We did TWO weddings! (Reasons + Cost) 🫢💐💍

I thought this was worthwhile sharing since surprisingly, more and more people are doing TWO weddings these days 😦 We faced our own struggles, and we also wanted to share the costings of having two weddings! 😵‍💫

📌 𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓸𝓷

The TLDR is that stakeholders involved (me, my mum, 👦🏻, 👦🏻’s mum) had different ideas of how we wanted the wedding to pan out.

The best fit was to separate the weddings! It’s true that 👦🏻 lost out the most. At the beginning, I first caved into doing a family-only wedding for 👦🏻’s mum and forgoing my dream wedding with my friends, but one day I just broke down bc I felt that despite marriage being OUR milestone, we weren’t doing it for us and I regretted it so much haha

👦🏻 and I aligned again, and I was even desperate to fork out the full cost to make everything work for a wedding with everyone who went through thick and thin with us (friends - because sadly we are not believers of “blood is thicker than water”). We ultimately both enjoyed the wedding a lot, and 👦🏻 also decided to bear the cost with me since it was an “us” affair.

More challenges were shared in this post!

📌 𝓐𝓰𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓪

We held our friends’ wedding on 11 Nov at HAUS217. The objective of us was not just to celebrate our marriage, but to make it fun for our friends 🥳 we always felt that conventional weddings were typical and that we didn’t get much interactions with the bride / groom, so we wanted to inject more fun and involve our audiences more! We wrote personalised cards for everyone (even the +1’s!), played human bingo (everyone submitted their own fun fact), group scavenger hunt, and Kahoot!

The wedding with our relatives was on 9 Dec at Golden Peony, Conrad Centennial. The initial pull factor was bc of the affordable minimum cost ($10,000 total spend, regardless of the number of pax). We had a tea ceremony, solemnisation, the usual yumseng, cake cutting, and a bingo game for our relatives. Bc of how low maintenance the programme was, 👦🏻 and I got to enjoy almost the entire 8-course!

📌 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓼 & 𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓼

+ We enjoyed the wedding with our friends A LOT! Mostly bc we got to see everyone have fun instead of making the day about US and being the center of attention (which we don’t enjoy 😵‍💫), and bc we got more quality time with our friends than we would in a conventional wedding

+ Even with our relatives, it was a much more comfortable setting bc the smaller turnout of 60+ pax made it easier for us & our parents to interact with various relatives - think CNY reunion dinner!

- Planning was INSANE! I took the lead for the friends’ wedding & 👦🏻 took the lead for the relatives’ wedding (since it was an initiative pressured from his mum, he kindly took it) - and there was so much time invested into planning two weddings and coordinating with x2 vendors 😭

📌 𝓒𝓸𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰

Contrary to beliefs, I’d think it’s still possible to keep costs reasonable even with two weddings! I have read stories & heard of people spending at least $50k for just one wedding.

Including our PWS & wedding bands, our total costs for two weddings chalked up to around $42k. Looking back, I’d have forgone the fairy lights & if you REALLY want to save, you don’t have to be so generous with your angpaos or go for cheaper wedding gowns 🫢

📌 𝓔𝓷𝓭𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓮

Despite the hassles we went through, I have no regrets separating the weddings & am just glad that this is over! 👦🏻 and I agreed that we enjoyed the wedding with our friends thoroughly - it was a day when we truly felt that people there were HAPPY for us, compared to how weddings usually just feel like a formality (not anyone’s fault tbh!).

Maybe we might have tried managing our parents’ expectations differently from the start, or if I could, I would have loved to outsource the planning for our relatives’ wedding entirely to reduce our workload.

Either way, WE’RE DONE AND DUSTED!! 😭

📌 𝓞𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓦𝓮𝓭𝓭𝓲𝓷𝓰-𝓡𝓮𝓵𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓟𝓸𝓼𝓽𝓼

- Lessons From Purchasing our PWS

- Our PWS in Taiwan

- We did a 2nd PWS in NTU

- My Thoughts from Studio Hopping

- Affordable Gown Rental Alternatives

- Wedding Planning Challenges

- Ultimate Wedding Vendors Review

- Planning a Friends-Only Wedding

- Ultimate Wedding Vendors Review

- Planning a Friends-Only Wedding

- DIY for Our Wedding

- Ten Things to Try Differently for Your Wedding

- Survival Tips from My Husband

#MyLemon8Diary #weddingprep #weddingsg #weddingplanning #WeddingInspo #weddinggown #weddingdress #weddingdresses #weddingstudio

#weddingideas