Last night, my husband told me to write something about budget weddings. Apparently, he is kind of concern about the whole big and expensive wedding trend in the Philippines. You see, Jeff and I got married in 2012. We had about 230 guests and about 50 people who helped us make our wedding possible. To top it off, we (only) spent around P400k. Well, P400k is still a lot of money, but hey, at least it's not P1,000,000. Haha!

So what was our secret on spending less for our wedding? I am not really sure. We initially allotted P500k for the wedding, to which my parents strongly disagreed. You know, I come from a not wealthy family. We are not really poor, but we just get by everyday. And my parents came from a time where you can just spend P5,000 for a wedding. That's in the early 80's by the way. So imagine my parents' horror hearing P500k.

Maybe I can give you a few tips to spend less. I am not quite sure if this is applicable for everyone, but it's worth a try.

1. Don't get packages. Although it is believed that you spend and get stressed less when getting all-in packages, it may not always be the case. I know someone, who I won't name because she will definitely pull my hair (haha!), who sort of regrets getting a package from an events venue in the south. She got it because she thought they'll save more, but upon computing the end price, it was way more that she thought it would be. Also, if you are an OC bride, you will still be stressed out even if you got an all-in-package. Haha!

Jeff and I worked hard together to get the best suppliers that we think we could get. We didn't get packages, but instead we got everything we need separately. For example, we got our venue, Alpadi Estate, for P30,000. Our contract says we can use the venue for the event for five hours, but we were able to use it the whole day from 6AM to 11PM. Click the photos below to enlarge.

2. Serve the best food. I don't remember who gave me this advice, but that person told me that the first thing people remember in a wedding is the food you serve. We got lucky we found Martha's Plate Catering Services in Marikina because not only they serve delicious food, they also have very affordable packages. We got the basic package which is P275 per head with tables and chairs and simple styling. True enough, our guests loved the food and we're really happy about it.

We had no complaints about Martha's. They served a lot of food that we were able to feed all our 230 guests, plus all our suppliers buffet style! We really didn't want to starve our suppliers, so we were really happy when there were enough food for everyone.

I suggest that you get delicious yet affordable caterers like Martha's and then pay the corkage fee at the reception venue. For example, if you have 250 guests, that will be 250 x P275 = P68,750. And then the normal corkage fee would be around P30,000. So that'll be around P100,000 for the food, compared to the high-end caterers that would charge you a minimum of P850 per person. That means you would need to pay about P200,000 just for the food!

We paid extra P500 for the lechon chopper. My mom bought the lechon.

We had a separate area for kids and Martha's served them kiddie meals!

Table numbers made by Mot Rasay.

We gave away suman and mangga which are known delicacies from Antipolo, and coffee beans. Our events coordinators, KTG, packed them for us. Photo is also from KTG.

Name cards.

Jeff+Joy | Onsite/SDE from BongVideos Production on Vimeo.

6. No need for a very expensive wedding gown. When Jeff asked me to marry him, his first worry was if I would want to have a designer gown. Honestly, I thought of that, but I realized I'm just going to use it for a day and it will be inside the box for the rest of our lives. So I settled for an off the rack wedding own, which costs P12,500. I also bought a long veil from Divisoria for only P1,200.

My mother-in-law's friend, Tita Lena, did the beading for free!

7. Spend on the rings! Come on, at the end of the day, the only thing that you will be taking home with you are your rings. And you will be wearing this for the rest of your life, save for a few days/months when it doesn't fit like right now while I am pregnant. Hehe. We had our rings made by a the lovely Franco couple of Jewelry by Franco. We paid a little more on the rings, even with the discount. I think the final price was around P40,000, but we don't regret paying that much because we love our wedding bands. :)



Weddings are really expensive events, but you don't have to spend a lot to make it beautiful. In the US, DIY weddings are really big and if you browse the internet, you will get a lot of ideas and use it as inspiration.

Oh, and the best advice that I can give is marry the right person and be the right person. All the money you will spend will be wasted if a few years down the road, you will separate just because you think you married the wrong person. ;)