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標題: Anyone planning a wedding in 2012? [打印本頁]

作者: kuka 時間: 2012-1-11 16:27 標題: Anyone planning a wedding in 2012?

Just got enagaged last month. Planning for a wedding maybe late summer/fall. Is it a bit too rush?

Any bride/groom to be here would like to share idea?

I guess the first thing to do is to set a date then look for venue (ceremony/reception).

We are still thinking whether to have Chinese banquet or western style. For us, we don't have many friends and relatives so it will be a small size (~50 to 80 guests? depending on if the overseas relatives will attend)

For the same number of guests, is it more cost efficient to have western style (ceremony/reception in the same place)?
Most of the guests are Chinese except our co-workers, so it seems a bit strange to hold western style. But the Chinese banquet may cost significant more as it count by table of 10, and I heard some restaurants do not show you all the hidden extra until you get closed to it. ( This is just my thoughts, and not sure if it is right).

Any married lyk would like to share their ideas/experiences are welcome too.

作者: fibbi 時間: 2012-1-11 19:01

First of all congratulations!

as for planning, I do think chinese banquet is cheaper than Western. Western banquet (I assume in hotel or golf club?) usually includes some charges (some venue charges for electric outlet, projector etc...) and 17% tip on top of HST. And you rarely find western banquet $60/head? But you can still find $600 / table in Chinese restaurant.

Also, for western banquet, you may want to spend some $ on center piece on each table, that costs as well.

And no I don't think it's strange for Chinese to attend western banquet, it's totally up to you.

作者: jennypun 時間: 2012-1-12 00:09

Congratulation!
if you want to do it around Aug/Sept, u still have 8 or 9 months to prepare, so it is not rush. But u should start planning everything now. Like fibbi said, western style should be more pricy. You can always go check out the price first, compare both Chinese and western style, see which one is cheaper.

作者: Quest 時間: 2012-1-12 09:28

All good points from the rest of the posters so far.

I've been married for 10yrs now, so some of the info provided here may be out of date somewhat.

that being said, however, either 1 (chinese or western) banquets all have pros and cons:

Pros:
Chinese banquet: if you are careful, you can pretty much negotiate all the way towards better deals: from what comes along within the banquet (you want fresh steamed sea-fish, or substitute with fresh tilapia? etc., you want crab+lobster or crab alone, or you want to substitute sharks fin soup with something else, etc. choice is yours).

On top of that: with chinese seafood restaurant, you can also try to negotiate you way through by means of you provide the wines (as opposed to them providing/charging you for that, eliminate the charge on "bottle opening fee", complementary (all inclusive) softdrinks per table, etc. Also: all inclusive cash deal (all inclusive, including the tipping for waiters/waitress, etc.)

Western banquet: not so much wiggling space for you to negotiate. But then again: you also get the flexibility of either going "grand/fancy" or going "cheep".

Choice is yours.

Q.

作者: tsumorichisato 時間: 2012-1-12 16:04

Chinese banquet is not necessarily more cost efficient, cuz i mean what's the point of having chinese banquet if you can't have a better menu right, that's what your guests and your family probably would expect when you decide to go for a chinese banquet? Plus now you can't sneak in alcohol, the price difference in general is getting slimmer.

Western banquet for ~50-80 guests is pretty good guest size in terms of value. You will be able to book a nice room and probably just met their minimum charge. You can definitely control the alcohol consumption if you concern about the cost, that's the part making western venue sounds more expensive.

Maybe end up western venue still costs more, but the amount wouldn't be large as your guest size is rather small. I would say you should follow your heart to see which option you are more into.

作者: Quest 時間: 2012-1-13 17:33

本帖最後由 Quest 於 2012-1-13 17:35 編輯

"...Plus now you can't sneak in alcohol, the price difference in general is getting slimmer...."

Geesh! Where did you get this info from?! Most seafood restaurants that handles/offers wedding banquets have proper BC liquor license to offer alcohol. Whether you want to bring you own or you want to take advantage of them offering (obviously they will be marked up..), that can be negotiated and most seafood restaurants are more than happy to let you bring your own alcohol, period.

Have you ever hold any banquets of some sort in a Chinese seafood restaurant before? better yet: have you ever sit down and discuss the menu with a restaurant manager and find things that you like>?

**I pretty much doubt it based on your comments**

Q.

作者: raffaello 時間: 2012-1-14 15:21

本帖最後由 raffaello 於 2012-1-14 15:25 編輯

"...Plus now you can't sneak in alcohol, the price difference in general is getting slimmer...."

