Banquet Recce Report!

Recce Venue 1: Sheraton Towers Singapore

To be awfully frank, we were that close to laying down a deposit for Sheraton Towers during our meeting with Irene, Director of Catering. Prior to setting up a meeting, she has promptly sent us the package details within the day. Despite meeting us past working hours, she was really professional and patient with our enquiries. We had a tour of the prospective ballroom, which Irene painstakingly went around flipping switches to turn on the breathtaking crystal chandeliers and the smart lights so that we can have a glimpse of the ballroom when it's fully lit.

When it's fully done up, it'll look something like this:

Following the tour, she brought us to the restaurant for a drink and to discuss the details of the package. Being all non-committed, we just ordered iced water although Irene said we could ask for anything.

Attractive parts of the package:

• Unique L-shaped Empress 4 ballroom with a high ceiling
• Banquet cuisine is provided by award-winning Cantonese restaurant Li Bai
• Smart light effect on every guest table
• 'Live' video feed
• Proximity to Newton MRT Station
• Majestic grand staircase is perfect for AD photoshoot

Not-so-impressive parts of the package:

• The other half of the Empress ballroom has a low ceiling.
• Not all guests can view the march-in, therefore the need for the 'live' video feed
• No free-flow beer

Recce Venue 2: Carlton Hotel

To be honest, I wanted to give Carlton a chance although my sister (who had her prom there) advised against it largely because of the normal-looking ballroom and the service. It's a short walk from City Hall MRT station and was renovated recently, so I was pretty positive about it. The food's from the famous Wah Lok Cantonese restaurant, which is practically infallible.

But after meeting up with their banquet manager Dennis, things didn't look so rosy after all. Firstly, we couldn't even reserve our preferred date even if we wanted to, because Carlton hasn't released their price list for the period we wanted. Dennis was really apologetic about it, but I didn't see any sense in that. Secondly, their largest venue could accommodate about 33 tables - falls short of our minimum table count. No affinity with Carlton.

Recce Venue 3: Fairmont Singapore

We threw Fairmont into our list and visited it last simply because we did not have the intent to choose it at all because we felt their package perks weren't attractive enough for that pricetag. Then the meeting with Director of Romance Dannis changed it all.

As expected (according to the reviews by other brides who have spoken to Fairmont), they are indeed pretty stingy about giving away stuff. Like an additional night at the bridal suite, or more complimentary parking coupons. I guess they can afford to do so, given how they're smacked right in the middle of Singapore, just above City Hall MRT. You can get there from anywhere in Singapore by MRT within 45 minutes at the very most. And this isn't even their best bet. Anyway, Dannis was extremely accommodating and patient (as with all the wedding coordinators we spoke to) with explaining the details, highlighting the blind spots we may miss and getting into the nitty gritty stuff.

The tie-breaker? THIS. 

I can say we're pretty sold. :)