After considering several venues to host my sister's wedding in June 2019, it did not take us long after visiting Meridian Grand to realise its true potential in meeting our expectations and creative aspirations for the wedding. From the outset Nikkita the MD of Meridian Grand and her close-knit team made us feel extremely welcome and introduced us to an array of services they offer in house which included all the main essentials; various suites, catering, décor, lighting, sounds etc.
It is distressingly common in the wedding industry to find "yes but" suppliers, yet Meridian Grand team very much fall in the rare "yes and" camp and only those people organising events and weddings would realise the importance of finding a supplier who really takes to one's vision and pulls out all the stops to ensure all expectations are met.
We hired the entire venue - which included the Meridian Grand Ballroom to accommodate our 800 guests, the Eternity Suit for 100 ladies segregated area, the Infinity Suite to be set up as a pop-up mosque for the day. We also had two VIP Suites, one which was used by the bride and bridesmaids and another used by the bridesmen. The foyer was used for welcome reception and post meal services. As you can see, we utilised every space available and Nikkita and her team had people looking after every space from the beginning till the end.
We chose Midnight Gardens (a subsidiary of Meridian Grand), to provide our wedding décor. Munir the Creative Director is a rare visionary, who surpassed all our expectations when designing the wedding stage and all the venue décor. As ever their "yes and" attitude allowed my sisters dream of an enchanted wedding theme come to fruition. The décor was complimented by the awe-inspiring lighting provided by Creative Design Solutions (a partner of Meridian Grand). Every single one of our guests were wowed by the décor and set up throughout the venue. It genuinely felt like entering a magical and enchanting space.
The catering for our wedding was provided by Meridian Grand, and although we had a very ambitious and challenging multi-course menu, it was delivered faultlessly. Om the executive chef and Gillani the service manager, were incredibly hands-on in helping us design a menu fit for a regal banquet! The menu consisted of: Enchanted Mocktails (with dry ice), Canapés (Mini Lamb Burgers, Masala Fish & Chips Cones, Chilli Paneer), Entreés (Palestinian Medjoul Dates, Poppadums, Mango Chutney, Pudina Chutney), Starters (Sheekh Kebab, Thai Sesame Chicken, Butterfly Prawns, Aloo Papdi Chat), Fish Course (Rupchanda Stir Fry, Shashnee Zamir), Main Course (Shatkora Lamb, Chicken Jalfrezi, Masoor Dal Tadka), Accompaniments (Pilau Rice, Plain Rice, Greek Salad, Green Chillies, Naga Pickle), Dessert (Gajjar Halwa Crumble, Macaroon, Vanilla Ice Cream), Afters (Tea, Coffee, After Eight Mints, Paan Stall).
It is important for me to note that there are items on our menu like the Lamb Shatkora, Rupchanda and Shasnee Zamir, that had never been provided by Meridian Grand before, but they were very happy to source the ingredients and utilised their inhouse Bangladeshi chefs to put together authentic and delightful dishes. We also wanted the bride and grooms first meal together to be a Whole Lamb Mandi (a traditional dish originating from Yemen, cooked in a pit underground), to our surprise Meridian Grand were thrilled to offer us this in house too! And gosh it was as authentic as you could ever imagine it! Our guests were truly astounded by the food service which could rival any fine dining establishment and the taste of every dish was commended by all; the chefs are undeniably world class - its inconceivable how they manage to provide such faultless service to over 1000 guests in one go!
From the moment I made the booking, we had constant and very helpful communication about every aspect of the wedding. On the actual day the manpower put out by Meridian Grand was above and beyond any of our expectations. We had members of staff at our every beck and call throughout the day - parking attendants, security guards, cloak room attendants, hostesses, waiters and floor managers. On top of the front line team we had Jyoti providing an all round event management and bridging the gap between us and the army of staff on the floor, she was truly an angel throughout the event and not only ensured every aspect of the wedding was going according to plan, she personally took care of the bride and her entourage.
I am sorry for writing a blog style review, but I really felt for all future clients considering Meridian Grand that they should know how immaculately their events will be managed if they were to choose this truly extraordinary venue with its remarkable people. We thank Nikkita from the bottom of our hearts for looking after us so well and we cannot ever think of hosting a family event anywhere else! read more
