Minimum amount of $$ to get married...

[qiu]

Oh no, I was referring to the ang baos for the jie meis and brothers on the AD.

[starofall]

oh ok

[tester]

me and my SO planned that we need at least 20 to 25k for a simple wedding, with wedding photography etc. If we want a hotel dinner, plus honeymoon to Europe or Japan, it will be definitely more, like the range of $40k will be safer.

A few pages back, I read that a lot of couples get upset and quarrel over finances after the wedding, which is very real, because I have a close friend that divorce only a year into the marriage, cancelled BTO flat, and everything, really very sad. lucky they don't have kids...

So please, plan for everything and make sure both of you reach a compromise before getting into marriage. It is meant to be a lifetime thing, the AD is only a 1 day event, rings and all the other fancy stuffs are just for a short time.. Not worth signing tons of credit card bills and end up 2 years working hard to repay just for that one day event.

[qiu]

Agree I've drawn up a budget sheet to track our expenses and ensure that we're within our budget during this course of wedding preparation.

I wouldn't want money issues to spoil the enjoyment of my wedding preparation or be faced with huge debts after the wedding.

[Janine.Lee]

I just had my wedding last week and am currently on honeymoon.

Gowns from Silhouette: $6000 (2 MTM gowns + 1 tuxedo, makeup and flowers. I paid extra to keep the gowns hence the higher than usual price)
Pre-wedding photography with Lightedpixels in Spore: $3500
Bridesmaids dresses (3 bridesmaids): $300
Banquet for 120 guests at Ritz Carlton: $15000 (Had a real 3 tier cake which cost around $1000).
Band: $2100
Flowers for AD: $1100

The above were just part of the costs, haven't included ang pows, expenses for shoes, rings, invitaton cards, rings etc.

My costs were pretty high and before the wedding, I kept hearing comments on how I can do a 20tables at other hotels for the price I'm paying at Ritz!

But last week everyone loved it, they love how classy and personal my wedding was.
At first, when people first heard I'm having only 12 tables, a lot of them didn't think it will be good. I myself was worried about the wedding not being fun enough due to my small wedding party but Ritz did a really good job. I'm also glad that we hired the band and top up extra for the flower deco as they really did help create a very intimate and classy atmosphere.

Even my friends who had previously attended wedding banquets at Ritz said previouly, the food they had was so-so. But at my wedding, they said that the food was really great, I guess its due to our small number of guests so the quality of food was easier to control.

So totally no regrets there, despite the high costs of hosting the small wedding.

At the end of the day, discuss it between the both of you.
What things are important and what are not...
For us, we opted to have a simple arrangement of flowers at the reception table and no flower stands lining the aisle for no one is gonna notice these arrangements which are just gonna be there for like 20mins. We used them to exchange for more elaborate dining table centrepieces as people spend 2hours sitting at the table. And the hand bouquet, do you really need to top up for bigger and more expensive flowers when most guests won't be able to see it.

Some people commented why pay to keep a gown that you're never gonna wear again. But to us, we just wanted to keep it.

True, it may be once in a lifetime but to other guests, they probably attended weddings a few times in their lifetime. We decided how to appropriate our money accordingly by looking at things from guests' point of view and combined with our own priorities on what is important and what is not.

[Ashlene]

How much red packet to give helpers? Like those that you help you out for assigning seats to your guests during your banquet etc?

[kiss_me]

those who assign seats to your guests should be your jie meis right?

i don't intend to give them additional red packets to assign seats =x i really don't think it's neccessary to give them red packets for every task they perform.

gatecrashing red packets and red packets from parents should be sufficient.

but i'll give whoever are my emcees red packets since they wont be able to have a proper dinner.

[duckiee]

those who helped out with the reception were mostly xiong di, jie meis & relatives. if you have extra friends coming down (work maybe who are not your XD, JM), maybe you can consider giving a small one.

hmm, i think my emcees did not work hard enough, they had a proper dinner coz people kept their food aside for them!

[jazzzz]

i recently got engaged, and the $$ is overwhelming! some of my friends said they actually spent 300k on the wedding alone, including dinner, jewellery etc. house etc not included! :..(

[miracle]

300k on just the wedding, they must be very rich!
it really depends on how u and your so manage expectations on the wedding

[melgrace]

wow.. this is seriously a very stressful thread to read... I had to agree that wedding planning is truely a big dilemma ... Every girl would love to have a dream wedding affair YET the budget and rational behind it differs...

I spend about S$10K for my ROM (Venue, food and Photography Package) not including the rings, ang baos, dress, invitation card, etc etc...

Had my ROM and AD seperately cos INITIALLY my parents (my MOM) had agreed to do-away with the AD BUT soon after the event she become a roti-prata... =.='''

now planning for my house reno in Dec/Jan and AD next April =.=''|

However stressful the dollar and cents may be... i think we should make the best out of it cos it will still be a once in a lifetime affair... so try to enjoy the process and not keep whining on the negative ... Work within your budget ... and have to really stop buying stuffs (keep telling myself i will be able to shop again once this is over hahaha... )

Most importantly .. THINK positive... ^^

[mewmew]

after reading all the costs involved, i feel so ashamed of myself that me and my SO don't have much savings despite our plans to get married next year.. i wonder where can we find this kind of $ to get married... ****... i wish we can have a big windfall then everything will be settled.. haha..

[snowbell_9]

mewmew don't despair. You can just make do with a simple lunch buffet I guess if you have limited budget. Don't have to read too much and stress yourself.