Oct 2008
27

The price tag of marriage part 1

Posted by: Rin
filed under: Marriage
Tags: , ,

 

This post is part of a series. You can view the rest here:

  • Part I – Introduction, Proposal
  • Part II – Dowry discussion, Photoshoot and ROM
  • Part III – Buying/Registering for a house

 

Marrying someone you love nowadays isn’t as simple as saying “I do” as many of us might think. To those who are still in dreamland, wake up zomg. The price that comes with marriage is quite hefty, especially When your ethnic group is Chinese, and you are staying in the sunny island of Singapore. This post is targetted to those who are considering marriage. It is a rough guideline as to the estimate of how much money the couple need to shell out for the event.

Let’s take a look at a typical, traditional Chinese wedding. It consists of mainly a few events: dowry discussion, tea ceremony, banquet. Added in are the entrants of modern-day wedding: Proposal, ROM, buying/registration of a house, photoshoot, honeymoon. The list below states the events arranged in chronological order.

  1. Proposal
  2. Dowry discussion
  3. Photoshoot
  4. ROM
  5. Buying/Register for house
  6. Tea ceremony
  7. Banquet
  8. Honeymoon

Proposal

Guys how are you planning to propose to your loved ones? As told to me by wendy…. 9 out of 10 guys do not know that a proposal ring is different from the wedding band (Sad to say I am one of them too lolx). So I’ll clarify buy propecia online without a prescription here, a proposal ring is the ring where you present to your girlfriend, knelt down and ask “Will you marry me?”. A wedding band is the set of rings where the couple wear after exchanging vows. In short, there are 3 rings.

Diamond mining company DeBeers has a slogan, “A proposal ring should be priced at roughly 2-3 times of the soft cialis tabs guy’s monthly income.” I call this utter bullshit. Though the ring does looks pretty and shiny, the Cheap Levitra money is better well spent kamagra buy online in other areas in a marriage. Thus guys, get a nice ring which is within your budget, it is the heart that matters. The money saved can be used to fund in other areas like the proposal itself. A good example will be:

Eg.A

  • diamond ring ($8000)
  • propose at a lavish restaurant (~$500 complete with strings quartet that plays when you do the stuff)

Eg.B

  • diamond ring ($4000)
  • Trip for 2 to a beautiful scenic country (OZ, Korea etc), find a chance to propose there complete with extraordinary scenery (sad to say, Singapore does not have good places with nice ambience).

See? misoprostol There is a huge difference in the presentation itself.

Most girls do prefer a better buying antibiotics online proposal over a more expensive ring. Rings can be upgraded in future, but the proposal is only done once.

A proposal ring can cost as little as a couple of hundreds (for lab-grown diamonds) to tens of thousands. A tip however, girls generally do not like lab-grown diamonds as a proposal ring, thus those are ruled out. Diamonds are rated also in size, cut and clarity. A good standard guage in diamond size is probably around 0.2~0.5 carat, these sizes are considered ‘wearable’ on a lady’s finger in my opinion. Any size bigger it will look weird on the hand. Best times to get the proposal ring are during seasons like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Great Singapore Sale. These are the times when the rings have a big 20-50% discount slapped onto them.

Average cost of proposal: $2k (for a 3k+ diamond ring with discount :3)

Part II will be continuing with dowry, photoshoots and ROM, stay tuned click here.

 

 

8 comments to date:

 

  1. I always wonder how come guys dunno what is proposal…worse is guys who try to disguise the intention of proposing to a girl behind the question,”Want to get a house together??”

    Do not take for granted that a girl will definitely want to marry you even if you have dated her for 10 years! It doesn’t hurt to ask first.

    Proposal is a big thing in a girl’s life :p

    Wendy
    October 27th, 2008, 7:29 pm

  2. this is very handy =)

    i mean, how are we supposed to know that proposal ring is different from wedding band… they never show this in the movies right?

    WristBandMan
    October 27th, 2008, 10:25 pm

  3. heh. 3 rings? what 3 rings? i thought proposal and wedding ring only? omigosh. i don’t think i will be wanting to get married already…

    Jay
    October 28th, 2008, 1:12 am

  4. @WristBandMan
    In dramas usually they only show the proposal.

    @Jay
    3 rings = pair of wedding bands + the proposal ring

    Rin
    October 28th, 2008, 1:23 am

  5. i am actually one of them too until my girlfriend told me ‘NO’ proposal ring is totally different from wedding ring. lolx dun worry Rin i shall accompany u heh. cant think any further for the rest of the misc cost. faint*

    Andrew
    October 28th, 2008, 8:09 pm

  6. U all forget another Ring….. SuffeRING…k…i’m trying to be corny…

    Anyway, I think for newly working adults getting married for me..1.5 -1.8k proposal budget suits best.

    Jewelery salesman will tell u get the best cut, best colour best quality diamonds…my advice is get something mid range…coz u dun want it to be embarrassing when some girls comment on the ring on ur fiancee. Neither do u want to break your wallet.

    You can always put in more effort, like doing some special artwork with photos u and ur fiancee together then get her to a nice setting @ the beach over expensive lavish restaurants..
    Save ur wallet and yet not being insincere about proposal.

    After all, if she is going to married u she definitely won’t want both of u in debt after marriage…plan according to ur budget…small budget …then make up with more creative ideas and effort… My 2 cents

    CornLord
    November 5th, 2008, 3:42 am

  7. My bf (now fiance) bought me a 0.5 carat ring. As he already spent lots of $ on the ring, i was glad tat he din throw in another big sum of $ to any restaurants or special proposal place.

    My proposal was surprisingly done at home. Wif my families witnessing it. Cheap budget! We even saved on the dinner by dining home. But he made it special & romantic by makin a touching video clip for me.

    Not sure abt other girls, but for me, i’ll definitely appreciate his heart & efforts made rather than jus spending unnecessary $.

    Maxime
    November 11th, 2008, 9:49 am

  8. Just read all three parts. Simply awesome article :) ) Loved every bit of it. Just thought to wish you luck on your other articles. Cheers

    Gowns
    April 13th, 2009, 1:01 am

 

Leave a Reply