How much cash-on-hand is enough for a simple wedding


I'll be have a church wedding & a dinner @ a hotel.

Am not worrying so much on the dinner thou, coz we'll be paying via the angpows & also, we'll be making a 2k deposit to the hotel later in the day..

We need to know how much would the bill of the BS come up to, coz i understood that there might be additional charges on top of whatever that we might need, that is not included in the package..

As for the church wedding, i did a rough guage, it'll be @ least 2.5k...

Everything will be kept simple & nice..

So was just wondering if 10k (cash-on-hand) would be enough...
 

royal

New Member
10K should be enough. A simple BS probably cost abt 3K plus with OTR gowns. Most of the BS will request you to top up pictures after you view your Photoshoots pics. That's where the real test comes...stand firm or else you will overspend on BS packages. That's why, it's important to negotiate well with BS prior to signing up the BS pkg.

if you are thinking of using AngPows to cover your hotel, with the crsis going on now, I suggest you get a moderate banquet then a lavish one just in case your AP cant cover for the dinner..You may end up paying in cash more. be wise and budget everything within your means.In any case, your AP exceeds more than your banquet bill, you will end up having extra money for a good Honeymoon..:)

Enjoy your wedding planning!!
 
royal,

my wedding banquet is abt $600+ per table...

We booked 23 tables, plus 2 reserves.. (paid deposit of 2k this afternoon)

The bill will come up to abt 12k (i think)

So, i should be able to cover, & not make much losses bah.. (i hope lah)

thanks for the info.. :p
 

alcifertoh

New Member
That depends on what kind of wedding that you are opting for. Seek for quotation from the different vendors. Add everything up and being able to pay off the figure off hand would be the best. Also set aside additional 5k for misc. expenses which can pop up anytime.

There would not be any rough estimation. The best estimation is to secure the confirm quote from all sources and spare an additional 10-20% for top ups.

The returning gift from the guests, take that as a bonus. When you plan to hold a wedding celebration, it's not about profiting or losses. It's about inviting people to celebrate the joyous occassion with you.
 
You will also need to spare a few thousands for pingjin and $500 for Guo Da Li items.

Beware that the miscellaneous expenses here and there can add up to a few thousands :p
 

alcifertoh

New Member
The ang pows which cost several Ks, the refreshments for those who help out, the food, wedding bands, lalala

Green, guo da li $500 enough meh? 2 bottles of hard liqour almost hit that amount lor....

Oh yeah not to forget about the pig that gonna die on the wedding day if you intend to give one. That cost several of hundred dollars. I am quite amazed that the dude whom I bought from carried the whole pig up himself over his shoulders on the morning of my wedding day. I need 2 of my bludders to carry it thereafter. Strong man.
 
HBH,
Thanks for pointing out. I forgot to factor liquor cost in.If include pingjin, liquor, cakes etc, the Guo Da Li costs about 5K.

My hb gave my mum 30 cans of pig trotters to replace the roosted pig. My mum gave these & cakes to the relatives.


littlemsnaughty,
To me, I find having only 10K cash is dangerous.
Based on past experience, it's safer to have 20K cash on hand for you.

The rings, liquor, new bedsheet, new mattress, card printing, cakes, car rental etc when summed up are not cheap leh.

Do you need to renovate your room??
 
to all:

i've managed to get a all-in banquet package, which includes the printing of invitation cards & liquor.. As for the bridal car, my BS will be providing..

We'll do away with the Guo da li coz our parents are quite open about that, & also coz hb & i are christians..

As for the jiemeis & helpers thingy, we're using more of family members to help out, so the AP also no need to fork out alot.. $500 for about 10 helpers (excluding own family members) shd be more than enough..

Not say i kiam siap or what.. But all the weddings in our family are usually managed by own family members & we managed to save the $$ to pay for something else..

HAHA!!

we dont need a lavish wedding.. just a simple & memorable one will do the trick, coz as ppl always say, its not the wedding day thats impt..

whats impt is the life after tat wedding day, which i can't agree more... :D

We won't be taking any loans just to get married coz its going to be very tedious to do the repayment alone...

As for the cakes for relatives, we've yet to source, as its still way too early, as our wedding is in june 2010..

We're aiming to save up to $15k for our wedding...

Btw, we've just paid 2K deposit for the banquet on saturday...

we're $2k poorer!! HEHE!!

thanks for all the advices!! (=
 

alcifertoh

New Member
I think the more you save the better it will be. If there's any traditional family members, they might look into the ang pow amount and tag it to certain rates.

And well, you will have to give out alot of ang pows on that day. Driver get, photographer get, the tea bearer get, open car door give.... etc. As far as I could rem, my jacket was bursting with ang pow that day and I was like Santa haha. Especially during gate crash. You husband has to prepare an ang pow big enough for your jie meis to let him in.

And for your banquet part, beer and liqour included? if not you would have to check on the rates. A simple wedding can also have alot of hidden costs. Even when the make up artist come, you will still need to top up for the fake eye lashes and the whatsoever ampoulse thingy. These are normally not included in the package.
 
hei bee hiam:

ya.. everything is included in our banquet.. free flow red wine, hard liquor, soft drinks..
Hee..

So that part can save quite alot liao..

Mind sharing how much did u give for angpows on the AD, the open car door kid is my little cousin.. 8 year old only.. you give $10 he very happy liao lah..

kids very easy to please one... :D

we aimed to save $15k, is 10K for wedding dinner+BS Package & 5k for ad-hoc..

Plus the coins we're saving up bit by bit, will add up to quite an amt also..

We're on a budget wedding & thats why we dun want to dump all the cash we have into the wedding, coz we've applied for flat, & that alone need a HUGE sum of $$....

thats y we look for package, be it banquet or BS, we try to look for all-in ones..

