According to The Asean Post article of Rising Wedding Costs In Southeast Asia, the average cost of weddings in Malaysia is between RM50,000 to RM200,000, which is not including the honeymoon expenses. Indeed, it takes wedding couples to plan and save money for years in terms to achieve the perfect wedding.
So would it burn a big hole in our pocket? And what exactly are couples spending the money for? Is there any way to save the money or skip the expenses? Thebigdays list down 7 major wedding expenses for weddings in Malaysia for your reference:
- Reception
- Attire
- Ceremony
- Photo / Videography
- Decor
- Entertainment
- Planning
Expenses 1: Reception
A wedding reception refers to the event or party to celebrate the marriage ceremony and held as hospitality for guests who are invited to the wedding. It covers the wedding reception venue cost, food and catering, beverages and etc. Typically, a wedding reception usually takes 45% to 50% of the total wedding expenses, which is the biggest expense in a wedding too.
A wedding reception basically costs an average at RM900 to RM1,200 per table at a restaurant, whereas it can as well cost from RM2,000 to RM3,000 per table at a 4 to 5 stars hotel. Each table usually can accommodate up to 10 people. For example, if you are planning to hold the wedding reception at a restaurant with 300 guests, the average costs of the reception will be at about RM27,000 to RM36,000.
Expenses 2: Attire
Wedding attire for the groom and bride is a must have items in a wedding. That can be a formal wedding with black suit and tie, informal wedding with casual suit, or traditional wedding with special wedding costumes.
The weather in Malaysia is hot and humid year round, wedding couples will prefer a casual. Traditional wedding is also another popular wedding in Malaysia, such as “Songket” the Malay traditional attire, “Kua” the Chinese traditional costume and Indian wedding wear “Kurta”.
Wedding attire expenses include groom and bride’s costume, make-up and accessories as well. Generally, it costs about RM5,000 to RM10,000, which also takes 10 to 20% of the total wedding expenses.
Expenses 3: Ceremony
The most important ritual in a wedding is definitely the marriage ceremony. It is the moment to announce your marriage becomes official. In order to make this meaningful ceremony perfect, the wedding ring is a must. A wedding ring can cost from a few hundreds to several ten thousands dollars. And the average expenses on a wedding ring is at around RM2,500 to RM5,000.
Despite the wedding ring, there are other expenses for a wedding ceremony you might not be aware of. For example, in a Malay wedding the dowry is paid by the groom’s side and consists of “mas kahwin, dulang hantaran and duit hantaran”. Whereas, the bride’s family delivers the dowry to the groom’s and groom’s side offers the bride’s family an amount of money called “Pin Jin” in Chinese weddings.
The total expenses on the wedding ceremony usually takes about 10 to 15% of the total wedding expenses. Which can cost from RM5,000 to RM10,000 or more.
Expenses 4: Photography / Videography
A professional wedding photographer or videographer is able to capture the special occasion of your life time events. They create and save the beautiful moment of your wedding perpetually. You might not be able to engage with all the little things on your wedding day, but photography and videography are able to catch them all. So you are able to recap the whole process and wouldn’t miss out every special moment on your wedding day.
With this kind of professional skills and services, that’s why wedding photography and videography cost you a not too low price. On average, a professional wedding photographer in Malaysia costs about RM3,000 to RM5,000, whereas the videographer cost starts from RM4,000 to RM6,000. It depends on the time and length of the wedding event. As a result, wedding photography and videography services basically take about 10 to 15% of the total wedding expenses.
Expenses 5: Decor
The most exciting part about wedding planning is choosing the wedding theme. Have you ever dreamed of having a sophisticated and elegant wedding? Or a relaxing and romantic beach wedding? In order to create a perfect wedding atmosphere, you have to invest in the little things that make the biggest impact. For example, the reception lightings, flowers, table settings, candles, fabrics, signage etc.
You can either do it yourself or hire a professional decoration vendor, in terms to help you design and make the dream wedding style come true. Generally, wedding couples spend about RM1,000 to RM2,000 to D.I.Y the wedding decor themself. While hiring a professional team to decorate the wedding can cost them from RM3,000 to RM5,000. The cost also depends on wedding couples’s preferences on the wedding decorations. The wedding decor takes about 5 to 10% of the total wedding expenses.
Expenses 6: Entertainment
Great entertainment is a key element to create a fun and memorable wedding to your wedding guests. Commonly, wedding couples will hire a Master of Ceremony (MC) to keep the event flow and wedding programs going smoothly. In spite of that, a decent live band can fill a room and give a real sense of warmth to your guests, bring a grand level of elegance and sophistication to the wedding.
Besides MC and live band, there are other options for wedding entertainment such as magicians, fireworks, music DJ and etc. The average costs of hiring an MC or wedding live band in Malaysia is at RM2,500 to RM5,000. Depending on the language, time of the event, vocalist, instrument and etc. Similarly, wedding entertainment expenses usually take around 5% to 10% of the wedding budget.
Expenses 7: Planning
When it comes to the wedding planning process, it contains the most important jobs such as invitation, RSVP, guest list, seating, favours etc. That represents how sincere you are when inviting wedding guests. as well as your creativeness and the way you impress guests.
Consider using a collaborative guest management system, such as Thebigdays wedding planning system, helps you to manage guests effectively. It’s designed to faster check-in wedding guests, track and monitor live guest attendance. Likewise, gain greater insight on wedding guest check-in in table view. Therefore, you are able to understand which table is full and which are empty at a glance.
Some wedding couples might feel overwhelmed by the planning process, therefore consider hiring a professional wedding planner. A good planner helps you keep things stress-free and make the wedding stick to the budget plan. They will keep everything on track and collaborate with vendors, leaving you time to enjoy the process.
The average price that malaysian spend on planning is at RM3,000 to 5,000. Which take 5 to 10% of the total wedding expenses.
