i just rom-ed on the 5th may 2006 fr 2.30 - 6pm at the wine company@ evans rd. it was a buffet tea reception with free flow of bottled beers and 13 bottles of wine for 65pax. all the guests enjoyed themselves except the bride and groom coz there were alot of problems caused by the restaurant. this is my advice to all of u out there who are looking for venue or in the midst of negotiating.
whichever restaurant or place u choose, pls pls pls, have everything written in black n white, even down to the small details like napkins and tablecloths. trust me, u will not regret this at the end of the day. this was wat happened to us 1 week before and on our very special day. bear wth me coz of the long write-up.
we booked the wine company @ evans 2 months before our rom. we discussed on the seating arrangements, PA system (which we have to source and pay on our own), and decoration (our own source and paid by us) and other small details. i noticed that the restaurant doensn't have cloth napkins and table cloth. so i requested for them and was told not to worry about it, they will 'settle' it for us. 2 weeks before the big day, we met up with the asst event exe to finalise everything and she showed us the sample for tablecloth and napkins. everything was okay-ed. 1 week later, i was told by the restaurant they have to charge us $200 for the laundry of the tablecloth and napkins! i was told that i should be thankful coz they are not charging me for the tablecloth. according to them they purposely bought them for us coz i requested for it, n they are expensive. this extra $200 came as a shocked to us coz they didn't even bring this up when we met up the week before. after toking to them, we found out they miscalculated the quote given to us and decided to cover their own mistake by incurring this $200 to us. the reason given by the boss that our function was sooooo cheap (that's what she thinks) coz she thought it was a corporate function, instead of rom. so we asked her the difference between a corp function and rom, it will be the same food and drinks. we asked her, "does that mean that if you know it's going to be a rom, u can charge us more and cut-throat us?" she wasn't able to answer us on this. in the end, we decided not to take the fantastic tablecloth offer and napkin. out of their goodwill, they threw in ikea napkins for us. 2 days before our rom, the new event exec called and informed me i can't decorate the place the night before (which we oredi discussed with the boss that we can). naturally i was upset coz everything was oredi planned. reason being she has 25 guests coming in on that day for regular lunch and i was assured their lunch time was fr 12.30 till 1.30pm. wat if they decided to stay and chit chat? wat can she do? ask them to leave? she told me they are her regular customers and shes very very sure they will leave by 1.30pm (it was her 1st day and she told me she knows them VERY well)? eh? i was confused. but anyway, she said i can only start decorating fr 1.30 onwards and my guests started coming in at 2.30. i was given 1hr to decorate the inside of the restaurant (outside was done up by our appointed florist). i was told we should be glad that they are not charging us for the usage of the venue (like hall renting) coz they still have to serve walk in customers. can anyone pls tell me, 65pax is not enuf to fill up the restaurant? that was our important day and she didnt allow us to pretty up the place. we were very firmed with her and told her we will do according to wat was planned and discussed. if she wanna serve walk-ins, we will allow her to do so at the outside.
on the day, only 50+ guests turned up. there wasnt sufficient supply of food (eventhough we paid for 65pax) and they didnt replenish coz they said they prepared for 65pax and the food SHOULD be enuf. pls remember, we paid for a buffet tea reception. instead of bottled beer, they pour into smaller glasses and served my guests so tat they can save more due to their own miscalculation. can u imagine our embarrasment when the guests asked us whether it was a buffet or wat. in the end, there wasnt enuf food, they kept serving wine instead of beers (coz beer was freeflow and wine wasnt, and they want us to purchase more wine). when my guests asked for beers 5min before the cut-off time for the freeflow, he was told he cant have it. y? coz the profit they earned wasnt as much as it should be. the whole time, they tried to pull one stunt after another and both of us had to negotiate infront of family and guests. by 5+pm, they started clearing the tables (i booked till 6pm) and throwing everything on the table away, including all my handmade wedding favours and deco. it was all my hardwork, within minutes, all ended up in the rubbish bin. they didnt even ask me whether we still want the stuffs or not.
but anyways, everythng is over now, i just want all of u out there to be smarter in dealing with cunning ppl like them. we posed a happy front for all our guests to see on that day, but in the backroom, so many things went wrong. my hubby was very very upset coz he dealt with them the most and he didnt want to upset me coz he knows it was a very important day for us. most important, whatever u discuss, put it in blk n white.