Meive and Steve, it is absolutely absurd in my view. What is important is building a future together with perhaps some little ones too.
Spend what you can, I'm just sharing ours and some people I know. This is pretty normal in my sub-culture in the Philippines though We didn't break the bank, borrowed money or emptied our savings when we planned for the wedding. We were even under budget. Plus all the things we received as gifts were much much more that what we spent
I believe that if some people can afford to spend a bit more than others on anything, including their wedding, then good for them. In our case I never really totted up what we spent. Most of what we did was my wife's choice which I was happy to go along with as I wasnt familiar with Philippine convention. We didnt have a church wedding which was my wifes choice but we did have a good wedding reception then the following day took the extended family to Laguna for one of these 24 hour stays at a hot spring resort and then a honeymoon on our own in Boracay in one of the better hotels. All in, I am certain we didnt spend as much as £2000 including flights to Boracay etc, for everything. Our "fixer" was known to us as she had previously been involved in the wedding process of two of my wife's cousins who both married Korean men. So we had confidence in what she did and could do for us. When we were on our honeymoon we noticed a wedding ceremony and reception taking place on the beach. It looked fantastic. Of course I dont know but I guess it would have been a relatively low cost arrangement despite the great setting. Its interesting what blue acid said about using a wedding planner and the benefit of everything being taken care of. In our case everything worked as the extended family seemed to work together on it all.
^ If it is a small wedding, it might work having everyone involved but then if it is bigger, it would be hard and you would want your guests to be relaxed. I think that as long as the couple can afford to throw a lavish wedding without sacrificing a new house or emptying their bank accounts or their future then let us all be happy for them. Calling it crazy, absurd, etc isn't really very constructive I mean, it isn't the couple's fault that they can, right? To quantify our spending, you might want to check out our on site slideshow and same day edit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXX2tVLZDn8 http://treehousestory.com/v2/?p=746
Blu I think what most of us experienced was not the Markati jet set version lol (nothing amiss in that) but for newbs here your experience is a opposite to the vast majority. I think our lot pinned about 1600 peso in small bills to our clothes and I booked a jeepny to do the transport not a roller. average income for 30 day work of 12 hours then was 7500 about £100 just perspective
Ah maybe we are just in different circles and backgrounds. I guess people I know in the Philippines and some in the UK are at par with the figures I have shared. I hope I would be in that Makati jetset circle, but no It kinda evens out though, we spent that much and we got back more. So it seems like we didn't spend anything LOL
As Keith mentioned, most foreigners who marry someone from so far away in these days of recession, money is an big issue and if kids come along, travel to and from the Phils many times, cost needs to be taken into consideration. My wife felt the same as me and yes, I suppose we were both lucky to have the same priorities.
Thankfully neither myself or my wife are particularly into weddings so we were able to make it our day without much fuss. Hundred quid wedding dress from Debenhams, suit and tie from Sainsbury's, local registery office (which is in a fabulous historical setting). Turned up in my boss's nice Jag and, yay, married!
