SINGAPORE - It was money that she "could not really afford" for a wedding.

When Madam Melissa Ong, 30, was preparing for her wedding in June 2011, she wanted to "remember it for a lifetime".

Madam Ong, a sales executive, recounts how she ended up borrowing from credit facilities, her parents and her brother.

Her husband, who declined to be interviewed, had also borrowed from a loanshark with her knowledge.

She says sheepishly: "It was really my fault, he just wanted to please me."

Madam Ong spent nearly $100,000 on her wedding, which she now acknowledges was "a complete waste of money".

She pauses for several seconds, then says: "You know, with that kind of money, you'd have thought we held our wedding banquet at a posh hotel like St Regis.

"But it was just a regular hotel in the Orchard area."

Madam Ong, who was earning about $3,000 a month then, admits that she wasn't being practical about her financial situation.

"I just wanted to show off (in front of my friends) and I didn't think of the consequences," she says.

The wedding banquet cost $1,388++ per table, and they hosted 36 tables.

On top of that, they paid almost $4,000 for a three-piece a cappella ensemble to perform during the dinner. "I didn't want to have boring piped-in music, and I quite liked the performance I saw at another friend's wedding," says Madam Ong.

She went the distance with wedding photos too, and had them taken in Paris, a package that cost her $15,000 - including air fare and accommodation.

Read the full story here.

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Click on the gallery below to find out what the sales exec and her husband splurged on, as well as how much some other couples spent on their wedding.

(Photos: Reuters, ST File, AFP, TNP, Revelation Creative House, Ivan Tan Photography)