Venues at Darling Harbour

Hello there,

We inspected 2 venues today: one for the ceremony (Chinese Gardens) and one for the reception (L'Aqua).

The Chinese Garden of Friendship has been a tourist attraction in Darling Harbour for as long as I can remember. There is a strange feeling when you're inside among the vista of lakes and willows, and realise that beyond the garden walls, you're surrounded by high rise apartments and corporate buildings. In terms of holding our ceremony there, we saw a few different areas but most accommodate for less than 50 guests. The most appropriate area was the Hall of Longevity which seats 48 guests and up to 120 (the remaining standing).
It was unfortunate that the weather today was cold and cloudy, but the garden's beauty still shone through.
In terms of the ceremonial area, there was some rain cover (seated area below and standing area is undercover) but the venue would obviously not work with heavy rain.

Setting up for a wedding ceremony that afternoon

Peek into the lake area

We thought the garden would be a lovely setting for post-wedding photography and all guests are free to roam the area as well. I haven't taken photos of all the areas so this is just a peek at what is inside (if you haven't been there).

OK, so there is one potential deterrent - apparently there may be construction around the exhibition centre from Nov 13 onwards. Apparently, the plans will be drawn up at the end of this year and the tentative plan is to commence construction in Nov 2013. We will probably wait until at least the end of this year before we decide whether to book or not.

The coordinator at L'Aqua was more reassuring about the matter saying that firstly even if they did start construction it would not affect the L'Aqua area, and secondly construction would most likely not be very heavy (if it even happens on schedule) during Dec-Jan14...

We would really like to have our ceremony at the Chinese Gardens so fingers crossed construction won't interfere with that.

L'Aqua function centre of the Dockside Group is conveniently located above the Lindt Chocolate Cafe on Cockle Bay Wharf in Darling Harbour. It overlooks the bay and is opposite Harbourside Shopping Centre across the water. We saw 3 different venues but the one we liked best and the most appropriately sized one was The Terrace Room (below). The large windows and balcony area overlooking Darling Harbour adds something special to the venue.

The setup pictured below features the bare bones of what is included. No decorations had been added yet. It was nice to see a generous dance floor.

The green walls can be switched to white

Harbourside is across the water

Balcony area out front

Basically there are two huge benefits of this venue:

1. Value for money

• Substantial savings compared with the other venues
• Comprehensive wedding package (includes DJ and overnight stay at a 5 star hotel for the bride and groom with luxury car transfer)

2. Excellent service

• The wedding coordinator was very professional, organised and helpful
• She has made all the other coordinators look sloppy 

It sounded like this venue is fairly popular because there are already bookings for Jan14 across the rooms we saw.

There are still a few other venues we want to inspect but so far this one has been very impressive for the price.