Marrying in Singapore is easy. ROM just require a small fee of less than $30 and you will be legally married with the love of your life (at that time).
However, customary is the one that causes all the headache. Mostly because of the cash involved in it. There are even articles about people incurring debts, just to make their dream wedding come true.
Now there is a distinction between ROM ceremony and wedding. ROM is the time where the couple sign their papers in front of a solemner, where they will become legally married. This used to be a simple thing to do. But recently, couples hold celebrations for such wedding and invite lots of guests. When people are invited, they are expected to give ang bao/ gifts. A lot of older generation don't agree with this. How can the couple ask for gifts/ blessings for their marriage twice?
Anyway, the focus is on marriage here, although its also applicable to ROM.
First thing first. Nothing will happen if you don't have a wedding venue. Of course the choice is yours and you can put it ANYWHERE. The ultimate location would be a posh hotel. St Regis, Capella, Ritz Carlton, these are a few of the most expensive place to hold your wedding. With a deep pocket, you can. I don't know how much is a table there. But looking at the ang bao chart, it should be at least $2.5K per table. This means each of your guest have to give you $250 ang bao, or you will end up making a loss. On the other hand, people who held their wedding in such hotels, either they can afford making a loss or their parents are paying for it. Well, traditional, the groom side parents are supposed to pay for the whole of the wedding banquet. Let's not go into details for that portion.
Ang baos now became payment for your dinner rather than blessing to the couple. If you do not know, traditionally, the ang baos should be kept by parents too. But bride side's parents get to keep them without paying for the tables. Nowadays, because the couple paid for the tables, they keep all the ang baos also.
Apart from posh hotels, other venues includes country clubs, some outdoor alfresco area like garden of hotels, community centres and even void decks. We seldom see void deck chinese weddings now though.
Now that we have the venue, we also need a bridal package. Price starts from three thousand minimum. You get a indoor shoot, outdoor shoot, make up, hair and several gowns. The more you want, the more you pay. They are very flexible, as long as you are flexible with your payment.
In the recent years, maybe due to the increase usage of social media, we see people sharing more about their bridal package experience. We also heard about bridal shop taking all their customer's money and close shop. Even they are open, we also hear about high turnover rate of their staff, resulting in poor coordination and follow ups. Couples need to do most of the job to inform the bridal shop about their appointments.
One of my close friend had so many issues with her bridal shop that she had a really hard time. Appointments not booked for her make up artist, change of her coordinator twice, wrong color of her bouquet. One day before her wedding day, she went to pick up the bouquet, only to realised they provided her with a orange bouquet instead of pink as she requested. Her lawyer relative was so angry that she went down personally to settle this issue for her. And as usual, bridal taiji to florist, florist taiji to bridal's coordinator. After taiji-ing here and there, the lawyer said calmly, "I'm not giving you any trouble, I just want to know who to sue." Almost immediately, there it is, the pink bouquet. So things can be done, just that once they do wrongly, they don't want to correct it because it's extra effort. This is just one part, a lot of brides had difficulties finding makeup artist and booking photographer.
Photographer and videographer... another issue. Usually outsourced by the bridal or the couple can choose to hire their own. This alone could be more expensive than the bridal package. I heard of a couple whose videographer package is more than eight thousand dollars. The videographer came with a crew of four people. Bringing A LOT of equipment! Looks really professional. The couple said they take videos for the local broadcasting station. The result was actually okay. But not worth the amount in my opinion. It's high quality, but I won't spend that kind of money for a video. I believe they charged so much because of their pricey equipment. They are very busy also! Numerous shoots. Singapore got a lot of rich people. People are more willing to spend during their wedding. Once in a lifetime, they say.
Above all are the basics of a chinese wedding. I believe you can do without some of it, and engage your friends and relatives to help. But all relies on whether you have the resources and are you able to accept amateur quality. And all are my humble opinion. :)
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Monday, November 9, 2015
Job Searching
This post is just for me to do some reflection and thinking through my future.
