Site Visits, Food Tasting, Open House & ...

For those of you who have been ardent followers of my blog (all 2 posts of it thus far, haha), you'd know that I wrapped up my last post with a list of potential venues for me to consider for my sanding reception. I actually have a half-crafted draft that was meant to be the elaboration to my venue search, but because so much more has happened while I was progressing at 1 word/day, I figured what the hey, let's just include everything in one big update instead. Of course before I go on…in true responsible BTB fashion, it is time for me to unveil my first ever *cue drumroll*…

DISCLAIMER:

All information on venues below are true to the best of my knowledge and have been obtained through legal and reliable means (asking sales and events teams of the venues/vendors directly). However, please note that price points, packages and terms and conditions may differ because of the date of the event, number of pax, type of reception, time of booking etc. Even if it is exactly the same as mine, it may change at the sole discretion of the venue management itself. Thus, if you are planning a wedding and are looking at these venues/vendors, I urge you to contact them directly for the most accurate quotation and proposal from them. Also, the information provided below is based on what I find important (duh, my wedding what), so it may not include all the details that you are looking for. Don't worry, yo grrl gotcha back ~ all links to venue websites will be included in this post and under the Get Connected tab.

Venue Search (Bride's Sanding Reception)

Since the last update, I went ahead to email the venues that I had listed, requesting for their existing wedding packages or venue hire quotations. Because I did not have a vision set in stone for where I want my reception to be, I went in with quite an open mind to see what my shortlisted venues had to offer. 

I emailed them with my dates, expected number of pax and specified that I require halal food as it is a muslim wedding. I then requested for them to advise me on existing wedding packages that may be suitable for me and for the venue hire rates. Wedding packages usually come with a lot of things included (decorations, door gifts, food, invitation cards etc.) BUT it is usually limited in terms of choice and options. So, if you are a fussy BTB like yours truly, it may be wise that you check venue hire rates as well (this would include really just the hall/room and basic furniture and tech if any at all).

The 3 hotels that I contacted are Furama Riverfront, Fairmont and Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy. They all got back to me super promptly with their malay wedding package options - most of which did include decorations, invitation cards, door gifts, catering and even accommodation in their hotel for the bride & groom! Sounds like a good deal right?! After bersanding can catch pseudo staycay vibes with your spouse hehehe. But…like my mum always says "Good things are not cheap and cheap things are not good." For both Furama Riverfront and Fairmont, you are looking at a price point of between $90-100 per pax. Since my dad is looking at a guest list of about 1800-2000, taking up the packages at these 2 hotels was almost a definite no. I mean, hello?! 200k is the worth of 2/3 of my future home! As for Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy, I must say, their package is much more affordable in comparison ($40-60 per pax). This is pretty reasonable if you consider that it is a hotel setting and their package includes many things like floral arrangements, decorations, 8 course buffet, faux wedding cake, accommodation and even a freaking smoke machine?! But I had to say no to this option too, because sadly their maximum number of pax is 1000 only. Sobz. Oh yes, in case you were wondering about Fort Canning (which I mentioned last time), we decided not to even bother asking because we felt that it was not accessible enough anyway.

I then moved on to function halls - The Joyden Hall and The Star Gallery. The good great best thing about function halls are that they are versatile. Both Joyden Hall and The Star Gallery did not offer me a wedding package because I don't think their venues are typically much for malay weddings. Instead they quoted me a venue hire rate for my date which comes with some extra room(s) for getting ready and some extra outdoor spaces.

The Joyden Hall is located on Level 7 of Bugis+, and has been used as a venue for quite a few malay weddings before in recent years. Plus point is that its definitely located quite centrally and it is easily accessible by public transport. The maximum seating capacity is 380pax (38 x 10) and one of its major selling points is that it used to be a theatre! Read: high ceilings, huge stage, state of the art screen & sound system ~

Those are some visuals of the hall and some weddings which have been done there before. Pretty right?! The venue hire comes with not only the hall, but also a bridal changing room and a small prayer room and a backstage area. Another huuuuuge plus, is that they allow you to bring in your own caterer and decoration vendors - no levy, no questions asked. That is a rare thing for such venues because they usually have partnerships with certain catering and deco companies that they have to honour. Do note however that they do not have a kitchen, so only food warming can be done and the washing area can be used at an extra charge. That did not bother me much though because it is quite expected in these kinda venues. The only thing that I felt fell short a little was the hall size. My dad was looking for something a little more spacious (450-500pax max seating capacity). In fact, when I left my site visit there I was 75% sold on the venue!

