6 amazingly simple ways to hold a wedding dinner without breaking your wallet

Last Updated on 2016-10-06 , 2:29 pm

A wedding is supposed to be something special between you and your special someone, and not an event that land you so heavily in debt you couldn’t even figure which way is out.

Assuming you’re brave enough, you’d have asked your future parents-in-law if they are insistent on having a wedding banquet for their daughter’s marriage, and if you’re lucky enough, they’ll say it’s alright.

Unfortunately, a huge majority of the parents here in Singapore are pretty much conservatives and traditionalists, and firmly believe in the following the proper procedures not to mention the loss of face to their family and friends, so expect to get an incredulous look and a flat no immediately, before being given the cold shoulder for the next few times you visit. I’d advise you to ask your partner to check with them instead of you doing it yourself.

So, now that the best avenue of saving cost is lost to you, what else can you do to cut cost on a wedding banquet?

A wedding banquet can be a pretty costly affair, and depending on what you do and get, it can hit as high as $30,000; a pretty scary thought, isn’t it?

Well, here are 6 simple tips you can use to try and minimize your expenditure for the wedding banquet, because even if you can afford to, the money can be put to better use, say for example, on your honeymoon, right?

Start planning, earlier
If your preferred date is further away, you’d have room for negotiation, not to mention that you might just be able to get a better deal simply because you booked early. If the restaurant or hotel knows you’re in need of a place to hold your wedding banquet in earlier, you can be sure they won’t be so willing to offer you the best perks and rates. After all, you’re getting desperate, aren’t you?

Plan your budget
Like the saying goes, fail to plan and you plan to fail. Plan out your budget, list down all the things that you want in your dream wedding banquet and cut out those that are less important and you’ll find yourself holding a wedding banquet that’s within your means. Do remember to do this with your partner so both of you agree on the essential things to have for the wedding banquet and decide on alternatives together.

For example, instead of hiring an emcee to host the event and entertain the guests, enlist your friends to help instead.

Do your research
I’m going to plagiarize from Sun Tzu, know your enemies and you will have half the battle won, or something that goes like that. In this case, know where are the cheapest and most affordable restaurants or hotels offering wedding banquet packages and you’d be likelier to get a good deal for your money.

So ask your friends, research online, go onto forums, check out bridal sites and also go down to the restaurants or hotels personally to try out their food and inspect the décor and you’d most likely be able to get a good deal that caters to your needs.

Keep invitations to the minimal
It can be incredibly tempting to invite everybody that you know, maybe you do so because you want to show off, or you’re afraid of offending anybody who isn’t invited. Here’s what we think, the more you invite, the more costly the wedding banquet is going to be; not to mention that the more people invited, the higher the chances of people not turning up for the banquet, wasting your money.

So invite only the essential people, your bosses, close friends, people you have to work with, etc. Also, don’t forget to double check with them first before booking the number of tables, Facebook is a pretty good avenue for you to get people to RSVP before sending out invitations.

Choose the day and time wisely
This is becoming a trend – holding weekday lunches. No longer are you going to be looked down on because you prefer to save money and hold a weekday lunch instead of a weekend dinner, because everybody else is doing the same; think about it, less guests and guests who are less likelier to drink booze.

Forget about others, you just have to make each other happy
Okay, this is something we have to stress to you: a wedding is, after all, between the both of you, and not others. Who cares about what other people think, as long as the both of you are blissfully in love, and healthy in the bank as well? Don’t compare other people’s wedding to yours, and say oh they have this, I got to have this as well and you’d probably be able to come out of this pretty much unscathed.

Spend within your means, and decide on what both of you want for your wedding, and it’ll definitely be a success.