Boycotting Courtyard Garden

After about 2 months of calls and meetings with Courtyard Garden, we reached an agreement so Paul and I went over there yesterday.

As I could not contact the F&B Director (which is the norm cos he hardly calls me back even though I leave several messages and call his mobile phone), I met up with one of his managers instead.

Azman was really nice and suggested several some options on how I could do the set up and to save money too. As I took out my credit card to pay for the deposit, Azman went into the office to double check that 18^th October was available.

He came out shortly only to tell me that that date has been taken. I was totally taken aback. After 2 months of talking, calling and meeting, how can this be?

I then asked if the other couple has paid the deposit? He said no but he still can’t give the place to me yet until the other couple decides because their name is on it and mine was not. To be fair, he said that he’ll give them 3 days to decide.

I still don’t understand why the F&B director didn’t put my name down on that date. Even if he wasn’t sure, by talking to him so often, doesn’t it show that I was seriously interested and wouldn’t he check on the date I wanted. This is so unprofessional. As a director, I thought he'd be more on the ball. Guess I should have expected this for someone who doesn't return calls, is hardly around, doesn't offer suggestions, has one word answers for all my questions and is not passionate about events, parties or weddings.

But what else could I do? Poor Paul. He didn’t know what to do to cheer me up. So he bought me a Japanese dinner with my favourite cheese sticks and even tepanyaki waghu beef. That was yuuuums!

And this morning, a colleague, Sharon, came to me with good news. The original place I wanted to hold the wedding was Passion Road which was situated at the same row as Courtyard Garden. It’s a bungalow which only caters to events. They do not operate as a restaurant. As the directors are florists and interior decorators, Passion Road is absolutely gorgeous! And they really know how to host a party. However, when I started inquiring, I found out that Passion Road either closed down or moved. But I couldn’t find out where. So the next best choice was Courtyard.

And now Sharon tells me that Passion Road moved to Jalan Yap Kwan Seng. She even gave me all the contacts. I called them right away and 18 Oct was still available. Is this a sign?

Just in case the incident with Courtyard happens again, I temporarily booked the date. As they only operate during usual working hours and I’m not in town this Saturday, I’ll only be able to go have a look for myself next Saturday. But the pic on the website look gorgeous. Go see for yourself. In fact, it looks as pretty if not more so than their old premise at Damansara Heights.

Their menu prices are more expensive than Courtyard. And their beer barrel corkage and band cost are higher too. However, the place is already decorated and all I need to do is to make some slight additions. So at the end, the price for Passion Road is only slightly more expensive than Courtyard Garden.

I’m so excited. Especially after the shock and disappointment from the previous night. I can’t wait to see the place.

Wedding Venue, Hair & Make Up Sorted. Wedding Theme?

Wedding plans are finally falling into place. I mean specifically the cocktail wedding. Hehehe. Gotta be very specific when I blog about the wedding. Or should I say weddings.

I spoke to over a dozen venues and they are either too small to accommodate the number of guests I want, bad service, not a conducive layout for a wedding, too far away, in a remote location, not good food or too expensive. It’s been 2 months since I started looking for a location and I was ready to tear my hair out.

I found Courtyard Garden to be the best venue in terms of location, availability of valet and parking lots, spaciousness, the ambience (it looks good as it is and will need less decor and flowers to transform it to a truly magical place) and price. However, the person in charge of events was always MIA and took a week to get back to me with answers to my questions. And they won’t let me bring in barrels of beer despite me willing to pay corkage. GAB is going to sponsor the beer and if I can’t bring it in, what am I going to do with a few barrels of beer. Not to mention I’ll need to buy from Courtyard which always costs a lot more money than bringing your own.

So I prayed and I prayed asking God to please open some doors and let me find a perfect location to hold the wedding of my dreams.

And wala! Yesterday I called Courtyard again and the guy not only responded but was incredibly helpful and pleasant. And he even agreed to allow me to bring in the beer barrels.

So we have a winner! Courtyard Garden it is! Finally! I’m so glad. It’s such a load off my mind. Now that I have the location, I can start planning the flowers, décor, finalize the guest list, plan the seating arrangement, go for food tasting and choose the menus, design the back drop, brief the videographer and photographer, pick the music which suits the theme and talk to the DJ, preview a few jazz bands or string quartets, decide on a theme … now the fun bits start!

And the other good news is that A Cut Above will be sponsoring my hair & make up. That’s another RM1,500 saved! It’s good to have good friends (and have a mother who is good friends with people in high places).

I was just thinking about the theme. Since it’s going to be in a garden setting and my cocktail dress is soft and flowy, the theme can be Garden Fairies! For the girls anyway. The guys can be elfs (or gnomes) ROTFLMAO!