Venue, Part I

After some discussion with Dad, we're more or less set on Swissotel The Stamford! The cost is within budget, and of course it's of sufficient capacity. The only grouse I've seen so far on discussion forums is that they don't offer as many extra perks compared to other hotels, but then again .. perks aren't always that great or important. Have contacted the sales people there, and we'll see what we can do about the menu. I'm not really that hot on a traditional sit-down Chinese dinner, especially when the forte of the chefs there isn't Chinese. Their ballrooms are a tad sterile though, as they are usually used for conventions etc, so hopefully the decor people can work some magic on that.

So for this week, pending reply from Stamford regarding what we want. We might pay a deposit next week or in a fortnight to guarantee the date. And next up will be finding the gown.

About the dance ... we're planning for a dance floor, definitely, for the dinner. It'll take the space of some 10-15 tables I think, depending on how big it'll be. The idea is that since a fair bit of our guests are actually dancers - ballroom etc - we'll just get the DJ/band (if we can afford one ..) to cycle through various genres of music for people to take to the floor. We'll also be doing a couple of dance items. Yanxian was very keen for rhumba since it's so romantic, but I must profess that it's not one of my strongest latin dances. So we'll probably end up with 2 dances - rhumba, and lindy hop. And thereafter, a mix of latin (cha cha, jive, samba), classical (waltz, tango, foxtrot), social (square rhumba, salsa, bachata, jazz/lindy) and of course a bit of the regular club music. Sounds good?

This is very pleasant, preparing for the banquet. A nice silver lining amidst everything else. =)

We're now at the stage of preparing our guest list and subsequently searching for a hotel. Currently we stand at a minimum of 50 tables, according to my dad (he and his business friends etc etc), so there aren't many ballrooms to choose from - a blessing in itself! More or less we're thinking about Meritus Mandarin. We're doing a conservative budget of $1000 nett or so per table, it's just foolish and ridiculous to pay too much. (chances are, it might go beyond that.) Alas! I'm actually very interested in the Ritz. It has the capacity, and the look I want, but it's simply too expensive.

I actually don't want a traditional sit-down Chinese 9-course thing. How many times have you gone to such an event, gotten really full by the 6th course, tired by the 8th, and spent less than 5 minutes with the bride and groom? Eeeks. No, I don't want that. And I'm glad my parents are also all for getting rid of the ridiculous going from table-to-table photo-taking thing. =) We'll see how it goes. Yanxian actually had this really great idea of a themed party, like a masquerade. I'm pretty sure many of the younger folk will be game, but the problem will lie with the older ones, which unfortunately will probably take up much of the attendance.

More to come!