Wedding review - Malam Berinai

The malam berinai night wasn't really like some other malam berinai that you may have seen before. Some people would do 'khatam Quran' and marhaban (put baby in the beautifully decorated buaian) for those who has small babies in the family, of course. However, we think that it is not necessary as I have khatam-ed before several times and I dont have small babies in my family. So what happened during my malam berinai was simply geting together with my close friends and family members. 

Called the henna lady to help me with my Inai. 

I started to feel excited on that night. Started to see the tents, 

the pelamin, bilik pengantin yadaa yadaa yadaa.. 

Other people in my family as well as some of my friends also had some henna on their hands to show support.

  

But what I didnt do, but should have done was fotography session on my pelamin... ALONE! without the groom. I should have changed to multiple selections of traditional baju kahwin and pose at my pelamin and get blessings from my close family members. Maybe some advices from family, or something like that, I dont know, can be turned into a formal-informal occasion kinda thing? It'd be nice to have that I think. I just didnt have the time to plan for it. Maybe I'll do that for my daughter in the future, chewah!

Another advice from me, based on my experience, try to get the henna from Mekah instead the indian henna. The difference is in the colour, which the Mekah inai is more reddish than orange-ish. Or the inai from the pokok is also so much better. It lasts longer too. The indian henna that I had only lasted up to my honeymoon time (thank God it was still there during honeymoon, baru la ada rasa pengantin baru)..But after two weeks, dah no more pengantin baru.. inai pon makin hilang.. so get the Mekah one, or the one original from the pokok. If i can turn back time, this is one thing that I would change.

I loved my malam berinai anyway, because all the important people were there.

  

And I love the designs on my hands too..

My left hand fingers look like monster's, because the nail is super long. You can only leave your nails long if you decide not to put henna on, and do manicure instead. If you want to put inai..better not, nanti jadi macam gambar di atas. (Anyway, I cut my fingernails the next morning) :)

Wedding review - Before I became a Mrs

I am very grateful to be around these lovely and thoughtful people in my life. Although everybody was busy with things running in their lives, they had taken the time to plan and organize friends to get together before I get married. So even when I was very busy with my wedding schedules, I didn't mind to take some time off from 'weddings' and just be around my girls before life starts to change.

The first get-together was with my lovely ex-housemates at The Pressroom in Bangsar Shopping Centre.

With Adzy, Monzy, Tashy and Meeman (Dadat couldnt join sebab tengah berpantang). The theme was something like the B2B wearing white and the rest will wear striking colors. Very cute!

Great dinner and foto-shooting (a MUST).

And I received a a wedding present too. I dont need to show the lingerie now, do I? :D You see the tables are empty, not because we didn't eat...but because we left our table and went outside to take fotos...teehee!

Everybody was supposed to make ugly face but Monzy was cheating I guess... hmm..

Second get-together was with my wonderful bffs at Metropolitan Condo (I just made this up, coz I dont know the name) at Damansara Perdana. The theme was Tea Party by The Pool. Ohhh it's soo nice..

I was having so much fun with Ira, Sho-Anne, Zetty and Dyla. Everything was home-made (make with love) :)

This is us with door-gifts, done by Ira, lovely!

You see the bottom picture, especially made for me. :) Two tea-bags one for myself and one for my husband to be consumed during our honeymoon.. haha so thoughtful.

This was what written on the teabag.

And here again, they were all supposed to show ugly expressions except me, but it turns out that Zetty and Sho-Anne were cheating! grrrr..

The last gathering was with my extraordinary amazing and awesome girls from highschool. It was held at the Upstairs Cafe in Subang. We had the whole section for ourselves. And I oh love the decoration. There was one small section decorated, and there were wedding gifts, I cannot describe how lovely it was. I dont have much fotos here, because obviously I dont take fotos on my own occassion. And other people who had the fotos obviously did not upload them in FB. heheh.. So here are the little things that I can share.

