I got married. Here's a cost rundown

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

I’m putting this thread out there for anyone who might be looking for some concrete numbers on what it takes to get married in Taiwan. Your mileage may very.

I went with a really cheap engagement ring (US$300) that I got back home because I don’t trust my taste in jewelry and didn’t want my wife stuck with something ugly on her finger. I plan to make it up with a much nicer ring whenever we get around to looking for one together. That aside…

Main costs

@Wedding rings

-----37,500 for both of us; we went cheap

@Proof I’m not already married, stamped by AIT

-----1,500 (US$50)

@Courthouse marriage (公證, no legal significance)

-----1,500

@Household registration (登記, this means you’re legally married)

-----1,000 + 100 for each English-language copy

@Wedding banquet

-----227,700 for 15 tables (150) guests, which is a little pricey for Taipei but not so bad

@Bride’s makeup artist (新祕)

-----10,000

@Hongbaos for friends who helped collect gifts or served as ushers, flowergirls (boys), etc.

-----About 10,000

@Xitie (喜帖, invitations)

-----4,500 for 200, including envelopes. I designed them myself and took them to a print shop.

@Engagement photos/dress

-----45,000 for: 50 photos, a poster, two hard-cover albums, a scroll for signing, a framed photo, a DVD of all the pictures taken that day (unedited) 4 dresses and 3 suits for photo purposes, 1 bridal gown and 2 dresses for the day of the wedding, a driver to cart us around to the different locations, and the makeup artist for the photos

@Wedding photographer

-----16,000

@Wedding videographer

-----13,000

@Custom-made suit for me

-----20,400… but I’m really, really happy with it.

@Xibing (喜餅, boxes of cakes and cookies as thank you gifts)

-----34,000 for around 70 boxes

@Decorations and gifts for the banquet, mostly edible

-----4,000 to import 16 cases of soda cans (it was part of the theme)
-----12,000 for 5 lbs of custom-made M&Ms with our names and 囍 printed on them (including shipping)
-----1,500 for decorative items and the bags to wrap M&Ms individually for each guest

@Hotel room for newlyweds, bride’s parents (from out of town), and bride’s sister (from out of town)

-----9,050 for three rooms for one night

The total comes out to
440,050
, which we had to pay over the span of about a year as we slowly put everything in place.

Note that traditional families will require seeing a fortune teller to pick an auspicious day and often ask for a sometimes huge dowry in cash (I’ve heard 300,000 referred to as a “small” offering). The groom’s family is also expected to provide a gold necklace and other jewelry to the bride (sort of a security mechanism just in case the husband picks up and leaves one day). My wife’s family is very cool about things and did not demand any of that, though my mom decided to bring a gold necklace for her anyway despite my protestations. I have no idea how much it’s worth.

Again, your mileage [strike]may[/strike] will certainly vary.

:slight_smile:

2

Congrats, and I think you got pretty good mileage because you took care of many things on your own.

3

Congratulations on the wedding and hope you have a lifetime of happiness together :slight_smile:

I am not planning a wedding soon, but looking at the costs, if I was to do the same type of wedding back home in Canada, it would likely cost me double or triple that amount.

Those wedding cookies that everyone is required to buy are quite ridiculously priced it seems. But I guess to keep everyone happy…

4

If you do it right, you’ll be in the black after the actual wedding.

Any dowry and gold jewelry is often funnelled back to the wife.

5

How much did you recoup in hongbaos from the wedding banquet?

(And if anyone tries to scam you into paying a dowry, run away. Dowries are NOT part of Chinese culture.)

6

My wife’s 姐夫 had to pay one, as did most everyone I know… :ponder:

I’d rather not post an exact figure for the hongbaos in such a public forum, but suffice it to say they covered a lot of the costs and have left me far from broke.

7

[quote=“Hokwongwei”]I’m putting this thread out there for anyone who might be looking for some concrete numbers on what it takes to get married in Taiwan. Your mileage may very.

I went with a really cheap engagement ring (US$300) that I got back home because I don’t trust my taste in jewelry and didn’t want my wife stuck with something ugly on her finger. I plan to make it up with a much nicer ring whenever we get around to looking for one together. That aside…

Main costs

@Wedding rings

-----37,500 for both of us; we went cheap

@Proof I’m not already married, stamped by AIT

-----1,500 (US$50)

@Courthouse marriage (公證, no legal significance)

-----1,500

@Household registration (登記, this means you’re legally married)

-----1,000 + 100 for each English-language copy

@Wedding banquet

-----227,700 for 15 tables (150) guests, which is a little pricey for Taipei but not so bad

@Bride’s makeup artist (新祕)

-----10,000

@Hongbaos for friends who helped collect gifts or served as ushers, flowergirls (boys), etc.

-----About 10,000

@Xitie (喜帖, invitations)

-----4,500 for 200, including envelopes. I designed them myself and took them to a print shop.

