Cambodian Wedding Ceremony in Cambodia - Easy Budget Planning for Khmer Wedding Reception

Planning for a wedding in Cambodia costing quite a lot of money from the engagement day until the wedding day. It is also depending on what kind of thing need to have for the whole wedding and where it will be taking place.

For wedding ceremony at the province will cost less budget than in town, main town of the provinces and in the capital city. There are many kind of services for the wedding party could rank from level 1 to level 3 in term of quality of items/product use and type of foods serve for guests at the reception time.

Average of Wedding Expenses for the Whole Wedding Reception

Out side the city, the wedding could cost around $1,000.00 to $2,000.00 or might just less than this but in the city it could cost over $10,000.00 or more for high class.

Today, generally the wedding ceremony is taking place only 1 day with morning wedding ceremony and evening food reception with fun activities such as dancing...unlike in the olden day of Cambodian culture the wedding ceremony took 3 days. However, these culture is keeping well with some family they will make it happen in 2 days or 3 days for wedding ceremony of their beloved children.

After discussion, you need to plan for a wedding day & place for wedding reception

Some choose not to have the engagement ceremony but some family strongly believe having the engagement day is very important for their wedding so they have to prepare engagement at home (usually at the bride's home) taking place for one morning or one whole day with almost same activities as the wedding day.

Having the engagement at home could cost the budget from around $500.00 to $1,000.00 over depend on how many guests inviting and thing to have during the engagement without getting any gift or fee back from guests to pay for this ceremony. But people choose to do it because It is important for Cambodian family and the couple.

The next thing to do after the engagement is to plan for the wedding day with many thing to include during the wedding.

Wedding Planner Guides

For the wedding day is very important to plan a head of time at least in 6 months before getting married. Some reasons of well planning for children, parents as well as the bride and the groom is to aware of with detail plans and stuff needs for the wedding day.

Some of these following items are consider to be major cost for Cambodian Wedding Ceremony:

• Hire a clothes for wedding is very important for bride & room. There are wedding clothes company ranking from $500.00 to $3,000.00 for just clothes and including traditional music, programs... which need to book at least 3 months or 6 month before the wedding day.
  
• Considering for a reception place either do it at home or renting a Wedding Reception for evening wedding party with foods. If to book a place at the hotel or wedding reception center normally it is required to book in 6 months ahead of time in case there will be no place to host the wedding reception and will cost more money when reaching to the wedding day. Normal fee for the place count per table which will rank from $15 to $25 per one table (starting at least 25 tables to 60 tables). For example if to rent a evening reception for wedding party at the hotel with $25 and inviting 500 guests to the party. 500 guest need to prepare 50 tables with 10 seats per table. So it will cost 50 x $25 equal $1250 for just renting the reception place.
  
• Booking the Wedding food company a few month before the wedding day to prevent in case they are busy with other wedding because during the wedding season starting from middle of November until before Khmer New Year the wedding businesses are so busy making more money. Food per table cost around $80 to $100 depend on what type of foods choosing.
  
• Soft drink & beer is very important for the wedding reception. Some people will have these items such as soft drink, beer and wine including in the food reception for the reason of serving their valuable guests. Some guests will not decide to give how much gift ($) for the wedding until after tasting the food and the drink. If the food is good and the drink is good usually concentrating on beer & wine, then they will give more ($).
  
• Music for the evening reception is very important but the wedding family can choose only music system with just loud speakers, music with just one organ and 2 singers or a music team with the whole set of complete music system and singers which costing around $300.00 to $400.00
  
• Fruit for morning wedding ceremony could cost around $500.00 to $800.00
• Beside these major items, the wedding family should reserve around $1000.00 or $2000.00 more to cover the necessary thing that will rise up during the wedding.
  

In summary, as sample for one wedding in the city we can calculate as below:

• Wedding clothes + programs + decoration = $1,500.00
• Renting evening wedding reception place for 500 guest at $25 per table = $1,250.00
• Food for evening reception for 50 tables x $90 = $4,500.00
  
• Soft drink, beer & wine = $1,000.00
  
• Music team for evening reception = $300.00
  
• Fruit for morning ceremony = $500.00
  
• Contingency budget for wedding $1,000.00

So the total amount at up for one wedding in Phnom Penh could cost around $10,050.00

Gift ($) Expecting from Guests

As culture every guest who come to the wedding expected to give gift ($) putting in the wedding invitation letter at the seasonable amount for the wedding family as love gift. These gift is useful for the family to use it in covering the cost of foods and items that use in the wedding.

Sometime the wedding can loose lots of money and some will gain according to the gift of the guest who attend the wedding. As culture Cambodian people will send their gift to the bride and the groom even though they cannot join the wedding party.

If let's say every guest will give gift at $20 per person, it will only cover the cost of the whole expenses only and they won't have money to go for their honey moon.

*** Remember, Cambodian wedding don't expect wrapped gift as they cannot use to cover the cost. But wrapped gift + $$ is acceptable :)