Santi & Welly's Wedding Dinner in Batam!

Welly proposed to Santi during her birthday last September and their wedding dinner was held in Batam on 09 January 2015! My post took so long because I am so busy with work lately. Oops!

We received the official invitation card from them and it was so cute! Like a little door where you can open up. The card is very well made!

They invited a few of our ex-colleagues from CTC but some of them couldn't make it. I was asked by 4 of them to bring angbaos over. The Hello Kitty one is mine, the rest are from my ex-colleagues.

We took the ferry in from Harbourfront and arrived in the early afternoon so we had some time to go shopping and have lunch before the wedding dinner. Brought my sister to the supermarket and she stocked up on what most Singaporean girl will buy in Batam. Sanitary pads. LOL!

The wedding was held at Crown Vista Hotel's New Shangrila restaurant. It is one of the nicest hotels in Batam and it's located on top of a hill so you can have a bird's eye view of Batam from inside the glass lifts.

It is my first wedding dinner in Batam and it's quite different from a Singapore wedding even though they are both Chinese.

The weirdest thing of all (to me), is that there's no assigned seating. It's FREE SEATING! You choose wherever you want to sit. I asked the couple why they don't assign seats? What if there's a group of people who has to split up because there's not enough empty seats at the same table? They told me that the locals don't like to be told where to sit. 

(｡☉︵ ಠ╬) Don't like to be told where to sit???? Seriously!?!?!

They also told me that not only they don't like to be told where to sit, they won't RSVP at all. On top of being rude (I feel it really rude to not RSVP!), they also don't tell the couple how many people will they be coming with. They might come alone, they might come with their spouse, they might come with their children... or they might not turn out at all! Why like that one!!

I am not sure if it's the norm for all Batam weddings.. I hope not because it's nerve wrecking trying to sort out the guest-list for a wedding dinner and it is really rude not to RSVP. Just let the poor couple know whether you are going a not lah! What if they catered for too many people and have lots of empty tables? What if they did not have enough seats when guests decided to bring their whole kampong with them? 

Guests can also go up the stage and sing songs for the couple. Randomly just pick a mic and go up and sing. After the song, the couple has to go up to thank them and give each of them a red packet with money inside.

Wedding favours!

♥ Wishing the happy couple a blessed marriage! ♥