My wedding journey #1

It's 8th July and I'm 5 months away from becoming a missus. Somebody else's wife. Oh the horror.

The hubs (I already call him hubs) and I are pretty cool about the wedding. I haven't turned into a bridezilla and he hasn't pulled out all his hair, so things are ok (for now). Our biggest concern thus far is the issue of finances. We aren't rich people and I think it's so expensive to get married in Singapore that we are both a little scared, but have decided to forge ahead nonetheless (actually it's me forcing him to *smile*).

Here's a little rundown on our finances so far:

Hotel = $3500 deposit
Normally hotels ask for $5000 deposit. We were quite lucky in the sense that the hotel we selected only required $3500 for deposit. Which freed up the $1500 cash for other stuff.

What you need to look out for when selecting a hotel
- Alcohol - the hotel we selected provided free flow wine and beer, which was the biggest reason as to why I selected it. Usually alcohol can cost quite a fair bit, especially if you have really good drinkers for guests. So now I don't have to worry too much about wine, though I'll still need to buy hard liquor.

- Invitation cards - ours provided invitation cards PLUS printing of inserts. Some hotels only provide invitation cards but require you to pay for your own printing.

- Complimentary table/food tasting - the hotel gave us one complimentary table and one table for food tasting. We exchanged the food tasting for another complimentary table. So we have 2 complimentary tables, which really helps to save.

- Other miscellaneous items - enough carpark coupons and wedding favours. All hotels provide wedding favours but for me, teddy bears and chocolate just make these so meaningless. I would rather give my guests something more useful, like a coaster etc. This is a personal choice though. :)

Bridal Studio = RM$5000
We decided to head over to JB for bridal studio because it's definitely cheaper than Singapore. On average Singapore's packages cost from $3000 upwards (not sure if you can even find $3000 packages these days). As the hubs drives, we didn't mind travelling in if it could help us save a little. Plus, I really liked the photos from this studio that I saw on Facebook.

Photographer = $1000
Quite fortunate to get this good deal at $1000 nett for full day (with break in between). Recommended by a friend.

Make-up artist = $450
That's for me, and also a good deal. A little apprehensive though. Hasn't seen her work yet, she came recommended by the same studio that found us the photographer and it was quite a bargain. The other one I wanted was charging $680.

Wedding bands = $1800
This one we didn't fork out cash, we paid by credit card instalments. To get points also hehe. Anyway we were slightly more ambitious and bought from Goldheart's Celestial range instead...thus the cost. Actually it costs $2400 but I traded in my old Celestial solitaire for $600 so there was a discount. We actually saw rings that cost about $800 or so, if you're on a budget and not fussy. :)

That's the rough breakdown of our expenses thus far. Hope this provides a brief guide for all the grooms and brides-to-be.

What I still need to settle:
- Dress for my mum (hubs will settle his mum's dress) and sister
- Make up artist for mum and sis
- Wedding shoes
- Wedding manicure
- Videographer for the morning highlights
- red packets for the helpers
- Chinese custom guo da li items

Sigh. So many things, so little time.

Gown fitting coming up next week! Haven't dieted at all *sheepish smile* I will just go and look slightly flabby, at least not emancipated. C&K joining us for our trip down to the bridal studio in JB! Looking forward to a fun time and a nice supper! ^_^