18 January 2009

JP Banquet - Update after the second meeting.

It has been over 6weeks. Sorry for creating a gap.

The reason behind the gap is quite simple to guess. We were busy with keeping up with the assignments about the JP banquet.

There were already two meetings with our wedding planner. Some key points to share as below:

1. 06 Dec: Discussion about invitation.
a. Discussion for wedding gift (引出物), snack (引菓子), and petit gift (プチギフト).
It is Japanese cultural thing to prepare the wedding gift and the snack for each guest family (i.e. if Father, Mother, children came, then the must do is to prepare one set. If they live apart and invitations are sent distinctly, we need to prepare separately). Gift is some nice things (typically china ware, silverware, or recently, it is common to provide present catalogue so that guests can choose their items they wish). We can choose from the stack of catalogues provided by the banquet venue (there were over 20 books they gave us!!!) or we can decide to order at major department stores which have a special contract with the venue. In the later case, the organisation has to be done by ourselves, but if we decide to pick from the items from the venue, the planner will take care of the logistics.
b. Discussion for invitation.
So, although the wedding planner takes care of the logistics, we still have to choose who to invite. Thus, it is our duty to make the invitation list. The wedding planner provided us an xls which we can use to fill out the guest list. Very useful.
We decided the paper items which contains the decoration of the invitation. We also made the decision of other paper items such as guest table chart, name tag, and menu.
c. Other topics we discussed.
1) Q&A about dresses.
2) Q&A about Profile Video.
3) Discussion of who is going to do the speeches.
4) Discussion of who will be helping at the reception area.
5) There was a survey which both the bride and the groom was asked to fill out. This was to help the MC understand about the couple. We turned that in.
6) Decided the style of the ceremony to be in a chapel.
7) Q&A about Photo shooting.


2. 10 Jan: Discussion about ceremony details.
The second meeting was about the runthrough of the ceremony / banquet details. By this time, most of the guests have been decided and now, we can think of the entertainment and the details of how we want to make our big day big and fancy. The wedding planner brought us a blank paper with only the start and end time stated. From there, it is by our discussion to fill the detail one by one.
This discussion was very detailed. We laid out what we want to do, by whom, when, where, etc.; one by one.
With this discussion, we decide the overall framework of the ceremony and banquet. Now, there are more assignments given from the wedding planner. Things are becoming busier and busier!!!


Upcoming discussions
1. Discussion about food.
2. Discussion about flower.
3. Discussion about overall MC.
4. Tasting dinner.
5. Rehearsal.

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