We had some games and of course, foto-session (how can we call a complete occasion without that!)

The lovely people at the top foto from left, Jan (a gf), myself (was engaged), syikin (a wife), hana (a wife), ashik (a gf), hana (a fiance), dini (a wife), aliaa(a wife), dyla (a fiance), aziati (a fiance). I guess you can say that almost all my frens are taken :)

With favours for everyone to remember..It was cotton candy, how sweet :)

I had such great times with these people, those wonderful gatherings had helped me to get through the difficult days towards my wedding day. Those smiles, laughter and gifts of course, have kept me motivated and confident to go through the hardship and moments of stressed during the wedding preparation. Because they made me feel how important I am, and it is important to make somebody else feels important to get them moving.

They helped me to get through the days before I became a Mrs! Love you all so much.

A week before Nikah

A week before nikah.. what did I do. I started to go on leave 6 days before nikah day. At that time, I felt I was at zero base.

- I have never done ANY fitting to ANY of my wedding attire.
- I have not gotten my bridal shoes
- No spa/facial/waxing/manicure-pedicure whatsoever
- I have not trimmed my hair for more than a year
- Have not found my source to do my henna
- 2 incomplete dulang for hantaran which eventually became macaroons and sejadah
- I did not have any baju for my malam berinai
- No ring for the groom
- The groom have not completed the dulang for my jewelleries
- Marriage approval have not been completed
- Bilik pengantin belum ada perabot (literally only a small walk-in-wardrobe, a katil and a tv)
- Have not searched for my wedding bedding sets including duvet
- Belum kurus lagi

Well, I think not mentioning the rest of other things is enough to make a bridezilla become panic. But not me. I went with the flow. I was never a bridezilla pon to begin with. hehe

In five days (a day before nikah, I was not allowed to go out anymore) I went to do the following:

Fitting Baju


Went for my nikah baju fitting five days before nikah. That was the first time I saw my baju nikah, and I fell in love with it. It wasn’t all ready, no laces, no beadings up yet, but I was already excited to be wearing that Ivory beautiful schiffon. I got my baju nikah 2 days before nikah ceremony.

I also went for my kebaya songket fitting. Still needed to alter after several time of fitting (ehem..bukan untuk besarkan ye..untuk kecikkan lagi.. heheh :))I got my baju kebaya 1 day after my reception, one day before the groom’s reception

Fitting for my reception dress one day before nikah, 2 days before the reception itself. I donno if there is any other person who was as calm as I was. The designer came to my house for first fitting at 3.30pm on my malam berinai day. First time I saw the baju I did not like it. Because it was champagne color. Not that I didn’t like the color, I just never had ANY idea that it was gonna be champagne. I thought it would be off-white with bit of silver, that was what in the sketch given to me...at least that was what I expected it to be. My husband had his suit grey, my bridesmaid and MOH are all wearing grey. And seriously, me being non-artistic at all, I couldn’t imagine my champagne could match with their greys. BUT, I had less than 48 hours, I couldn’t complaint could i? I kept on telling to myself, “Just a wedding reception, just a wedding reception, whats important is the marriage itself” I let it go. I got my baju 3 hours before my reception starts.

Bridal shoes


I really had no idea where other brides go and search for their shoes. I know Lewre had some good ones as my designer’s boutique is full of that brand’s shoes. So I went to Mid Valley, 1 days before nikah. I went to Lewre boutique, nothing caught my attention. Ada lah yang cantik but only 3 feet high. And considering my husband’s height, the designer told me to look for 4.5 height of heels. Gila nak mampos. My friend, Adzy told me to go to Lewre bridal Couture at the Gardens. MY GODDD…. They range from RM 1,500 to RM2,000 per pair of shoes. I will NEVER buy such expensive shoes, walaupun saya kaya macam Ivana Trump.

