DIY and No Planners
Asking someone else to customize or to design for you would cost you at least RM450. Get in control. Sketch out your ideal wedding invitations, guest books and name placement. Get a friend to do you a favour and print it out at home.
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Flowers
The wedding decoration would usually cost a bomb and would wither right after the wedding. Avoid using expensive flowers. For example, you could use roses from China which would cost you much lesser than other imported flowers. Negotiate with your supplier in advance to avoid peak season or shortage.
Dates and Venues
Malaysian weddings are usually very sensitive with dates. Auspicious dates like 12th of December 2012 or 13th of January 2013 should be avoided. Wedding venues and hotels are likely to be fully booked and price would be up by 30%. Choose your date carefully and cross check it with the hotel. If you are comfortable with the idea of celebrating your wedding during off peak season, it would help your guests travelling from abroad to save cost on their flight and accommodation.
Alcohol
Unless it is a Malay wedding, alcohol would play an important role to get your guests into a celebratory mood. Be wise in choosing which type of alcohol to serve. Sparkling would be very expensive and if you insist on having it, don’t sting e on the number of bottles or your guests wouldn’t be happy. Serve beers generously, before serving the wines and whiskeys. The cost of serving beer is the lowest of all four.
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Here are a few pointers on your wine and whiskey:
– A bottle of 750ml wine could serve 5 glasses
– A bottle of 750ml champagne could serve 8 glasses flute
– A bottle of 700ml liquor could serve about 24 shots
You know your guests and you know best how much they are likely to drink. Assuming a guest would consume a glass every hour and would have probably 5 drinks by the time the dinner is over, and this assumption includes those who will not drink alcohol.
Resist the Bargain Temptation
Brides-to-be are more likely to be tempted by bargains. The idea of saving by purchasing things on bargain would usually leads to high wastage. More purchases are unplanned and would probably be unused and kept in the storeroom, piling dust on it. Ribbons, tapes and stationeries are a few of the common wastage. Think, before you buy!
Small Guest List
This is an important determinant on your wedding cost. The bigger crowd, the higher cost incurred. I would personally prefer a small wedding, whereby I could devote a big chunk of the budget everyone every happy instead of a big wedding, where everyone is feeling meeeeeeh.
A small wedding makes it easy for you to sit back and enjoy but the unforeseen challenge is who should you be inviting? Seats are limited and someone will be left out.
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Fixed Deposits
If your family gave you some money in advance for your wedding preparation, please do keep it in the fixed deposits. The additional interest generated might even help you pay for some little luxuries. A wedding today could cost anywhere from RM45,000 and up too RM500,000 and some into the million dollars zone. Each dollar saved in FD would help you in the long term planning.
Big sales
The big sales could help you in choosing the right door gifts. Most departmental stores would feature massive during the 1Malaysia Mega Sale, Year End Sale, GrandPrix Sale and the Malaysia Mega Sale. You could look for small little gifts like a photo frames, his and hers items or even chopsticks.