~ Curious Charlie ~

The Royce Hotel - Perfect for a Medieval Banquet @ Monday, February 10, 2014

Sunday 2nd February

Today we went to the 'Royce Ballroom Wedding Showcase'. Showcasing the venue, DJ, fondant cakes and a candy buffet. Oh and great dessert canapés.

On arrival we were offered a variety of drinks including sparkling wine, tonic & lemon and OJ.

The room itself was large, could fit 100 but it feels crowded with 100. There's a small dance floor, high ceilings with cast iron fixed lighting, and three mirrors lined the back wall while created the illusion of space. No chandeliers. :(

Different linen displays were set out at each time, white, cream brocade-ish, mocha (to match the sashes) and black. I love the black one.

Each table had different centerpieces, candles, fish bowls with fake orchids, deco lamps, crystal displays, vases with bouquets. Almost every one of them had mirrors, I'd like to go with mirrors and candles. Though I do like the a high vase of ostrich feathers - but jas said that would crowd the room and make it look smaller, same concept as open plan houses.

We had a chat with the cake woman who does fondant cakes. No buttercream because it gets crusty and yellow. She had a great point about cupcakes, awks to cut, not everyone will eat it. And you can go buy a cupcake any day, but where are you going to buy a slice of wedding cake?

Questions about music. Could we have a strings quartet and baby grand? Yes to the quatret but add a piano and it's crowded. That and they don't have a piano, so you got to BYO up the service lift.

Meanwhile dessert canapes (fancy finger-food desserts, like mini tarts and cupcakes) and drinks circulated. We tried a cc, chocolate tart and strawberry cheesecake, the last was great! A layer of red gelatin, cheesecake with strawberry in the center and cookie base.

Not the one we saw, but this one was also styled by them.

Candy buffet! I've always wanted one, but with 5-10 guests at my gatherings it doesn't work. While they can't source custom M&Ms for you they will provide a jar for them. There was free candy samples, most melted the second we went outside. I did really like the white chocolate rocky road. And the sugar crystal sticks are fascinating. And the sharp looking edges don't cut your tongue.

Tip - Less well known, starting out or more independent businesses are cheaper to get things like flowers, cake/other desserts and candy buffets from. Someone who styled a table for Tiffany's isn't going to be cheap. Though you can be certain they'll do a good job.

While the Royce is nice and perfect for a medieval (think BBC Merlin) banquet it has no chandeliers in the ballroom and no piano. But in terms of price it looks pretty good, around $150 per person in an all inclusive package (drinks, deco). That's the average price for this style of reception. Oh and they do dessert and cake, no option to serve cake as dessert.

As I did not bring my DSLR and the mini sucks indoors I only took a couple pictures.

How many venues did you check out before you found the one?

RMIT Newintstudents said... on February 10, 2014 at 12:33 PM

You sure do eat a lot of desserts!

Charlie said... on February 11, 2014 at 3:04 AM

x2 Strawberry Cheesecake, Mini mini muffin, Chocolate Tart and Assorted Candy from the Buffet. The food is how you get the guys to attend. :P