A typical Singapore wedding in 2026 costs roughly S$30,000 to S$55,000 for a hotel or restaurant banquet of 200 to 300 guests, once you add the venue, photography, gowns, rings and honeymoon. The legal part is cheap: registering your marriage with the Registry of Marriages costs S$42 if either of you is a citizen or PR. Everything above that is choice. The banquet alone usually eats 40 to 60 percent of the budget, and the single biggest lever you control is the guest count, because hotels charge per table of 10. The good news is that ang bao from guests covers a meaningful slice of the banquet, so the real cash you need out of pocket is smaller than the sticker price. This guide breaks down every line item with 2026 figures, shows what guests typically give back by venue, and lays out how to save for it without stalling your BTO or emergency fund.
Most couples in Singapore spend somewhere between S$30,000 and S$55,000 on a full wedding with a banquet. Budget-minded couples can do a clean celebration for S$15,000 to S$25,000 by going smaller or skipping a hotel ballroom. At the other end, a five-star hotel wedding for 300-plus guests can run past S$100,000. With 26,328 marriages registered in 2024 according to SingStat, this is a well-worn path, and the cost ranges below reflect what venues and vendors charge across that market.
The number that matters is not the headline total. It is the net cash you fund yourself after ang bao comes in. For a mid-range hotel banquet, guest ang bao often covers most of the food cost, which means your real out-of-pocket spend is the non-banquet items plus whatever the banquet runs over what guests put in. We work through that maths later in this guide.
One quote habit trips up almost every first-time couple. Banquet and vendor prices are usually shown as '++', meaning before service charge and GST. Add 10 percent service charge and 9 percent GST and a S$1,500 table becomes about S$1,799 nett. The GST rate has been 9 percent since 1 January 2024, so build that 19-ish percent uplift into every '++' figure before you compare venues.
| Component | Typical 2026 range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Banquet (venue + catering) | S$15,000 to S$45,000+ | 40 to 60% of budget; priced per table of 10, usually ++ |
| Photography + videography | S$2,500 to S$5,000+ | Actual day plus pre-wedding; add-ons cost more |
| Bridal package / gowns + suit | S$2,000 to S$6,000 | Rental package; bespoke gowns cost more |
| Wedding rings (pair) | S$2,000 to S$6,000+ | Plain bands cheaper; diamond settings dearer |
| Makeup + hair | S$500 to S$1,500 | Per session; multiple looks cost more |
| Decor + flowers | S$2,000 to S$7,000 | Often partly bundled into banquet package |
| Honeymoon | S$5,000 to S$8,000+ | Depends entirely on destination and length |
| ROM registration | S$42 | S$380 if both parties are foreigners |
Getting legally married in Singapore is the cheapest part of the whole exercise. A civil marriage is filed online through the Registry of Marriages on the Our Marriage Journey portal. The marriage application fee is S$42 when at least one of you is a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident. If both of you are foreigners, the fee is S$380.
That fee covers the application and the solemnisation if you hold the ceremony at ROM itself on a weekday, where a solemniser is provided at no extra charge. ROM has moved to a temporary site while its building at 7 Canning Rise is redeveloped, with the original premises due to reopen in 2029, so check the current ceremony location on the Our Marriage Journey portal when you book.
If you want to marry on a weekend, a public holiday, or at an outside venue such as a hotel or garden, you invite a Licensed Solemniser to officiate. Licensed solemnisers are volunteers and do not charge a mandatory fee. A customary honorarium of roughly S$200 to S$500 is the norm, and people give more when the solemniser travels to an external venue.
The banquet is where the money goes. It usually accounts for 40 to 60 percent of a wedding budget, and it is priced per table of 10 rather than per head, which is why your guest list is the number that moves the bill the most. Cut one table and you save a full table's price plus its service charge and GST.
In 2026, the median banquet sits around S$1,400 to S$1,600 per table of 10 before service charge and GST. Budget venues and weekday lunches can start nearer S$800 to S$1,200 a table. Mid-tier hotels run roughly S$1,200 to S$2,200, and five-star ballrooms along Orchard Road or Marina Bay commonly charge S$2,200 to S$3,500 or more per table. Every figure here is '++', so add about 19 percent for the nett price.
Restaurants and community-club venues come in cheaper than hotels and are worth a look if you want a smaller, less formal day. Watch the extras that hotels bundle and restaurants often do not, such as wedding favours, a bridal suite, ang bao boxes and parking. A free-flow alcohol package or corkage waiver can swing the total by thousands.
