How to Plan Your Dream Wedding on a Budget

One of the best things that could happen to anyone is getting married to the person he or she loves. Couples aim to have a memorable wedding experience. However, preparing for the wedding day can take a toll on one’s physical, mental, and financial health. The pandemic adds to the stress of preparation.

In 2019, the average cost of weddings in Singapore is S$30,000 to S$100,000. Prices differ in 2022 due to the current economic situation. Nevertheless, you must set a realistic budget when you get married. Having a budget prevents the risk of overspending. You see, even the smallest purchases can quickly add up to the total cost of the wedding. On that note, here are some tips to create your dream wedding while maintaining a budget.

#1: SELECT THE RIGHT WEDDING VENUE

When it comes to wedding venues, some locations are more expensive than others. It is important to plan a budget for the venue and work from there. Do not go beyond this amount by selecting a venue that fits your allotted budget.

You can choose from various wedding venues such as chapels, hotels, churches, and outdoor venues. Your wedding venue must suit your wedding theme.

#2: DETERMINE HOW MUCH YOU ARE WILLING TO SPEND

Be honest with yourselves. The key to a hassle-free wedding is knowing exactly how much you can afford to spend and sticking to it. Examine your savings, your partner’s savings, and your family’s contributions.

It is not ideal to spend every dollar in your savings account just to enjoy an extravagant wedding. Be practical! You are in this marriage for the long run. Save some for future use.

#3: MAKE A DRAFT OF THE GUEST LIST

Nothing has a greater role on the wedding budget than the guest count. The number of guests can influence the size of the venue, the souvenirs, and the food. The more people attending your wedding, the bigger the budget.

Intimate weddings are welcomed during this time. Do not take it against yourself or your partner if you want to cut down the guest list. Both of you need to create a draft for the guest list and discuss who to invite.

#4: CONSIDER THE MARRIAGE SOLEMNIZATION AND RECEPTION REQUIREMENTS

Aside from your ceremony details, couples need to be aware of the Safe Management Measures (SMMs) as they plan for their wedding. For solemnizations taking place at a residential venue, you may invite up to 10 visitors. All attendees need to be fully vaccinated. The number excludes the vendors and solemnizer.

For indoor venues, it can take up to 1,000 attendees or 75% of the venue capacity in groups of 10 with 1-meter safe distance between groups. Lastly, outdoor venues have no limits on the number of attendees. The attendees will be grouped to 10 and maintain a 1-meter safe distance between groups. All attendees are required to be fully vaccinated.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Are you getting married soon? Do you have more ideas on how to make your dream wedding come true? Share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section below!

Sources: 1, 2, & 3

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How To Succeed as a Dual-Career Couple in Singapore

It comes as no surprise that the relationship between life partners has an enormous impact on their professional lives. Sharing a life with someone entails that you are each other’s support system. Moreover, you must take your partner’s ambitions, needs, and wants to account when making decisions.

Career decisions affect how you manage your household. In Singapore, dual-career couples are becoming more of a norm. The Department of Statistics released a population census last 2021, which highlighted the current labor trends in Singapore.

The last decade has seen an increase in the proportion of resident married-couple households with working wives and an increase in households with spouses who hold equal qualifications. The proportion of resident married-couple households with spouses holding equal qualifications elevated from 44.3% to 46.6%.

Let us put our focus on dual-career couples. Dual-career couples were the largest group among married couples, increasing from 47.1% in 2010 to 52.5% in 2020. This significant increase was observed across all age groups. It is understood that resident married-couple households with both the husband and wife employed earned more. In fact, they earned a median monthly combined income of $11,101 in 2020. This is higher than the median monthly income of households with only the husbands were employed ($5,070) and those with only the wives were employed ($3,213).

As more households adopt the lifestyle of a dual-career couple, here are some helpful tips that can guide you through the journey.