Adzy also told me to try to search at a shop at Ampang Park. Tapi, it was already evening, I had to go back to get ready for my Berinai session at night. So, my BFF’s lent me their wedding shoes, and my designer also lent me his 5 inch heels for my reception.
Bridal Pamper Treats

I went to do my Manicure and Pedicure 4 days before nikah. That only costs me almost a hundred bucks. Also, I went to salon to trim my hair, color and did some hair treatment, almost RM500 bucks on that.

Spa and facial was done at Tini’s spa in Shah Alam Section 7 2 days before nikah. But altogether was only about RM250. I loved it!!

Body waxing was done 1 day before my nikah. Thanks to my friends for the voucher. I loved it too

 
Henna


I had actually engaged a lady to do my inai, she agreed, she said she could come to the house and charging me RM150 plus transportation costs. 1 day before the Malam Berinai, she said she had no transport and asked me to go to her shop to do my inai. WTH??? I was gonna have a small ceremony for malam berinai at my house and she asked me to go to her shop. Bodoh.

So I cancelled and luckily, my friend Ira helped me to search for the Henna lady who did for her nikah. Her name was Rajesh. I loved all her designs. And she was only charging about RM100 for both tangan and kaki. She came to the house! Alhamdulillah…

Incomplete dulang

One was supposed to be an I-Pad (which he doesn’t want, tapi I yang nak :p) However, short of budget, so I tak jadi beli, he didn’t want it anyway. I replaced with Sejadah that my mom recently bought from Syria.

Another dulang was supposed to be chocolates. But I remembered that I gave chocolates during engagement, so I didn’t want to give the same thing. I told my wedding planner to handle that one. He bought some macaroons for the dulang. All these were settled on the day of my nikah day!


Jewelleries

I first bought the groom’s cincin suasa and my husband bought my bracelet from Tomei, Subang Parade. Only later we got to know that men cannot wear suasa. It has gold in it, so to be safe, we returned back the ring to Tomei to get something else, but they didn’t have platinum for men that goes without diamond on top. Mr A doesn’t like diamond. So I went to Diamonds and Platinum to buy my Mr his plain platinum ring that cost me a bomb. And my Mr also bought my one set of jewelleries over there that cost him Megabomb. Oh well, but they all were beautiful.



Marriage approval

Completed 5 days before nikah. Phewww!!! Orang nak kawin one month after me, also completed one month before I completed mine. Haiyooo.. But all were good, Alhamdulillah..


Bilik Pengantin

I bought a king-sized duvet, plus white bedding sets for my room 2 days before nikah. I bought furniture for the room like a writing desk, drawers, a bigger chest of drawer, a dresser, a TV console, all 6 days before nikah. And they all arrived 1 day before nikah.


Kurus

Something that was not achievable. Hah! I was a fat bride, whatever!



I am always a last minute person. And he married me anyway.

Marriage Approval - DONE

I know this is a bit too late to share, not because i delayed the process of sharing, but the whole process of getting the documentation done was delayed upo to the last second week before the wedding.

1. Kursus kahwin
We first started our process for the marriage approval way in 2009, i guess (without intention to get married any sooner). We started by attending the kursus kahwin in majlis negeri, Shah Alam. There are few other places you can get your kursus from, but I guess the one in Shah Alam, could be the best as it is organised by JAIS themselves. They are a bunch of fun speakers too. Banyak benda you can learn from the kursus.

Antara my favourite was, (and I kept repeating this to many other people) that, women's responsibilities is only to satisfy their men in bed. ONLY, meaning, they are not supposed to work, not supposed to cook, to clean the house etc... those are men's responsibilities, to make sure food is on the table...is men's responsibility. If they can't do it because they are working, they are supposed to provide a servant for the wife, and not make the wife as the servant! ouhhh.. i love this, man! :p

The two days kursus costs you RM80, over the weekend. The first day would take probably from 9 to 4pm and on the next day would only take about 4 hours. Lunch is provided, and the food was damn good! Books for reference are also provided. All inclusive in the RM80.

