continue the search for dinner banquet hotels

so after meeting with master david yesterday, we immediately resume our search for hotels... since the auspicious dates given to us by master david was different from master long, we have to revisit those hotels that we called previously... Last time, we can still play hard to get then just select those "better" hotels (those that fit our criteria) but now we are DESPERATE, so we just called every single hotels on the list & sad to say, majority of the hotels were fully booked for nov 2014.... I still thought maybe can just act rich & try out four seasons or Fullerton but sorry... full also.... my god, there are really rich people around who can afford those high class places wor....  BUT not all is lost, we still managed to find 8 hotels that still have slot for our date

1. Fairmont Singapore
- we are actually on waiting list coz there is a couple before us who are going down to meet the banquet manager this weekend, so they get the priority
2. Parkroyl at kitchener
- there are also 2 other couples who made the enquiry but nothing was confirm so we still have our chance
3. Hotel fort canning
- i always wanted to check out this hotel, so am really excited to go down
4. Riverview hotel
- attracted to this hotel coz the package was one of the cheapest
5. York hotel
- honestly, i didnt know the existence of this hotel till i start the search... is actually situated in between goodwood park hotel & mount Elizabeth hospital, kind of ulu
6. Pennisular excelsior
- is actually on top of the pennisular plaza, look kind of run down... & then i read some bad reviews about the hotel from the forum, so probably not going to choose it
7. Sentosa, resort world
- one of the newer hotel but price quite steep & then the need to travel into sentosa... quite a turn off
8. Beaufort Sentosa
- not sure of the exact location but definitely in sentosa... again... price quite steep

after considering the hotel choices we had, we decided to go down & meet the banquet managers for the first four listed

PS: just enclosed below the list of hotels that i called for reference

consultaion with master david tong

i must do some ranting first before going to the actual post... As mentioned in the earlier post that I went to see master long for my auspicious dates, i went back to tell my parents about the good news & you know what, my mama complained & said that master long was not good enough, didnt give enough information... i was like WTF!?!?!??! 3yrs worth of dates not good enough?? answer is NO... she said where got people give you so many dates... not supposed to let you (meaning us) choose the dates, the master should choose the best dates (maybe 2 to 3 of them) then must tell you what to do at the EXACT timing for the respective dates.... those were the exact words she told me during our argument.... i totally rolled eyes... i agree we should be abit superstitious to get an auspicious dates, then gotten already say not happy... like OMFG!!! !@@#*$(#$#)*%)#*%&)@&!*#_! damn angry la.... but ok... fine... after calm down, i told mama.. fine.. i will find another master & you tell me EVERYTHING that she want to know.... so i quickly arranged an appt with master long & luckily managed to squeeze into a slot today.... ok... enough of complain... back to the topic...

Location: i not sure if master long doesnt have a proper office or he doesnt like people to go to his office... the meet up is all outside.. my fiance & I met him at The central Starbucks... well... location doesnt really matter since it is the consultation that counts
Price: $130Nett
Experience: quite a young guy to be a feng shui master (he is approx 40yr old)... i guess is a personality thing & his busy schedule, he tends to talk very fast but still manageable.... he gave us about 5dates to choose from with ranking... like master long, david also gave us a printout of the necessary steps & things to get for the wedding... the customary things that he mentioned was the same as what I heard b4... then according to him, there seem to be more things that we need to take note of

Feedback: I wont say which master is better since they are good in their own ways.. but i think for a more traditional person, perhaps master david seem to be a safer choice... & for those who are more flexible with the dates & the customary.. master long is good too.... master david has his own website, so anyone can take a look at the services he provide & also some testimonials... www.cmgconsulting.com.sg

the search for dinner banquet in hotels

after getting the auspicious dates from master long, we quickly go search for hotels... yesterday we called up several of our top priority like carlton, orchard & M hotel... all booked already.... i was like OMFG shock... like seriously people are damn hardworking & book the hotels so long in advanced... we intend to get married end of 2014 so I thought now is still not too late to book hotels but i was WRONG!!! so frantically i quickly go to the SGbrides site to take a look at whatever hotels that fit into our selection criteria....

Selection criteria: 
Hotel vs restaurant: of coz hotels are more grand & high class but restaurants are definitely way cheaper for similar menu... but the down side about having banquet at restaurant is that, there is no preparation room.. those bigger restaurant might have a partition to create a temporary room but you see... need place to put ang bao, gowns & makeup... i think a private room is essential.. so we go for hotel... of coz... restaurants INSIDE a hotel can also be considered
Number of tables: this is very important coz it determines the hotels that you can choose... for us, we are looking at approx 20 tables since we have neither many friends nor army of relatives to come for the banquet
Price: definitely an important issue coz we dont have $ to throw.. we are hoping to find a hotel that have approx $1.2k Nett/table... of coz this is very ideal cases & after some research, we know that this price range is almost impossible to find unless couples of years back....
Location: depending on you... we try to be nice guys & go for more convenient locations... also reason being, if the hotel is situated at some ulu place, the turn up rate will be low = ultimately we will lugi...places like changi airport or east coast are out for us... not many of our friends or relatives drive ma.... then cant expect everyone to take cab to & fro wad
Lunch vs dinner: this is important too coz most people will chose dinner, if you can have it over lunch then there will definitely be more choices & also cheaper

after deciding on these criteria, i came out with the list of hotels that we can select (just a modify version of what you can find on SGbrides site)

the modified hotel list that i came up with

based on the list, i start calling to those more preferred hotels & sadly most of them are FULL already.... kns sian lo.... & then becoz of the complain from my mama that the auspicious dates given by master long was not good enough... we have to pause the search till we have the consultation with master david.... so till then.... keep our fingers crossed

consulation with master long tian xiang

due to some family matter, i can only consult the feng shui master after 27th oct... waited till i want to die ar... coz my fiance told me that we have to book the hotel asap but hey man... what you want me to do.... but FINALLY managed to meet the master to get our auspicious dates... i did some research on the forum that master long (long tian xiang) & master david tong are the two most popular feng shui master to get the auspicious dates... my first choice was master long coz people said consult an elder master is better

