Wedding Talks - Budget, budget, budget!

It's coming to my second month as the new wife to the mister, and since it's public holidays (Lunar New Year, folks! Happy CNY!) and since I'm not celebrating, maybe it's a high time to do some wedding talks.

Now when you hear the word "wedding", all you think of is the money. Yes, you got it right. Wedding is all about the money. So a word of wisdom for all brides and grooms to be: budget, budget and budget!!

So nugget of wisdom #1: set a budget

Set a budget together, or if your folks are chipping in for the wedding, decide it with them, too, on the amount you feel comfortable to spend.  Remember - pay for what you're comfortable with, within your means.  It is always a no-no to go into debt for just that one day.  And I know some banks are offering loans for weddings, personally, I advice against taking up a wedding loan but it's entirely your call. But remember, it's just ONE day, peeps, so there's no need for overdoing it!

Nugget of wisdom #2:  decide what is most important

After you've come to an agreement on the budget, decide amongst yourselves what is important to you.  For the more important items, you can splurge more and save more cash for the less important agendas / items.  In a typical Malaysian - Chinese culture, our parents would insist on a sit down dinner.  If you're up to appeasing your folks, that's totally fine.  If you'd like to have something that's more of your style, perfectly fine, too! As long as both of you (bride and groom) can come together and agree on it together, that's what we aim for.  Remember, as you're starting a lifelong journey together, it's important to stay on the same page together.  No doubt disagreements will arise, but compromise and remember why and what you're doing this for.

Nugget of wisdom #3:  shop around

Shop around for everything wedding related.  And since it's a wedding, prices go up by the double no matter what.  So, be a wise shopper.  Shop around, and please, do not impulse buy! I'm a victim of impulsive buying and boy do I waste precious money on things I either do not need or do not use.

Nugget of wisdom #4: stop comparing with friends

Remember this: comparison is the thief of all joys! Jane has a million dollars wedding? Good for her, but this doesn't mean you need to have a million dollars wedding, too! Again, I cannot emphasize this enough: stop spending unnecessarily just to impress people who don't matter. It's your wedding, so make it yours, within your means. There really isn't any benefits in showing the world how luxurious your wedding is when in actual fact you're paying up your nostrils and getting knee deep in debts. Not a good way to start a life together, don't you agree?

Anyways, I'm getting way off track from my post's intention.  To cut the chase, let me present to you my wedding budget guideline: 

Please click on image to enlarge

Okay, confession time: in all honesty, I did not create the guideline by myself.  I improvised it from a guide I read online while wedding planning, and I regret to say that I've completely forgotten which site I've gotten it from, and hence I'm unable to give credits to the original author.

But it is always helpful to grab a general idea on where (and how much) the money will go to.  Generally, dinners are the most expensive, hence me jacking it up to a hefty 40% of the entire cost of the wedding.  However, every wedding is different, so this budget guide actually offers you the flexibility to adjust according to your wedding needs.

Well, after having a general idea on how much to spend and what are the major items, it's time for us to break things into little pieces - let's go micro!

Please click on image to enlarge

As you can see from the above image, I am quite anal. LOL! You certainly don't have to go into that much of details if you don't want to, but again, those are what work for me, so feel free to change it.  Again, I'm keeping it as detailed as possible because I would really like to keep track of our costs, hence the projected and actual cost columns; it's also a great way to see how far off from reality you can be, too!

I did not use any sophisticated software or app for my budget planning.  Rather, I rely on good ol' Microsoft Excel.  There are certainly hundreds if not thousands of wedding planning apps available on the play store or app store, but Microsoft Excel is really good enough, just no fanciful platform to stare at.

So, there you have it. My wedding talks on money.  It's all about the money, really, and it's quite an important task to manage your budget as wisely as you can.  And next stop, we'll talk about wedding checklist! So stay tune!