Okay, breathe. I’ve not made much headway at all with the wedding planning since Jon and I set the date for it in December last year. We’ve booked St. Teresa’s Church for a wedding service (this booking has been made since last year) and we’ve not, or rather, I’ve not done anything much since. Yep, I’ve not settled on the location for the wedding banquet, or just about everything else, yet. Being in Singapore, where couples book their banquets 1-1.5 years in advance, I know how (almost) suicidal this probably sounds.
I finally decided to whip my own ass last week and got around to enquiring with various hotels on their availability and banquet packages. Guess what? As kind of expected, most places are already booked. Oppsie daisy.
Here’s sharing a few venue options that I’ve considered for the dinner banquet:
CHIJMES – gorgeous setting with beautiful high ceiling and stained glass windows. I’ve got a huge affinity to this place being an ex-IJ girl. The wedding packages are very reasonably priced too. Unfortunately, this place has been crossed off my list after initial enquiries that left their service much to be desired.
Westin MBFC – this hotel is still one of my favourites after a site visit. Their service and enthusiasm to host my wedding is top class. They also have an all black theme that is beautiful. Unfortunately, our wedding invite list has exploded since our initial calculations and their maximum capacity of 30 tables is too small for us. I would totally recommend this hotel to anyone who’s got a guest list of 300 or less. Although the package is on the pricey side, the perks included makes up for it, in my opinion.
Park Royal on Pickering – love the architecture of this hotel and the ballroom is very tastefully done. I was convinced that this was the hotel…and was all ready to make a booking. Until, a miscommunication with their wedding planner left me sorely disappointed. Their only ballroom is not available on my wedding date.
Brides-to-be, please read the emails that these hotels send you very carefully – including those in fine print that actually states that the date of your wedding is not available. Yes, I completely missed that, quite obviously, rather important point in Park Royal’s email to me enthusing their joy in having me consider their hotel for my wedding. To not include that one little, yet very important point that the date is not available in their email body still baffles me.
Tip: This hotel as it turns out, is very packed with bookings…so communication from their planners are slow. You’ll need lots of patience and possibly self-planning if you want to have your banquet at this hotel.
Grand Hyatt – the event spaces at this hotel have been revamped recently and they’re beautiful. There’s even a ballroom that allows a showing of their chefs whipping up a storm for your dinner (ala Hell’s Kitchen style with smoke from dry ice and all). I imagine it all to be dramatic and fun for your guests. What’s keeping me from booking this hotel: their table setting. Unfortunately, they do not have the black theme setting that I’d like to have, and it’ll probably cost too much to bring in my own setting and chairs (their existing setting does not provide seat covers for chairs).
What’s coming up:
I’m going to check out the Grand Marquee set-up at Hotel Fort Canning and Amara Sanctuary at Sentosa next week. I’ve got high hopes for the marquee setting at Fort Canning. Please leave me a comment here if you’ve attended or held a wedding there before. I’m most nervous about bad weather contingency plan and if it gets stuffy and hot in the marquee. Runny make-up and a sweaty bride and groom does not go well at all. Otherwise, I can imagine that it can be really beautiful if the marquee is set-up nicely. Think long table settings with lots of flowers!
On a lighter and less panic-like note, the very good news is that I’ve got myself a wedding planner. Clarissa, from Lovorth Weddings will be keeping me in check with things I should be doing and checking off that wedding preparation list. I should be a lot more on track with this wedding business moving forward. Whee!
I’ll be updating the wedding planning progress here every so often. Wish me luck!
Outfit details:
Shoes: Zara
Hair + Make-Up & Images by: XunnyArt
-xoxo-
xoxojeneen.com 
Hello, can I check with u if I need to be a member of St Theresa church to hold my wedding there?
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Hi Madeline!
No, you do not need to be a member. Drop them an email or call to make a booking. 🙂
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Hi !
Can i ask if you have already went down to take a look at hotel fort canning? Am very interested to hear you comments about the hotel service and the marquee especially as a wedding venue. Is the marquee going to be hot and stuffy?
Appreciate to hear from you.
Thanks! 🙂
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Hello!
Yes, I've made a trip to Fort Canning and checked the marquee out during set up of one of their real weddings. The marquee is not hot and stuff – one of my biggest concerns, and the setup is really pretty. I can't comment much on the hotel service as I've only been in contact with their wedding planner, but she was really helpful. I looked at the hotel rooms too and they're really nice and new-ish. 🙂 Good luck with your planning!
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Hi,
My wedding's in less than a month's time – also in a Catholic church in Singapore – and I came across your website while Googling for other Catholic weddings in Singapore (just out of curiosity, I'm not *that* disorganised). I've been pretty much like you in we booked everything with less than a year to our wedding date, but I think it's turned out fine so far. I guess I'll find out on the day itself just how successful we've been in organising our wedding from overseas without the help of a wedding planner. Erk!
Anyway, I just wanted to say that the dress you're wearing is gorgeous and I'm a little gutted that it's not available in my size anymore. All the best for your upcoming nuptials!
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