Location: he stayed in woodland, this bungalow.. look very high class 1 but can see the fengshui involved...
Price: $120Nett
Experience: he was seated in this study room like a CEO, so the first impression i was actually abit scared coz from the forum, people mentioned he is actually quite fatherly & true enough, he is quite nice... quite a nice uncle, not too naggy or stern....he explained the individual procedure thoroughly & everything is included in the little booklet that he gave so dont need to worry about forgetting any details... although i am not very familiar with the custom stuff, those things he suggested to us seem to be the simplified version & slightly different from what I heard before.. but hey... he is supposed to be the pro, so just listen... the way he select the dates was also different, normally other master will give you only about 2 dates to select from, but master long actually select all the auspicious dates for up to 3yr!!! so sure can find a date that can fit into your schedule....
Feedback: personally i m happy for the 3yr worth of auspicious dates... easier to find hotels ma... but some of the procedures for the customary seem to be different from what I heard, so for that part probably have to consult other old folks first... & then $120 for the selection of dates may seem to be quite x but no choice... i dont know any other good feng shui master to consult... so is good enough for me

PS: just to side track, there are actually 2 master long. the other master long, my sister went to him for the selection of my niece names but NOT for wedding dates... so heng heng i managed to find the correct master long = 龙天翔... so do take note....

M hotel bridal workshop

went down to M hotel for a wedding banquet couple of weeks ago, quite ok with the place so decided to go down for the bridal workshop

Location: as mentioned b4, the hotel is at tanjong pagar but have to walk quite abit from the mrt but i think is still ok la... do some exercise after eating so much for the dinner
Ambience: the hotel exterior may not look very fancy... a little rundown but still acceptable standard
there are 2 ballrooms: Anson room is at 2nd floor, is very small & the same is very weird, ceiling is also very low, only 2.5m height... the weird thing is the arrangement of the ballroom, there is no pillar but then like a corner of the ballroom is being blocked.. so unless you have less than 20tables, anson room isnt recommended...

the anson room layout, the "w" shape depict the doors.. pardon for my horrible drawing

the other ballroom is at level 10 = banquet suite.. this is much bigger, more squarish ballroom & higher ceiling.. is quite spacious even for 30tables
Food: for the workshop, they only have those bite size sampling but from what we had for the actual banquet, i would say the food is average la... as usual they provide vegetarian food, halal food have to get from caterer
Service: for the dinner, service was ok... but the staff during the workshop seem quite pro... so i think thats comforting
Price: $1068++, min 25 (cheaper for anson room menu)

Conclusion: i think M hotel is definitely worth considering, the staff who attended to us was friendly and accommodating... the suite room was also not bad.... lets hope for the best

La belle roadshow @ orchard hotel

actually our main intention of going down to orchard hotel was to look at the place & shua ku me, i didnt know there will be other vendors at the workshop so I was very surprised to see La belle (Bridal shop)... but since we are waiting for the lunch to be served, we went to look at what La Belle offer us... the package is $3888Nett & the stuff included are pretty standard

perks: $100 discount if sign up during the workshop, additional 6poses, FOC photomontage & 4 bridesmaid dress to keep...

we considered the package over lunch & saw some of the gowns during the fashion shows... they look quite nice & 1 of the grey evening gown was gorgeous!!! so we decided to go ahead with it since we think there wont be much different from other bridal shops & La Belle is supposed to be a famous brand so it should be fine... we strike a deal with the sales to replace the photomontage & bridesmaid dresses to additional poses

Conclusion: $3788Nett for the pre-wedding shoot, i think the price isnt cheap but should be pretty standard rate unless managed to bargain like siao... & we already paid 50% deposit already, so we cant back out now... so lets hope for the best when we commence the shoot next yr =)

Orchard hotel bridal workshop

orchard hotel is actually one of the hotels that we are considering for the wedding banquet coz seriously, with our budget & number of guests, not many hotels will accommodate to our needs... so when I saw the bridal workshop, of coz must go down & see see...

Location: end of orchard area, have to walk quite a distant to the mrt but i think is still manageable since there are quite a number of buses nearby... BUT next to the hotel, there are several pubs/clubs so the environment at night maybe a little sleazy... 
Ambience: the main lobby is actually quite big but renovation slightly old so there is abit of vintage look but still ok la... grand ballroom is on the third floor, the reception area is big = i LIKE... the ballroom itself is nice, spacious, high ceiling and no pillars... so the ballroom is actually a HUGE 1 tt can accommodate like 60+ tables but they divide into 3 halls so depending on how many guests you have, they will open up the partitions....
Food: I cant comment since is a workshop, the food they served will be different from the chinese dinner... what we had was a western set, appetizer and main course followed by dessert buffet.. what we had that day was pretty nice, desserts are nice & i love the fruits!!!
Service: again... is a workshop so cant compare the service but for today, the staff are quite helpful and nice
Perks & price: if sign up during the workshop, will minus $688Nett for 25confirmed tables & 3hr free flow of wine+beer, for sat dinner, price is at $1158++

Conclusion: Definitely one of our top choices for banquet due to the spacious ballroom and relatively convenient location.. price maybe slightly steep after all the service charge+GST but still can consider