A Wedding at Passion Road (not mine)

Apart from the usual hotels and Chinese restaurants which offer cookie cutter wedding packages, there really aren’t that many locations offered to a couple for their wedding.

Ciao was very popular. But their land has been taken away and the last time I saw, the bungalow was about to be demolished. That’s quite sad because their venue was very nice for a garden wedding, complete with a fountain even!

The other very popular place is Courtyard Garden but if you’ve followed my blog, you’ll know that I find them unprofessional, tardy and messy and thus they are on my boycott list!

I’m still very glad I found Passion Road. I’ve been there about a dozen times to talk through the details with the manager there and also to show friends and supplier how the set up will be. Melissa is new but she’s been very helpful and accommodating. And now there’s another person, Travis who has so far been great too.

There was a wedding on Sunday and Melissa suggested I go look at the set up to get a feel of what I can expect. It’s really lovely. Just look at the pics.

Pics from Passion Road

Passion Road truly is gorgeous and such a perfect venue for the wedding. At least the wedding planner and friends who have been there before think so. Here’s the plan, to give you a sneak preview.

This is the main entrance.

And this is for the marriage registry and blessing ceremony.

This area is for guest registration or where the band will play.

Or maybe this is where the band will play. And the canopy area will be for the DJ console.

The dining area.

Decor on the dining table.

This is pretty lighting to set the mood. Fairy lights will be added every where to add to the theme.

And this is one of my favourite angles of the place.

Or maybe it's this view from the balcony where I'll be throwing the bouquet from.

It even has a view of KLCC!

Patricia The Wedding Planner, her partner & I briefing Josh the Passion Road Manager.

The wedding planner is sending the agenda over the weekend.

Yup, everything is falling into place indeed.

Wedding Plans Are Coming Together Finally

Paul, the wedding planner & I went to Passion Road on Saturday to recce the place and to make a deposit (I can’t let what happened at Courtyard happen again!). The place is so much more beautiful than Courtyard Garden. Plus the people are so much nicer, helpful and accommodating too.

And yes I have a wedding planner! She’s Patricia from Wedding Planners Malaysia, who came highly recommended by Melvin Kuo. And her husband does fabrication work and is now figuring out how to make wings. Fairy wings! And they’re going to be pinned onto the back of my dress instead of being looped round the arms like the kiddy wings found at Toy’s R Us. So much more magical and fairy like!

I’ve also bought the bridesmaid dresses. They are shimmery tube dresses. Baby pink for Fruitcake, the Maid of Honour and maroon for Cyn Sin and Michelle Who Stays on The Seashore the other bridesmaids. I liked the dresses so much that I bought extra. I can’t decide if I should have more bridesmaids. If at the end of the day, I don’t have enough bridesmaids to fill the dresses, I’m gonna keep the dresses for myself!

Shell and I were smoking in the stairwell one day and I was telling her that I need to audition a few bands and to hire one to play at the wedding. Then Gary, a writer from a different department who was smoking there too, just turned around and said he’s in a band and is sure that his band members would wanna play at my wedding for free. Then I discovered that I knew all of the other band members …. I just didn’t know they were in the band together! The band is called ‘Don’t Make Ian (fuckin) Cry’. I’ve yet to find out the story behind the name. And yes, one of the band members is indeed called Ian.

So all in all, the wedding plans are coming together so well. I now just need to brief the copy writers and art directors to come up with the masthead and I can’t start doing up my wedding website and send the invites out.

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.