Wedding venue, affordable ideas needed!

[aaakker]

I have been lucky to have found the girl of my dreams here in Singapore and am planning a wedding. Unfortunately, we have found that it is very hard to find a good venue for the wedding. Venue prices are very high, the menus are questionable (and expensive), seldomly a breakdown of the costs is given and many places do not look inviting and those that do are expensive (yes, there is a theme here). Neither of us earns a fortune so we must take the costs in careful consideration.

What I’m looking for is the following:
- A separate place for the solemnization and dinner/party (can be the same location, but different places e.g. outdoor solemnization and indoor dinner)
- No (hotel) Ballroom wedding!
- Preferably a place that allows us to bring our own caterer (to minimize cost)
- Preferably a place that allows us to bring our own alcohol. Alternatively a place with either a decent alcohol deal/small corkage fee
- Preference for a place that is romantic/stylish (like white rabbit, colonial style house, etc)
- Can seat 150 people in a single room (I want everybody to be part of it)
- Dinner area must have aircon, some guests will not be able to stand the humidity/heat otherwise some of the guests will not be able to cope with the heat/humidity
- Hope to have the wedding q1 of next year

I have been to various places and been looking on the internet a lot, to no avail. Raffles house is stunning (but too small), White rabbit too expensive and Burkill hall has no aircon and will be closed next year. So, I would greatly appreciate it if anybody could give me some advice on a good venue and help make my bride very happy. So please, any advice is very welcome.

[PNGMK]

How many guests? If not too many I would rent one of the rooms in the Blu Jazz building (they have a second and third floor that can be rented). You would have to use their bar (and maybe food) but I regularly host SPE there for $1500 including drinks....

[sundaymorningstaple]

Just rent a People's Association community center multi-purpose hall. Cheap, can have caterers, band, whatever. Done all the time. I got married at the ROM. Private ceremony by the JP there with immediate family. We did have two receptions. One at the AMK Community Centre primarily for my wife's parents long time friends etc. No alcohol was served but plenty of food (Indian style). The other reception was a bit larger affair (around 150 guests) at the old Century Park Sheraton on Nassim Hill with a buffet catering to Asian, Western & Halal diets and plenty of booze, and bands (Gingerbread &
Bandwagon) mainly for my wife's fans, ST journalists, and church friends and a few of my oilfield friends to liven things up a bit.

[aaakker]

Thank you @PNGMK, that is indeed a very good suggestion. I remember having a party there once. It might be a bit too small though. But I will definitely contact them for more info.

Thank you for the suggestion @sundaymorningstaple. Unfortunately, I have heard that the old Century Park Sheraton on Nassim Hill/ANA hotel is going to be tore down to make a new condo. Most community centers seem to lack character/are impersonal. So that is not what I am looking for. But it is nice and cheap though. So I will be doing more research on that to see if there is a nice one. Thanks

[sundaymorningstaple]

It's not going to be torn down. It was actually sold back in 1990 I think and it became the ANA hotel. It was torn down in 2011 to make way for condos. I was not suggesting to use it, but more going with the community centre type of venue. Some of the newer ones like the Serangoon Community Centre on Seragoon North Ave 2 are airconditioned with a nice stage, ample electronics and lighting.

[JR8]

We got married on one of the back lawns at the Raffles, having independently identified and hired a solemniser (who was fantastic). The rings/signing etc was under an open-sided pavilion type structure, and the guests were seated right in front on rows of chairs. If it rained there was the contingency option of immediately switching to one of their venue spaces upstairs at the rear of the hotel.
Examples of the precise venue [these are from Google, not our ceremony]->
http://www.vettaquartet.com/wp-content/ ... -1-10e.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/23 ... fb4df6.jpg
http://eiriktan.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/094.jpg
I'd expect the Hotel website to have other pix too. The hotel wedding co-ordinator was great too; in fact IIRC they have a team of them. It went as seamlessly as it could have, near military precision We went with a pretty baseline deal and it was reasonable. We could have added extras (guests staying there, us staying there, the event being catered there etc, the $ can be the limit is seems). But our arrangement added a touch of wow, for both us and our guests, and wasn't that expensive.

Then for the main reception we had that in the reception room at our condo (nil cost). We had a caterer provide the food, which allowed us to pick a range of dishes pitched at both spice-lovers and guests with less exotic palates. That was also pretty inexpensive. Some of the locals also brought along food they had prep'd too.

We had a couple of 'break-out' events too. The trad-local visit by the core families to my in-laws home for a meal. A dinner and night on the town for me+wife and our own friends, and so on.

One key to making it simple was delegating responsibility amongst people we trusted. I dealt with the Raffles, and condo re: the hall. My wife the solemniser. My SIL the food. My BIL and Best Man were in charge of dealing with questions from and co-ordination of local and visiting guests respectively. So a tip would be to do the same if you can: As the day nears things REALLY snowball fast, and delegating out responsibility kept things pretty sane IME.

