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18-12-2011, 07:57 AM
Personally, I think these people have way too much money (and are willing to splurge!). I have a young daughter and the first month birthday was celebrated at home with a budget of about $300. First-year birthday was celebrated in a restaurant at about $500. Nothing in the 4-digit range, much less $10,000! 
The Straits Times
Dec 18, 2011
$10,000 first-month party
Parents think nothing of splurging at a hotel to celebrate their kids' milestone birthdays
By Jane Ng
Just a generation ago, the only party one's offspring threw in a hotel was when they grew up and got hitched.
These days, however, Junior is holding his first birthday or even full-month party in a swanky five-star ballroom.
Stay-home mum Joan Phang, 34, decided to celebrate her son Darryl's first birthday at the Singapore Marriott Hotel three months ago to save herself the hassle of organising the nitty-gritty details herself.
'I'm looking after my baby on my own, so I don't have time to go around coordinating logistics with different parties for catering or decor.'
She called up different hotels for price quotations.
'I simply liaised with one co-ordinator who tied up all the arrangements for me.'
Mrs Phang and her husband Adrian, 41, a director in a research company, eventually chose the Marriott for its kid-themed birthday package and shelled out $3,000 for their only child's do for 70 people on Sept 18.
'It was comfortable for our guests,' she recalls. 'Everyone had a seat and proper cutlery to enjoy their meal, with staff serving drinks, instead of having to stand around and eat out of paper plates while trying to balance a paper cup.'
Here they come, the glam tot revellers. Some hotels are now making it easier than ever for parents to mark their kids' merry milestones at function rooms decked out with balloons, flowers and bowls of candy.
Throw in optional services, such as magic shows, face-painting and balloon sculpting, and you are set for some happy - and possibly hyperactive - under-fives living it up in style.
More than half of 20 hotels LifeStyle checked with offer birthday packages - similar to those for weddings - tailored for little ones, from month-old babies to five-year-old preschoolers.
The Marriott started offering them in 2009 after parents began calling about celebrating their children's birthdays there.
Other hotels, such as Parkroyal on Kitchener Road, have also rolled out child-themed lunch or high-tea packages this year.
Prices range from $40++ to $78++ a head for adults and $27++ to $33++ for children. A minimum number of people - it varies between 30 and 50 - is required. For those prices, one usually gets an international buffet with finger food and desserts.
The hotels say they receive, on average, five inquiries from parents a week, and hold up to five such parties a month.
Ms Anne Arrowsmith, director of marketing at Regent Singapore, says these parents range from those in their late 20s to mid-30s, some of whom had held their weddings at the hotel.
Other hotels have hosted parents, mostly from dual-income households, in a range of executive and managerial jobs.
Aiming to please their customers, hotels differentiate themselves by offering a range of add-on services.
Changi Village Hotel, for instance, opens its swimming pool to party guests if the event is held by the pool.
Orchard Hotel and The Regent provide free flow of soft drinks and complimentary carpark passes. The Regent also does bespoke packages with special touches such as plates and cutlery with cartoon characters on them.
The Marriott provided a playpen for Madam Priscilla Tan, 31, when the finance manager held her only son Jovan's full-month party there in June this year.
Madam Tan and her husband Sky Lee, a 34-year-old executive producer in a visual effects and film company, spent $10,000 on the event.
It was 'worth it', she says, as their guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. There had also been a television and DVD player to entertain the kids during their high-tea reception for 183 guests, with 20 tables.
Hotel venues are not limited to ballrooms and function rooms.
Another mum, manager Teo Puay Tin, 32, celebrated her daughter Eve's full month at Goodwood Park Hotel's Min Jiang restaurant.
'I wanted to have it out of the house because of space constraints. I had my elder son's party at home and it was too much of a pain to organise and clean up. There is also ample parking at the hotel,' says Ms Teo, who is married to a photographer and lives in a private apartment in the eastern part of the island.
She spent about $2,000 for the get-together for 50 friends and relatives. As for Eve, she slept through the whole thing.
Parents who have hosted such events say guests at kids' hotel birthday bashes tend to bear gifts that are more expensive.
To ensure her guests did not feel obliged to splurge on presents when she invited them to her two children's first month and first birthdays at various hotels here, Madam Loh H.H., 36, a business development manager, told friends in an e-mail invitation: 'It is not like a wedding dinner where you feel a need to compensate the bride and groom. Please just come and enjoy yourselves!'
Still, some parents feel that there is no need for extravagance when it comes to first-month or preschoolers' birthday celebrations.
Sales executive Jan Tan, 30, celebrated her two sons' first month in her five-room HDB flat in Ang Mo Kio with a simple catered spread. The party cost not more than $300.
The mother of Dan, one, and Dave, three, says: 'It's cosier to have it at home, especially when the baby is so young. They would be sleeping through the party, so is there a need to go to such an expense?'
