costs of a small wedding in the phils

[Heruamen]

   Hi guys long time no post, I was just wondering could someone  give me an idea how much a small wedding in the phils typically costs. thanks

[Jeff S]

Hey H - good to see you back. I'm not the guy to answer your question, but curious what you have in-mind. Your wedding?


- Jeff

[Ray]

 
Hi Heruamen,
 
 
That's a difficult question to answer without having more details.
 
 
I have gotten married ("small" weddings) in the Phils for $9 and for $3,000, so maybe somewhere in between those two figures?
 
 
Like Jeff, I am also curious...
 
 
Ray
 
 

[piglett]

mine ended being around $1800
what i did was ask my wife for a list that included EVERYTHING that we needed.
the problem comes when you are just days before the wedding & all of your soon to be wives friends start calling & texting her. then the trouble starts. these little bitches will say oh are you having this or that or those ........no well why not
they start putting all kinds of dam ideas in your soon to be wife's head (in other words much more money)
i almost had to call our wedding off
my wife had a serious case of wedding fever
we had spent all of the money in the wedding budget
all of my pocket money, plus the p10,000 that my wife had saved on her own. in fact all we had was our fare back to Manila & i had an ATM card with a couple hundred bucks left on it but it was useless in the province. my wife sells me she wants to go borrow money so we can buy a bunch of more stuff that we never planned on & wasn't on our list. I had to put my foot down at that point & just say NO!
our wedding was fine & in the end my wife said it was probably the nicest church wedding in that province that anyone remembered.
 
being a Kano don't even think civil wedding you mite look like a cheep pr*ck ( this is my opinion) every woman in the Philippines dreams of a church wedding & most never have one due to the high cost.
set a budget, make sure everything is included & then make sure you have some extra cash because you mite just need it.
 
my experience is however much cashyou bring to the PI you end up spending all of it. last time i left with $70 (out of $1,000) in my money belt & the 1st time just over $100(out of $2,800) after paying my airport departure fee.
 
 
good luck
pig
 
 
 
 

[Gato4Astrid]

   Hi guys long time no post, I was just wondering could someone  give me an idea how much a small wedding in the phils typically costs. thanks

I am currently studying Event Planning in my spare time (Home study course) just in case I might need it in the future.  Fortunately part of my Event Planning Course, there is Wedding planning module.  It is not my area of interests but at least I will plan my own wedding.  I haven't finished the course even though I had a quick look at "Wedding Budget" course.     Whatever your budget is, stick to it.  If you plan to budget at $5,000, for example, then stick to it and plan well.  Like Piglett's posting, just say "NO" when your budget is over limited.


In order to budget for your wedding, write down what the money is for, and which is your top priority, and don't leave out small details (eg forgot to pay for the priest's fee, for example)

[thekfc]

You have to determine what kind of wedding you want & how big. After that is decided, you factor in all the costs associated.

Some of the cost associated are:

Wedding attires:
Wedding dress & acces. (I bought one from David's Bridal here in NYC - the wife picked it out)
Bridesmaid dresses (I gave them money to buy the material & they made the dresses).
Barong - most of the family members already had a barong and we rented a few for the ones who didn't have.
A new dress for the mother/new Barong for the father.

Food:
The number of guest will determine the quantity of food you will need.
The selection of items will play a role in the cost.
Are family members/friends/neighbors cooking or will the event be catered.

Rental space:
Where is the wedding/reception take place - what kind of fee(s) are associated.

Rental vehicle:
Will the bride need a vehicle to take her to the venue(s).

Service (people) cost:
Will there be anyone (priest, pastor, workers, etc,) that you will need to pay.

Honeymoon:
Airplane ticket, hotel, etc.

Unexpected cost:
Even if you both have everything written down, there may be an unexpected cost so keep a little extra cash.

After factoring all the costs - it will still be a fraction of what you will pay here in the USA.

Our cost for the venue ( food & rental car included) was quoted @58,000 pesos (about $1300 USD), that was for Villa Salud but we didn't get married there. We had a church wedding and they took care of everything (food, vehicle, space, etc) for less that what Villa Salud wanted. With everything (honeymoon included) I think that I paid less than $2K.

I let the wife choose the theme & what kind of wedding she wanted (I threw in a few ideas & she used some of them) and We had a beautiful wedding which people still talk about it (and it's been over a year), some of the ladies on my wife's facebook say that they want a wedding just like ours. One couple so far have used the same theme/color (she ask my wife where she bought the materials for the dresses). 

