't blame her when she has no idea about it. I've given suggestions, trying to accommodate but later felt that things still could not work out. My sister spoke to Violette on the phone, asking her if she can come up to take a look at the room. Her reply was to ask my sister to go down to talk to her & naturally my sister's reply was to insist she should to come up to see the room instead as we are already late, but her reply was saying that my sister was rude on the phone! When she came up, she felt there's nothing wrong with the club suite, and claimed that she know the room very well in a RUDE manner. She don't feel apologetic, did not help to solve my problem at all & showing attitude to a very upset crying bride. Besides the dressing table, there were no wedding display on the bed, only 1 bath tub, and yet she insisted everything are the same as bridal suite or even better?
This issue delayed the time for my singing & march-in rehearsal. The gloomy sad bride has no time to change, wearing pajamas with swollen eyes walking around the hotel & ballroom. While Coordinator V was busying attending to another new couple at a corner. This also resulted me to be late for my makeup, but luckily my makeup artist was fast enough to complete in time. Else i couldn't imagine what could have happened! Through out my wedding, i did not see her helping out nor solving my problems when there are hiccups. What is the point of having coordinator presence at the banquet? She can tell me its not completely her fault but its her attitude that pissed & upset me just hours before my wedding. At least the front desk manager came to apologise twice for his mistake, and we accepted.
Although the management gave us some sort of compensation but that does not mean i will be happy. Wedding is a once in a lifetime event, and because of a small issue, which the coordinator & team did not handle it well & causes the bride to have an unforgettable bad experience during her most special day. Even in my wedding photos i can see that my eyes are swollen & puffy. How are they going to compensate that? I felt so upset when ever i think of this incident & i feel like crying. Even now i'm typing while shedding tears........