Madam H. Ang, 65, a housewife and grandmother of three, says: 'During my time, we just prepared red eggs and cooked mee sua. Our children still grew up well.'
janeng@sph.com.sg
The Straits Times
Dec 18, 2011
$10,000 first-month party
Parents think nothing of splurging at a hotel to celebrate their kids' milestone birthdays
By Jane Ng
Just a generation ago, the only party one's offspring threw in a hotel was when they grew up and got hitched.
These days, however, Junior is holding his first birthday or even full-month party in a swanky five-star ballroom.
Stay-home mum Joan Phang, 34, decided to celebrate her son Darryl's first birthday at the Singapore Marriott Hotel three months ago to save herself the hassle of organising the nitty-gritty details herself.
'I'm looking after my baby on my own, so I don't have time to go around coordinating logistics with different parties for catering or decor.'
She called up different hotels for price quotations.
'I simply liaised with one co-ordinator who tied up all the arrangements for me.'
Mrs Phang and her husband Adrian, 41, a director in a research company, eventually chose the Marriott for its kid-themed birthday package and shelled out $3,000 for their only child's do for 70 people on Sept 18.
'It was comfortable for our guests,' she recalls. 'Everyone had a seat and proper cutlery to enjoy their meal, with staff serving drinks, instead of having to stand around and eat out of paper plates while trying to balance a paper cup.'
Here they come, the glam tot revellers. Some hotels are now making it easier than ever for parents to mark their kids' merry milestones at function rooms decked out with balloons, flowers and bowls of candy.
Throw in optional services, such as magic shows, face-painting and balloon sculpting, and you are set for some happy - and possibly hyperactive - under-fives living it up in style.
More than half of 20 hotels LifeStyle checked with offer birthday packages - similar to those for weddings - tailored for little ones, from month-old babies to five-year-old preschoolers.
The Marriott started offering them in 2009 after parents began calling about celebrating their children's birthdays there.
Other hotels, such as Parkroyal on Kitchener Road, have also rolled out child-themed lunch or high-tea packages this year.
Prices range from $40++ to $78++ a head for adults and $27++ to $33++ for children. A minimum number of people - it varies between 30 and 50 - is required. For those prices, one usually gets an international buffet with finger food and desserts.
The hotels say they receive, on average, five inquiries from parents a week, and hold up to five such parties a month.
Ms Anne Arrowsmith, director of marketing at Regent Singapore, says these parents range from those in their late 20s to mid-30s, some of whom had held their weddings at the hotel.
Other hotels have hosted parents, mostly from dual-income households, in a range of executive and managerial jobs.
Aiming to please their customers, hotels differentiate themselves by offering a range of add-on services.
Changi Village Hotel, for instance, opens its swimming pool to party guests if the event is held by the pool.
Orchard Hotel and The Regent provide free flow of soft drinks and complimentary carpark passes. The Regent also does bespoke packages with special touches such as plates and cutlery with cartoon characters on them.
The Marriott provided a playpen for Madam Priscilla Tan, 31, when the finance manager held her only son Jovan's full-month party there in June this year.
Madam Tan and her husband Sky Lee, a 34-year-old executive producer in a visual effects and film company, spent $10,000 on the event.
It was 'worth it', she says, as their guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. There had also been a television and DVD player to entertain the kids during their high-tea reception for 183 guests, with 20 tables.
Hotel venues are not limited to ballrooms and function rooms.
Another mum, manager Teo Puay Tin, 32, celebrated her daughter Eve's full month at Goodwood Park Hotel's Min Jiang restaurant.
'I wanted to have it out of the house because of space constraints. I had my elder son's party at home and it was too much of a pain to organise and clean up. There is also ample parking at the hotel,' says Ms Teo, who is married to a photographer and lives in a private apartment in the eastern part of the island.
She spent about $2,000 for the get-together for 50 friends and relatives. As for Eve, she slept through the whole thing.
Parents who have hosted such events say guests at kids' hotel birthday bashes tend to bear gifts that are more expensive.
To ensure her guests did not feel obliged to splurge on presents when she invited them to her two children's first month and first birthdays at various hotels here, Madam Loh H.H., 36, a business development manager, told friends in an e-mail invitation: 'It is not like a wedding dinner where you feel a need to compensate the bride and groom. Please just come and enjoy yourselves!'
Still, some parents feel that there is no need for extravagance when it comes to first-month or preschoolers' birthday celebrations.
Sales executive Jan Tan, 30, celebrated her two sons' first month in her five-room HDB flat in Ang Mo Kio with a simple catered spread. The party cost not more than $300.
The mother of Dan, one, and Dave, three, says: 'It's cosier to have it at home, especially when the baby is so young. They would be sleeping through the party, so is there a need to go to such an expense?'
Madam H. Ang, 65, a housewife and grandmother of three, says: 'During my time, we just prepared red eggs and cooked mee sua. Our children still grew up well.'
janeng@sph.com.sg
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