Singapore - It was to have been their big day on Sunday, celebrating their wedding with relatives and friends.

Instead, Ms Siti Nurfitri Hanafi, 21, and her husband, Mr Alimuddin Senin, 24, had to suffer the embarrassment of using a local radio station to announce that their wedding reception had been called off.

Then they spent the next day going to a police station, the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) and the Subordinate Courts to file reports. All because their wedding planner, Enchanted Wedding, had allegedly not fulfilled what was promised in the $15,000 wedding package the couple had booked.

Among their complaints: The stage was not set up properly, there was not enough food on Saturday, and, worse, the food was not even cooked for the main celebrations on Sunday.

The couple, who had registered their marriage in August, had no choice but to call off the reception.

And to make sure that their guests did not show up, they asked Malay radio station Warna to announce on air that the reception had been cancelled.

Their woes began on Saturday afternoon when the families first saw the wedding decorations at a multi-purpose hall at Block 772, Woodlands Drive 60.

Mr Alimuddin's mother, Madam Noraini Sabtu, 51, told The New Paper yesterday in a mix of English and Malay: "They promised that the dais would be nice, but when we saw it, it looked like it would collapse any time.

"The cloth was torn and dirty. The chairs for the bride and groom were rusty and looked like they had been used many times."

Ms Siti said the chairs for the guests had not arrived and the tablecloths were left in a heap on a table.

"It was very embarrassing for me to let the guests see the place in a such a mess," she said.

At 5pm, when about 150 guests had arrived, the 30kg of sup tulang (mutton bone soup) that was promised was nowhere to be found.

Mr Alimuddin, an auxiliary police officer with Singapore Airport Terminal Services, said: "We didn't see any food being cooked. From then on, we knew the ceremony wouldn't go on perfectly."

He said they had signed up for the My Fair Wedding package last September and had paid $13,000 of the total fee of $15,200.

The package included invitation cards, a wedding cake, dais and banquets on Saturday and Sunday.

The couple claimed that only 50 per cent of the package was fulfilled.

Madam Noraini said that Ms Fiza Azmi, the owner of Enchanted Wedding, had promised to prepare 30kg of sup tulang for Saturday but the cooking had not even started at 5pm.

Ms Fiza left at 5pm and returned only at 7pm with about 10kg of sup tulang in seven packets she had bought from a stall at Beach Road, said Ms Siti.

"We didn't want to confront her at this point because we didn't want to make a scene during the celebrations," explained Ms Siti.

Madam Noraini said: "Imagine this, nothing was happening in the kitchen. The fire was not even lit, the ingredients were not ready and there was no gas."

She had to cook some dishes herself at home and bring them to the wedding venue as the sup tulang was not enough to feed the guests.

Turned up with raw food

The cooking for Sunday's banquet was supposed to have started just after midnight. But Ms Fiza had taken off, saying said she would be back only at 1am, Madam Noraini said.

Ms Fiza turned up at 1am with the raw ingredients, such as chicken and mutton.

Madam Noraini, who works as a production operator, said: "The cook, an elderly woman, came only at 2am. By this time, Ms Fiza was gone again. At 3am, when she came back, the cook suddenly fainted.

"Fiza kept calling her 'mak, mak' (Malay for mother) to wake her up. That was when I found out she had asked her mother to cook.

"It seemed that the regular cook had quit."

The elderly woman returned home after refusing to seek treatment for her fainting spell.

Madam Noraini was upset to see her son's wedding celebrations in shambles.

At around 4am, she and her husband decided that the reception could not go on.

Calls were made to relatives and at 8am, Warna announced that the ceremony had been called off.

This was not the first time complaints had been made against Enchanted Wedding.

TNP reported in January about another couple's big day that was ruined when Enchanted Wedding allegedly failed to provide enough food for their guests and what was served was stale.

Ironically, Ms Siti had worked at Enchanted Wedding for two years and chose Ms Fiza to plan her wedding because she trusted her as a friend despite the complaints.

"She assured me that she was not going to repeat what had happened in previous weddings that received complaints," she said.

Ms Siti and her husband were grateful to the 500 guests who turned up on Sunday to give them moral support despite knowing there was no food.

"For now, we have decided not to have a wedding reception. This incident has really opened our eyes to be to be more alert in case such things were to happen again," she said.

Attempts to contact Ms Fiza for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.

Salvaging the situation

1) The groom, Mr Alimuddin Senin, cleared the multipurpose hall which was in a mess.

2) His mother, Madam Noraini Sabtu, fried noodles as the seven packs of "sup tulang" (mutton bone soup) were not enough to feed the guests on Saturday.

3) Mr Alimuddin bought packet drinks for the guests as beverages had not been prepared.

4) The couple chatted and entertained their guests to make them feel comfortable and to compensate for the lack of food.

5) On Sunday morning, an announcement was made by the couple on local radio station Warna to inform their guests that the main wedding dinner was off.

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