Back in the 90s, I used to attend a fair number of weddings at Hotel Istana. That was the decade when the majority of my cousins and friends got hitched and Hotel Istana was a very popular venue for wedding dinners. Of course these days, couples have many more options but I still love attending wedding dinners in an opulent hotel ballroom.

A few days ago, I attended the Hotel Istana Wedding Showcase where they displayed wedding dinner settings and briefed wedding planners and others in the wedding business on their packages. Present at the briefing was Hotel Istana’s GM, Aamir Khan.

After perusing the dinner menus, I realized that prices have increased so much since the 90s and even 10 years ago. The days when you could give a red packet of RM100 per person in good conscience are long gone! Please double that the next time you attend a wedding dinner, especially those held in hotels. Thank goodness I don’t get many invitations these days. I hope I don’t get invited to my friends’ children’s weddings any time soon.

Nothing quite like an exquisite table setting to impress friends and relatives. I wonder if wedding couples nowadays are still compelled to invite people they’ve never met before because they happen to be business associates or acquaintances of their parents. I’ve been to many a wedding where I knew neither the bride or groom but I knew either the bride or groom’s parents.

Wedding dinners, especially Chinese wedding dinners are lengthy affairs and sometimes end close to midnight. No matter what time is printed on the invitation card, you can still see guests streaming in an hour after the start time. We’ve become so accustomed to such unpunctuality that no one even grouses any more even if our stomachs are growling.

Istana Hotel offers sumptuous menus for Malay, Chinese and Indian weddings.