After convincing myself and my parents that maybe we do not need so many tables since it will be in-out style we felt quite alright with what The Joyden Hall had to offer. Through my research I know that The Star Gallery is considerably larger and it is also accessible by public transport (Buona Vista MRT), so I had the mentality of "Okay lah, just go and see for what its worth and just get it out of my system to confirm plus chop that Joyden Hall is the right choice." And boy oh boy was I dead wrong!

I mean just look at that studio room for me and future hubs to get ready!!! Bigger than my future plz. High chance we'll end up trying to spend as much time as we can there away from the crazy crowd haha. Though this does not come with a prayer room, we have the option of renting an additional smaller studio room for that purpose at an hourly rate. And they more than make up for it with the generous terrace space adjacent to the hall. I also love that they have a ceiling grid and the twinkle-twinkle starry lights in the hall. What was not so great is that I am limited to their list of approved caterers (meja buzzkill) which are honestly speaking quite upmarket. Of course $22++ per pax may seem reasonable when you say it like that but add that magic multiplication sign….sell my kidney also cannot make it.

After falling so hard in love with The Star Gallery, and having my spare tyre The Joyden Hall, I didn't really bother checking out country club ballrooms. They are usually less accessible anyway. So which did I choose? Neither, yet. Right now I am waiting to hear back form some of the approved caterers for The Star Gallery to get a more comprehensive idea of the cost when compared to market rate of other malay wedding caterers out there. According to our timeline, our target to secure venue is by Jan 2016, so I am still keeping time pretty well and I don't want to rush my decision when I am not 100% sold yet.

Food Tasting with Marvelicious by MLC

This particular escapade was not something that I had initiated or even planned to go for. After all, caterers are usually engaged on the year of the wedding itself so I was not really in a rush to check out caterers just yet. But as I was sharing my experience at the site visits with my mum and lamenting to her about the limitations in catering options, she said she coincidentally had an invite form one of her friends to come for a food tasting at Gardens By The Bay last saturday and thought it would be good if we go and check it out anyway. 

I swear, on that day, I had zero mood to be in heels with make up, walking through gardens by the bay with 7 billion other people. I was so close to just telling my mum that we can skip it. But she had already informed her friend that we would be coming…so for courtesy's sake, we carried on. After dragging our butts through public transport to get there, we finally reached the hall and looked for Kak Su (mum's friend) who is the owner of Marvelicious by MLC. After some over-enthusiastic hugs and giggles Kak Su introduced us to her husband Anthony and got us a drink. By this time, my interest level was sinking faster than the titanic because of the number of people there, and I was hot and tired from walking all the way in my heels. All my effort was going into trying to look pleasant cause, if I have a bitch face when its resting what more when I am actually uncomfortable and tired right? Hahaha.

Then suddenly Kak Su came up to me and ask if I have booked my deco vendor yet. Of course the answer was no. Then…she said "Have you heard of Jentayu before? Let me introduce you to Abang Joji who is the boss and he is here today." And Jentayu Gallery has been one of the deco vendors that I have in mind so…

It was great talking to Abang Joji who just briefly shared with me what he did for the event that day and asked me about what are some of the venues I have been looking at and for my dates. He explained honestly that wedding vendors are pretty much swamped in December as it is peak wedding season. Long story short, we set up a date in January to meet up where he can explain to me what Jentayu has to offer. Hehe and I am just as excited about that post as you are!

So finally mum and I decided to eat and taste the food. The spread there was really extensive - 2 types of rice, beef, chicken, prawns, dalcha, noodle soup, congee, a few different salads, about 6 small desserts, cakes, hot and cold desserts and a choice between iced water, punch, coffee or tea. Honestly I was pretty impressed because the cost per pax mentioned by Kak Su was really reasonable for the amount and variety that was there. The quality of the food was also pretty good! I would say the dishes that stood out to me were the black pepper beef because it was really sizeable thick succulent cuts of meat and not those pathetic slithers of cardboard that is too spicy to even swallow, as well as their sambal goreng pengantin. Kak Su told us that for dishes involving coconut, she always cuts down the amount so that the shelf life is longer for guests who pack some food home.

Overall the experience was pretty new to me, and despite starting it off feeling very grumpy, things turned out okay and I am really glad that I went. I didn't take pictures because I felt like it was a bit rude to do so at someone else's majlis? The above images are just from a simple google search of their past works. It was great to be able to meet Abang Joji and Kak Su who were very helpful in giving me tips on how to select catering vendors and what to look out for in a venue to make sure logistics run smoothly. Those of you who are planning for a wedding next year and are still looking out for a caterer, please check Marvelicious by MLC out!

