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While waiting for my baby Z to be out, I think it would be good to continue this series of blog entry on wedding preps. As promised, I will share the list of wedding vendors I have researched for my wedding and my personal reviews on the vendors I have picked for my big day...A word of CAUTION before I begin...I might sound a bit harsh in some of the reviews but they are just my personal reflections and I am being frank.
Reception: Setia City Covention Centre (SCCC)
Overall rating: 3.8 (out of 5)
Recommendation grading:Highly recommended, Recommended, Recommended with reservation, Not recommended
Recommendation grading:
I would talk about this first as the largest bulk of wedding expenses was on the reception/ banquet dinner.
Price/Value: Fair
We booked when it was just newly opened. The introductory price was considerably reasonable, in comparison to other hotels and convention centers offering similar packages.
Food: Excellent & most importantly, HALAL (We had Muslim guests)
The taste, presentation, temperature & portion during the actual day were pleasant and did not deviate much from what we had during food tasting (as according to my brother & SIL).
A week before the wedding, the assistant banquet manager proposed to "double park" the first four courses (i.e. two courses being served at the same time) as there will be another bigger wedding running at the same time as ours, and they were worried of shortage of servers on that day. Which client in the right mind would accept such ridiculous proposal? We disapproved the idea and insisted that all courses to be served one at a time. I even reminded my wedding coordinator, William Lee, to make sure that there will be no double parking of dishes and that next course to be served at about 10-15 minutes after the earlier course has been finished by the guests. Thank goodness all dishes were served perfectly at just the right time.
So far, none of my guests complained about the food. All gave thumbs up! We were glad that no one felt rushed or had to wait too long to eat.
A week before the wedding, the assistant banquet manager proposed to "double park" the first four courses (i.e. two courses being served at the same time) as there will be another bigger wedding running at the same time as ours, and they were worried of shortage of servers on that day. Which client in the right mind would accept such ridiculous proposal? We disapproved the idea and insisted that all courses to be served one at a time. I even reminded my wedding coordinator, William Lee, to make sure that there will be no double parking of dishes and that next course to be served at about 10-15 minutes after the earlier course has been finished by the guests. Thank goodness all dishes were served perfectly at just the right time.
So far, none of my guests complained about the food. All gave thumbs up! We were glad that no one felt rushed or had to wait too long to eat.
Ambience: Awesome
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the lavish Grand Pavilion (gazebo) and the surrounding landscape. The interior of the convention center certainly looks glamorous with enclosing glass panels overlooking the fountain and lush scenery outside.
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| The Grand Pavillion |
The hall has unique LED lighting (colour changeable) mounted on the ceilings...and very importantly, no musty carpet smell!
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| LED lighting with changeable colours |
Quality of Service: Blah/rather crappy
To be honest, I was rather disappointed with the SCCC's management. They were new, inexperienced and kinda "chaotic" with their policy. Two event executives were put to be be in charge of our wedding.
The first one, Cindy, was fairly rigid, inexperienced and rather unprofessional. I remembered how aloof she treated us during our first two visits to SCCC, as if we could not afford a wedding banquet there. The moment she got to know that we are residents of Setia Eco Park, her tone changed instantaneously.
During the first visit, we were informed that the the wedding package comes with complimentary use of event lawn and gazebo. However, after signing up, Cindy told us a different thing..."Wedding couples are only entitled to complimentary usage of Grand Pavilion. Use of event lawn is charged at RM 2,000 ++ (even for an hour event)". I was instructed by Cindy to get my own people to clean up the gazebo after the garden ceremony and to provide her a black & white stating that I agree to clean up the gazebo after the event. =.='''
When asked in detail about the decorations/ flower arrangements included in my wedding package, neither Cindy nor SCCC's panel decorator (Star Garden Florist) could not provide a definite answer, even when it was only 4 months away from the wedding day. Star Garden kept giving me the excuse that SCCC has not confirm on the budget allocated for decoration, and hence, they can't furnish the details of the arrangements.
