Planning a wedding in Bali? PART III

Are you ready for the third part of wedding planning? If you haven't read my 2 previous BlogPost, click on blogpost to read the rest. For readers who have read it, we are going to continue with the next chapter. Food & Beverage!

I basically found the best Balinese buffet style for the wedding day. My husband is european and he has many friends and family who flew all the way to the beautiful island of god. Because of that, we decided to do something different. I guess picking the right caterer is all in your hand. Do you have fancier taste e.g. set menu dining european style. We had attended a wedding where by the bride and groom preferred a set menu european style dining where waiters/waitresses served 3 dishes starting from a starter to dessert. Usually caterers have choices for you to choose from whether its 3, 4 or 5 dishes to serve, everything depending on your budget. They are a little cheaper than Balinese buffet style because of the portion.

We often thought the term 'buffet' will probably cost a lot cheaper than a fine serving set menu. Well, truth be told, we were both wrong! But come to think of it, it was worth the price. It was a pleasant moment dealing with KORI Catering. They are so professional and friendly to work with. We met them at their restaurant as per schedule and we did food tasting without the horrendous wedding planner we fired. We had learnt that food tasting alone with your partner and Kori crew actually gave more freedom compared to having a planner around because you get to give your opinion to change some dishes to your caterer upfront! You can also negotiate in a friendly manner with them (that's what we did). We really loved their professional manners!

We tasted so many food. Price we paid for food tasting was about Rp. 960.000* (SGD96) for 2 pax excluded canapes tasting. We made some changes with our menu and Kori was very easy and told us we could change and with the changes we made, prices were reduced too because we took out some menu we didn't like. There were so much food we couldn't really finish them all. But we enjoyed the time seeing them.

On the wedding day, we finally served:

• 4 types of canapes (Balinese/Western style) -Lumpia (Vegetables Spring Rolls), Cheese tomato with pesto, Bruschetta Avocado and Tomato Salsa and Lemper Ayam (Sticky rice stuffed with shredded chicken). 
• Soto Ayam Soup (Indonesian Soup with shredded chicken)
• Carving station: Babi Guling (Roasted Suckling Pig), Ayam Betutu (Balinese style chicken with special sauce), Nasi Kuning (Yellow rice with coconut milk), White rice and Sambal
• Stir fried vegetables, Potato and Cauliflower curry
• Dessert: Apple Crumble and Sticky Toffee Date Pudding served warm butterscotch sauce
• Coffee and Tea 

That was a lot of food and guests did not actually finish everything. We had so many left overs and the saddest part was that caterer did not ask if we wanted to keep the food as we were staying longer in the villa. So before we know it, everything was cleared. So much meat to finish. With all the menu we ordered, we paid approximately Rp. 600.000* per head. You could easily spend a good USD40* for a 3 course meal. But I recommend to have a try at kori even just for a nice lunch and dinner. Their place is in kuta, it is easy to find (small alley) and the place is really balinese style. A peaceful restaurant.

The most expensive I'd say would be the beverage. We only took the non alcoholic beverage with them because we brought our own bottle from another seller. They were not so keen to do such a service but they finally gave us the best quotation. Prices ranging from Rp.250,000 and above (per head).

I don't know how else I could praise Kori but we are now so thankful that you made our wedding day a memorable one. Thank you for dropping by to see me before you leave Fheny. You have been very helpful since day one and always reassuring me that there's nothing to worry in regards of the FIRED planner. I was worried but because of many other vendors reassured me, I finally had the best day of my life.

*Prices are subject to change without prior notice

**Sorry, I do not have photos of the catering side because I guess our photographers were too focused on the bride, groom and guests instead of whats on the plate haha. But here is a sweet sweet wedding photo to remember by! I hope you enjoy reading this chapter and I'll be back soon!

More on Bali Wedding Butler with emails exchange between us

It is funny that when someone wrote a negative review on tripadvisor, Tripadvisor members would share their own wedding story with my "Fired" Wedding planner and complimented her in the best possible way. In the middle of their compliments on her, they would say "something is not right with this post". DUDE, tripadvisor members have rights to share their experiences and what benefit do i get to create a "not right" story? I'm not working for anybody! I'm strictly a client who was mistreated badly by her. Just because she is tickling mostly Caucasian, European and American + Australian, that doesn't she will be flawless. Every now and then, when you made a mistake especially mistreating your clients, you bound to get negative reviews.

When you posted reviews on tripadvisor website and when you gave a ONE STAR review to hotel/restaurant/villa etc and other people gave a big fat FIVE STAR, do we call you a liar? do we call you out and say "something isn't right with his/her story because i had amazing time". NO! We are not forced to write our experiences. It is to show people that certain people can be very irresponsible and that they have to be extra careful. They might have had hundreds of client but that doesn't mean they are always perfect. You can always b*tch about your clients but if you are professional, you wouldn't abandoned your client right in the middle of the arrangement, especially after we paid deposit to her.

Just because all of them had a beautiful ending with her, that doesn't mean my stories were fake. If you had a terrible moment with a Wedding Planner and exactly like how my partner and i went thru, you wished to share the experience so others will not be treated that way. I do not care if anybody WILL listen to my story but there are flaws with Bali Wedding Butler. And the flaws she made were very unpleasant and unprofessional.

Because I couldn't share my conversation with her via tripadvisor, here are the screenshots (Sorry for the quality as i didn't know how to print screen via Mac but i finally found how to do it and there's a couple with clear view:

1. Desyana from Bali Wedding Butler quoted that she had already emailed Kathryn the GM of Villa agent. but look at what Kathryn's reply to me...

2. Kathryn said otherwise...  and i replied to her immediately.

3. She started to be rude at the end. It was not done on purpose when my husband sent her the email that he had forgotten to sign his name. but we have our own individual email address so i think it is logic that if it was sent via my email, that would be me who was typing but if it was from his email, that would be him. There's no necessary question in regards of who sent the email. Maybe you should start to ask yourself why we complained in the first place.

4. I simply asked her question regarding the band as i thought she would know better. With that said, her replied show basically she isn't as professional as she thought. She told me Villa has strict rules and that I'm not allowed to have music play until midnight or i'll have to pay etc. BUT... look at what she said in the email. I guess if we HIRED her BAND, we get to have the band til Midnight? and sometime 1pm? I think she meant to say 1am. but yea... from no midnight to 1am. How is it possible to have such an ignorant wedding planner? you have to book vendors from her in order to have her service? omg...

5. I replied to her immediately because i couldn't stand the fact that she's lecturing me after everything i've done and not her. It was all my work and since no problem with the vendors regarding their 'reputable status' and she tried to make everything about her. She told me to do this and do that, contact band, contact decorator, ask them this and ask them that. What is she going to do then? Whats the use for us paying her coordination fee of USD1800? when other wedding planner charges half the price she quoted. With no more patience and hesitation, i replied her as the way she replied to me. I think every human has their limit of tolerance with the kind of people who took kindness for granted. In green are all her answers.