Ge ...
Quest 發表於 2012-1-13 17:33

Actually, tsumorichisato is right, you cannot bring your own alcohol to restaurant anymore. It was on the newspaper a few months ago. Here is a link to a govt website. Look under "Bringing your own wine or beer to restaurant, and taking home unfinished bottles of wine".
http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/lclb/LLinBC/basics.htm

作者: Quest 時間: 2012-1-14 16:17

Oh I see..

Thank you for your update on this raffaello, looks like I'm the one that is out of date, not tsumorichisato.

to tsumorichisato: My apologies to you.

Q.

作者: kuka 時間: 2012-1-17 19:46

Thanks alot for the advices! We porbably will go with Chinese banquet, as we are more familiar with it, and western co-workers seem like to see different culture as well.

I checked ceremony places online, the rental price went way up in the past couple years.
Also, some nice places like golf club need you to book both ceremony and reception at the place.

Haven't look into banquet places yet so no idea for now.

Any recommendations for mid-range ceremony venue?
Chinese restaurant for banquet in Lower mainland area?

or at least any places we should avoid?

Thanks again

作者: fibbi 時間: 2012-1-18 01:08

回復 9# kuka

For ceremony:
I considered Minoru chapel mid-range. I do know price goes up much more recent years but at least you don't have to pay for food unlike golf club venue.
But of course if you like to serve cocktail after ceremony it's different.
Btw, I LOVE Cecil Green UBC but it's getting too pricey now. View is spectacular though.

Banquet: Sun Sui wah, Kirin are popular choices.
I had mine in Kirin Richmond and it's good (both service and food). Venue is so-so as there are large column.

作者: 布小熊 時間: 2012-1-18 10:46

回復 10# fibbi

I think most venue prices have gone up.

作者: ACC-HE 時間: 2012-1-18 11:14

a bit rush, but good luck.

作者: 布小熊 時間: 2012-1-18 14:10

Not sure if this may help or not. But if you are not religious and don't mind a less traditional setting, you could have the ceremony done at the restaurant sometime before the banquet. So you don't need 2 venues. Commissioner can travel and preform the ceremony at any location.

作者: 布小熊 時間: 2012-1-18 14:45

本帖最後由布小熊於 2012-1-18 14:48 編輯

Other than the default venues, I have checked the following:
- Creekside community centre (in olympic village) a room with the false creek view rental is reasonable for a few hours but it's just a room. So you will need to spend a bit to decorate it. I was seriously considering this location at one point.

- Centennial Lodge in New West. Pretty nice venue but they ONLY rent it out as a banquet facility. So it cannot be a ceremony only location
- Same for Canvas Lounge in Gastown. They only do banquet and not just ceremony.

Since your wedding would most likely be in the summer or fall, you may have better luck with the weather and could consider hosting it at an outdoor venue.
http://vancouver.ca/parks/info/wedding/index.htm

Cecil Green is beautiful but it's hard to book and expensive.
UBC boat house also is nice and expensive

The Chapels is the group that runs a few wedding venues. Their new St Andrews location looks nice from the picture.
http://www.thechapels.ca/Locations_StAndrews.html
All their other locations are list in the same web site as well.

作者: Nam 時間: 2012-1-19 07:40

Shadbolt Centre by the City Hall has pretty nice view too. My co-worker order mini-sandwich from Bread & Bean cafe by the City Hall.

作者: kuka 時間: 2012-1-19 12:49

回復 14# 布小熊

Centennial Lodge is one of the places in my options, price seems reasonable but I have never been to there, I will go there to have a look first. We are thinking of having cocktail style refreshment after the ceremony, hopefully they would accomodate both in the same place.

Creekside looks very nice but it was just me I prefer places with free parking.

I just found Burnaby Village Museum Chapel, it fits number of our guests, will check it out.

It seems many popular places like Minoru Chapel, QE has pretty much booked up in September. I thought people prefer to host wedding in Summer in Vancouver...

Which venue did you end up with?

作者: 布小熊 時間: 2012-1-23 10:14

回復布小熊
Which venue did you end up with?
kuka 發表於 2012-1-19 12:49 PM

We ended up hosting the ceremony at a friend's photo studio in Richmond. We had around 80 guests for the ceremony and served light refreshments after. Our wedding was last Saturday.

Another friend of mine helped me to decorate it and turned out nicer than I thought.

We couldn't hang anything on the wall so most decro were on the floor or on the table.

We got engaged in Nov last year and got all the planning done in about a month's time! (a lot of things couldn't be confirmed until after Christmas and New Year and we really had about a month for the planning)

作者: fibbi 時間: 2012-1-23 11:43

回復 17# 布小熊

Congrats 布小熊 !!

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