A fruitful and rather satisfying weekend at Her World Bridal Show held in the ballroom of Mandarin Orchard!
We signed up for it a couple of weeks back with the intention to save us the shopping for bridal boutiques and we thought the deals at the show would be very competitive among those six of them - La Belle, dio Gio, Satine, Z-Wedding, My Dream Wedding and The Feline.
I have only 2 in mind for this bridal show - di Gio and La Belle - of which they were already on my list of boutiques to visit. We made a beeline for di Gio first and found ourselves to be looking through their photo albums at other seats cos all their tables were taken up by other customers!
di Gio had the most overwhelming response and they were the only one who would not even bother to station sales coordinators to do hard-selling in front of their booth cos customers will just go to them!
We were served by their gown designer, Jesline. A very nice lady who is open to lots of negotiation. And of course, I was very aggressive in getting the most deals out of the $3,988 package! I could not care less about how they see me but I thought the best time to sign a package is when they are competing against other boutiques to draw customers to their side at the expense of offering better deals!
Here's the package:
1. Actual Day Bridal Gown
2. Actual day Evening Gown (MTM)
3. Actual Day tea dress or kwa --> Exchanged for my 2 sisters' bridesmaids dresses
4. Actual day Groom's suit x 2
5. Free trial makeup
6. Actual day morning makeup + hairdo
7. Actual day evening makeup + hair do --> I tried to negotiate for Mommy and MIL as well but she could only get us at special rate of $80 each instead of the usual price of $120.
8. Actual day and studio accessories (necklace, earring, tiara, veil)
9. Bridal bouquet (Fresh flower) --> It can be of any design or flowers I want at no additonal cost.
10. Corsages x 6
11. Bridal car decoration --> We just have to provide her with the design we want - definitely not the conventional V-shape!
12. Following Cars' ribbons x 4
13. Studio makeup + hairdo
14. Studio outfits x 3 (bride)
15. Studio outfits x 3 (groom)
16. Studio fresh flower --> Again, any design and flower to our liking
17. Outdoor shoot (2 locations) with 2 outfits (own transport at $120)
18. Wedding album 12'' x 15" = 20 copies --> It will be a 12" x 18" instead due to the promotion and we also managed to negotiate very fiercely from 20 to 28 to 35 and finally 38 poses!
19. Canvas portrait 20" x 24" (with frame) --> We increased it to 30"!
20. Free 4R - 24 copies (4 poses)
21. Free mini album (repeated poses from wedding album)
22. Free table top 8" x 10"
23. Free Guest Book
24. Free soft copy return in CD (selected photos only)
25. Fathers' jackets x 2
26. Mommy's dress --> Die die also must get something for my Mom!
27. 50 pcs of Thank you cards (to be placed at reception table) for guests --> Managed to convince her that we can do some publicity and branding for di Gio! Marketing skills really came in handy here!
The other expenses which we have to fork out money includes:
- eye lashes @ $15
- ampoule @ $25
- additonal styling of hair @ $25
- rental of wedding car + chauffeur @ $480 onwards
- additonal poses @ $80 each
Jesline was a little overwhelmed by our incessant negotiations and requests that she took my hand and said she would give a very good FINAL deal within the package - the increase of the canvas portrait by 10" more - which she told me to keep it to ourselves.
Basically, we just lay our cards on the table and told her directly that we came to the Bridal Show with the intention to sign up a package today and that di Gio and La Belle were the 2 boutiques we came for. In the end, she acceded to most of our requests with a returned promise on our side that we will not go for a sit-down at La Belle! Haha!
Then, there came our 2nd surprise when my name was called out for the 5th lucky draw prize - 3D2N to stay at Le Meridien Bangkok with 2 return tickets! This is our second time to be so lucky in these 7 years we have been together! I still remember vividly that the first time was during our 1st or 2nd Valentine's Day celebration at PS Pizza Hut where we won a personal pizza......
My secondary school mate was luckier! She won a $5000-package from La Belle for the Vote For Your Favourite Gown Contest. I didn't realise it was Jing Wen until she went up on stage.