@Engagement photos/dress

-----45,000 for: 50 photos, a poster, two hard-cover albums, a scroll for signing, a framed photo, a DVD of all the pictures taken that day (unedited) 4 dresses and 3 suits for photo purposes, 1 bridal gown and 2 dresses for the day of the wedding, a driver to cart us around to the different locations, and the makeup artist for the photos

@Wedding photographer

-----16,000

@Wedding videographer

-----13,000

@Custom-made suit for me

-----20,400… but I’m really, really happy with it.

@Xibing (喜餅, boxes of cakes and cookies as thank you gifts)

-----34,000 for around 70 boxes

@Decorations and gifts for the banquet, mostly edible

-----4,000 to import 16 cases of soda cans (it was part of the theme)
-----12,000 for 5 lbs of custom-made M&Ms with our names and 囍 printed on them (including shipping)
-----1,500 for decorative items and the bags to wrap M&Ms individually for each guest

@Hotel room for newlyweds, bride’s parents (from out of town), and bride’s sister (from out of town)

-----9,050 for three rooms for one night

The total comes out to
440,050
, which we had to pay over the span of about a year as we slowly put everything in place.

Note that traditional families will require seeing a fortune teller to pick an auspicious day and often ask for a sometimes huge dowry in cash (I’ve heard 300,000 referred to as a “small” offering). The groom’s family is also expected to provide a gold necklace and other jewelry to the bride (sort of a security mechanism just in case the husband picks up and leaves one day). My wife’s family is very cool about things and did not demand any of that, though my mom decided to bring a gold necklace for her anyway despite my protestations. I have no idea how much it’s worth.

Again, your mileage [strike]may[/strike] will certainly vary.

:slight_smile:[/quote]

We did book all the photos (engagement + dress rent + make-up artists + wedding photos) to the same agency, and they made us a huge discount.

As for the fortune teller, I was “lucky” there, because we have one in the family (my wife’s aunt). Of course, that backfires often, when you have to make decisions and you have to hear that “you shouldn’t do this or that, is not auspicious”, or “you can’t hang anything on the wall, it’s not right for the Feng Shui”…

We also did the gold necklace thing, but they were loaners from my wife’s family (we don’t have the same love of gold they do here… in Spain is usually considered very Low-class to wear the gold chains and rings for show).

8

Just in to say congrats! Here’s to you and your wife’s continued happiness!

9

My wife’s 姐夫 had to pay one, as did most everyone I know… :ponder:

I’d rather not post an exact figure for the hongbaos in such a public forum, but suffice it to say they covered a lot of the costs and have left me far from broke.[/quote]

Looks like your wedding , price wise, was pretty reasonable. And , hopefully , like most you got your money back and then some !

I don’t know when my wife and I will have a “real” wedding (if ever, as I am not big on those things).
I think we paid something like less then 200 bucks to get married in Martinez. And that is the way I like it.

In and out and over and done with. MARRIED, in the short time frame allowed with the fiancee visa.

Lunch with the two witnesses required and I think something like 60 bucks. LOL.

Course, nobody gave a hongbao or wedding gift.

OH, wait one of the two witnesses gave a RE-GIFT. A present he got 20 years ago, still in the box, from his wedding. It was a glass cake holder. Which I promptly re-gifted along to someone else.

So I think yours was very elaborate by comparison. And TW weddings are a pain in the neck!

When i got married in TW some years ago. We kept it super simple. Dinner for the two families only (the groups had never met each other previously so it was an awkward meal) at a nice hotel. Court appearance earlier in the day. Never got to take pictures, even though I paid 12,000nt for them , which I never got back. Something like 10,000nt for some cookies prior.

Simple, nothing Khardasian.

Congrats, by the way !

10

Congratulations.

As a side story…my brother got married on St. John’s island in the Caribbean. The lady who performed the wedding service on the beach charged US$400 for 1 hour of her time. Being curious about how much money she could make doing such service I asked how many services did she perform per month. She told me she averaged 350 per year. I was shocked. $400 x 350 = US$140,000. She probably wore the same gown and said the same words for every service…very low overhead costs for her. She said she visited the island 30 years ago and just never left.

11

Crap! You have to be kidding! If you want self-flagellation, there are cheaper ways. I will be . . . . . . . .if I pay for all that. What is lasting? Some pictures and a couple over-priced rings.
Me, go to family registry with a couple of buds. Get the documents. Find the nearest 7-11 and a bottle of scotch.
All this to-doo crap is just non-sense.
I might spring for a hotel room but I have a perfectly good bed at home. WTF. You young-uns need to wake up.

12

[quote=“2Enigma”]Crap! You have to be kidding! If you want self-flagellation, there are cheaper ways. I will be . . . . . . . .if I pay for all that. What is lasting? Some pictures and a couple over-priced rings.
Me, go to family registry with a couple of buds. Get the documents. Find the nearest 7-11 and a bottle of scotch.
All this to-doo crap is just non-sense.
I might spring for a hotel room but I have a perfectly good bed at home. WTF. You young-uns need to wake up.[/quote]

I take it you’re not married.

13

Are you asking if or how many?
First was a trip down the California Coast in a "69 Dodge 440 RT. Broke on my ass so we collected free "Shell Gasoline glasses for our home.
She lasted a few years and 6 kids. Here I am, unmarried, but no more cruising the coast wasting gasoline in exchange for glasses.
Would you pay the freight on that above mentioned wedding? I doubt it.
Short response: NO! I’m not currently married and if my future bride wants that fiasco, I’ll stay single.

