Wedding Dinner at Park Royal On Pickering

I spent my Saturday evening attending a very sweet wedding at Park Royal at Pickering with Mr OOPS. This was a great reason for me to feel excited because this was also one of the hotels which I shortlisted for my own wedding banquet. We had very good vibes when attending their wedding showcase too. It didn't work out eventually as the dates which we wanted are packed.

So here's some thoughts about the wedding venue!

Location: Awesome
- Just 5 minutes walk from Chinatown MRT station, definitely convenient for non-drivers.

Service: Awesome
- As a guest, I feel pretty pleased with the service. Waiter to table ratio was 1:1. Tea, alcohol and soft drinks were filled up promptly by our waiter.
- Although the food was served in communal style, the waiter will help us with splitting the food into individual plates (if we want to). Pretty uncommon I would say.
- Personally, I didn't really like the hotel's style of serving the first dish. The waiters and waitresses came in 2 separate batches with a odd break in between, stood around our tables and waited until their manager entered and went on stage. They then bow together before serving. However, this is not going to affect their service level as it's more of a personal preference.

Food: Good
- The dishes presented are something different from the usual kinds of banquet dishes. The hotel did put some effort to "zhng" their menu!
- One very interesting dish that caught my attention was steamed promfret as the fish dish. We would usually expect a soon hock or a grouper for the fish so this is really refreshing. However, our promfret was overcooked.
-Another interesting dish that we had was the carbs. Instead of lotus rice/noodles/fried rice, we had japanese stir fried ramen topped with lots of bonito flakes! Again, it's interesting combination but sadly, the noodles were dry and not very tasty afterall.
- Portions of the food are also pretty small. One thing that was very apparent was the soup in the second dish. My table only have 9 pax seating. After the waiter split the soup into the 9 bowls, we only have half a bowl of soup each. Bleh.

Unique Points About The Wedding:
- For the montage before their second march in, this couple creatively opt for a photo slideshow that helps us to run through what happened in the morning. This was accompanied with a nice soothing music. I thought this was a really refreshing idea and cost saving idea! Something different from the usual wedding video highlights!
- The wedding couple also prepared a video containing their thank you speech for their guests. That may be helpful for couples who have stage frights or making speeches in front of big crowds! ;)
-The couple has very nicely arranged for a pre-wedding treat as part of their cocktail reception. They opted for a Peking duck crepe station. From my observations, it does seem pretty popular amongst the guests, especially the elderly. (However, can't help but to say this, it doesn't taste as great as it looks.) The queue to get the crepe was also moving quite slow.

Peking Duck Station

Cocktail Reception area

Other Points to note:
- One extra info for couples who are checking out this as your potential venue the hotel provides 2 types of march in. An L shape march in (longer) and a straight march in (shorter). The current set up below is actually for a L shape march in.
-Hotel is very new and because of that, also very high in demand.
-Ballroom is pillarless, and has 3 projectors.  For the L shape march in, there will probably be 1 or 2 tables whereby the guests will have difficulty viewing the projectors. I so happen to be seated at one of the blind spots. (right beneath the projectors)
- I like the bridal suite in the hotel. (Check out their junior suite ^^)

Ballroom Setup at William and Pickering Ballroom

My Recommendations:

- If you have many guests who are driving, do try and ask for more carpark coupons. The parking costs alone costs $25. So it would be helpful if you can secure enough parking coupons for your guests.

- If the signature of your wedding is food, then you may want to rethink about having your wedding here. For the kind of price they are charging for their wedding dinner banquet tables, I think there's better options out there. However, if you have already booked, then maybe you need to work harder on food tasting or consider topping up money on the menu.

- Since I went to their wedding showcase, I have more to comment for this wedding venue. I'm not sure if we are plain unlucky or that's the style of the hotel due to its popularity. During our interaction with the sales co-ordinator of this hotel, he did not seem very open in terms of the bargaining of perks. My guess is, they have no lack of sales for year 2015 and thus, no urgency to secure our deal too.

- If you are planning to do solemnization together with your wedding banquet, the hotel is actually able to arrange a small function room, which is at the same level of the banquet hall, for free. However, if you are considering to solemnize at the "garden" area (supposedly which you will get the city view) located at level 5, it's seriously not as green as you imagine it to be. I didn't even bother taking a photo of it because the area looks so bare and empty. On top of the rental fees for the venue, you also need to consider the additional costs to engage a florist if you want to set it up with more flowers and green.

I'm going to end this post with a meaningful love song which I loved but somehow it was forgotten over the years. Glad to hear it from the band during the wedding =)

Song : Better Together by Jack Johnson

Love is the answer, 

At least for most of the questions in my heart

Like why are we here? And where do we go? 

And how come it's so hard? 

It's not always easy and 

Sometimes life can be deceiving 

I'll tell you one thing, 

it's always better when we're together

Happy planning to all.

Mrs To-Be OOPS