Key says
Now that I am preparing for our own wedding, I realized how much time, effort and money is needed for this joyous occasion. In case anyone is thinking that I am going to whine and complain over here, that is not the case.
It's just that now that I am actually preparing for my wedding, I realized that in the past, even though I tried to ensure my angbao (red packet) for the banquet meets the breakeven price of the table (inclusive of GST and service charges) for the wedding dinners that I had attended, the couple does not actually breakeven for the whole event, considering a wedding is not just a banquet but consisting of other matters as well, e.g. bridal photo, car rental, actual day photo and video, decorations, and many other things that the couple might pay to make this special day special. All these are costs that are invisible to the guests (or people like me who has not been through a wedding) that are invited for the dinner.
Now once again, I am not complaining. This is because I believe a lot of couples, like ourselves does not mind spending some money to make this day special, since it is supposed to be an once-in-a-life-time thing and money can never measure up to the true value and joy of celebrating the fruits of a couple's love, their commitment to each other and the blessing of others. However this does not change the fact that holding a (typical) wedding in Singapore is not cheap (something I always know), not too mention for couples who takes the effort to customize their wedding to make it different and special.
That's why it suddenly occurred to me whether should I give a bit more than the breakeven
price of the banquet, so that it can help to relieve a bit of the
financial burden of the newly weds? Also I think I will be even more
disgusted by stories of how people who pay for one person but bring the whole family down (sometimes even extended family) or where they put newspaper in the red packet (true story that happened to my friend).
Just some random thoughts of a guy preparing for his special day.