ISHQ by Nora Zee's Open House

First and foremost, if you are reading this sentence, I have to congratulate you on making it this far! Hahaha, I really did not intend for this post to run on for so long. But oh well, I did say it was one big update. Don't worry, your efforts are not for naught, because this is the highlight of the entire post!

Those of you who follow ISHQ on their instagram or Facebook accounts would know that they just held their open house for 2017 BTBs last Sunday at their office in Oxley Bizhub. I have been eyeing, targeting, stalking ISHQ for yeeeaaaaarssss thanks to this super compelling post by Farhana of KahwinKhronicles. And really they are my number 1 choice for bridal & andaman. 

I mean, really, how can they not be?!

So the moment they announced the open house, of course I told my man and we decided we'll definitely go and check it out. Now, if you are a noob like me, you would think that open house means, like hari raya lah - come anytime, makan, look around, ask dumb questions and go. Let me tell you now, that is NOT how it went down, babe. 

The open house was between 4 to 8.30 pm. I had some errands to run also, so by the time we reached it was close to 6. And as we were walking down the very panas corridor form the lift to ISHQ, we saw a queue! So apparently its not a free for all open door entry kinda thing?! Hahaha. We just joined the queue, were given an invoice form with a number and waited till it was out turn. Our wait was pretty long as there were many couples in front of us. And it was so hot that by this time our invoice paper has become a salted vegetable make shift fan. I told my man "Maybe this is like to mentally prepare us for the pelamin next time." Hahaha. While we were in the queue, other vendors for bridal bouquet, photography and Photo Booth services approached us and showed us their portfolios and services. These vendors usually have a package deal with ISHQ, but not all of them. I wish I was able to provide a little more info on this, but I swear it was so hot I could not focus on anything they were saying. I'll leave their links below later anyway, so please feel free to contact them directly.

While we were in the queue, one of the ladies from ISHQ came out and asked the crowd queueing if any of us are looking at some weekend in March 2017. A couple raised their hand and was replied with "I am so sorry we are fully booked at that time already." Omgggg, how heartbreaking can it get to hear that when you are so close to the door?! Almost as nerve-wrecking as unit selection at HDB okay. This repeated a few times with a few other weekends. So my man and I also got quite kanchiong lah. Though initially we thought of just going in to browse and mull over it, suddenly the risk of losing our chances to have ISHQ on our special day(s) became so real. I checked with my dad if its okay that we make our booking today without him actually taking a look at ISHQ first. Once we got the green light from the king, we made our decision, we were gonna secure our package that day.

Once it was our turn, we were attended to by the lovely Kak Nora herself. And she was so funny and down to earth. Very patient with our my questions and basically just exuded really good vibes. She did ask if I want to request for any specific MUA but I chose not to, because it would cost quite abit more. Plus, I would trust that Kak Nora trains her staff well to have established such a well-reputed company. So fingers crossed that all will be okay, InsyaAllah. Did we get to see their collections? Well, no. And this is what I was slightly disappointed about. I think the purpose of the open house was more of asking questions, making appointments and bookings. Not so much the hari raya style I had in mind haha. So for those of you thinking of going, please be prepared that you may not be able to view the outfits. If you want to take a look at the outfits ISHQ has, it may be a better idea to follow them on instagram! Other than their counters, the vendors that I had mentioned earlier, namely Shamsydar Ani Photography, Allure Blooms, Blissful Studios had also set up some small booths for you to take a closer (and more comfortable) look at their services.

So when we left Oxley Bizhub that evening…we had officially made OUR FIRST VENDOR BOOKING!

We got their Ethereal Package, that comes with 5 sets of outfits, accessories, makeup, hairstyling and 1 bridal bouquet and had to pay a 30% deposit for the total package price. Those of you who need huge packages like me (that's what she said, haha), don't worry about bringing wads of cash around with you like gangster, because ISHQ accepts NETS! Lastly, to my fellow 2017 BTBs, if you are thinking of getting ISHQ to be a part of your big day, I would suggest you really hurry cause I won't be surprised if they're fully booked by next month! Honestly, so excited for all there is to come after this small step. Next up, would be securing our venues, deco vendors and our photographer within the next few months. Will probably update in the new year because nothing much lined up for these 2 weeks with regards to wedding preparation.

See you in twenty sixteen huns!

Love,
Z