A worked example shows the leverage. At a mid-tier hotel charging S$1,800++ per table, that is about S$2,158 nett per table after 10 percent service charge and 9 percent GST. A 20-table dinner for 200 guests costs roughly S$43,000 nett on the banquet alone. Trim to 15 tables and you are at about S$32,000, a S$11,000 difference from the guest list alone.
Per-table prices group into clear tiers, and where you land sets the floor for the whole wedding. The table below shows the 2026 price bands by venue type, all quoted '++' so add about 19 percent for the nett figure. Vendors update banquet menus through the year and prices move without notice, so treat these as planning bands and ask each venue for a written quote at your table count.
Two practical points shape the real bill. Most venues set a minimum table count, so booking a small wedding at a big ballroom can force you to pay for tables you will not fill. And the day and slot matter: weekday dinners and weekend lunches usually run S$100 to S$300 a table below a Saturday dinner, which on a 20-table booking is S$2,000 to S$6,000 saved before service charge and GST.
The per-table price is not the full banquet bill. Hotels and restaurants bundle different things, and the gaps between packages are where surprise charges live. Before you sign, get the inclusions in writing and price the extras you are likely to need, because a thin package at a low table rate can end up dearer than a fuller one that costs more upfront.
Alcohol is the classic blind spot. If you bring your own wine, expect a corkage fee of roughly S$20 to S$50 a bottle, and a free-flow beer and wine package or a corkage waiver can swing the total by a few thousand dollars either way. Running past your contracted hours triggers overtime charges, often several hundred dollars an hour. Smaller line items add up too: extra audio-visual, a longer march-in, additional centrepieces, ang bao boxes and parking redemption beyond the free allocation.
Then there is the deposit and cancellation reality. Venues usually take a deposit to confirm the date, the balance falls due close to the wedding, and deposits are commonly non-refundable if you pull out. Read the cancellation and postponement terms before you pay, since plans change and a forfeited deposit is money gone for nothing. Our wedding budget calculator lets you slot these extras in alongside the per-table cost so the working total reflects what you will actually pay.
Outside the banquet, the spend clusters around a handful of items. Full-day photography and videography packages, covering the actual day plus a pre-wedding shoot, typically run S$2,500 to S$5,000. Add-ons like drone footage, a same-day edit or extra hours can add S$500 to S$2,000 on top.
Bridal attire is usually a rental package. A bundle of two or three gowns, a suit and basic accessories runs about S$2,000 to S$4,000, and full packages that fold in pre-wedding photography and actual-day makeup push toward S$6,000. Renting a single off-the-rack gown is around S$500 to S$1,500. Buying or going bespoke costs more. Makeup and hair sits at roughly S$500 to S$1,500 per session, more if you want several looks across the day.
Wedding rings are a wide range because they are a personal call. A pair of bands commonly costs S$2,000 to S$6,000 or more, with plain metal bands at the lower end and diamond settings climbing fast. Decor and flowers run S$2,000 to S$7,000, though hotel packages often include centrepieces and a backdrop, so check what is already covered before you pay a separate florist.
A wedding planner or coordinator is the line most couples debate. Full planning from start to finish typically runs from around S$8,000, partial planning from about S$5,000, and an actual-day coordinator who runs the schedule on the day from roughly S$2,800. Many couples skip a planner and lean on a free venue coordinator the hotel provides, then hire only an actual-day coordinator so they are not chasing vendors while getting married. Decide early, because a planner's fee is real money that competes with the banquet.
The honeymoon is the line that varies most. A typical budget is S$5,000 to S$8,000, but it depends entirely on where you go and for how long. Treat it as a separate trip you save for, not an afterthought stapled to the wedding bill, so it does not blow the total at the last minute.
Beyond the banquet and the photos, most Singapore weddings carry a layer of customary costs tied to the couple's culture. For Chinese couples that means the betrothal, or guo da li, with pin jin (betrothal money) and si dian jin (gold jewellery), plus tea-ceremony items and red packets for the helpers and gatecrash. Malay weddings centre on the mas kahwin and hantaran gift trays, and Indian weddings on jewellery and ceremony costs. These sit outside the vendor budget and are easy to forget until they land all at once.
Treat them as their own bucket so they do not blow a hole in the banquet budget. Tea-ceremony supplies, dragon-and-phoenix candles, oranges and the tea set are modest, often S$100 to S$300 for a basic set. Red packets for gatecrash games, bridesmaids and groomsmen, and the solemniser typically run a few hundred dollars in total. The pin jin and gold are the big swing, and a good chunk of the pin jin is often returned by the bride's family, so the headline figure overstates the real cost.
