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. :)
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