Wedding bells are ringing, and you and your fiancé can’t wait to celebrate the momentous occasion with family and friends.
It is essential for a couple to start their wedding planning with a good solid budget. A budget is not meant to be a “wet-blanket” to your dream wedding, but rather a tool to help couples achieve their goals.
Ultimately, we want to be sure that the wedding of your dreams becomes a reality.
Sharing a Vision for Your Wedding
Be open about your wants and needs with your partner. When having this discussion, try to avoid pushing your side onto the other, but instead find commonalities between the both of you. Open communication helps couples discover their niat or intention of having a wedding and the kind of celebration they want to host.
Pro tip: Write down your niat on paper, as a reminder for future decision-making moments.
“We found that communicating what we wanted early on, and expressing our niat for our wedding, helped set the direction for the rest of our decision-making. For us, we wanted to have a simple majlis for our families to come together, eat good food, and have fun.”
Naweera and Firdaus
Setting a budget
A wedding celebration usually has these elements:
- Venue
- Food
- Photography
- Bridegroom outfits
- Make-up
- Décor
- Invitations
There are other categories that you can include as well, and depending on the scale of the wedding, the list can range from 8-12 categories.
Once you have sorted out what you want present for your wedding, set a reasonable budget for each category. A quick search on Google or a check-in with friends can give you a rough gauge of how much each category would cost in Singapore.
It is also important to note down which categories are important to you, and which are flexible for change.
With this, you now have:
- A rough estimate of your total wedding cost
- Wedding elements that are both important and not important to you
Pro Tip: Buffer in for another $2,000-$4,000 for contingencies
“We considered between 800 guests or 1,000 guests for our wedding. That’s a difference of almost SGD5,000.“
Nina and Amir
Meeting with wedding vendors in Singapore
Now that you are armed with information, you can now look for vendors.
Look for reputable vendors and ask for their portfolios of recent work. It is also prudent to look up reviews both on social media pages and independent blogs to help ascertain the legitimacy of the vendors you meet.
There are some vendors that offer an all-in package (venue, food, décor, invites and door gifts), and there are others who specialise in a category.
It is important that you do not feel pressure to commit on the spot. Take your time and choose vendors you are comfortable with.
“Meeting vendors can be very overwhelming! Our advice is not to rush and look out for reviews and portfolios.”
Najwa and Zaid
Decisions that match your budget
After viewing and talking with a few vendors, your ideas and expectations may change. Review back your budget and discuss again which areas are essential and which are flexible for change. Here, you may want to recall your original niat for having a wedding and see that it is met.
Once you are comfortable with the budget, you can now plan for next steps.
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The objective of setting a budget is to ensure that you do not get swept away by overspending or underspending. A wedding is usually a one-day event, but it is important and it is special.
With proper budgeting and planning, it will be a meaningful and memorable event to remember, in shaa Allah.