Because these costs vary so much by family and tradition, settle the numbers with both sides before you fix the rest of the budget. We break the betrothal and dowry side down in detail, with 2026 figures by culture, in our guide to the marriage dowry in Singapore.
It helps to see the line items add up at three guest counts. The budgets below use the ranges from this guide and assume a realistic mid-point for each item. They are gross figures before ang bao comes back, so the cash you actually fund is lower once red packets land, as the net-cost section explains.
The pattern is the same at every level: the banquet is the heavyweight, and the guest count sets it. A lean restaurant wedding for 100 keeps the whole thing near S$22,000, a mid hotel wedding for 200 lands around S$48,000, and a premium five-star do for 300 clears six figures once decor and a longer guest list pile on.
| Item | Lean (100 guests, restaurant) | Mid (200 guests, 4-star hotel) | Premium (300 guests, 5-star) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banquet (nett) | S$12,000 | S$32,000 | S$72,000 |
| Photography + videography | S$3,000 | S$4,000 | S$6,000 |
| Attire + makeup | S$3,000 | S$4,500 | S$7,000 |
| Rings | S$3,000 | S$4,000 | S$6,000 |
| Decor + flowers | S$1,500 | S$3,500 | S$7,000 |
| Customary + misc | S$1,500 | S$2,500 | S$4,000 |
| Honeymoon | S$5,000 | S$6,000 | S$8,000 |
| Approx. gross total | S$29,000 | S$56,500 | S$110,000 |
The Singapore wedding has a built-in offset. Guests give a cash gift in a red packet, and the unwritten rule is that your ang bao should at least cover the cost of your seat at the banquet, with a bit more on top as a blessing. That means the fancier the venue, the more guests are expected to give, which partly self-funds a pricier banquet.
Rates in 2026 scale with the venue and your relationship to the couple. A void-deck or community-club do attracts around S$50 to S$150 per guest. A restaurant or country club sits near S$80 to S$200. A four-star hotel ballroom runs roughly S$120 to S$250, and a five-star ballroom commands S$150 to S$300 or more, with close relatives at the top of each band. Weekend dinners draw higher amounts than weekday lunches.
These are social customs, not fixed prices, and nobody should feel obliged beyond their means. Treat the figures as a planning estimate when you forecast how much of the banquet your guests will cover, not as a guaranteed return.
| Venue type | Friends / colleagues | Close friends | Close relatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Void deck / community club | S$50 to S$80 | S$80 to S$100 | S$100 to S$150 |
| Restaurant / country club | S$80 to S$120 | S$120 to S$150 | S$150 to S$200 |
| 4-star hotel ballroom | S$120 to S$150 | S$150 to S$200 | S$200 to S$250 |
| 5-star hotel ballroom | S$150 to S$200 | S$200 to S$250 | S$250 to S$300 |
Sticker price is not the same as out-of-pocket cost. Because ang bao tends to track the cost per seat, a well-attended banquet often nets out far cheaper than the gross bill suggests. Run the numbers for your own venue before you panic at a quote.
Take the 200-guest mid-tier hotel dinner from earlier, at about S$43,000 nett for the banquet. If guests average S$180 each across 200 people, that is S$36,000 of ang bao, covering most of the food. Your net banquet cost drops to around S$7,000. Add the non-banquet items, say S$15,000 for photography, attire, rings, makeup and decor, plus a S$6,000 honeymoon, and the real cash you fund is closer to S$28,000 than S$64,000.
Two caveats keep this honest. Ang bao is never guaranteed, attendance is never 100 percent, and you usually pay vendors in full before a single red packet arrives. So you still need the gross amount in cash up front, then treat the ang bao as a reimbursement that lands on the wedding day. Plan the cash flow, not just the final tally.
There is no single right way to split a wedding bill, but a few patterns are common in Singapore. Many couples split everything 50-50 from a joint pool they both pay into monthly. Others split by category, with each side covering its own attire, makeup and its own guests' tables. Some families still contribute toward the banquet, especially where parents invite their own relatives and friends.
Whatever the split, agree it in writing before you sign vendor contracts. The most common money fight is not the total. It is one partner discovering, after a deposit is paid, that the other assumed a different arrangement. Decide who pays what, whether parents contribute, and how ang bao gets divided afterward, and put it in a shared spreadsheet.
Build the budget from the guest list outward, because the table count sets the banquet, and the banquet sets the bulk of the spend. Lock your guest number first, price two or three venues at that count, then slot the fixed items, photography, attire, rings, around the banquet. A personal budget calculator helps you set a monthly savings figure once you know the gross amount and your wedding date.