Nevertheless, we were elated at our luck and what we fought for during the bridal show! :)
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The deal is sealed.
We signed on the dotted line with Swissotel The Stamford/ Fairmont this afternoon and were made $5,000 poorer.
Had a failed attempt to negotiate for more perks to be thrown in, for example, extra 1 more night in the bridal suite, free flow of beer and special anniversary rates on hotel stay.
We were terrible at it.
Date is also fixed on 28 May 2011.
Somehow I feel uneasy after signing the deal. Maybe it's just too big a transaction and I'm not sure if we have made the right choice.
Had a failed attempt to negotiate for more perks to be thrown in, for example, extra 1 more night in the bridal suite, free flow of beer and special anniversary rates on hotel stay.
We were terrible at it.
Date is also fixed on 28 May 2011.
Somehow I feel uneasy after signing the deal. Maybe it's just too big a transaction and I'm not sure if we have made the right choice.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Finally!
I'm surprised that we have come to a decision this fast although we were caught in between Grand Hyatt and Swissotel The Stamford/ Fairmont.
Victory goes to.................... Swissotel The Stamford/ Fairmont!!
I called up Agnes to confirm the package with her and tell her that we would go through the package and come up with a list of questions/ negotiation for us before she drafts a contract for us.
Date to sign contract: 3 July, Sat at 4pm
We are going to be $5,000 poorer! Got to think of ways to get money for the bridal studio package!
Victory goes to.................... Swissotel The Stamford/ Fairmont!!
I called up Agnes to confirm the package with her and tell her that we would go through the package and come up with a list of questions/ negotiation for us before she drafts a contract for us.
Date to sign contract: 3 July, Sat at 4pm
We are going to be $5,000 poorer! Got to think of ways to get money for the bridal studio package!
Hotel Hunting
We have taken a look at Grand Copthorne's (19 June) and Grand Hyatt's (21 June) ballroom.
Grand Copthorne was a definite no-no! We were given the Waterfront Ballroom since it fit the min. no. of table requirement and there was no room for negotiation for the Grand Ballroom that comes with a garden landscape as the stage backdrop since it required a min. no. of 40 tables on a weekend.
Things that turned us off:
- Very low ceiling
- Pillars
- Attitude of the Catering Sales personnel (She gave us an impression that, if we can't meet the min. requirement for Grand Ballroom then don't ask so much)
- Suite (One of the worst we have seen. It looks like a standard hotel room, just slightly bigger)
On the other hand, we were quite impressed by the Catering Sales Exec who showed us around on Monday despite the hiccups earlier on when we were informed that the Catering Sales Manager was on sick leave and had to re-schedule the visit again. He actually waited for our arrival at the lobby!
We were given the Magnolia/ Vanda function rooms and were disappointed at how old they looked. Worst still, there were too huge pillars! The exec showed us their Grand Ballroom upon our request and we were bowled over by it!
It looks so much grander at the reception area as well as the ballroom inside. Alas, we would need to take up at least 38 tables for it and each table costs $1,300 plus. Though it has a low ceiling, but its grandeur won us over. A pity that due to the high occupancy on that day, their suite was not available for viewing.
Grand Copthorne was a definite no-no! We were given the Waterfront Ballroom since it fit the min. no. of table requirement and there was no room for negotiation for the Grand Ballroom that comes with a garden landscape as the stage backdrop since it required a min. no. of 40 tables on a weekend.
Things that turned us off:
- Very low ceiling
- Pillars
- Attitude of the Catering Sales personnel (She gave us an impression that, if we can't meet the min. requirement for Grand Ballroom then don't ask so much)
- Suite (One of the worst we have seen. It looks like a standard hotel room, just slightly bigger)
On the other hand, we were quite impressed by the Catering Sales Exec who showed us around on Monday despite the hiccups earlier on when we were informed that the Catering Sales Manager was on sick leave and had to re-schedule the visit again. He actually waited for our arrival at the lobby!