14

Marriage is an INDUSTRY .

15

[quote=“2Enigma”]Crap! You have to be kidding! If you want self-flagellation, there are cheaper ways. I will be . . . . . . . .if I pay for all that. What is lasting? Some pictures and a couple over-priced rings.
Me, go to family registry with a couple of buds. Get the documents. Find the nearest 7-11 and a bottle of scotch.
All this to-doo crap is just non-sense.
I might spring for a hotel room but I have a perfectly good bed at home. WTF. You young-uns need to wake up.[/quote]
But it’s the family that dictates what happens.

You’d need to marry someone with the guts to say NO! to their family. Not common in Taiwan.

16

Congratulations!

17

Congrats Hokwongwei!
If you’re anywhere near as reasonable and kind as you sound in your posts, I’ve no doubt you’ll have a happy wife and a happy life!

18

[quote=“2Enigma”]Crap! You have to be kidding! If you want self-flagellation, there are cheaper ways. I will be . . . . . . . .if I pay for all that. What is lasting? Some pictures and a couple over-priced rings.
Me, go to family registry with a couple of buds. Get the documents. Find the nearest 7-11 and a bottle of scotch.
All this to-doo crap is just non-sense.
I might spring for a hotel room but I have a perfectly good bed at home. WTF. You young-uns need to wake up.[/quote]

That’t the way!
I got married in Japan. The biggest thing was getting the ‘not married yet papers’, this took about 2 months.
During this time my Japan visa expired, so I went for a trip to Thailand and bought some 24 carat wedding rings (spot price+200 bath), about 300 dollar for both. You can sell them back to the shop anytime and get the spot price back.

But the actual wedding:
Got the form from the city office, visited 2 friends to let them sign as witnesses.
Went back to city office, signed the form, married.
Total cost: 0.
Asked the clerk to make a picture of us in front of her desk. Wedding picture, check!
Got to a drink shop and bought a cheap bottle of champagne, cost 40$.
Went home, had a small party together and a great wedding night. Happy and still married!

What do you to the other stuff for, not for yourself, but just to show?
It’s about you, not about others.
It’s your marriage, and if you copy the same way others do it, then you are just a sheep without own imagination.
No need for this bullshit.

19

That’s a very useful list for anyone considering a wedding here Hokwongwei, not to mention an interesting read for those of us who are simply curious about what is customary.

My girlfriend and I want to marry soon but we don’t want a wedding if we can avoid it. We want to save our money for things that will help us build a life together in Australia. And until such time that we have an oversupply of money we would prefer to restrict our spending to the necessities. I’ll use the list to show how minimalist our thinking is.

Wedding rings: My girlfriend wants a ring but nothing expensive. She was very shocked when I showed her Hokwongwei’s post and that they spent $37,500! We have a very different idea of cheap.

Proof I’m not already married: Necessary.

Courthouse marriage: Unnecessary?

Household registration: Necessary then?

Wedding banquet: No banquet but perhaps, as my girlfriend has suggested, a simple dinner with about 20 guests.

Bride’s makeup artist: No.

Hongbaos: No.

Invitations: No.

Engagement photos/dress: No,

Wedding photographer: No.

Wedding videographer: No.

Custom-made suit for me: Ha, I might spring for a new shirt and pants, for the dinner . . .

Boxes of cakes and cookies as thank you gifts. No.

Decorations and gifts No.

Hotel room for newlyweds No.

We only want the legal status of being married. Obviously, our biggest obstacle is going to be my girlfriend’s negotiations with her parents because, as Chris has mentioned, very few ‘children’ here are willing to say no to their parents. My parents, on the other hand, had the kind of minimalist ‘wedding’ that my girlfriend and I want, way back in the 1970s. Aside from saving our money for more practical things we also want to cut down on the superficiality. I’m only close to four people in my family. If I had to make a wedding invitation list it would probably total about 8 people - my girlfriend’s list would contain perhaps ten.

We don’t think anyone else really gives a shit.

I know a lot of people go through with a traditional wedding because they think ‘This is the bullshit that we have to do because of tradition and family’, a kind of path of least resistance. But we are hoping to say no to that and I’m banking on my girlfriend’s stubborness. :laughing: Otherwise . . . :astonished:

20

As for us, our total costs was more due to the wedding banquet cost which was 500,000 and the engagement party/lunch was paid for by us as the wife did not want her parents to pay as they don’t have much money. We spent a lot on the wedding banquet as was a big event for her friends and in general we had a good time with nice memories…but, of course, could have spent much less and still had good memories. (we recovered 80% of cost from hong baos) :thumbsup:

We spent $40,000 on wedding photos/dress stuff. However, we did not even take the outside photos as we thought too much trouble and the 20 inside photos enough for us to use for general stuff. Key point is the dress rental. We bought another dress for $5,000 so spent overall same as you. My wife won’t let me throw away those large, obnoxious framed wedding pics…even though they only take up space and collect dust in their boxes.