Remember to give her the wedding that she want!!!

[piglett]

Oh I'd also like to add that i had a province wedding not one in Manila or other large city
(a wedding in a large city mite be more). we had about 100 at the church & 200 at the reception
(everyone in the area comes for the free food ) which was held at my in laws house.
 
 
good luck
pig

[thekfc]

Oh I'd also like to add that i had a province wedding not one in Manila or other large city
(a wedding in a large city mite be more). we had about 100 at the church & 200 at the reception
(everyone in the area comes for the free food ) which was held at my in laws house.
 
 
good luck
pig

We had some of those too -  people just coming for the free food. 

[robert angel]

Heruamen,
 
Did you get my PM reply to your main room post last month--a few weeks apart? No reply...We're not that far apart--but now you've got to come in the back door!    Ha--seriously, when your bride gets here, she may feel good about talking to someone in Visayan--we''ll hook up. Seems there are more Visayan speakers in our area and more Tagalog speakers in your area for some reason. Good thing that Visayan speakers have little trouble understanding Tagalog, but Tagalog speakers have a harder time understanding Visayan....
 
Anyway, we can chill out here, or take a short ride out to the ocean beach, while they eat dried fish and we knock off some ribs or whatever...
 
Wedding huh? As mentioned, a lot depends on location--province versus bigger city costs, civil versus church, amount of people, cost of food, the dress cost can vary greatly--many things.
 
While having people in the family who can do things like sew--make a wedding dress and clothes for the wedding party (although the wedding party's clothes are often rented) or to do some of the major cooking and other things--that can help--sometimes it's counterproductive, because some family members may 'want the best' and run up the costs.
 
To really help, we need to know more about details like the above--things you have to narrow down and decide on. It's sweet and romantic to say "Honey--I want you to be happy--you plan it the way you want"--but that often gets out of hand. Even if you say, "We can spend $1500" or "We can spend $3000", often the costs will mysteriously grow beyond that--not because they're cheating you, but because they want it to be a nice as possible. It can take on a life of its own. You need to stay involved, in other words...
 
You're no dummy and I'm sure it'll be a great day--good luck!

[Heruamen]

   thanks for the replies guys, yep talking about my own wedding which will hopefully take place sometime between October and the end of 2011.  Just from researching I figured that it might cost something like $3000 but I set my budget at $4500.  We have not set a definite date still in the planning phase.   Its going to take place in Cebu city so it won't be a province wedding.  The biggest factor will be location.  We both really want an outdoor wedding like a garden or a beach as we are both outdoor nature freaks.   So the plan really is to have the wedding on the beach in one of the many resorts in cebu city.  I say a small wedding because there will not be many people, so far its like 20 or so people which is not a lot.     I figured you would have some advice piglett since you had a wedding there not to long ago, but that financial aspect sounded pretty nightmarish heheh but a least your married.  Is your wife here yet piglett
  I got your personal message Robert I thought I replied but maybe the email didn't go thru sorry about that I have not been online here for ages, so busy with my lady hehehehe.

[Ray]

Wow! Heruamen is getting married? Good for you!
　
This sounds like a non-church wedding, so that may or may not save you a little money. If you’re talking major beach resort on Mactan Is., then it could get pretty pricey.
　
In general, a "big" wedding in Cebu or Metro Manila area will be considerably higher than in a small or medium size town. I have had it explained to me that a "large" wedding is when the church is full and a "small" wedding is when the church is half-empty.   
　
My wedding was in a large church in a medium size city with the reception in the best hotel in town with a five-course lunch, 3 roast pigs, and 210 guests. She called it a "small" wedding. Approx. $3k for the works, but that was almost 12 years ago.
　
My wife’s niece had what I would consider a large deluxe wedding in Cebu City 10 years ago, with a reception at a nicer large hotel, and I heard they spent around $6k.
　
Yours sounds like what they might consider a "tiny" wedding. With only about 20 guests, I guess you could just have a civil ceremony at the court house, and take all the wedding party and guests out to a nice restaurant for dinner or lunch if you wanted to go cheapo for a couple hundred bucks.
　
Your plan at $4,500 sounds like maybe a nice wedding with 100-200 guests, a catered lunch in a smaller beach resort, and all the traditional trimmings. That is probably workable in Cebu proper.
　
A lot of the costs are much cheaper over there, like photographers, videographers, flowers, gowns, etc. I figure a comparable wedding here in the US would run something like 8-10 times higher in cost.
　
For a couple who wanted to have a nice traditional church wedding (kasalan) with about 100-200 guests and a reception at a private home, you could get by easily for under $1k if you cut costs with things like rented gowns instead of custom tailored, and still have a professional photographer and other customary goodies like a roast piglet or two. They do these all the time over there.
　
Try to get a good feel for what she really wants, have her get some solid estimates, and then put her on a strict budget as some others have suggested.
 
