Colleague’s wedding invitation – can’t afford ang bao

Just joined a company a couple months ago, and got invited to a senior colleague’s wedding.

I really want to attend because I know everyone will be there, and I would like to celebrate for my colleague as well.

But it’s at a 5 star hotel and when I googled the recommended ang bao rate, it was $200-$250.

I definitely can’t afford it… should I rsvp no and give a lame excuse? Tell the truth? Or should I go and give a smaller ang bao. Or just suck it up, give the $200 ang bao and eat less for the rest of the month.

Also I’m not from the same culture as the colleague so I’m not very sure how to navigate the situation since my culture doesn’t really have a very strong ang bao practice for weddings.

Netizens’ comments

You can just decline

i invited this particular friend to my wedding banquet years ago, knew he was not doing well so i told him no need to bao angbao, just come. in the end , he bao $50 , didnt seem right to reject it so i didnt. i was touched by his sincerity of coursesorry not answering op , just wanted to share lol

how close are you to this colleague? chances are you’re just invited as a table filler and for your angbao money. don’t feel bad for declining.

If I’m reluctant to fork out market rate for a wedding banquet angpow, I’d just make my excuses and decline gracefully. There is simply no way to guarantee word doesn’t get out along your colleagues that you were a cheap bastard who wanted to hobnob with the brass but didn’t want to pay the proper entrance fee to the party. I don’t know about you but my reputation is worth much more than $200 – $300.