A particular person as always, I proposed my elaborated ideas on wedding decorations to both of them and asked if they are possible with the budget allocated by SCCC. Guess what were their replies?
Star Garden: We will only do a new theme if we think the theme is "sellable". I think it is better if you choose our existing themes...(Not even one is of my liking)
Cindy: Just let me know your theme colour and the panel decorator will settle the arrangements based on our budget allocation. By the way, I have no authority to let you know our cost breakdown. You may speak to my superior on this. As for the guest table posy, you can only choose the preferred colour. The banquet manager will decide on the posy arrangement. (That's why I call her "rigid"...I wasn't even allowed to choose my preferred flower for guest table posy).
Dubious that the floral arrangements set by them would be exactly of my liking, I decided to get an external decorator instead. I shall talk more about the decor in my next entry.
Thank God I only had to deal with Cindy for 9 months, until she was transferred to a different unit. Fiona, the successor, was way better in terms of social etiquette and professionalism. Comparatively more helpful and negotiable, Fiona accepted my simple request for the choice of guest table posy and forwarded it to the banquet manager...I managed to get the posy of my choice in the end. :)
We took two beer barrels from SCCC for the predinner cocktail. The two beer girls that served the beer were horrendous!! A number of my guests complained that the girls were lingering around the dessert table during cocktail, sinking their teeth into the wedding cake and other sweet treats, which were meant ONLY for my guests. Mind you, the beer barrels were not empty yet!! Terrible!
The first one, Cindy, was fairly rigid, inexperienced and rather unprofessional. I remembered how aloof she treated us during our first two visits to SCCC, as if we could not afford a wedding banquet there. The moment she got to know that we are residents of Setia Eco Park, her tone changed instantaneously.
During the first visit, we were informed that the the wedding package comes with complimentary use of event lawn and gazebo. However, after signing up, Cindy told us a different thing..."Wedding couples are only entitled to complimentary usage of Grand Pavilion. Use of event lawn is charged at RM 2,000 ++ (even for an hour event)". I was instructed by Cindy to get my own people to clean up the gazebo after the garden ceremony and to provide her a black & white stating that I agree to clean up the gazebo after the event. =.='''
When asked in detail about the decorations/ flower arrangements included in my wedding package, neither Cindy nor SCCC's panel decorator (Star Garden Florist) could not provide a definite answer, even when it was only 4 months away from the wedding day. Star Garden kept giving me the excuse that SCCC has not confirm on the budget allocated for decoration, and hence, they can't furnish the details of the arrangements.
A particular person as always, I proposed my elaborated ideas on wedding decorations to both of them and asked if they are possible with the budget allocated by SCCC. Guess what were their replies?
Star Garden: We will only do a new theme if we think the theme is "sellable". I think it is better if you choose our existing themes...(Not even one is of my liking)
Cindy: Just let me know your theme colour and the panel decorator will settle the arrangements based on our budget allocation. By the way, I have no authority to let you know our cost breakdown. You may speak to my superior on this. As for the guest table posy, you can only choose the preferred colour. The banquet manager will decide on the posy arrangement. (That's why I call her "rigid"...I wasn't even allowed to choose my preferred flower for guest table posy).
Dubious that the floral arrangements set by them would be exactly of my liking, I decided to get an external decorator instead. I shall talk more about the decor in my next entry.
Thank God I only had to deal with Cindy for 9 months, until she was transferred to a different unit. Fiona, the successor, was way better in terms of social etiquette and professionalism. Comparatively more helpful and negotiable, Fiona accepted my simple request for the choice of guest table posy and forwarded it to the banquet manager...I managed to get the posy of my choice in the end. :)
We took two beer barrels from SCCC for the predinner cocktail. The two beer girls that served the beer were horrendous!! A number of my guests complained that the girls were lingering around the dessert table during cocktail, sinking their teeth into the wedding cake and other sweet treats, which were meant ONLY for my guests. Mind you, the beer barrels were not empty yet!! Terrible!
- Carmen -
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