Wedding Church Venues for Non-members

I've always wanted to get married in a beautiful church with wooden pews with beautiful stained glass windows. I tried researching online but can't seem to find much information. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. Most churches do not allow non-members to use their sanctuaries. While some churches requirement is that one couple has to be their member.

From my previous post, you can see that I've chosen my venue to be at my own church. Actually, during that time which is a few months ago, I haven't really decided if I would like to use my own church building for my holy matrimony. That's why I went to research on other options. But now that we've decided to use the church building. I did not want all these super useful information that I have to be gone to waste. So I decided to do a blog post on it for the many bride-to-be(s) out there!

Anyway first and foremost, when I mean non-members, it means christians couples who have been baptised and are members of other christian churches. Now that I've got this cleared up, let's start.

Oh! And normally these churches only allow the wedding ceremony to be held on Saturdays and not Sundays because they normally have church services on Sundays.

I found 6 churches that I personally would approve because of the wooden pews. I love churches with wooden pews.

1) Kim Tian Christian Church

811 Upper Serangoon Rd, Singapore 534675

Capacity: Max. 370 pax

Cost: $2200 (for 4 hours) + $300 (compulsory audio technician)

Including basement hall for reception

Photos from Kim Tian Christian Church person-in-charge

2) Charis Methodist Church

91 Koon Seng Road, Singapore 427032

Capacity: Max. 400 pax

Sanctuary Cost: $600 for first three hours ($100 for additional hour)

Social Hall Price (for reception, max 120pax): $400 for first three hours ($30 for additional hour)

Open Plaza Price (for reception): $240 for the tent

Photo credit: Source

Photo credit: Source

Photo credit: Source

3) Queenstown Lutheran Church

709 Commonwealth Drive, Singapore 149601

Capacity: Max. 350 pax

Cost: $2950 (for 4 hours, including canopy for reception)

Tables and chairs for reception at canopy at own expense
Photo credit: Source

Photo credit: Source

4) Thomson Road Baptism Church

45 Thomson Road, Singapore 307584

Capacity: Max. 450 pax

Cost: $3000 (for 2.5 hours, including reception hall)

Photo credit:  Source

Photo credit: Source

5) Holy Grace Presbyterian Church

408B Upper East Coast Rd, Singapore 466484

Capacity: Max. 350 pax

Cost: $2400 for weddings in year 2016 (Including reception hall)

Photo credit: Source 

Photo credit: Source

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There's one more church that that allows non-members booking but I didn't email them because the location is at Tampines which is very inconvenient. But those who prefer the far East can take a look!

6) Living Hope Methodist Church

20 Tampines Street 33, Singapore 529259

Cost: $1980 (not sure what it includes, how long is the rental, or the seating capacity)

Do email them if you'll like to know more.

Photo credit: Source

Photo credit: Source

Actually there are more churches in the list that I've found but it seems like over the years, many churches are starting to not accept non-members bookings. I am not sure why. But one of the church's person-in-charge told me that it is because of the heavy usage of the church's ministries. Plus they also have to prioritise the use of the church building for their own member's wedding.

Hope this post was useful for those christian BTBs out there! :)

Date and Holy Matrimony venue

Daniel and I had the dilemma whether our holy matrimony and wedding lunch/dinner would be held in one day or two days.

Our church has two venues that we can use. Suntec convention centre and Jurong West near NTU. We thought we wanted Suntec because the location was sooooo convenient but here comes the cons. We could only hold it on Sundays after 2pm because we have church service before that, which will be too late and super rush if we hold a wedding dinner after.

So we had to settle for the next choice which was to hold it at Jurong. If it's at Jurong we can hold the holy matrimony on Saturday afternoon and wedding lunch on a Sunday. Sorry in advance to those living in the east for the inconvenience but it's ok right. One day only la. Haha. Plus the venue is big enough to hold all our guests. For now we have a total of 500 guests.

I also had the thought of holding it in other churches too just because other churches' locations are more convenient. But because Daniel is a church staff at my church, we will have perks if we hold it in my church. So to save costs, we will be holding our holy matrimony in our jurong church and hold our wedding lunch on the next day as lunch is generally cheaper than a wedding dinner.

Date wise, it'll be in June 2016 and I'll update here once we booked the church and our wedding lunch location which we already found. Just need to pay for the deposit! Check this space for my wedding lunch venue. I really really love the venue. Can't wait for 4 June 2016 for holy matrimony and 5 June 2016 which is also Daniel's birthday. Woo!!

The Marriage Proposal

It's been almost a week since Daniel proposed and I thought I should spend some of my Saturday evening to blog about last Sunday, 26 April 2015. 

