Life is simple, so simple that if we adopt its simplicity, we can live happily forever. But we complicate it by letting everyone interfere in our life. Same happens when we think about marriages in Pakistan.
That’s true! Marriages in Pakistan are a full-time business. It starts from hiring a matchmaker who charges you for finding the right partner and lead to long-awaited wedding events which last for at least 5 to 10 days making you pay the outstanding dues for years.
Since our childhood, we’re being fed fascination about marriages; what to wear, place to choose, where to go, who to invite and what will be the menu. It’s one big event which you can’t afford to ignore.
All these preferences of ours have given birth to small and huge wedding businesses in Pakistan. We have wedding caterers, planners, photographers, halls, themes, boutiques, wedding entries ideas, makeup artists and DJ’s who specifically work for wedding events.
We judge the status of the people by the glitz and glamour in the event. If someone doesn’t want to get into the exorbitant wedding cultures, they are taken as poor who can’t feed people for free.
But it’s your wedding and you have all rights to make it your way. An average wedding cost in Pakistan is around 10 to 15 lac and it can rise depending on the sugar you coat to your event.
If you don’t want to jump into the bandwagon, here are some things you can do to cut the extravagant from your wedding.
How to Have a Cheap Wedding in Pakistan?
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Ditch the Expensive Wedding Photographers
Do you have time to revisit all the manual photo albums you have stocked in your storeroom?
Probably no. In the future, life will be more tough leaving you less time to hop on to your heavy wedding albums. The Covid19 life has also turned the world into digital diaries. So, you’ll be only needing digital photos. For this purpose, use your smartphones to capture the wedding moments and store your photos on the cloud drive.
From smartphones, you can also make videos and edit them. If you don’t know, how, you can always take help from your friend who’s a smart video editor and can help you save your money.
This way by excluding the wedding photographers, you can save Rs,50,000-80,000 from your expenses.
Of course, there’s a lot of advantages to hiring professional photographers but these advantages only work when your wedding is going to be featured on Forbes or air on a TV channel. Until then, make the most of your smartphones after all you have invested a huge amount in them too.
2. Switch to Shendi or Shalima
Shendi and Shalima are two ways to ease the expense of your wedding by converting two wedding events into one. Shendi is a combination of shadi+mehendi while Shalima is the concept of shadi+valima together.
By switching to these events you can save the cost of a wedding hall, food for the day and other expenses.
For example, if you opt for a Shendi, you won’t be needing a separate Mehendi event. Shendi will combine your Mehendi and Shadi together. If you don’t want to combine your Mehendi, you can couple your Shadi with Valima i.e. Shalima. This is one balanced way of pleasing the guest while keeping your budget minimal.
3. Don’t Invite Everyone You Met in Your Life
Marriages in Pakistan are taken as a reunion of family members who are scattered all around the world. Sometimes, you have to wait for your relatives to come to Pakistan from America, or Canada so you can schedule the nuptials.
Marriage should be solely your choice and you have the right to invite those people with who you want to share your happy moments. Instead of inviting your aunt from Canada, your Facebook friends and Instagram followers, make it a real-time, small event with the ones who you really want to be present on your big day.
4. Keep the Menu Simple
If there are 10 dishes on the serving table, nobody will eat all those 10 dishes. This will only waste a lot of food and overload the expenses without any benefits.
To avoid that, go for one-dish rule at ceremonies and focus on the taste of the meal. Keep the quantity according to the number of guests you have invited. It will let you avoid the excess food left on the tables and will also keep your budget in-line.
5. Organize a Small-Budget Wedding
There are many unique ideas for Pakistani weddings to make it cheap but the best way is to organize it. If you don’t plan your wedding, the unplanned happenings and expenses will add to the wedding cost.
So, start small from a nikah event following all the do’s and don’ts of nikah then head to the reception. Know that, when you’ll organize a low key event, your relatives and friends might not accept it but your only intention should be to save your money and please Allah.
If you keep pleasing the people with a high-budget wedding, you’ll put yourself in a life-long struggle of paying dues for the wedding events. So, instead of making your wedding a dream event, spend on your business, travelling or the things which gives you happiness rather than problems.
There’s already a list of the most expensive wedding in the world so no matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to reach there.
Some Additional Tips to Save More Money
- Replace your invitation cards with digital cards and forward it on Whatsapp or through Email. This will save your commute cost and invitation cards expenses.
- Try to arrange your wedding at home. If that’s not possible, choose a simple venue for your Pakistani wedding function.
- Plan your weddings in the daylight. The wedding halls fees are quite low in the day timings.
- Don’t spend too much on dowry. The government has also placed the ban on dowry culture. So, simply avoid it.
- The destination wedding cost in Pakistan is also expensive so don’t promise a destination wedding if you don’t have a budget for it.
- Cut the pre and post-wedding events such as Dholki, Bridal Shower, Mayo, Qawwali Nights, Dance Nights, Post wedding feasts and more.
Getting married isn’t an achievement or a source of pride but making your marriage meaningful is. So, invest your time in building your relationship with your spouse, learn to be happy and set an example for people to follow.
Our religion also encourages simple weddings as they are the source of blessings from the Almighty.
I prefer books and diaries more than phones and Facebook. Soulfully connected to Pakistan. And I passionately believe that I can change the world through blogging.