I've been on the current job for more than four years now since I graduated with my degree. With a business degree, the available options are slightly more than a specific one. However, i ended up in this customer service job because of it's location. I also thought I could do this first while considering what I want for my future.
Here I am, four years later... Still not sure what I want to do.
I have this thing for marketing and PR. I think I'm that kind of person. Good with meeting people, talking, and selling. But I do not want to be tied down by sales target. If given a chance, I think I can do well in this sector.
People usually think highly of themselves. That's my problem also. I feel that I can achieve much more elsewhere or in another position. Over here, people consider this place as a retirement village. Everyone here is waiting for the "package". I'm the most junior person in my team. Two of which clocked thirteen years. And another was seven. How am I going to fight with them? Colleagues even asked me what am I doing here? So young and capable, I should be outside fighting for my career!
I thought so too... Most of the time...
Frankly speaking, being in here is my comfort zone. I complete my tasks within first hour of the day. After which, I was in charge of routing emails from the generic mailbox. I look for ways to simplify and error proof my work. I think of ideas to make my job easier. Resulting in higher efficiency, end up I complete them even faster than others. End up I'm bored. End up I surf net around 60% of my day. There are some busy days also, but I would say it's very little.
In my opinion, the pay here is way lower than what I can do. But for what I done so far, I would say it's justifiable because I'm free most of the time. I'm not working hard enough. Still have a lot of capacity. But who would tell that to their bosses? I don't tell my boss I'm free, but as and when they assign other jobs to my out of my job scope, I gladly take them. I strongly believe that employees are to help bosses solve problems, not create problems. That's why I hate politics also. I cannot stand them and is strongly against them. I don't like when people gossip and back stab others. I try to walk away and usually do not comment. If I'm close enough with that person, I'll tell them to stop. That's how I roll.
However, tongues will still wag. When people ask me about stuff, I just say I don't know. Even with the closest colleague, I don't want to spread people's issues. There was once my close colleague got angry with me because I told her I didn't know about a scandal in the company. Another colleague told her that she already told me. -.- Anyway, that was over and she got over it after a short while. I just told her that I don't think we should spread such news and it would be better if she didn't know. I hoped I didn't know also.
I told myself that I would start looking for a new job in Decemeber. But here's the problem. What job? If I were to venture into something our of my current experience, I'm sure I would have to accept a pay cut. That's unacceptable. I have a house, a car and family to feed. I cannot accept pay cut and higher work load. Doesn't make sense. I will have to proof to the company that I'm interviewing for that I'm worth it. How many employers can see that? All they want is a worker bee. Hopefully someone without much thoughts. Too much thoughts and comment might end up being a conflict of interest.
First year into my current job, I had lots of thoughts. Why don't they streamline this process. Why won't they invest more and use a better system to manage their orders? Why don't they do this, why don't they do that. From there, I understand reality. What we learnt in textbooks, in schools are not really applicable here. We made assumptions. Cost and benefit analysis were just numbers. In this real world, these are real figures. They have impact. They affect business profitability and company's future. It's not so simple.
Cut cost. Separation and acquisition. I was lucky to have gone through all that here. I would say it's a valuable experience.
Now looking ahead. I need to start thinking for myself. Do I want to sacrifice my comfort and walk out to a bigger environment? Will I be able to succeed? Will I do better than here? Friends around me who walked out seems like they are doing better. But then again, they went back to the same industry. I'm venturing out.
I hope I can meet someone who can help my and value my capability. I also wish to grow. But I can feel that working in this current job is really slowing me down. I used to be an extrovert. Very good in presentation. I thought I could do MUCH BETTER than now. But looking at facebook, all my classmates are at managerial level, while I'm still a customer service representative. It sucked to be filled with envy when I used to perform better than them. I hate this feeling. I need to make a change. I hope my next post will be an update for my new job. Like everyone else, I'm waiting for the year end 13 month and off I go. Wish my luck!