2. HIV test
We did our HIV test separately, although at the same place. HIV test must be done at ONLY klinik kesihatan approves by JAIS.Opening hours ONLY from 2 to 4pm, mondays to fridays. We did ours at jalan tanglin, near masjid negara. You must take the borang to fill up at the klinik itself, and make appointment. Although sometimes, you can just walk in to do the test, it is advisable to make appointment with them.

Fill up the borang in advanced, went to the klinik as planned according to the appointment made. When I was there first time I didnt really know what to do and where to go. And nobody there BOTHER to ask if I was ok. Nak pergi klinik kerajaan ni, mulut kene kasi ringan sikit..must ask, otherwise, you'll be lost.

Sent in the borang, left IC with the registration counter and took my number. When my number was called, I had to pay RM5 maybe for the test, I dont know. I was then asked to go to the back and pass my borang to the nurses. Lama gila tunggu, I was eventually called after almost 2 hours of waiting.

The person explained to me about HIV (what, who, when, how), macam yang kita selalu dengar masa ceramah-ceramah HIV kat sekolah dulu, well, i took it very lightly...sapa tak tahu what is HIV kan. and how boleh get infected kan? While he was explaining, he poked my finger with the needle. sakkkiiiiiittt! berdebar jugak tunggu result. After result keluar, it was proven to be negative, i was then sent to the doctor who was gonna sah kan my result. The doctor then asked me what, how, when, where about HIV. I was blank.  And although i felt i sounded kelakar, i went ahead and gave her a text book answer. She finally signed and approved the borang. This result is only valid for 6 months.

3. Groom's documentation
In this case, i think Mr A was very efficient. He got his saksi, got his borang ready and complete and went to pejabat agama for his housing area, and his application was approved. This approval is only valid for 2 months. His documentation is part of my list of documentation.

4. Bride's documentation
a)Borang 2C - borang about the bride and the groom.
b)Borang 2D - borang about wali and saksi details
c)HIV test result
d)Dokumen sokongan - my IC, wali's IC, saksi's IC, sijil kursus kahwin (copy and original), surat keterangan nikah parents (as I am first child, to know if my father can really be my wali)
e)Borang bermastautin as my address in the IC is different then my current address as I just moved into new house early this yr. This borang must be signed by saksi  to approved

5. Approval
Called JAIS to ask where I am supposed to get my pre-approval from. According to my address in Bukit Jelutong, they assigned me to go to Masjid TUDM in TTDIjaya. They also passed me the contact person who is actually the Penolong Pendaftar Nikah. They prefer to meet up in between maghrib and isya', however, if you wish to go after isya', they want you to solat there, so after solat can go straight to his office. I went to see him with my wali and two saksi (my bro n uncle) two and half weeks before nikah. He vetted the documentations, all of us need to sign the borangs (in Note 4) in front of him.

A week before nikah, I went to the Pendaftar nikah from JAIS in shah alam, opposite the mosque. The documents were ready and signed for final approval within 3 hours. You have to pay RM5 for the approval. I had to bring back the approved documents to the Penolong Pendaftar Nikah in Masjid TUDM and left it with him. By then, you can book your jurunikah already.


ONE WEEK TO GO!!!

First wedding gift - You must see this

Ini adalah mungkin kebiasaan bagi girlfriends untuk hadiahkan to another girlfriend for wedding gift.

Bukaan pertama,

Card salam sayang dari Farah, Sayf and Zayd

Ehem ehem.. harap maklum apa yang berada di dalam, censored! :p

BUT THIS.... I just have to post this, man!!!!

Persatuan Bola Sepak Selangor, signed by Safee Sali!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :)

AND, Bukan itu sahaja!!!!

     yang berbunyi.....

Isn't she the sweetest??? Walaupun ini adalah memalukan (how cud she tell him I said I am his number one fan??) but I LOVE this anyways!!!

