FISH farm wedding - these words are not usually uttered in the same breath.

However, one family in the trade believes the idea will work.

The owners of Mainland Tropical Fish Farm, located in Pasir Ris Farmway 1, are offering their farm as a wedding venue for the price of $1,000 to $2,000 a day.

And they are also happy to help couples arrange with a catering company if needed.

The venue price, they say, will be considerably lower than the average hotel wedding.

ATTRACTIONS: Adults and children alike can enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the fish farm

A hotel wedding could easily cost $70 and up per head.

The farm's managing partnerDesmond Yeoh, 53, said there was the added factor that it would be a unique location: 'It's something totally different for someone who wants something different.'

Mr Yeoh had his own wedding in 1988 on his family's fish farm - a 100-table extravaganza - back when it was at Fish Farm Road 2 in Tampines. So did two of his three brothers.

The owners believe that in the current economic climate, a fish farm is a good outdoor and low-cost alternative to more expensive but mainstream options such as hotels.

Mr Yeoh's niece, Miss Ivy Yeo , 32, who is the farm's events manager, will have her wedding dinner on the premises next January. For her husband's friends and family, they will be hosting a dinner at a country club.

At the farm, it will be a cosy eight-table affair for her friends and family.

For Mr Yeoh and his family, they are hoping to attract people like themselves - nature-lovers who love the kampung feel.

There is also the potential of attracting pet-lovers who want to have their pets at their wedding - something you cannot do in a hotel or restaurant.

The last couple who hosted their wedding there in 2005 did so for that reason.

Miss Yeo said the farm is the size of five football fields. And there is a lot of parking space. Mr Yeoh said: 'Having 100 tables is also no problem. We have space for 100 cars.'

For Miss Yeo, who is in the midst of arranging her wedding, she said that the cost of catering a Western-style buffet that is 'hotel standard' will cost her just $30 per head.

Her flowers and decorations - mainly flowers on the 'aisle' (the space between fish ponds) and on each table - will cost her less than $500 (though people who want a more extravagant look, such as erecting tentages, may have to pay far more).

Would you really?

But will people really bite?

Mr Ang Kai Hsiang, 28, a lawyer who is having his wedding ceremony next year, said no. 'I will do so only if I really love fishes and I don't love fishes that much,' he said.

He will be having his wedding at a hotel, and added that a faraway location may not appeal to his guests.

Miss Felda Chay, 22, an undergraduate at the Nanyang Technological University, found the idea hard to stomach.

'It could be smelly, fishy or muddy. Besides, I want my wedding to be grand.'

Of course, there is no way Mainland Tropical Fish Farm could be mistaken for a hotel or a resort. But it is pleasant and clean.

One notices first how mild the smell of fish is. Only near the warehouse, where there is aquarium fish, does the salty stench become apparent.

Certainly, having a meal while being surrounded by 200kg arapaima fish, beautiful koi, stingrays, and even chickens will leave an impression.

Children will be entertained, and maybe, adults too. One visitor, upon seeing a giant arapaima surge out of the water when MrYeoh fed it, rushed to buy some feed himself. Twenty minutes later, he and his family were still in the same area, staring at the fish.

And guests can, other than fishing, prawning or gazing at the aquatic life, also enjoy the 'fish spa' that Mr Yeoh installed for $10,000 half a year ago. It costs $12 for a 30-minute soak.

He said he knew only one other fish farm in Singapore with such a facility.

When we visited, a group of representatives from Outward Bound Singapore were sitting there, having tiny fish nibble their feet in the water.

Mr Yeoh inherited the business from his father, who first set up the farm in the 1940s during the Japanese Occupation.

He said it has cost him 'millions of dollars' to upgrade the facilities every two years. He has about 20 people working for him, including family members.

The bulk of the farm's revenue comes from wholesale business of fish and aquarium equipment, and income from visitors makes up about 30 to 40 per cent.

The farm sees more than 1,000 visitors on weekends, a few hundred on weekdays.