I've been on the current job for more than four years now since I graduated with my degree. With a business degree, the available options are slightly more than a specific one. However, i ended up in this customer service job because of it's location. I also thought I could do this first while considering what I want for my future.
Here I am, four years later... Still not sure what I want to do.
I have this thing for marketing and PR. I think I'm that kind of person. Good with meeting people, talking, and selling. But I do not want to be tied down by sales target. If given a chance, I think I can do well in this sector.
People usually think highly of themselves. That's my problem also. I feel that I can achieve much more elsewhere or in another position. Over here, people consider this place as a retirement village. Everyone here is waiting for the "package". I'm the most junior person in my team. Two of which clocked thirteen years. And another was seven. How am I going to fight with them? Colleagues even asked me what am I doing here? So young and capable, I should be outside fighting for my career!
I thought so too... Most of the time...
Frankly speaking, being in here is my comfort zone. I complete my tasks within first hour of the day. After which, I was in charge of routing emails from the generic mailbox. I look for ways to simplify and error proof my work. I think of ideas to make my job easier. Resulting in higher efficiency, end up I complete them even faster than others. End up I'm bored. End up I surf net around 60% of my day. There are some busy days also, but I would say it's very little.
In my opinion, the pay here is way lower than what I can do. But for what I done so far, I would say it's justifiable because I'm free most of the time. I'm not working hard enough. Still have a lot of capacity. But who would tell that to their bosses? I don't tell my boss I'm free, but as and when they assign other jobs to my out of my job scope, I gladly take them. I strongly believe that employees are to help bosses solve problems, not create problems. That's why I hate politics also. I cannot stand them and is strongly against them. I don't like when people gossip and back stab others. I try to walk away and usually do not comment. If I'm close enough with that person, I'll tell them to stop. That's how I roll.
However, tongues will still wag. When people ask me about stuff, I just say I don't know. Even with the closest colleague, I don't want to spread people's issues. There was once my close colleague got angry with me because I told her I didn't know about a scandal in the company. Another colleague told her that she already told me. -.- Anyway, that was over and she got over it after a short while. I just told her that I don't think we should spread such news and it would be better if she didn't know. I hoped I didn't know also.
I told myself that I would start looking for a new job in Decemeber. But here's the problem. What job? If I were to venture into something our of my current experience, I'm sure I would have to accept a pay cut. That's unacceptable. I have a house, a car and family to feed. I cannot accept pay cut and higher work load. Doesn't make sense. I will have to proof to the company that I'm interviewing for that I'm worth it. How many employers can see that? All they want is a worker bee. Hopefully someone without much thoughts. Too much thoughts and comment might end up being a conflict of interest.
First year into my current job, I had lots of thoughts. Why don't they streamline this process. Why won't they invest more and use a better system to manage their orders? Why don't they do this, why don't they do that. From there, I understand reality. What we learnt in textbooks, in schools are not really applicable here. We made assumptions. Cost and benefit analysis were just numbers. In this real world, these are real figures. They have impact. They affect business profitability and company's future. It's not so simple.
Cut cost. Separation and acquisition. I was lucky to have gone through all that here. I would say it's a valuable experience.
Now looking ahead. I need to start thinking for myself. Do I want to sacrifice my comfort and walk out to a bigger environment? Will I be able to succeed? Will I do better than here? Friends around me who walked out seems like they are doing better. But then again, they went back to the same industry. I'm venturing out.
I hope I can meet someone who can help my and value my capability. I also wish to grow. But I can feel that working in this current job is really slowing me down. I used to be an extrovert. Very good in presentation. I thought I could do MUCH BETTER than now. But looking at facebook, all my classmates are at managerial level, while I'm still a customer service representative. It sucked to be filled with envy when I used to perform better than them. I hate this feeling. I need to make a change. I hope my next post will be an update for my new job. Like everyone else, I'm waiting for the year end 13 month and off I go. Wish my luck!
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