Thank You, Farah!

Invitation cards - DONE

Initially both of us, had plans to go Jakarta/Medan/Bandung that sort of place to do our wedding things including doing the invitation cards. However, considering the resources and time, we changed our mind.

In the end, both of use settled with local producers in Medan MARA. Their designs are as good, and they are not any much more expensive pun, if I may say this...they are just slightly more mahal sikit per card then if we were to do in Indon. But if calculate on the whole, you don't lose anything.

The hard cover cards are about RM4-7 per piece, but if you were to do it in Indon, probably about RM 2-3. Groom's type of card costs about in the range of RM1-2.50 (Indon's would be about less than RM1). Yes, in general, Indon's designs are nicer, however, think about this:

1) Leave to take for you to travel back an forth to Indon
2) Transportation wise, not only on planes, but you have to hire a driver to drive you around town
3) Accomodation that you have to spend not only for yourself, but for whoever suku-sakat that is following you there
4) There are a lot of typos, emailing flying around here and there to correct mistakes printed on the card. The more mistakes you detect, the more you gotta spend
5) The extra money that you'll need to spend for designer shopping over there ;)

You end up paying more!

Kad dekat sini, walau you may think tak secantik or se-grand if you were to order from Indon, I feel 100% relieved to see the outcome. More than I was expecting.

Bride's reception

Groom's reception

Bride's card was done at a shop call Cahaya Idaman in Medan MARA.
Groom's card was done at a shop call Ixora, also in Medan MARA.

Happy, Alhmdulillah!

1 month 1 week to go!!!!

Baju kahwin matter - DONE

Let’s see my progress on my wedding attire. I finally managed to tick on this one for all three events last weekend. Normally, this item is the first agenda or shall I say the utmost important thing to settle. But not for me though. Could be due to two reasons:


1. I am not a superstar, I don’t need to have extravagant and over-elaborate wedding dress

2. I am fat, and I want to take whatever time left to shed some fats. (Macam la boleh kan?)

Three months away from the wedding, I met up with one freelance designer named Gary who used to work for some famous designer in kl. Introduced by my bff, Ira as well as some other friends of my mom.

Ira’s dress beautifully done by Gary.

Prices are from RM1,200 to RM 1,500 for reception dress. He is very professional. He will put your wedding date 2 weeks earlier than the actual date, so that there won’t be any problem of late delivery. He does not have a boutique, and he goes to your house for consultations. He is a very pleasant young man, I have no complaints over him. He is very much recommended for brides with pear shape like me. He knows how to cover your butt.. If you want to go for modern designs, with good price, you can go to him! However, he drew some sketches for me, very nice designs, but they just didn’t make me go “ooooohhhh la la”. The best design out of the three drawings, has got feathers all over the dress, which I thought was too elaborate. I didn’t commit immediately. I know it was not his fault, he is good, its just that I am fussy and it is not easy to do a dress that can fit my body perfectly.

Next, I went to see Syaiful baharim. He did my engagement dress, and I just loveeee his designs, simply because they are simple. I don’t like wedding dress with heavy beads on the body. In fact, I don’t like beads at all. But you know la how people always say, “takder beads, tak pengantin laaa” betul ker? Look at the mat salleh’s weddings, their gowns are normally plain satin. Simple, nice and elegant. That’s what I’m looking for. Hence, Razuan R, Rizalman yada yada yada, are definitely not in my list. Although I did have some intention to check out on them, but somehow, I always never manage to find time, but anyway… even before I decided on anything, I have put my foot down that my nikah dress will definitely be from Syaiful. He understands my body type, he understands my taste.