#1: COMMUNICATE EFFICIENTLY

One of the main ingredients of a successful partnership is communication. Communication may take different forms for every couple, but it ought to be personal and practical. For day-to-day activities, you need to talk about the actions that will make your household run smoothly. Who will take charge of the household chores? Who will pick up the kids from school? Discuss feelings, ambitions, and challenges in a respectful and intimate manner. This will allow you to know what is going well and what is not.

#2: LOOK AT THE BIGGER PICTURE

When you make decisions, it is important to look at the bigger picture. For instance, a mother decided to quit her job to take care of her kids due to the excessive costs of childcare. However, this decision can decrease the net earnings of the household and affect their overall financial status. On the other hand, taking a short-term financial hit to pay for childcare may increase the earning power potential of the couple in the long run. Think about your current situation and examine the best options for your future.

#3: CONSIDER ALL THE PARTS

A partnership incorporates two people’s needs and concerns on the table. Moreover, you must include the needs of your family as a unit. Listen carefully to your partner and reach a shared understanding of each other’s goals. Doing this will help you strike a balance in your life as a spouse, a parent, and an employee/employer.

#4: SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP

Let us face it! Communication does not come naturally to every couple, and that is okay. It is essential to acknowledge this and find other ways to communicate formally. For starters, a counselor can help you work as a couple to ensure that you are being equally heard and that you are developing your goals with consideration for one another.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

If your issue is finding time to communicate, you may ask a trusted family member to help lessen your workload at home. Seek part-time help while still meeting the needs of your household and your children. Seeking help can give you the physical and mental space to re-connect to your partner.

Sources: 1 & 2

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How to parent a rebellious teenager

a teenager smoking

Have you noticed that your teenager has started becoming defiant as they struggle to discover who they are and where they fit in society?

Yes, your lovely, affectionate child may seem alien to you now but that’s just part of the growing process. Prepare yourself as you may have to cope with further mood swings, rule-breaking, and other signs of a rebellious youth toward whatever authority figures present.

While coping with a rebellion may be draining, stressful, and plain challenging, there are methods to make it easier for all parties involved. You won’t be able to transform your kid with a snap of your fingers, but there are steps you can take to aid your teenager and yourself through this shift.

Here’s how to parent a rebellious teenager.

Respect

It may be quite irritating when children act rudely and disrespectfully toward their parents, teachers, or other people in authority. Regrettably, many people respond with rudeness and hostility, which is not the right way to approach the matter. You must mirror the conduct you wish to see as a grownup. Irrespective of what you teach, if your kid witnesses you behaving in a demeaning manner toward them, they will use it against you to justify their actions.

See the good
happy mother and daughter

Image Credits: swhelper.org

Positive feedback is a technique that may be used not only when your child is a preschooler, but also when he or she is a teenager. Make it a point to compliment your teenager on proper behavior. Showing your child that you are pleased, even if it is the tiniest action, can drive good conduct in the future.

Negative attention is sometimes the quickest form of attention for a headstrong teen to obtain. Your odds of your kid doing something right are limited if you just pay attention when he or she does something improper. Instead, focus on the positives, and the negative issues may go away.

Listen more than advice

The most effective technique to break past the barrier of teen disengagement is to listen more than you speak. When you provide counsel instead of listening more than 75% of the time, you’re interfering with a teen’s ability to take responsibility for their life.

Not to mention your body language. You’re not signaling that you’re aware of and sensitive if you’re preoccupied with anything or constantly scrolling on your smartphone. Put everything aside and focus on your child when conversing. However, some kids may be uneasy over eye contact and prefer to converse while looking away. If that’s the case, walking in the park or going for a short drive that does not involve direct eye contact may help.

Handling a rebellious teenager might feel like an absolute nightmare, but there is hope. Keep in mind that your teen’s early adulthood years are only a passing phase of his or her life. Communicating tenderly with your child now can pay off later in life by assisting him or her in developing appropriate coping skills and a better bond with you. Try the abovementioned tips and see if it works for you.

