Meanwhile, the excited bride-to-be started looking at hotels already! Not knowing where to start, Jas simply hum-dum bo-lah and sent out email enquiries to a total of 25 hotels!

After getting the different packages and prices, we collated a spreadsheet to compare amongst them. Hotels which din reply were auto-eliminated, and hotels out of our budget range were taken out of consideration. We then read up on the shortlisted hotels (Singaporebrides.com was really a great resource!), looking at comments, praises and complaints they had on the ballroom, the food, the service etc.

After additional emails to clarify and further enquire, it was surprisingly easy to narrow down our choices. Grand Park City Hall* came up as our clear top choice.

• Central location (5min walk from City Hall MRT)
• Reasonable price within our budget
• Best deal so far: free flow beer, 1 bottle wine per table, no corkage charge
• Good ballroom: nice, classy and pillar-free, regularly-shaped rectangle ballroom
• Past couples were all praises about the hotel, service, and food.
• Only complaint was that the ballroom did not have a central door, allowing only an L-shaped march-in… but that was of little concern.

We enquired further about visiting the hotel and meeting the coordinator, Veralyn. Then we learnt that 2 other couples were asking about the same date for the ballroom dinner banquet! Panic!!! We had to act fast. We were in the midst of our grad sch interviews during that period and were flying to the states very soon. We had to settle it quick, or risk having the ballroom taken when we returned 2-3 weeks later… arghz! Immediately, we arranged for a meeting with Veralyn that very evening to view the ballroom and discuss the details of the package. We were very satisfied with the package and the ballroom, and after a few hours of consideration, we decided to simply go ahead. Email was sent immediately that night, and confirmation received the next morning. Settled! Kudos to the quick and efficient darlings! ^_^

~Grand Park City Hall, 08 August 2009, Grand Ballroom, Level 2~

* Post updated Feb 11 2009 to reflect the rename of Grand Plaza Park Hotel (GPPH) to Grand Park City Hall (GPCH).