One piece of important advice: Do all the planning as far in advance as possible. A traditional wedding over there may typically take 3 months or more of advance planning. Also, the rainy season usually runs through Oct-Nov so have a backup plan if you're going for an outdoor event.
　
Dave H has probably been to at least a dozen or so Filipino weddings so far if my guess is correct.
　
Ray

[piglett]

Wow! Heruamen is getting married? Good for you!

other customary goodies like a roast piglet or two. They do these all the time over there.
Ray

i'll have to check to see how much time off i can get if your interested in holding a roast for me. Ray that sounds like a fine idea 
we roasted 3 pigs rite on the beach & a bunch of marily's aunties helped out with the cooking. if the family helps it can really cut down on the costs.
 
have a great wedding & post pictures!
 
pig

[Ray]

i'll have to check to see how much time off i can get if your interested in holding a roast for me.
 
pig

OK, sounds good!
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[thekfc]

Save me some sisig when the piglet(t) is roasted. 

[piglett]

OK, sounds good!
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 

not the kind of roast i had in mind 

[robert angel]

You mean Piglett's wedding wasn't at Jollibees? 

[piglett]

nope ,cheaper to just have all my wife's aunties cook the food for free. & her uncles roasted the 3 pig down on the beach the night before the wedding, the cost ....they drank 1 case of beer that we got for the big day.
 
 
pig

[JWR]

Thousands of dollars for these weddings in the Phils?
It just sounds like the pig on the spit is not the only fat hog that is getting killed.
All that spending just to get started in a new marriage....... Seems like it's setting a trend that the rich American can be "worked over" right from the beginning.
Why do we feel like we have to give these girls a wedding that is hundreds of times better then they would ever be able to afford with a local guy?  Has the financial trade for marrying an "old" guy started already so soon.
Understand the desire to give your new wife a special day.  But why feed the entire town?  Why spend for a wedding that everybody will talk about for years?  For your wife's ego trip?
I like Ray's 1k figure.  Just give her the money and let her spend it any way she likes.

[Ray]

Thousands of dollars for these weddings in the Phils?
It just sounds like the pig on the spit is not the only fat hog that is getting killed.
All that spending just to get started in a new marriage....... Seems like it's setting a trend that the rich American can be "worked over" right from the beginning.
Why do we feel like we have to give these girls a wedding that is hundreds of times better then they would ever be able to afford with a local guy? Has the financial trade for marrying an "old" guy started already so soon.
Understand the desire to give your new wife a special day. But why feed the entire town? Why spend for a wedding that everybody will talk about for years? For your wife's ego trip?
I like Ray's 1k figure. Just give her the money and let her spend it any way she likes.

　
Huh? Ego trip??
　
A little lesson in Filipino culture for you JWR.
　
These "large" weddings are an important part of the culture. Families without much money will save for years to have that special wedding. It has nothing to do with rich Americans or the relative ages of the couple.
 
Poor families will make all kinds of sacrifices to splurge what they can on this one day. That $6k wedding in Cebu City that I mentioned was between 2 Filipinos and paid for by the groom’s family, who are not wealthy by any means.
　
I am a strong believer in doing whatever it takes to make your bride happy on this one very important day of her life. You don’t have to spend a fortune to accomplish that goal, but you don’t have to be a cheap-ass either. And the food to "feed the entire town", as you say, is a small part of the total cost for a traditional wedding.
　
Ray
　

[piglett]

Ray i think it was you who said to me when i was going to getting get married
"giving her a nice church wedding will pay huge dividends in the future" well so far it has, she still talks about the wedding we had.Also i didn't want to look like a cheep pr*ck to her friends & family. I don't think $1,800 is really all that much to make your new wife the happiest woman on the planet, or to show her that you love her. Oh also JWR i was only 39 at the time so I'm not one of those "old guys"
my wife is ( as i have said in the past) very tight with her money
last week she asked why we needed to have a 2ND wedding here in the states once she arrived.
I explained that it will only involve 20 or 30 people & it will be a good way for her to meet everyone all in 1 day. also my mother would really be hurt due to the fact that my sister (her only other child) never married & i got married without telling anyone here. so after i explained this & the fact that the 2ND wedding wouldn't cost much at all my wife agreed.     