We were given the Magnolia/ Vanda function rooms and were disappointed at how old they looked. Worst still, there were too huge pillars! The exec showed us their Grand Ballroom upon our request and we were bowled over by it!
It looks so much grander at the reception area as well as the ballroom inside. Alas, we would need to take up at least 38 tables for it and each table costs $1,300 plus. Though it has a low ceiling, but its grandeur won us over. A pity that due to the high occupancy on that day, their suite was not available for viewing.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Photos are out....
Terry, the photographer called to inform that our photos are ready so we went to his house to pick them up.
To be honest, I was very nervous about seeing those photos that he has taken. Of course, we have no doubt about his photography skills since he has already been in this line for so long and has always been fully booked during certain period. We have already shown him Joo and Jayven's ROM and that's how we want our photos to look like after editing them.
He's giving us 120 photos free but we topped it up to 180 so we had to fork out $30 more.
When I saw those photos, they were an utter disappointment to me... Out of 180, I guess there were only 10 or less that were edited to the way I wanted them to be. To give some credits, a handful of the photos were indeed well taken.
However, I do not understand by his way of editing the photos. From what I can see in the album, borders and text were added to those photos, some were given touches of special effects like blurring, fading out, etc.
They do not portray the dreamy, fairy-tale effects that I have been looking for.
All photos, a total of about 500, were given back to us in a CD-R and Henry's name was spelt wrongly on it. Instead of Henry, it appeared as Herry due to the cursive font they used.
Henry thought the photos were fine even the borders were a little boring and conventional-looking. I expressed my displeasure when he asked me to rate Terry's work and I gave a mere 60 out of 100. He thought I'm too hard to please but from my point of view, I would think that since we paid for his service, there should be some kind of expectations. Moreover, we showed him what we wanted but did not get it in the end.
I guess it's his photography style that matters. This is not what I wanted.
Sadly to say again, he did not achieve what we were looking for as conveyed to him during the meet-up way before the ROM. I will give him the benefit of doubt that it slipped his mind. I remembered Henry kept emphasising to him that we do not want all our photos to be point-and-shoot kind. There should be more candid shots that reveal the happy emotion of the people from within. A picture tells a thousand words.
I want the focus to be not just on both of us but our parents as well, for example, my parents' expression when we were saying our vows, my mom's emotions when I said my thank-you speech, etc but I saw none of those.
Instead, it was Yada who took such a beautiful shot of my parents during our solemnisation at the table.
This is part of what I have been searching for!
We will certainly view the style of the next photographer for our customary wedding and of course, the pre-wedding shoots. Maybe I should not grumble too much since you get what you paid for.
To be honest, I was very nervous about seeing those photos that he has taken. Of course, we have no doubt about his photography skills since he has already been in this line for so long and has always been fully booked during certain period. We have already shown him Joo and Jayven's ROM and that's how we want our photos to look like after editing them.
He's giving us 120 photos free but we topped it up to 180 so we had to fork out $30 more.
When I saw those photos, they were an utter disappointment to me... Out of 180, I guess there were only 10 or less that were edited to the way I wanted them to be. To give some credits, a handful of the photos were indeed well taken.
However, I do not understand by his way of editing the photos. From what I can see in the album, borders and text were added to those photos, some were given touches of special effects like blurring, fading out, etc.
They do not portray the dreamy, fairy-tale effects that I have been looking for.
All photos, a total of about 500, were given back to us in a CD-R and Henry's name was spelt wrongly on it. Instead of Henry, it appeared as Herry due to the cursive font they used.
Henry thought the photos were fine even the borders were a little boring and conventional-looking. I expressed my displeasure when he asked me to rate Terry's work and I gave a mere 60 out of 100. He thought I'm too hard to please but from my point of view, I would think that since we paid for his service, there should be some kind of expectations. Moreover, we showed him what we wanted but did not get it in the end.
I guess it's his photography style that matters. This is not what I wanted.
