The search for the wedding banquet venue (Part 2)

First stop: Swissotel Stamford / Fairmont Singapore
The second day of our search started in earnest with a trip to the Swissotel Stamford / Fairmont Singapore. With the numerous makeovers that the former Westin Stamford had seen, many a guest had been left wondering about the newest name for the hotel. However, both of us have had our D&Ds here (Sonia has had 4 years' worth of crap food and equally inept performances). But we just went there to get a brochure anyway. Looked at the price, compared our reviews and decided to chuck it aside.

Second stop: Carlton Hotel
For some reason or another, I was particularly fond of Carlton. It could have been the food (my Company Law prof brought me and the SMU gang to dine at Wah Lok) or it could have been the promise of a spanking new banquet hall in the wing under construction (slated to open in late 2Q 2010). However, capacity constraints meant that Carlton had to be considered carefully, as it had a maximum capacity (think of a packed HK mahjong centre) of 40 tables. Nevertheless, we put down a tentative booking for the 3 dates in advance.

Third stop: Park Royal on Beach Road
As opposed to its sister hotel Park Royal at Kitchener, we both felt that the lobby and the reception area of the Beach Road version was relatively new and appealing.


The banquet hall was nicely furnished as well. The sole sticking point was the fact that 4 thick pillars were located towards the rear of the hall, and coupled with its elongated rectangular shape, the people who were going to be seated beside and between those pillars would not be able to see the stage. This bothered me greatly.


What really caught Sonia's eye was the promise of an open-air pavilion in which we could conduct our solemnization ceremony. The sales manager promised a view of the Flyer and the CBD area (we realized the Flyer was pretty insignificant at that distance) but the pavilion was something else in itself. This was a major contributing factor in our decision to consider the locale, even though it was relatively inaccessible (it fronted Beach Road on one side and The Furniture Mall on the other). In addition, it was still available for booking on 10 October 2010 (our priority date) and the surcharge was only an extra premium of $50 per table only!


Fourth stop: Grand Copthorne Waterfront
This was by far Sonia's favourite in terms of hall layout. As the sales manager was describing the sequence in which weddings were typically conducted, I could see that Sonia was visibly attracted to the 'Garden' sequence. The spacious ballroom had high ceilings and relatively modern decor, and with the unique 'unveiling' of the garden (on the left of the following picture) during the wedding march, it was certainly part of our plans.


Unfortunately, most of the auspicious dates had been taken up by other couples (remember that we were planning 1 year 4 months in advance) and the sole auspicious date available was the 10 October 2010. This came with a hefty 400 dollar premium over the usual price, and we decided that the premium was not acceptable.

Fifth stop: Holiday Inn Atrium
We crossed the road over to the other hotels located within the area. We chose the Holiday Inn Atrium for our final destination of the day (the rest looked slightly dodgy from the outside [Copthorne King , Furama Riverfront and Riverside Hotel]). Bob had a funny thing for the design of the high roof of the hotel. It looked something like this (although a tad more grimy):


The interior of the hotel was acceptable, if a bit dated. The reception area was narrow, but the manager suggested that we could use the meeting rooms to the right of the corridor for our reception as well.

The pillars in the banquet hall were not too obstructive either. The manager attending to us was very helpful and agreeable to most of our requests, and we were quite taken in by the large number of free perks that he promised to throw in.

It was a good day for us because we both found a hotel that we like at the end of the day's search. Sonia preferred Park Royal on Beach Road (because of the outdoor pavillion and the overall furnishing) while I voted for Holiday Inn Atrium (because the pillars were less obstructive than Park Royal's and the perks were better). Since we could not decide on the same hotel, we decided to rope in our families and get some third party opinion for reference. Sonia managed to persuade her family to visit the two hotels with us again over the weekend.

Bob