Choosing a Singapore ballroom: the nine questions we ask

We walk a lot of ballrooms. After the first hundred you stop looking at the chandelier and start looking at the ceiling around it. These are the nine questions we ask on every site visit, in the order we ask them.

1. Where are the pillars?

Many Singapore ballrooms are pillarless. Some are not, and the floor plan on the brochure has been drawn to make you forget. Stand at the stage and count the tables that will have a view of a column instead of you.

2. How high is the ceiling, really?

Under about four metres, tall florals and a proper lighting rig become impossible and the room will feel like a function room however it is dressed. Ask for the height to the lowest point, not the highest.

3. What does the minimum spend include?

A per-table rate means nothing without the minimum. Fifteen tables at S$2,400 is a smaller commitment than twelve at S$2,800 with a twenty-table Saturday minimum. Ask for the minimum on your date specifically, and ask what happens if your numbers fall short: some hotels let you convert the difference into upgrades, some do not.

4. Who controls the AV?

Some venues insist on their in-house crew. That is fine if the crew is good and expensive if it is not. Ask whether you can bring your own lighting designer, and what the in-house team charges for anything beyond the two microphones and the projector in the package.

5. Where do the guests wait?

A cocktail hour for two hundred needs a foyer that holds two hundred without becoming a corridor. Walk from the lift to the ballroom doors as a guest would, and imagine it with the noise on.

6. Where is the second exit?

Not for safety, though that too. For the tea ceremony, the outfit change and the march-in. A ballroom with one door means the bride walks past every guest twice before the evening starts.

7. What time can we load in?

If there is a lunch event before yours, your florist and lighting team may get the room at four for a seven o'clock dinner. Three hours is enough for a simple install and nowhere near enough for a tall one. The load-in time decides the design more than the budget does.

8. What are the rules?

Candles, confetti, sparklers, smoke machines, drones, external caterers for the tea ceremony snacks. Every hotel has a list and every list is different. Get it in writing before the design is drawn, not after.

9. What does it feel like at night?

Visit twice, once in the day and once at the hour of your dinner, with the house lights where they will be. Ballrooms are designed to look their best under work lights on a site visit. Yours will be judged at eight in the evening.

The venues page lists the rooms we know well enough to have an opinion about, with capacity and price bands. Walking one with you is part of every planning scope.