Wedding Vendor Reviews - The Venue

It took the danna and I two years of detailed planning, together with teams of dedicated people working hand in hand with us to make our dream wedding come true. So happy to report that we have nothing but positive reviews for all our vendors + venue! The full list of vendors can be found here.

So let's start this long series of reviews with the most important part of the wedding - my venue.

If you've been following my monthly wedding prep updates in the past, you'd know how major of a problem our venue was for us  Believe it or not, ALL the venues on our list were already booked by Feb 2016! Here are our top few choices together with the rental charges. Please bear in mind I received all their replies late 2015/early last year so I'm not sure if they are still valid or not hokayyyyy~  

In order of our preference.....

1) Ulu Pandan CC

6 Hours of Usage (inclusive 4 hrs Air-Con):

$2100 (Non-Passion Card Members) / $1600 (Passion Card Members)

Preparation: $200 / hr

Cleaning Fee: $200

Others: $200 Water Basin, On site cooking is allowed outside the hall

This was our numero uno choice. It's a walking distance from the Buona Vista MRT station and the space I tell ya, is huge. First blogged about it here. When I first found out they were booked for an event on my wedding date, I WAS HEARTBROKEN. I continued to call them many times in the upcoming months to confirm its availability(heh freak much) but as they say, no rezeki lor....

2) The Grassroots' Club

Event Proper from 10am to 6pm = $7597  

Pre-event set-up one day before from 8pm onwards (subject to availability or after 12mn – able to do overnight décor.  On site cooking is strictly prohibited but you can do warm up only.

I've been here before and I love the space and its location. I called them immediately after I ended my disappointing phone call with UP CC. Sadly, they informed me they're not available on my date too!!!

Literally me after putting down the phone :(

3) Punggol 21 CC

$850 (for 4 hrs with air con) / $650 (for 4 hrs without air con)

Subsequent hr: $200 (with air con) / $150 non air-con

Preparation: $25 / hr

Cleaning Fee: $200

Others: Washing and cooking not allowed. Food preparation area is $200.

Space isn't as spacious as compared to Ulu Pandan CC but for a very obvious reason, this goes into the list. Unfortunately, we can only book it in June and I don't think I can deal with the disappointment if  I can't secure this venue. Also, we had to let it go cos my mom didn't like its location. Secretly thankful she didn't like it cos I didn't like the location either hehe.

4) Silat Federation 

$2500 for 11 hrs of usage including tear down and 6-7 hours of setting up a day before

I don't really like this place mainly cos there's no aircon and the markings on the floor (hahaha insignificant to others but major no to me!) but my parents were the ones who asked us to check it out. When the danna & I went down for site visit, my oh my it looks smaller than I imagined it to be. The staff we talked to gave a different $ from the one we received via email. Not friendly also layan nak tak nak. Turned off, so bye TTYN.

5. Begonia Ballroom

$11 500 from 9am-10pm  (including setup and tear down)

Usage of the main venue for 4 hours the day before event for pre set-up

Provision of 1 Bridal Room & Prayer Room

I got to know about this place through an email sent by a kind reader. Yes, it's insanely expensive but there's a lot of things included in the package which I feel is worth it. My parents were in love with it as much as I do but just like Ulu Pandan CC & TGC, it's not available on my date bleargh!

6) Aranda Country Club

$4,280 for full-day rental from 11am-9pm

Cooking and washing strictly not allowed

Since my parents loveeeeeee the location of the Begonia Ballroom so much, we thought that maybe we can find a hall around its location, and so this venue made it to the list. We were excited to hear that the hall is available on our date so we quickly set not one but two dates for a site visit. Lovely place next to the poolside, only problem with it is that in an event of wet weather there's no shelter for my poor guests but the hall isn't as big as it seems in pictures. So, no choice but to say bye to this one.

7) Joyden Hall

Another place suggested by a blog reader. I called them immediately and was attended by a rude staff whose only words to me were: "your date?" Not even a hello -_- The moment she said it's already booked, I put down the phone and went...

..in my head. T_T

Then somewhere in May, I got an email from someone who suggested UE Convention Centre...........

Honestly never heard about it at all, so I did a location search on IG to stalk previous weddings held there. As we were quite desperate at that point of time, I just send an email anyway and to my surprise, they replied within minutes! A very good first impression I must say. We set a date for a site visit with my parents and of course, we were all solddddddd. Love at first sight gitewww

UE Convention Centre (now known as Park Avenue Convention Centre)

Website | Facebook

We love its location (five minutes walk from Expo MRT Station), ample parking lots and most importantly, its pillarless, air-conditioned and huge space! To aid your understanding, here's the floor plan.

There are two other rooms located behind the stage and we have the option whether we want to use it for guests to lepak (as you know ours is a combined wedding so I was worried about it being too crowded!) or, we can remove the walls and place the buffet spread there. We chose the latter cos we thought that will make the hall look a lot more spacious.

A video I took during our second site visit. In the first few seconds, you can see the walls separating the two rooms and the main hall.

After much discussion, here's our final floor plan. We moved the stage+dais to the opposite side so that we have can a longer walk on our red carpet. Twenty round tables and six long tables, with extra chairs placed near North and West Entrance to ensure we have more than enough seats for everyone!

We were told that we can make turn one of the storage room into a prayer room but later we found out there's a musollah right behind Fairprice (which is like 20 steps away from the East Entrance) so we directed our guests there instead. You can find out more about this musollah here.

Oh and one more thing to add, open fire cooking and washing are not allowed in the premises.

A panoramic view from the West Entrance during pre set-up day.

In a nutshell, we have absolutely no regrets choosing UE Convention Centre as our wedding venue! The person we worked with is a very gila-gila guy (who happens to be good friends with my SIL) and he's also super efficient, I suka! Many of my parents' friends shared how they love the venue as well and it made us realise that things do happen for a reason. Not sure about the danna, but I sure am glad none of the venues we wanted so desperately much at first were available on our date. 

So SO glad!:)

ps: Thank you to those of you who left comments/email giving me suggestions on the venue. You know who you are!

pps: I don't wish to share UE's rental $$ here but you can always drop me an email (not a comment, I rarely check em!) if you're interested, I'll be more than happy to let chu know :D

xoxo, N