Sadly to say again, he did not achieve what we were looking for as conveyed to him during the meet-up way before the ROM. I will give him the benefit of doubt that it slipped his mind. I remembered Henry kept emphasising to him that we do not want all our photos to be point-and-shoot kind. There should be more candid shots that reveal the happy emotion of the people from within. A picture tells a thousand words.
I want the focus to be not just on both of us but our parents as well, for example, my parents' expression when we were saying our vows, my mom's emotions when I said my thank-you speech, etc but I saw none of those.
Instead, it was Yada who took such a beautiful shot of my parents during our solemnisation at the table.
This is part of what I have been searching for!
We will certainly view the style of the next photographer for our customary wedding and of course, the pre-wedding shoots. Maybe I should not grumble too much since you get what you paid for.
Site visit at Swissotel The Stamford
We went back to Swissotel The Stamford one week later to check out the actual wedding set-up.
We just went in happily and snapped a few shots:
The reception table...
with their guest book.
The way to the reception area where drinks
The couple's wedding portraits on display.
The wedding albums placed near the reception area.
This is where the guests can help themselves to strawberries and admire the heart-shaped ice carving!
The rather spacious reception area for guests to mingle..
And the bar counter is just a stone's throw away!
As we only have 1/3 of the entire ballroom, which is already big enough to accomodate up to about 45 tables, we will also be entitled to 1/3 of the reception area outside. That explains the partition to ensure that guests attend the right event.
A shot from the entrance of the ballroom.
Looking from the inside of the ballroom... It's going to be an L-shaped march-in.
I don't like the floral display along the aisle.
The projector screen is positioned right ahead from the entrance.
I'm quite pleased with the stage set-up and especially love the way they created the flowy effect of the backdrop. Maybe I will change another colour though. I think this is the typical design adopted by the Swissotel Group as we have seen similar design at Swissotel Merchant Court.
The set-up for VIP tables.
And the guest tables.
Notice that this guest table looks different from the previous one in terms of colour. This is slightly a darker purple. This was due to the special intelligent lightings that they use in the ballroom which direct a ray of light colour of your choice right onto each table.
A pity that we did not take photos of the suite at Swissotel The Stamford and we are definitely bowled over by it!!
We just went in happily and snapped a few shots:
The reception table...
with their guest book.
The way to the reception area where drinks
The couple's wedding portraits on display.
The wedding albums placed near the reception area.
This is where the guests can help themselves to strawberries and admire the heart-shaped ice carving!
The rather spacious reception area for guests to mingle..
And the bar counter is just a stone's throw away!
As we only have 1/3 of the entire ballroom, which is already big enough to accomodate up to about 45 tables, we will also be entitled to 1/3 of the reception area outside. That explains the partition to ensure that guests attend the right event.
A shot from the entrance of the ballroom.
Looking from the inside of the ballroom... It's going to be an L-shaped march-in.
I don't like the floral display along the aisle.
The projector screen is positioned right ahead from the entrance.
I'm quite pleased with the stage set-up and especially love the way they created the flowy effect of the backdrop. Maybe I will change another colour though. I think this is the typical design adopted by the Swissotel Group as we have seen similar design at Swissotel Merchant Court.
The set-up for VIP tables.
And the guest tables.
Notice that this guest table looks different from the previous one in terms of colour. This is slightly a darker purple. This was due to the special intelligent lightings that they use in the ballroom which direct a ray of light colour of your choice right onto each table.
A pity that we did not take photos of the suite at Swissotel The Stamford and we are definitely bowled over by it!!
Friday, June 11, 2010
The beginning of Part III - Customary Wedding
We have started on hotel hunting since 7 June after heeding Alicia's advice that we should start early.
I called up a few of the hotels - Marriott, Fullerton, Swissotel The Stamford, Hotel InterContinental, Mandarin Oriental, Grand Copthorne, Grand Hyatt, Meritus Mandarin, Conrad Centennial and Shangri-La.
In fact, we only shortlisted a handful of them but it was when I realised that many hotels were booked on the particular date that we want that I began to get panicky and started to call more.
