Tips to plan your Big Day on a budget

When you are planning your big day, the list of items to plan is endless even though you have a wedding planner. Right from the start of the day to the end of the day, there are many things to consider and plan ahead. Let me skip the dresses, accessories and make up this round, I will show you how to plan your wedding day to ensure that your guests enjoy and remember this special occasion. The entire day has to be instagrammable and yet affordable.

01 Ambience

Be it at your parents’ or your new home, you need to decorate the place to make them beautiful and instagrammable. Props such as balloons and flowers are a must! Without leaving your home, you can get from Taobao that ship to Singapore directly. You will be spoilt for choice for the kind of variations that they have and you can even customise the balloons according to your names, dates or special wordings. Most of them come in a package incase you do not have the time to shop around and mix and match. For last minute shopping, you can mistydaydreamsg (www.mistydaydream.com) for personalised balloons, toppers, sash, wishing well, banners and bridal sash. They have a pretty comprehensive collection and they do designs as well so the balloons come in helium gas as well.

02 Food

This is the most important thing when you have your relatives and friends coming over to celebrate your special day with you. You have to make them feel comfortable and fed well as they may have to wait around while you shuttle between places. A trusted caterer that offers menu for young and old is very important. One of my trusted buffet caterers will Le Xin Catering, the savory local dishes will never go wrong with the old folks. And my guests will never complain the food too oily or salty. My top 2 favourites will be the kimchi fried rice or the Fried Yaki Udon, the Fried Yaki Udon is the always the popular dish among the kids.

If your new home is small (which is common for newly built flats), you can opt in for tables and chairs. And they even provide packet drinks if you need to settle everything at one place. The last thing you want to do is to clean up your place before your dinner. The buffet catering provider will clear the place and that is good enough to save you from keeping the tables and chairs.

For smaller group that is expected either at your place or your hubby’s place, you can opt for mini buffet delivery. The spread is still good and you can cater different menus for each place. So, your sisters and brothers can help themselves to different menus. You need to feed them well as they will be carrying and walking a lot for you that day.

03 Door Gifts

I know hotels go provide but some of us prefer private places with more personal touch and some of these venues do not provide. Some of the most meaningful gifts that I have received are hand-made cookies, hand-made chillies and USB charged fans. Why I mention about USB charged fans is that I was attending this outdoor garden party in Bali and the lovely couple actually plan for this so that the guests can use on the spot.

For gifts that carry meanings can last a lifetime and I’m sure your guests will use and remember the night as much as you do. If you do not want to look like a panda on your wedding day, you can skip making hand-made pastries for your guests on the night before.

Some crazy ideas include luminous dice, shot glasses with your hashtags, sketches of some elements of your wedding on a magnet, charger wire adaptor…(Remember to customise some meaning into your gifts)

04 Songs

March in songs, background music and all other highlights of the events need special songs to mark them down. Searching for songs and compiling them together can be daunting especially when you need to arrange them in sequence and cue the hotel when to play them. The trick is use spotify, https://www.spotify.com. You create the playlist for your wedding day and you can save it. Easy to use and you can listen to them again when you feel the mood.

05 Photography and Videography

The whole hassle and preparation of your big day takes so much effort and you must have good photographs and snippets of the day to share and view. With social media, it has become so simple and easy to choose your ideal photographer. Go to your Instagram, type in #weddingvideos
#weddingvideography #weddingphotography #weddinginspiration … and you will be spoilt for choice. Most of the photographers post their portfolios online and you can see what kind of effect and angles they specialise in before you even commit on any of them.