Happily Ever After? - Part 3

The Marriage- Wedding ceremony
For some couples who had options to stay with either parents may choose to go ahead with the traditional wedding.
For those, who do not have a choice, or simply do not like the choice, may wait for the new flat, renovate the flat then they hold the wedding ceremony.
For some lucky men, this whole money draining process is SKIPPED! Maybe just a holiday and thats all!
Read: my SO is one lucky man, as I am a simple woman. I do not like to act that I am on good terms with my mother-in-law, forced to greet all the elders who came and I knew that the only day I will ever meet them, forced to smile 100 times when the photographer goes, the bride please smile brightly even after a long day, and worse wake up at 5am in the morning to start all the preparation work!

Note: As I did not have first hand experience, all these are some grumbling I had heard from friends.

What is needed for a wedding of a lifetime...

• Bride money. The groom had to give a token sum to the bride mother, where NORMALLY the bride mother will return a portion back to groom. Those money-eaters may demand a large sum. So far, I heard this amount varies from a token sum of a small 4 digits where the mother actually give back the groom to prepare for the banquet to a five figure amount.
• Wedding gown. Most couple actually rent from bridal shop. This expenses is expensive, mostly bundled with phototaking session inside the studio, for a limited number of photos that is nicely printed to be shown to guests who bother to flip when they attend the wedding dinner. After the actual day, they are kept in the dark and out of mind. The cheapest I heard is like $3000 which include the gown, and a cocktail dress for the bride.
• Videographer/ photographer. A grand day need memories. So to hire a photographer to be with you to record the whole process also need money. I have no idea how much they cost anyway, but they are not cheap. Depends on who you had hired, some come with their own transport and do not mind ferrying the "sisters".
• Make-up artist/ hairstylist. They are bundles as package with the wedding gown normally.
• Banquet. A small dinner normally comes with 28-30 tables MINIMUM. A decent dinner may cosy around $800 for restaurants to $XXXX for hotels.

For the money back

• Tea Ceremony. It is where the elders pay a hefty price for pretend drinking. Depends on the depth of pockets, a cup may worth around $100- $200 for relatives, Parents will normally pay a higher price.
• Jewellery from mother-in-law to bride. Depends on how generous your mother/monster-in-law is. But be ensure to demand for gold jewellery. Bling bling do not have 2nd hand value.
• Banquet. Some couples may think that the banquet is a place for all the money spend to be returned. But sadly, if the bride's mother ask for a number of table, eg 10. These 10 tables ang pow, she has the right to take and not give back if they are given to her directly. The same for the groom. If the parents request for a number of tables, and the ang pow is given to them directly, they may act blur as well. And for the ang pows deposit into the box, only friends, collegues will try to let you break even. Relatives are another story. Lets say you invite your relatives who are a family of 6, do you think they will be giving you a $600 ang pow? You can smile and laugh if they decide to give you $500 so you do not lose too much. So couples with huge family size, please be prepared to make a loss.

Wow..By now most couples would be feeling heartpain for the amount of money spend. But guys please do not grumble too much, if not you will be known as STINGY among ALL her friends.