Singaporebrides | Editors' Notes

September 2026

The New Kind of Singapore Weddings: Smaller And Anti-lavish

By Michelle Tay

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Why anti-lavish Singapore weddings are having a moment, and what makes couples choose this instead of bigger wedding celebrations.

Ask any couple to describe their dream wedding and the answer is rarely “I want a big wedding”. It’s usually a feeling: the long lunch in Tuscany that left lasting memories, the Kyoto tea house where everyone spoke in whispers, the friend’s wedding in Bali where the sunset did most of the styling. They’ve seen what a great gathering feels like, and it was never about the headcount.

Then the venue quotation arrives, with its table count, its menu and its minimum spend, and something more real enters the conversation. Because the same couple is also, very likely, getting keys to a flat soon.

The collision in budgets

In Singapore, the wedding rarely happens on its own. It usually lands at the same time as the honeymoon, the down payment for a new apartment, the renovation quotes, the furniture, and the long list of things a new home demands. Even for couples with strong incomes and healthy savings, that’s a lot of large numbers in one year.

The wedding sits right in the middle of it. Results from Calla, our AI wedding assistant, show that a mid-range hotel banquet of around 25 tables at roughly S$40,000 to S$60,000, such as JEN Singapore Tanglin by Shangri-La at roughly S$1,724–S$2,144 per table, and Four Points by Sheraton Singapore, Jurong at about S$1,544 per table, and a five-star celebration at S$55,000 to S$95,000, with Fairmont Singapore and Swissôtel The Stamford being listed at around S$2,192–S$2,743 per table, and The St. Regis Singapore ranges from approximately S$2,734 to S$3,703 per table. These estimates are calculated at 25 tables, before considering add-ons, upgrades, service charges, taxes or special-date surcharges. Rates may vary by venue, day and package. You can compare more venues using the Wedding Banquet Price List and the Alternative and Unique Wedding Venues Price List.

The ang bao you will receive can offset a good share of that, but it arrives after the bills. It’s a cash-flow question as much as a budget one.

So the calculation many couples are making isn’t “can we afford this?” It’s “what is this worth, compared with everything else we’re building?” An evening for 250 people, or a home you’ve designed properly. A banquet, or the sofa, the kitchen and the first year without a knot in your stomach.

That’s what the anti-lavish wedding really is. It’s not about de-prioritising the wedding, and it isn’t a lack of means. It’s a decision about where your money does the most for the life you’re actually going to live.

The ballroom is a choice, not a default

For many Chinese families in Singapore, the hotel ballroom is the wedding: the grand entrance, the ten-course banquet, the grandparents seated at the VIP table. And for good reason. It’s usually beautifully-decorated, it handles large multi-generational families with ease, it’s air-conditioned and weatherproof, and a good banquet team can run 250 guests without the couple lifting a finger. If that’s the wedding you’ve always imagined, or the one your family expects, there is nothing to apologise for.

For couples with a shorter guest list, or a different picture in their heads, the real question isn’t “ballroom or restaurant?” It’s “what size of room matches the size of our day?”

Keep the hotel, shrink the room

Many hotels offer more than a ballroom. Private dining rooms, smaller function spaces and signature restaurants can host anything from a 30-person dinner to a 100-guest reception, with the same kitchen, service standards and polish. You keep the reliability and the food, and it’s often the easiest compromise if parents want a “proper hotel wedding” but the guest list has come down.

Split the day

A solemnisation and lunch for close family, then a smaller evening celebration. Or a ballroom banquet for the wider circle, with an intimate private dinner the night before for the people closest to you. You don’t have to choose between the traditional and the personal. If your list sits around 50 to 80, a restaurant buyout, a garden venue or a private club can feel more natural than a hall built for triple the number.

Ask before you assume

Ballrooms can come with table minimums, package structures and peak-date pricing, and these vary. Before defaulting to one, ask each venue what their smaller options look like, whether they offer intimate packages, and how the minimum changes if your guest list drops. A short conversation early on can change the whole shape of the plan.

The right venue is the one where the room fits the guest list, the guest list fits the couple, and the budget still leaves space for the life you’re building afterwards. Sometimes that’s a grand ballroom. Sometimes it’s a private room with 60 people you adore. Both can be beautiful.

Many traditions, one day

For multi-cultural couples, the wedding is rarely one event. It might be a tea ceremony with one family and an akad nikah or a Hindu ceremony with the other. The old solution was to cram everything into a single grand evening and hope nobody felt overlooked. The new one is to let each tradition breathe. A morning ceremony with the close family. An intimate luncheon with relatives and colleagues. An evening gathering that blends the two cultures rather than flattening them, with food from both sides of the family, music that everyone enjoys, and attire that honours each heritage without turning into a costume-change marathon.

Spreading the celebration across a few smaller moments also spreads the spend, and it pairs neatly with the split-day approach above. It keeps every ritual meaningful without needing one room to hold them all.

Where the money goes now

When the goal is quality rather than scale, and the flat is competing for the same funds, the budget gets sharper.

• Fewer guests, finer hospitality: The per-head budget goes up, the total often comes down. Better wine, better produce, better service, and time to enjoy them.
• Destination or destination-adjacent: A wedding in Kyoto, Lake Como, Bali, or Phuket gives guests a trip, not just an evening, and naturally limits the list to those who truly want to be there.
• Craft over spectacle: Bespoke stationery, a couture gown made over several fittings, a tailored suit or a heritage textile passed down through the family. Objects with a story beat a fresh set of centrepieces.
• Photography and film with a point of view: Editorial, unposed and considered. The wedding album as something you’d actually leave on the coffee table.
• Money left for the home: The saving isn’t a sacrifice. It’s the marble counter, the custom wardrobe or the sofa you’d actually chosen, instead of the one that fit the budget that was left over.
• Time: A slower programme, no rigid schedule. The most luxurious thing you can add to a wedding is space.

The guest list, handled gracefully

The hardest negotiation is rarely the venue. It’s the guest list. In Singapore, weddings often belong partly to parents, uncles, aunties and their friends of friends, and the ballroom is often less about the couple’s taste than about those expectations.

The couples who navigate it best with their parents tend to be clear from the start. Open with what you want to keep, such as the banquet food, the tea ceremony or the family moments, rather than what you’re cutting. Keep the core celebration intimate, and host a separate tea or lunch for the wider family, so nobody feels left out. “Let’s have a smaller, more considered wedding” lands far better than “we’re not doing the big wedding”.

It also helps to be honest, with yourselves and with your families, that a home is part of the picture. Most parents understand that a couple putting their money into a place to live isn’t being stingy. It’s being sensible.

The ultimate test

Write down every element of your wedding. Ask yourself of each: would we miss it if it were gone, and would anyone else? If the answer to both is no, let it go. If it’s yes, invest properly. You may find the list shortens and the day sharpens.

The wedding of the moment isn’t minimalist, and it isn’t small out of necessity. It’s curated. It’s the sum of a hundred deliberate decisions made by two people who know what they like, where they’ve been and where they’re going to live.

Feature image from Kamelia and Jeremiah’s Cosy Solemnisation at Belo Cafe by Bobby Kiran Photography.

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