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5 Money Conversations to Have Before Getting Married

Getting married changes your financial life in significant ways. Not only are you opening your doors to someone or sharing your expenses, but you are also opening yourself to legal changes. While your credit score remains individualized, your future choices could be changed by what your spouse brings into the table.

#1: MONEY BELIEFS

Does your partner value money? You will get information about your partner by how they manage financial successes and setbacks.

Talking about your financial problems can reveal how you fix and learn from your mistakes. Hearing about your spouse’s successes can also reveal how he or she works toward achieving goals.

#2: FINANCIAL BACKGROUNDS

Many financial beliefs and habits are developed in childhood and carried over into adulthood. Hearing about your financial histories can pinpoint underlying patterns.

You can build a foundation of mutual understanding about your financial backgrounds as time passes. It is important to gain clarity on why the other does what they do with their money.

#3: JOINT ACCOUNTS

Should you combine bank accounts when getting married? Or shall you have separate accounts and income streams?

You can either split the bills and expenses or divide it based on each other’s income. Maintaining separate accounts can be possible while having a joint checking account to cover shared costs such as your monthly utility bills.

#4: FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

As a team, you need to work out how you will divide the financial responsibilities. If your partner is more analytical, he or she can research on retirement investing options. Set your roles regularly and give feedback.

Do not forget to check in before making major purchases and increase your communication when there is a change in cash flow.

#5: OTHER OBLIGATIONS

Do you have other financial obligations such as running a business or supporting your sibling? The whole picture of a person’s financial circumstance cannot always be captured by personal net worth.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Thus, you must disclose and discuss other financial obligations you each may have. Remember – you are a team!

Sources: 1 & 2

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What to expect from marriage counseling

marriage counseling

When you sign up for marriage counseling for the first time, you might encounter some anxieties, and that is perfectly normal. You may also be doubtful that counseling can actually help your relationship.

Mutual trust with a counselor, as well as mending your relationship, might take quite some time. Going into your initial few encounters of relationship counseling with an unbiased view and being upfront with yourself, your spouse, and your counselor is the best way to proceed. In fact, after a husband and wife attend their first counseling session, many of the perceived stigmas associated with couples counseling are generally dispelled.

Continue reading if you’re contemplating marriage counseling and want to know what to expect.

Introductions

A counselor will normally perform an initial conversation to discover your reasons for seeking therapy as well as to get to comprehend you as a person and as a pair. Your therapist will inquire about many aspects of your personal life from both you and your spouse to review your relationship and put your present relationship woes into context after listening to your experience.

Setting specific goals
a woman crying during marriage counseling

Image Credits: betterhelp.com

Maybe you desire greater affection from your spouse, while your partner desires patience from you. Perhaps you would want to understand how to cope with the frustration you’re experiencing as a result of your partner’s affair. One of the first stages in achieving your objectives is to share them with your spouse and marriage counselor. Bear in mind that as you and your spouse continue through the sessions, your priorities may alter.

Getting to the conversation

Both individuals in every relationship want to be noticed, cherished, and acknowledged. Most couples, on the other hand, get stuck in ineffective communication habits, leaving them unhappy and detached. Couples generally resent the other when this happens, not recognizing that the other party’s good intentions were not expressed effectively.

Marriage counseling helps couples to talk about their problems in a secure setting without relapsing to previous negative communication habits. The therapist assists the couple in determining why these patterns exist and what they may do to overcome them. The objective is to learn to interact with more empathy, improve your listening skills, and build bridges between what you want to express and what your spouse understands.

The truth is that marriage therapy can be extremely beneficial. Yes, it might be challenging, but it can also be rewarding ultimately. You will get a better understanding of yourself, your spouse, and, most crucially, your marriage. Because relationships should be viewed as a voyage rather than a conclusion, professional help at the start of a relationship feels just as useful as professional help later in the marriage. It’s a terrific opportunity to practice honest conversations, establish conflict resolution skills, and learn how to deal with tricky situations in the future.

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