How much does it really cost to hold a wedding in Singapore? (with Tips!)

Unless you are born with a platinum spoon in your toothless mouth or you have full sponsorships, you would probably wonder the costs of a wedding at some point in your life. A year before the big day, we sat down, had our expectations penned down, and had an estimation of how much we would need for our wedding. I wouldn't kid you, our expectations were kinda different, and that night, we argued. To be honest, despite the minor heartbreaks, I wouldn't want it another way.

Here's a tip: Productive arguments are good in a relationship. Get as many expectations and values aligned with your partner way before marriage.

Months before our big day, we sat down, had slightly more idea after some research, and discussed the topic again. We had our preliminary budget worked out. "Preliminary" - because there are some items we forgot to factor and so many hidden costs, but don't worry, limpeh got you covered in this post.

As you would know, if you haven't, let me tell you - Singapore is not a cheap place to hold your fairytale wedding. An average wedding can easily cost $50-70k. I want to be careful of the word "average" here - in this case, it refers to our research results from our good friends and several online sources. Ultimately, what is "average" is largely dependant on your expectations. A wedding at a lower-end hotel or restaurant with only your close ones may cost $20-30k, while an extravagant one at a luxury hotel with your whole kampong would cost more than $100k. For this post, I share about our weddings costs.

Wedding Food Tasting at Fullerton Hotel

As the wedding bells are soon to ring, we are trying to check off as many to-dos' on our list, one of them which is to get our banquet food tasted. Most banquet venues offer food tasting as part of the package. This process is more important than you think, don't think of it as a free meal for 6-10 people. Think of it as a responsibility as guests will be eating the food on the actual day, so it is one of your duties to make sure that the food is up to standard. After all, Singaporeans love to eat, and after all, you don't want to serve subpar food.

Here are some general tips for your food tasting session: Take photos of the presentation. Evaluate the food. Take notes. Feedback to the chef/coordinator. Ask questions. Finalise. 

It's not the first time our family met each other, and we really thank God that everyone got along pretty well and had a great time chatting over dinner. Although the actual venue was at the main ballroom at Fullerton Hotel, the food tasting was hosted at Jade Restaurant - a really exquisite and cosy Cantonese restaurant which has been operating at Fullerton for almost a decade. It is helmed by the hotel's executive chef, Chef Leong Chee Yeng, who is also the in-charge for our wedding menu.

London Prewedding Photoshoot with JR Studio

Travelling overseas for your prewedding photoshoot seems to be "in" thing right now. Apparently, Singaporeans are too cool for Merlion, Sentosa, and Botanic Gardens. While foreigners are flying to Singapore for their photoshoot, we fly to theirs for ours. And... so did we. Everything seemed like it was planned by God himself after one of Lady M's friend gave her a Hillsong Conference UK ticket for her birthday. We planned a trip around it, managed to book a prewedding photoshoot, and even fly to Iceland for a trip. Initially, we had plans to shoot ours in Korea, with all the annyeonghasaeyo K-drama style, but that would be another cost and another story.

Searching for a prewedding photoshoot online is no easy task, this I promise, it takes extensive hours of research of whether to go with either flying a photographer over, or go with a destination photographer, or signing up with an overseas studio. I will share the pros and cons of each to better help you plan yours, which you probably are since you are reading this post until this far.