A wedding lands in the same life stage as a flat, a renovation and a first emergency fund, so the trick is funding it without cannibalising the others. Start by separating the buckets. Your wedding fund, your BTO or resale down-payment, your renovation budget and your emergency fund are four different pots with four different timelines. Money for one should not quietly fund another.
Work backward from the date. If you need S$40,000 gross in 18 months, that is roughly S$2,200 a month split between two people, or about S$1,100 each. Park it somewhere safe and liquid rather than invested, because the timeline is short and you cannot afford a market dip the month before the banquet. A fixed deposit or a high-interest savings account suits money you will spend within a year or two, and our guides on the best savings accounts and fixed deposit rates compare current options.
Keep the wedding from eating the house. A common order of priority is to secure the emergency fund first, then the property down-payment and CPF housing portion, then the wedding, then the honeymoon. If the maths does not work, the variable to cut is the wedding, not the emergency fund, because the wedding is one day and the emergency fund is what stops a job loss from sinking you. The 50/30/20 rule is a sane starting frame: the wedding fund comes out of the 20 percent savings slice, not by raiding the 50 percent you need for rent, food and bills.
Be wary of debt. A personal loan or credit card balance to fund a fancier banquet means paying interest for years on a single evening. If ang bao is meant to cover most of the banquet anyway, borrowing to inflate it makes little sense. Size the wedding to what you can save in cash by the date, and let the celebration scale to the budget rather than the other way round.
Most couples spend about S$30,000 to S$55,000 on a wedding with a banquet for 200 to 300 guests. Budget weddings can be done for S$15,000 to S$25,000, while five-star hotel celebrations can exceed S$100,000. The banquet alone usually makes up 40 to 60 percent of the total.
The marriage application fee is S$42 when at least one party is a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident, and S$380 when both are foreigners. A weekday ceremony at ROM is included in that fee with a solemniser provided. Check the current fees on the Our Marriage Journey portal before booking.
The median in 2026 is around S$1,400 to S$1,600 per table of 10 before service charge and GST. Budget venues start nearer S$800 to S$1,200, mid-tier hotels run S$1,200 to S$2,200, and five-star ballrooms charge S$2,200 to S$3,500 or more. Add about 19 percent for the 10 percent service charge and 9 percent GST.
Give at least enough to cover your seat at the banquet, plus a little more as a blessing. In 2026 that ranges from roughly S$50 to S$150 at a void-deck or community-club do, S$120 to S$250 at a four-star hotel, and S$150 to S$300 or more at a five-star ballroom. Weekend dinners and closer relationships call for higher amounts.
It usually covers most of the banquet but not the whole wedding. For a mid-tier hotel dinner, ang bao often offsets most of the food cost, so your net banquet spend is small. It does not cover photography, attire, rings or the honeymoon, and you still pay vendors in full before any ang bao arrives.
Just register at ROM for S$42 with no banquet, then hold a small lunch or void-deck gathering. A full but frugal wedding with a banquet can be done for S$15,000 to S$25,000 by keeping the guest list small, choosing a restaurant or community club over a hotel, and picking a weekday lunch slot.
It depends on your budget and timeline. To save S$40,000 gross in 18 months, two people need about S$2,200 a month combined. Keep the money in a savings account or fixed deposit rather than investments, since the timeline is short, and save for the wedding separately from your housing down-payment and emergency fund.
Yes. A weekday dinner or a weekend lunch usually costs S$100 to S$300 less per table than a Saturday dinner. On a 20-table booking that is S$2,000 to S$6,000 saved before service charge and GST. Venues price their peak Saturday-evening slots highest because demand is highest, so shifting the day or the meal is one of the easiest ways to cut the banquet bill without dropping guests.
A planner is optional. Full planning typically starts around S$8,000, partial planning around S$5,000, and an actual-day coordinator from about S$2,800. Many couples skip full planning, use the free coordinator the hotel provides, and hire only an actual-day coordinator so someone runs the schedule while they are getting married. Whether it is worth it depends on how much time you have and how complex your wedding is.
Customary costs sit outside the vendor budget. A basic tea-ceremony set of candles, tea, oranges and a tea set runs roughly S$100 to S$300, and red packets for gatecrash games, helpers and the solemniser add a few hundred dollars in total. The big variable is the Chinese betrothal: the pin jin and si dian jin gold, much of which the bride's family often returns. Settle these figures with both families before fixing the rest of the budget.
The guest list is the biggest one. Every extra table adds a full table's cost plus service charge and GST, so a creeping invite list quietly inflates the banquet, which is already 40 to 60 percent of the budget. After that, decor upgrades and extra bridal looks are the common over-runs. Lock the guest count first, then size the rest of the budget around it rather than the other way round.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.