Oh and congratulations and best of luck to you both!

[sundaymorningstaple]

Friend of ours also did one of the smaller gardens/lawns at Raffles two years ago but had the reception luncheon at one of the halls that flanks the area. Was rather pleasant for a change. They were an older couple not too far removed from our age, (maybe 15 years give or take).

[PNGMK]

Another option is to become a member of a religious congregation; they often have facilities (I know ours does).

[JR8]

re: SMS
Yep, nice. Their lunch venue might have been the contingency space kept on hand in case of rain. Close by and one floor up IIRC. I did get to see it but only briefly.
The other nice thing with the Raffles is of course you get to take some fantastic pix.
I recall back at the time that there was a list of wedding venues you can use in SG: Places that aren't religious buildings or ROM itself. I don't recall if this is on the ROM site, or one of the main SGn wedding wedding sites. I followed a couple of the latter for a while in the planning stages, to help gather ideas. Also at times for amusement... stuff like the etiquette/politics of hong bao's etc can be pretty mind-boggling, like how it seems to be quite a common expectation to turn a decent net profit on the day via one's guests!

Yep, I think if you're a bit older you can approach it in something of a more relaxed way. With perspective it might not any longer feel like the single biggest event of your life, even though it perhaps hopefully still is

@PNG - Perhaps if bride and groom are of the same religion, and in this case Christians. If it's a x-religion match-up I'd suggest trying to keep religion completely out of it. Otherwise one side/family might be thought to be exerting present (and future) influence.

[Strong Eagle]

I have also seen weddings conducted at Fort Canning... in the main building (wedding and reception - quite a few different sized rooms), as well as on the grounds itself.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fort+ ... 03.8463071

If you know someone at the American Club, room rentals can be reasonable... don't know about food costs these days.

You could also check into NUSS... good facilities in several places... you can probably find someone who has membership... they post their prices online... http://www.nuss.org.sg/suntec-city/30

[Strong Eagle]

I have also seen weddings conducted at Fort Canning... in the main building (wedding and reception - quite a few different sized rooms), as well as on the grounds itself.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fort+ ... 03.8463071

If you know someone at the American Club, room rentals can be reasonable... don't know about food costs these days.

You could also check into NUSS... good facilities in several places... you can probably find someone who has membership... they post their prices online... http://www.nuss.org.sg/suntec-city/30

[BBCWatcher]

As another idea, the new CET centers (Jurong and Paya Lebar) might work. They're pretty affordable (especially during a weekday) and allow outside catering as far as I know. The one in Jurong has a roof garden that could be for the wedding ceremony itself, while the one in Paya Lebar has an indoor "hanging balcony" level that could be an interesting place for the ceremony.

MPH at Hort Park is another affordable venue, particularly on a weekday again. You could combine a garden wedding ceremony with an indoor reception all that the same park.

[rajagainstthemachine]

botanic gardens also can i think

[aaakker]

Thanks @JR8, do I understand it correctly and you hired just the lawn for the solemnization without the lunch package from Raffles? That does seem like a good idea. Thank you @sundaymorningstaple for confirming this option. I will follow up on this.

I’m not a religious man and neither is my fiancée. So becoming a member of a religious society without sharing their beliefs just to make use of their facilities would be a bit dishonourable/hypocritical. But if we were religious this would have been a good and cheap option. Thank you @PNGMK. I went to Blu Jaz yesterday on your suggestion. I think they have a really nice place for a party. Unfortunately its not big enough for 150 people in a single room. Its also not very clean (my fiancée's issue) so a dinner might not be an option. As a party/afterparty the place is great.

@Strong Eagle, Fort Canning was on top of our list as well. Unfortunately Raffles house was just a bit too small (can only house 70/80 people), otherwise we would have held it there. You mention the main hall for the wedding and reception, I have heard this was very nice but also no longer possible. I will follow up on this if my information is incorrect. Thank you.

@BBCWatcher, We have been to Hort park and it is on our shortlist. Reasonably affordable, the lawn in front is nice and you can bring your own food. Just a shame that the shop/storage space next to the lawn is so ugly.

@rajagainstthemachine, we have been to Burkill hall. That was very beautiful. Unfortunately it has no aircon and not everybody can fit in the same room (dinner area not big enough). Also it will be closed the entire next year. But a great location! The Halia in the botanic gardens is not very nice. Too small rooms and even combined it feels too cramped. But I do feel that the locations in the various Singapore parks offer the best deals (at least so far).

Thank you for the suggestions.

[PNGMK]

What about a cruise ship? Serious.... I'm sort of surprised they don't offer wedding/honeymoon packages.