Before you spend your life’s savings, let’s get real about how much you can really spend on the big day.
Saying “I Do” is expensive. A small wedding can cost around P50,000, while the more glamorous weddings go as high as half a million pesos or even more. Where do you even begin to find the money to spend for your wedding? Ask yourself these questions:
Planning for the wedding always starts with a budget. List down everything that you’ll need to spend on, from the dress to the entertainment, and research on the going rate for each expense online. If your budget is too high, you either take out some of the elements, find cheaper alternatives to some suppliers, or you focus on spending more on the essentials: Ceremony venue, wedding dress, food. You can spend less on everything else.
Once you and your fiancée have fixed the budget, ask each other if you’re both okay with the amount you’ll be spending. If your fiancée doesn’t understand why you need to spend so much on your wedding dress or on the cake, use this as an opportunity to figure out if the expense is worth it or not.
Most couples nowadays pay for their own weddings, but parents from both sides usually contribute to the wedding budget. Out of tradition, the family of the groom sometimes gives more, but it really depends on the financial capacity of each family. List down all the contributions that will be coming in, including your own. And remember, spending money that you don’t have—meaning charging it to your credit card or to a promised contribution from a relative or parent—will only cause you stress. Use only the money—cash or check, if possible—that is already available.
Compare your wedding budget to the actual money you now have for the wedding. If the money you have doesn’t even match half your budget, you have two options: You either find more sources of income to fund your wedding, or you cut your budget down to the essentials. If you’re running out of time or have a short planning process, it’s more efficient to cut your budget down instead.
Some couples resort to pawning off their belongings, or borrowing money from friends or relatives, just to pay for their extravagant wedding. They think that it will all be worth it because it’s a once in a lifetime event, and you’ll eventually be able to earn the money and pay back what you borrowed. While it’s true that a wedding marks the beginning of forever for couples, it would be an even better beginning if it starts with no financial strains or stresses. As they say, a wedding is just a day, while marriage is forever.
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For more than 30 years , we have been blessed to be a part of thousands of weddings, debuts, kids parties, corporate events, and private celebrations. In all these events, we make sure we are not only your caterer but more importantly your partner in every step from conceptualizing, budgeting and planning up to final execution.
