Eveclair 
Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash
The cost of a wedding in Singapore – The common ranges that I read and heard about are $10,000 for a simple wedding with a buffet reception, $40,000 for a church ceremony and dinner in the evening and it can go up to $100,000 for the very lavish weddings at 5-star Hotels, artisan wedding cakes, bridesmaid proposal and all the other fancy stuff you can imagine.
A rule of thumb an everyday couple should go by is not to expect your guest’s ang paos to foot the bill of your wedding. Relying on ang pao money is very risky; imagine the credit card bills and interest rates you would have to face if the ang bao money is not sufficient.
Smart budgeting for weddings – This may seem strange to some but my fiance and I have been saving up for our wedding since the moment we went steady, I guess that the fact that we were both 28 at the time and knew we wanted to get married someday. We started a joint account and kept our saving in the OCBC Bonus account because the interest was good at that time.
Wedding Planning Checklist – Having a wedding planning checklist is a great way to ensure that you have covered the essentials, always ensure to list down the critical must-haves for your wedding such as:
A complete wedding timeline – Set a timeline with your hubby to be on when you would like to make certain purchases. This would give you ample time to save up for big-ticket items as well as estimate the time required to achieve each targeted items. With inflation and GST rising, do ensure that you allocate a little extra for each item just in case.
Wedding Budget Planner – Microsoft Excel has many useful templates out of which I found a wedding budgeting template, featuring estimated and actual cost everything is itemized into categories for all your wedding needs in a neat and organized manner.
It is an excellent tool for gauging and keeping track of your cost. In turn, this will hopefully prevent one from over-spending and keeping to the budget.
Sticking to your wedding budget – Initially I found it hard to keep to my budget due to the many temptingly gorgeous adverts and displays, I guess it all comes down to being disciplined, keeping to your budget doesn’t mean not having anything fancy at all, it just means selecting a few things that you are willing to splurge on while cutting down on items that you are willing to overlook.
As stressful as wedding planning can be, do take time to breathe. Ensure that you make decisions at the right state of mind, never sign a contract at the heat of the moment with a very persuasive salesperson. Do your research, discuss with your partner, decided together and determine the right choice.
If you are reading this, you are most probably engaged or to be wed if so, Congratulations are in order, Happy Planning!