So my nikah baju will be just a simple chiffon kurung moden, a biiiiiit of lace, probably about same design with my engagement dress, only thing different, this baju has less laces from the engagement one. What I love the most is the kain and the veil. Nothing special about the kain, just that I happen to see a photo from some source of a wedding nikah where its kurung modern top is matched with a flowy kain. I thought it was something different, at least to my eyes. However, I didn’t show that picture to Syaiful, he just read my mind. The veil that he drew for me was veryyyyy long, and I loved it! He said when I sit on the floor, just let the veil fall all over me. Ahhh, I cannot imagine it yet. But insyaAllah… nak nyesal pon tak guna, sudah bayar deposit J

Syaiful also drew me a few sketches for my reception dress. Told him I wanted something like a bit of Victorian like, but not too much. Haha..To be honest, I didn’t know what I want ..hehe.. To keep it simple but a bit of Victorian, he drew a one-piece gown, a combination of satin and french lace, with chiffon as the tail. Gonna wear a short veil, as I have decided, to let the chiffon be the tail instead of my veil. Maybe also something different, at least to my eyes. In the end, 2 month plus away from the wedding date, I confirmed my reception dress with Syaiful Baharim.

Baju bertandang was another thing that got delayed up to last week. With the concept of traditional, I would like to do a traditional kebaya songket. I have always wanted to do my songket with Salikin Sidek, since I was 17! But he is too expensive la for a kain songket, that may not need so much beading pun. So my cousin introduced me to  an ex-staff of Salikin Sidek, “tak dapat tuannya, pekerja pun jadi daaa”. He did wedding dress for my cousin’s wedding.

It’s beautiful, and he is cheap too. BUT, If you are the type who is particular, cepat panic, I suggest you don’t even bother to consider him. He is the type that seldom pick up calls, never call you back, or sometimes just MIA. But he will make sure your wedding dress siap la, that is for sure. He is a friend of those HATTA Dolmat and the rest la.. I am not bridezilla, so I dun really know their names. However, Mr A is not the type that can tolerate this kind of people, so since he is paying, he gets to say “No, I don’t like him, don’t do business with him” :p

Later, I was introduced by my friend, Fariza, to a very nice lady, Kak Wawa who does a lot of songket, the owner of Cleo Studio Ampang. She is super nice and generous. She does make up too.. nice one tau.. but too bad I have booked my MUAs. Well, other than baju kawin and make up , she also does facial, spa, hair, sewa baju, sewa accessories (traditional and modern), she has them all, also she doe pelamin service. For a simple kebaya songket, with no beadings, I shouldn’t spend more than 1k. But I was pretty shocked when I hear her quotation. Not only my baju costs less than 1k, I get to sewa accessories for both man and wife, baju songket plus lining, do tanjak and bengkung for you, berinai, all below 1k. yeahhh!!! Go check them out.

So yeayy!!! My baju kawin all settled Alhamdulillah.

1 month and 2 weeks!

The Wedding Nightmare

I just woke up one morning feeling very uneasy, like there were lots of unsettled things. Had been very busy with work that I forgot about the wedding. It was my reception day. But I couldn’t remember the nikah.


I looked at myself, I was fatter than I ever remembered. I was confident that I could not fit in my dress. I looked at everyone in the house. People are doing their normal daily routine. Papa was reading his newspaper, mom was playing with the cats, brother was eating like there was nothing to rush. And there were no other family members. The house was neat. I asked myself again. What date issit today? It was 20th of the fifth month.

I panicked when everyone was very calm

Then I remembered. The makeup artist. She was supposed to be there by then. I called her up. She said I did not book her time. And I did not pay any deposits. My heart stopped. Then I realized I got the wrong MUA. I called up another MUA that I know, and this time I was pretty sure I booked her.

A man picked up and said she couldn’t come because she was not well. Oh my god. Is this a nightmare? I asked myself. I begged the man (guess he was the husband because he was over protective of her) to let her go and help me with the wedding and told him that I have paid the deposit, she cant do this to me. He finally agreed.