[JWR]

Ray you certainly are a wealth of information.  Was reading some of your last posts.  With 190 pages of posts, it will take a while to get through all the information.....

 You said. "I have gotten married ("small" weddings) in the Phils for $9 and for $3,000, so maybe somewhere in between those two figures?"
Did you spend $9.00 on your 1st wedding?
So you have been married there a couple times?

 
 
Like Jeff, I am also curious...
 

 
 
 

Thousands of dollars for these weddings in the Phils?
It just sounds like the pig on the spit is not the only fat hog that is getting killed.
All that spending just to get started in a new marriage....... Seems like it's setting a trend that the rich American can be "worked over" right from the beginning.
Why do we feel like we have to give these girls a wedding that is hundreds of times better then they would ever be able to afford with a local guy?  Has the financial trade for marrying an "old" guy started already so soon.
Understand the desire to give your new wife a special day.  But why feed the entire town?  Why spend for a wedding that everybody will talk about for years?  For your wife's ego trip?
I like Ray's 1k figure.  Just give her the money and let her spend it any way she likes.

[Ray]

Ray you certainly are a wealth of information. Was reading some of your last posts. With 190 pages of posts, it will take a while to get through all the information.....

You said. "I have gotten married ("small" weddings) in the Phils for $9 and for $3,000, so maybe somewhere in between those two figures?"
Did you spend $9.00 on your 1st wedding?
So you have been married there a couple times?



Like Jeff, I am also curious...

　
JWR,
 
I’ve been married twice. My first 1^st wedding was in Las Vegas and cost $14… $4 for the license and $10 for the JOP down the hall. That was my "Cheap-Ass" wedding.
　
The second time, in the Philippines, I actually had two ceremonies. We were married legally in the local courthouse for paperwork purposes and then for real 2 days later in a traditional church wedding.
　
The reason for the two ceremonies was that the church there has a reputation for dragging their feet on turning in the paperwork to the government, so there may have been a long delay before I could get my hands on an official marriage certificate to turn in with the visa paperwork.
　
Since her cousin was the Clerk of the Court, we only paid for the marriage license (about USD $9) and the judge performed the ceremony with 2 witnesses in his chambers without any fee. We were able to get official copies of our marriage certificate within a few days, from the courthouse.
　
The traditional church wedding cost around $3,000, but was much smaller and less than the cost of some of her relatives’ weddings. I would estimate a similar wedding to ours here in San Diego would have been around $35-40k at the time.
　
Filipinos do take these wedding traditions seriously. But sometimes a poor couple from the provinces will simply elope and have a private civil ceremony to save their family money, or to save them the shame if she is already pregnant.
　
Other Filipinos are too cheap or too scared to get married (because of the no-divorce laws) and simply shack up and raise a family. That way, if they get tired of their "wife", then can simply walk out and start another family without all the legal hassles of trying to get an annulment.
　
Ray
　

[thekfc]

Ray i think it was you who said to me when i was going to getting get married
"giving her a nice church wedding will pay huge dividends in the future" well so far it has, she still talks about the wedding we had.Also i didn't want to look like a cheep pr*ck to her friends & family. I don't think $1,800 is really all that much to make your new wife the happiest woman on the planet, or to show her that you love her.

Complete agreed - $1800 or even $3000 isn't that much for a beautiful wedding to make your queen happy.

Like the piglett's wedding, our wedding is still talked about.

I say give the bride the wedding she wants.

[robert angel]

This JWR guy is starting to make Piglett sound like the last of the really big spenders!  No wonder they've used pig's hearts in human surgery--the guy said he wasn't gonna fork over another dime to the family and lately he's sending them things like fish finders and wood lathes!

[thekfc]

Some kind of bug have hit both piggy & jm, they are now big spenders - but for a good great cause.

Piggy, is the SIL still off your x-mas list?