Top on the list was of course, my dream hotel to get married in - The Fullerton. The manager from Catering Sales was not service oriented at all. Perhaps it was due to the high wedding dinner requests that we were negligent to them. Anyway, we went down to take a look at the ballroom ourselves and I was disappointed at it. It was a oblong ballroom with very low ceiling. Out it goes!
Next on our list was Hotel InterContinental. Again, the person was quite stuck up and the price was beyond our budget. Moreover, we heard from Alicia and bf that they can be quite rigid about negotiating for more things in the wedding package.
I called to ask for a copy of their wedding dinner packages and managed to strike a few off the list. Conrad, Shangri-La and Meritus Mandarin were all fully booked in May.
We are looking at either 21 May or 28 May, both a Saturday to better accomodate our guests so that it can be more of a convenience. Well, according to the catering sales people that we spoke to, these 2 dates were pretty popular with couples and I think were deemed rather auspicious.
After re-shuffling the list, these are now our top 3:
1. Grand Hyatt
2. Swissotel The Stamford
3. Grand Copthorne
There's a tie between No. 1 & 2. Both were competitive in terms of cost per table. Grand Hyatt requires a minimum of only 30 tables for weekend whilst Swissotel The Stamford requires 35. The final decision will be made by end June, when we have taken a look at the ballroom at Grand Hyatt on 21 Jun and Grand Copthorne on 19 Jun.
Swissotel was the first we went to for a site inspection. The Catering Sales manager, Agnes was professional and service oriented. They offer a few items which were not in other hotels' wedding packages, which had won us over quite a bit. The MOST attractive of it all, which made both of us salivate, was their suite! I forgot the name of its suite but it was only a level lower than their Presidential suite and it comes with a...... open concept bathtub!! We already had the intention of paying extra just to stay in that suite for 1 more night..
Will post up photos of Swissotel The Stamford soon!
I called up a few of the hotels - Marriott, Fullerton, Swissotel The Stamford, Hotel InterContinental, Mandarin Oriental, Grand Copthorne, Grand Hyatt, Meritus Mandarin, Conrad Centennial and Shangri-La.
In fact, we only shortlisted a handful of them but it was when I realised that many hotels were booked on the particular date that we want that I began to get panicky and started to call more.
Top on the list was of course, my dream hotel to get married in - The Fullerton. The manager from Catering Sales was not service oriented at all. Perhaps it was due to the high wedding dinner requests that we were negligent to them. Anyway, we went down to take a look at the ballroom ourselves and I was disappointed at it. It was a oblong ballroom with very low ceiling. Out it goes!
Next on our list was Hotel InterContinental. Again, the person was quite stuck up and the price was beyond our budget. Moreover, we heard from Alicia and bf that they can be quite rigid about negotiating for more things in the wedding package.
I called to ask for a copy of their wedding dinner packages and managed to strike a few off the list. Conrad, Shangri-La and Meritus Mandarin were all fully booked in May.
We are looking at either 21 May or 28 May, both a Saturday to better accomodate our guests so that it can be more of a convenience. Well, according to the catering sales people that we spoke to, these 2 dates were pretty popular with couples and I think were deemed rather auspicious.
After re-shuffling the list, these are now our top 3:
1. Grand Hyatt
2. Swissotel The Stamford
3. Grand Copthorne
There's a tie between No. 1 & 2. Both were competitive in terms of cost per table. Grand Hyatt requires a minimum of only 30 tables for weekend whilst Swissotel The Stamford requires 35. The final decision will be made by end June, when we have taken a look at the ballroom at Grand Hyatt on 21 Jun and Grand Copthorne on 19 Jun.
Swissotel was the first we went to for a site inspection. The Catering Sales manager, Agnes was professional and service oriented. They offer a few items which were not in other hotels' wedding packages, which had won us over quite a bit. The MOST attractive of it all, which made both of us salivate, was their suite! I forgot the name of its suite but it was only a level lower than their Presidential suite and it comes with a...... open concept bathtub!! We already had the intention of paying extra just to stay in that suite for 1 more night..
Will post up photos of Swissotel The Stamford soon!
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