Backtrack to the Tuesday before, Liz (my colleague) told me that she wanted to go to the Pasar Malam near where we worked. So the four of us went (including Skye and Joel) I did not think anything much about it and never suspected anything. Maybe because Liz really genuinely wanted to eat the food there and she's been talking about it since they started building the pasar malam tents. Even without the proposal she would have totally dragged us there. Coincidentally, Daniel (who stole Joel's number from my phone. haha) texted Joel a few days before that to hold me back longer so I would reach home late so he could go to my house and talk to my parents. This just came together nicely. That's why I did not realise anything was fishy.

Also prior to Sunday, I asked Daniel what does he have on after church service and he told me he's doing sound for our church's Annual General Meeting and would end around 5pm. I believed him because he's a church staff and he always had to help out with sound/audio matters. 

So, my ex-colleagues, current colleagues and I have been trying to organise a meet up because we haven't met up as a group in a long time and they suggested Sunday. I thought I'l go meet them and them meet Daniel afterwards after he's done with the meeting. So after the usual Sunday church service, I met up with them at TCC, Marina Bay Sands. We were casually talking and then some guy came up to me and said "Are you Sihui?". I replied yes and he put this iPad with very familiar casing on my table and said, "I was told to ask you to watch this.". I knew it at that moment, it's here. I was shocked because I never expect Daniel to do a public proposal. He never liked attention. There and then, I was still shocked. Even after the proposal, my colleague Skye even told me that I am the most calm 女主角. Actually, I wasn't the least bit calm, my heart was pounding so hard and I couldn't breathe, I had to keep taking deep breaths. Truth be told, I wasn't really watching the video because I was still trying to sink in this fact that today is the day and was thinking how come Daniel doesn't have to go for the Annual General Meeting. Haha. Then I realised it was all a plan. Other than all these thoughts, I also kept looking everywhere around me because I really wanted to find Daniel and to also see if my parents were here. There I found them, they were standing at the railing on the second floor. I was so happy there were there to witness this. But it was really a mix of emotions at that point of time.

The next thing I knew, the video was over and Daniel came up to me with flowers and the ring. I again, wasn't really listening, what I remembered hearing was "lifetime", "spend the rest of my life with you" and "why am I crying?". Hahaha. I laughed at that part because I was the one who was supposed to be crying but he was the one who was tearing. Actually, I did tear at the start of the iPad video. Anyway, I said "Yes" and then this man here was struggling removing the ribbon from the box. It was quite a funny yet cute sight. Haha. He after that explained that because of the tears in his eyes he could not see the ribbon properly and that he had to put the ribbon so close to his face so he can remove it. Hahaha. 

Enough words.
Now, time for pictures!

My beloved younger brother and I. Missing my older brother as I am typing this. :')

Thank you colleagues and ex-colleagues turned good friends!

Special thanks for Joel for planning this with Daniel. You planned well. Haha

Thank you guys for helping with this proposal. :)

Thank you Goddaughter Zoe for gracing your Godparents proposal event. We love you.

Thank you Jayme and Jiahao for helping! Thank you for loving us. :) And extra special thanks to Jiahao for working so hard for helping Daniel take the photos on your off day and also for editing such a beautiful video. Thank you!

My dear family. Missing my elder brother. I've another year or so with them before I move out. Gonna miss them, my parents has the lamest jokes and I'll miss all of that especially my mum's cooking which is getting better and better. :)

Thank you to my future in laws for accepting me and for always thinking about me. Blessed to have each and every single one of you. :)

After the proposal, both of our families went to have a meal together at Food for Thought at the National Museum. I love it when we our families always come together and able to talk to each other like friends. It just warms my heart just thinking about that scene.

After our early dinner, Daniel and I went down to Tiffany & Co to get the ring resized. It'll be done in 4-6 weeks, kinda wish it would be faster. Hahaha. 

Hi love. Thanks for planning this proposal since the start of the year and even getting the ring so early! Can't believe that you did so much just for this proposal. You sacrificed your favourite hobby (a.k.a. Sleep) and even got out of your comfort zone and took some crazy photos in public even though the cleaner aunties were laughing at you. I am more impressed that you were the one who decided to do a public proposal. Where did you get the courage from?! It's a big decision to marry and it's even a bigger decision to want to marry me. Thank you for accepting me and I'm looking forward to spend the rest of my life with you.

//

Oh. The reason why it was at TCC was because it was the first time Daniel ever heard about me from his then Cell Group Leader, Yuerong and it was then that she told Daniel that he should get to know me better.

Can't wait for the big day to come. Wedding preparation is not easy, am trying to make things as simple as possible and not trying to be a bridezilla because after all a wedding is to celebrate the marriage and the union of the two coming together. 

Currently trying to find the venues and I'll try to blog my wedding process as much as I can.