Unfortunately, our BS didn't turn out to be very truthful, & they made used of alot of loopholes to 'tok' us..

thats y we're now looking for ways & means to cover up the loopholes as much as we can, & keep our expenses @ the BS to the lowest we can...

wish us luck!! :D
 
littlemsnaughty,
" its not the wedding day thats impt..

whats impt is the life after tat wedding day"

It's good that you know the above.
happy.gif
Haha then you won't land into the traps eg. Bridal studio ask you to top up thousands to get back all photos etc. and you also have less things to argue with hubby.

The higher the expectations for a perfect wedding, the more stressful the bride gets hehe.
 

alcifertoh

New Member
Yep Yep whats most important is the marriage life thereafter. On the actual day I gave away 2k plus of ang pow. You can do a check with your parents to roughly gauge what is a comfortable figure to bao. It varies actually. They would provide good pointers.
 
to green:
agreed!! thats why we opted for a simple one.. :D

to hei bee hiam:

my sis got married last sept & her AP is abt $4 per pack, coz our family really huge!!! more than 30 kidds!!!

As for helpers, $10 each.. they had about 10 helpers, excluding relatives ($6 each...)

Anyway, i just hope that there won't be any more additional charges from the BS or i'll die man!!
 

alcifertoh

New Member
Ic. my family quite big as well esp during the tea sessions all my cousins and nephews rushed to serve tea haha. The wedding entourage total 16 pax as well. 8 brothers and 8 sisters etc. For specific roles, we bao more for them eg the driver and also the tea bearer. In the morning time the person who carries the pig trotter also get a bigger packet than the rest.

I juz consult my mum back then and bao accordingly. Easiest way to draw reference haha. but still, no harm to try and save as much as u'll can. Definitely exceed the amount u'll see on the quotation.

Another example, eg on the evening of the dinner itself, when you run out of complimentary parking tickets for your guest which the venue provides you with, u have to start purchasing the additional one from them. Normally per piece is 3 - 5 dollars.
 
hei bee hiam:

my banquet coordinator was very flexible & gave me up to 75 pcs ( i booked 23 tables) & that works out to be 3 tickets per table..

Anyway, their carpark is very small.. Only have 90+ car-park lots... He was willing to give up to the maxinium of 90+ should i really need it..

Their service is really soooooooooooo good lor!!

You know that day, (last wed) we went down to sign contract & forgotten to withdraw $$ from our joint acct, & he allowed us to sign the contract first & come back to pay on saturday..
they're really good!!! :D
Food's good too!!

Oh ya.. Forgot to mention.. Last wed, we rushed down to the place with an empty stomach, coz our appt was @ 7pm..

Before he went to do up the contract, he asked if we've eaten, & when we said no, he immediately instructed his chef to cook us one big portion of complimentary special-recipe-crystal-hor-fun while he whisked away to do up the contract...

The hor fun was yummy lor!! you won't get to eat it anywhere else, coz the hor fun was only cooked & eaten by internal staffs.. :D

He said it was zhen cai shi liao!!! Very yummy!!! Gosh.. i'm missing it already lah!!!

And when we requested to preview the free suite stay on our AD, he happily obliged, very much to our pleasure.. :D

Then, when we went down on sat to pay the deposit, he opened the ballroom for us to preview, coz it just so happened that there was a wedding going on there that night..

So good right??

Thumbs up!!!
 

alcifertoh

New Member
Yep it would also be good and nice that they can offer you the view and show u a real time wedding going on. My banquet manager was very nice and superb as well and now we are drinking khakis. Just that my wedding planner screws everything up and got hell from me. Useless bugger.

Anyways, congrats to your wedding to come and do take pointers from those who share with you here. Save up more and do spend on those neccessary. Will get carried away in the proccess and I myself am guilty of that
happy.gif
 

pink_rose

New Member
hi girl, my wedding was last yr and we kept ALL the receipts for every single purchases. Here are some that I can recall, the receipts are at my mom's place.
Wedding itself:
1) Bridal studio - $3- 4K ( additional items like ampoules, fake eyelashes. We didn't top at a single pose!! hahaha)
2)Actual day video + PG - ard $2000+ ( we got one main album + coffeetable album + video + 2 collage + morning express ) definitely worth it! and results were great!
3)Guo da li - $200-300, cakes ard $200-300
4)Printing of invitation cards - $ 200
5)Actual day give ang paos + gatecrash - $1500+ (we gave a generous amt to both our parents as a form of gratitude; banquet managers; etc)
6)Manicure + pedicure $70-80 ( actually express can already...hahaha....cos no one really take notice!!!)
7) Wedding shoes. I spent $159....opps!
8)Wedding bands $1800
9) Wanted to engage live band initially, but luckily I didn't!!! phew... cos my guests were so lively, they add on to the atmosphere.
10) Honeymoon - chose Asian country 2pax $2500

And the HUGE chunk came from my renovation of cos. Ard $38K. (excludes furniture and electrical appliances) No instalments.
We started the joint a/c 2.5yrs before the wedding and every mth dutifully deposit a fixed amt. All i can say is the journey may be a big headache, esp the $$$ part, but dun worry, if there's a will, there's a way
happy.gif
Now still saving...hahaha...planning for our next holiday trip
happy.gif
 

pink_rose

New Member
Forgot to include red wine and hard liquor.....another expense! Hard liquor 2K+ sponsored by my hubby's brother..heee
 

sdluvct

New Member
Hi.. I like to know which hotel you booked!!
Its so value for $$ at this moment in time...
hehe
care to shares... thanks =)
 

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