Planning for a Wedding

It is an adventure…

Christine and I got married 2 years ago. Time flies… very fast.

There were only a few couples, yea only that few… church uncle and aunties who actually told us this… Remember to enjoy the whole process.

Quite too often we will find ourselves rushing through things, especially when people around us are contributing pressure to it, the questions that they asked, not that it’s wrong but, there were just times when questions asked were not necessary? or not time yet? or a lil more of the nunya (none of your business… learnt that from the movies hahaha…).

Wedding is one of the biggest events in your life (if not the biggest) and you certainly do not want to get it wrong, and you want to customize it the best you can, according to your own liking (theme, colour set, etc.), etc.

I thank God that mine was smooth going, from the initial discussions, way up to the fine details in decoration. I believe that I’ve been very blessed by various groups of people whom I’ve not only met, but have formed a much closer relationship with, that they availed, and were willing, to take up different roles, for my wedding.

I thank God for all of you!

Some of you might have came to know that I’m quite a perfectionist. And I like to do things in a certain way. My wedding was the same.

Before we sink into the details, if…

You’re planning to get married and you landed here… Our heartiest congratulations to you two! Our sincere prayer that your marriage will be a journey that you will remember, treasure and you will cherish one another until the end of life’s journey on earth.
On the other hand if you’re not planning to but you’re in a relationship or even thinking to get into one… May this scare you… Nah, just pulling your legs… Our prayer is that this will help to prepare you for the adventure ahead. Yes, life is an adventure! La vida es una buena aventura! Oh… Buena means big… That’s the phrase I put on my WhatsApp by the way…
For those of you who are already married, our prayer is that this will help relive some memories of the journey that you went through together… how the both of you met, came together, and became one through Holy Matrimony.

I thank God that I was able to document mine… and we’ve decided to share this with you…

May you be blessed.

Planner

If you fail to plan,
you plan to fail.

Planner

The famous saying goes “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail…”

Is true!

You need to plan for your wedding.

Planning starts after your engagement, and ideally 1 year before the day of your wedding.

I’ve also generalized and attached the Excel file (aka the Planner) that I used for your kind reference below. Please do note:

1. This is only a template, which you can definitely modify and change to your needs, especially according to your budget.

2. Should you share this Excel sheet with someone else, please link them back to this page or website yah? This will also help me help more, as this helped you.

3. Enjoy while you’re at it.

Google Drive: Download Link

Take time to look at every tab found in the Excel file… It should be self-explanatory.

Pre-Wedding

Four important things to look into:

1. The Date
2. The Venue
3. The People
4. The Marriage Preparation Course

Pre-Wedding

There are 4 important things to look into during the Pre-Wedding stage:

1. The Date; The wedding date has to be agreed by both families and we would also advice not to plan your wedding in April due to Easter, or December due to Christmas.

2. The Venue; The major ones would be the Church (if it clashes with any of the planned events of the Church) and the Restaurant/Hotel that you will be hosting your Wedding Dinner; please make reservation sealed with a deposit at least one year before your wedding. The scenario gets worse if you’re going to have the Dinner in KL, Penang or Ipoh.

On the deposit made not refundable issue, most of the time the deposit will not be burnt/wasted should you find another place, but can be contra-ed with meals at the restaurant/hotel. Double check on this.

3. The People; The working committee… Those who have committed to help you, and see you through especially on the actual day itself. Try to have at least one meeting with all the committee heads before the wedding so that all the important hands and feet of yours know each other.

It is also important to have another meeting with the Church Administrator, your Decorations head, and the both of you so that you both can share what you want to do/achieve, at the same time the Administrator giving feedback on the do-s and don’t-s.

The main liaison (the one who is calling the shots) for the actual day cannot be you, or your partner either. Trust me.

4. The Marriage Preparation Course; Marriage is a life-long commitment and going into one shouldn’t be a decision made overnight like how Bruno Mars sang in “Marry You”… Which I strongly disagree… You don’t get married looking for something dumb to do…

We, Christine and I encourage you both to attend a Marriage Preparation Course near you.

There are things, not thought of about marriage that you don’t normally talk about with your partner.

The two we highly recommend are: 1. “Before You Say I Do” by H. Norman Wright & Wes Roberts, or the 2. “The Marriage Preparation Course” by Alpha. We did them both… and we are blessed we did.

Payment

It’ll also give them confidence to do what you have entrusted them to.

Payment

You’ll be literally koyak-ed (Malay for torn) after the long day.

Get some good rest.

Then start looking at payment.

Get different people to pay the various vendors that you engaged for your wedding, those who you trust like your family, best friend(s), your committee heads, etc.

I believe that it is also a good practice to give a token of appreciation, an angpow (red packet), to your troop, the brothers, the sisters, your working committee and its members. After all, they helped to pull this together.

Another good practice is to first give the allocation especially for Decoration, rather than having them spend first and claim later. It’ll also give them confidence to do what you have entrusted them to.

May you be blessed!