Just like putting together a beautiful room, it takes only a few special touches to make an unforgettable wedding. A splash of colour, a lone harpist, or an outdoor gazebo covered in fairy lights will likely impress your guests just as much as an enormous venue that costs tens of thousands of dollars! The following tips will help you put together your dream wedding without going over budget – no matter how small that budget is.
Why Budget for a Dream Wedding?
Whatever your dreams for your wedding, it is important to establish a budget before making any purchases. This way you and your spouse-to-be can avoid misunderstandings, hurt feelings and wasted money! Above all, it is advisable to start a marriage off debt – and stress – free.
Tips for Planning a Wedding
- Ask Family Members for Help: If you want a traditional wedding like many Singaporean couples, it could take upwards of $50 000 to put together your vision. Since traditional weddings are a way of honouring the families of the bride and groom, however, it is perfectly acceptable to ask for help with the funding. Keep in mind that accepting help with the budget means that family members should have some input regarding the wedding planning.
- Decide Which Aspects of the Wedding are the Most Important: What are the signature features of your wedding? Are they the dress and the tux? The location? The food? Choose 1 to 3 major features of the wedding that are the most important to you and your future spouse, and allocate to each of these the appropriate amount of money from the budget. If it is important to you to have the ceremony at the Singapore Botanical Gardens in a beautiful wedding dress, make these arrangements first. You may need to choose only 1 signature aspect, if 2 or 3 is simply too expensive.
- Work on the Details Only After the Signature Features are Nailed Down: Get the most important things out of the way, and then you can take a deep breath and deal with everything else. Remember at this point to say “no” when something is over-budget. That’s why you chose a signature feature at the beginning, so that you get what you really want and stay on track with the spending!
- Book the Venue and Work Towards the Wedding Date: If the venue wasn’t one of your special requests, try to book it immediately after you have taken care of those details. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to finish planning before the big day, and send invitations as soon as possible.
- Compromise on Whatever is Sending You Over-Budget: Have you found and purchased or booked all the most important details, only to run short of cash while finishing the planning? This is the time to think non-traditionally, and come up with innovative solutions. Are invitations too expensive? Invite people personally, or send emails when you can. Is the food costing you an arm and a leg? Change dinner to a more affordable lunch, or get rid of the meal altogether and serve classy h’ors d’oeuvres instead.
Above all, Stay on the Same Page as your Spouse
Some say that planning and executing a wedding is the true test of whether yours will be a strong marriage or a weak one. Always remember to have patience and be kind to your significant other! After all, what good is a wedding done exactly how you dreamed, only to disappoint and hurt the one you are marrying? Work together and everything will turn out exactly as it should.
