So, your special one has proposed to you! Congrates! You guys will be going to the next important stage in life – Marriage.

As exciting as it can be, you will start hunting for wedding venues, comparing price for bridal studios, getting good friends to be your Brothers & Sisters Team, finding wedding bands for your solemnization, preparing for betrothal, looking out for suitable bridal cars, comparing portfolios of Actual Day Photography/ Videography, sourcing for solemnizers/JPs….Wow, that sounds like A LOAD of preparation and things to do just for a Wedding!

Some of us will think: “oh, just make it simple la!” But the more you get into the progress, and with vendor pressure and influence from parents, your partner and friends, the more complicated it becomes…

But HEY, its ONCE in a lifetime, isn’t it? So no matter what, most important is to experience the process of planning and going through it, and enjoy as much as you ;)

 
Having a few of us in Music Box who has recently tied the knot, we would like to share with you a 13 Steps General Guide of Wedding Planning with some recommendation, price range and things to look out for.

1) Fixing Your Wedding Date

Decide on a few possible dates so that you can have some choices when you book Venues.

For most Chinese, they will usually ask Temples or Fengshui Masters to calculate auspicious dates for them.

2) Venue Booking

This should be one of the earliest thing to do as usually popular venues are easily fully book in advance. Usually Venues are book at least 1year in advance.

Factors to consider:
1) Food Quality
2) Service Quality
3) Ambience
4) Price
5) Freebies/Value Added Services
6) Number of Tables

Usually if you are going for venues that serves Great Food and a Lower Price Tag Per Table (Average: $499-$1000), you should be going for Restaurants.

But do take note that you might have to compromise on Service Quality (not as good as Hotels), Ambience (Restaurants don’t usually look as good as Hotel Ballrooms), and you will not have a Wedding Suite for you to change and rest on Wedding Day if your Restaurant Venue is not inside a Hotel.

Restaurants To Try: Peach Garden, Tim’s Palace, Qian Xi, Peony Jade, Ban Heng.

Vice Versa, Hotel will have better Service, great Ambience, Suites for you to rest and change, and sometimes they throw in extra free stays! But food may not be as good, and the Price Per Table higher (Average: $900-$2000)

Hotels To Try: Park Royal, Marina Mandarin, Mandarin Oriental, Swissotel, Crowne Plaza Changi, Conrad, Carlton, The Regent, Four Seasons.
Things to Follow Up:
– Food Tasting
– Confirmation of Tables & Layout
– Printing of Invitation Cards

 
3) Bridal Studio Booking

This should also be done early as it is one of the major part of your Wedding.

Bridal Studio usually provides Full Package Services Including:
– Bridal Gowns & Suits
– Pre-Wedding Photoshoot + Albums (Local or Oversea)
– Makeup Artist for Preshoot & Actual Day
– Actual Day Photoshoot & Videography
– Bridal Car Rental

Depending on how comprehensive the Bridal Studio is, some Bridal Studio do not provide AD Photoshoot & Videography and also Bridal Car. You can source seperately from other vendors or friends if its a cheaper alternative.

Typical Average Price Range: $3000-$4000

Bridal Studio to Try: Odelia, La Belle Coulture, Z Weddings

4) Forming of Brothers & Sisters Team

This process is important and always choose those good old buddies whom you can trust in helping you for your Big Day (and of course with them agreeing to help out).

Brothers & Sisters Team are important as they will be your brain/hand/legs on your big day, not only in playing gatecrash games, but they usually also carry important stuffs for you (Wedding Rings, Wedding Cert, Gowns etc), do time-keeping and also banquet AV, ushers, reception, carrying angbaos and oranges and for you.

5) Booking of ROM/Solemnizer

There are 2 Ways you can Solemnise in Singapore:

a) At Singapore Registery of Marriage itself and Solemnizer is pre-assigned.
– Usually if you choose to Solemnise at ROM, the date will not the same as your Wedding Date since its difficult to be synchronised them on the same date.

b) At Venues of your Choice and you can choose your own Solemnizer/JP (Provided they agree to help)
– This is usually done on your Wedding Date itself at your Wedding Venue. Only thing is you have to source for Solemnizer/JP and the popular ones are usually hard to book.

Find Out More at https://www.rom.gov.sg/index.asp.

Things to Follow Up:
– Verification of Document at ROM
– Write Own Wedding Vows (instead of default ones), which is more meaningful

6) Bethrodal (or 过大礼 for Chinese)

This process is especially for Chinese to choose an auspicious date for exchanging Wedding Gifts between both Groom’s and Bride’s families.

The Gifts includes Ang Baos of Different Purpose, Dowry, Traditional Cakes, 四点金 (4 Types of Gold Jewellery, especially for Teochews).

For Dowry Gifts, Ang Baos Types, 嫁妆, they are usually bought at Traditional Wedding Shops at Chinatown Complex at Smith Street.

For Traditional Cakes, you can try http://ginthye.com/.

7) Planning of Actual Day Itinerary

For this, most couple will be using Microsoft Excel to write out the Timeline, People Involved, Point of Contact, Venues, etc.

If yours is a Wedding Lunch, morning time will usually be very tight, so you need to plan every single activity and make sure your time-keeper keeps an eye on the clock. Also take into account traffic conditions and possible scenarios that may disrupt flow.

If yours is a Wedding Dinner, your time will be more evenly spaced out, and you can take some rest time especially in the afternoon before going Banquet Venue (You will be thankful if you have a Hotel Suite to rest in!)

This Itinerary should be shared with Brothers & Sisters and any important helpers. At least one of them must know the Itinerary very well and assure everything is moving as planned.

8) Wedding Decoration

You may want to at LEAST decorate your Wedding Reception Table. Usually, Bridal Studio will give you your Preshoot Album as well as a portrait Wedding Photo of your choice to put up at your Reception. So you can either DIY your own Reception Table Decor or outsource to vendors who do it.

9) Wedding Entertainment

This should come as one of the last steps after you have confirmed most of your important processes.

The reason is because you will by then know how much budget you will have left for optional entertainment for your guests.

Wedding Entertainment includes: Candy Bar ($200-$400), Photobooth ($400-$800), Wedding Live Band & Emcees ($1400-$2500).

10) Preparation of Wedding Montage + Morning Express Videos

For Wedding Montage, it can be DIY-ed or you can request for vendors to do for you.

For Morning Express Videos, it is usually done by AD Videography Vendors.

11) Preparation of Wedding Speech

Think about the looooong list of people you should thank for this Wedding: Your Family, Relatives, Friends, and most importantly your partner. Try to be as creative and as possible and be prepared mentally for guests that continue chatting about their dogs and cats during your speech :p

12) Ang Bao Preparation

As your Brothers, Sisters, Helpers and Vendors spend lots of time preparing for your big day, this is certainly a “compulsory” gift you should give them to thank them of their efforts and time spent.

This is also an important and major part of your budget, but also keep in mind that they will also give you ang bao for your wedding.

13) Sending Out Invitation Cards

This step should be done after you have the finalized tables & layout and your invitation card printed perhaps 1-2 months before your wedding.

Things to Follow Up:
– Printing of Guests List for Reception & Ushers

 
Questions? Contact us to know more! :)