Money Woes

Sometimes I really do feel loving someone is not easy. As much as I love him, there r times when I feel that I need more than love to keep me going. I guess I need more strength, courage and determination.

I think getting married is a wonderful thing. And I like to keep it simple and sweet. But then, sometimes our parents prefer to do things the old traditional way and so, we cant have everything going our way.

J and I are simple ppl and we wld love to hv our wedding celebrations simple. Initially we thought of some simple reception or buffet but my parents then insisted on Chinese sit-down dinner. J’s parents r ok with not throwing any dinner. Apparently they hv many relatives n I think it wld be difficult to recover the loss from their relatives’ side, even if we hv surpluses from our friends n colleagues.

My parents had suggested that if we were to do away with the dinner, they wld still treat our relatives to a simple dinner. Of course, this wld be sponsored by the groom’s side. J then mentioned if my parents wanted to throw a dinner for our relatives, we might as well do it altogether. Both side’s relatives, friends n colleagues.

Hv been researching on the pricing of wedding lunch n dinner at various locations. Was surprised that some 5 star hotels charge so much for the wedding banquet. On weekend, it can easily come up to $1000 after all the +++. Even for lunch, it is only a small difference.

Hv actually narrowed down to a few based on the pricing, reputation and location. But I’ll still be finding out more if need be. We really need to re-work our finances to cater for all the expenses and set a buffer for the losses.

So far, we’ve been planning our budget using all our own money. His family is not considered well-to-do and he always says he wont expect his parents to help finance our wedding. I do hv my own reservations actually. When we were doing our reno planning, his parents owaz said they wld help to finance our reno either in cash or by buying some furniture or things like that. So I hv the concept that his parents r willing to help us finance our reno n furnishings. And correct me if I am wrong, I think it is quite common for parents to help finance their son’s wedding, esp when it is their only son. I can understand if his family cant help in any financing but not when his dad always tells me he can help in this, help in that…. Everytime his dad tells me he can sponsor us something, it’s like assuring me that he can afford it.

There r some essential things which the groom’s side need to buy or give to the bride’s side in the customary wedding. I think in our budgeting, J will cater for all these using our combined savings. Oh, wait a minute, there r some things which cant be done using our combined savings ba? Like the dowry?? I cant be possibly paying for my own dowry.

Anyway, I think it will be difficult to move in early judging by our financial status. I cant move in until we throw the wedding banquet. Although we can hold our customary ritual on a separate day from the wedding banquet, my parents had mentioned they dun wan the 2 days to be too far apart.

Tired…..

Monday, 0228 hrs.