I looked around, this time I was in a hall. But not quite the hall that I was expected. It was like in a school hall. Saw my family members all dressed up taking photos and all. The clock shows 1 hour to the event time. And I was still not dressed. I looked around for my wedding gown. It wasn’t there.

I called up my designer, and he said he would send it to me, but he was still in somewhere around Tropicana.

I felt like crying, but nobody could hear me..nobody see me.

They just walked passed me, and never even bothered if I am not ready. Stress building up. I got so panic, I wanted to shower to calm myself down. But there was no water coming out from any of the taps. I shouted but no one heard me. They continued talking and laughing like I was a ghost.

Where was the wedding planner? Oh, I saw him…ushering guests. Why would he do that? That’s not his job. I ran to him. I didn’t care if I wasn’t dressed properly..the guests couldn’t see me anyway. I ran down the stage. But I slipped and fell and…unconscious I guess?

When I was conscious, I realized that I was lying on bed. I didn’t want to open eyes, I just wanted to sleep and let the day goes off. Let the wedding get cancelled off. But somehow, my eyes were forced to open….by my alarm clock.

I looked at my mobile phone. And saw the date. It was still March 2011!

IT WAS IN MY SLEEEEEP???????

Bridesmaids and M.O.H - DONE

After so long of ding dong here and ding dong there, I have finally decided on my Maid of Honor (M.O.H) and the other bridesmaids. It wasn't very difficult to choose although I thot it would be the most challenging for someone who has many best and close friends..

But let's just see who I have.. my best-friends-forever...

1. My very very best friend, who is like a sister I never had...Zetty, the closest not only to me, but to my whole family, she is like my mom's God-daughter. Her sacrifices towards me, I will always carry them until I die...

2. Dyla, my FIRST bestfriend, and amazingly, it lasts until today. Someone who even had her hands on my muntah before when I was very very sick and I vomitted in my classroom.

3. ShoN, my bestfriend through thick and thin. Always there, and always understanding..The one bff that I have never had any disagreements/discomfort with. We never fight :)

4. Dini....the one bff who knows and understand me inside and outside. We were roommates, classmates, collegemates, UK-mates, sleeping mate, eating mate, you name it. We share almost everything.

5. Ira, the bff's lovely wife. But now..she is not just one of my bff's wife...!! She is more than that..She is MY bff.. She gives me mental support, help me wherever she can and whenever I am stuck! She will always have a solution, and I will cherish her sincerity in friendships.

Maid of honor by definition is:
1. The chief unmarried woman attendant of a bride.
2. An unmarried noblewoman attendant upon a queen or princess.
Otherwise, she would have been called the Matron of Honor.

Anyway, I personally think it doesn't matter whether or not she is married. I just wouldnt want to burden the married bffs too much, as they would have their personal responsibilities towards their husbands who are also going to be my best guests. Hence, I try to limit their duties as much possible.

Well I guess one of the reasons to get the unmarried bffs for MOH is for them to 'ambil berkat' and hopefully they will get their jodoh thereafter.

The two maid of honor for the receptions are going to be Dyla (for my reception) and Dini (for his reception) simply because Dini has got an office event on the day after my reception night, so I dont want her to rush to get home that night, just to sleep early for the next day event. I didnt have to choose who becomes MOH for which.

But, how happy I was, you won't be able to imagine! After the announcement of my wedding, not long after, these two bffs announced theirs as well, which fall in the same year! I believe it is the berkat of being selected as the MOH, such an honorouble duty.. hehe...



Ira was my MOH (refused to call her matron :p) during my engagement, simply because she was there early enough to help me out with my veils and all. I didnt have to choose who became my first maiden, she was perfect! She was the expert, she knew how to usher me to the pelamin very well, she took care of my veil and my baju if nampak gemuk or whatever, she will tell me to change my pose.. THAT is the real MOH! :)

Zetty and ShoN will be the maids of honor for my nikah. They will be there next to me, holding my hands when he says 'Saya terima nikahnya....' I didnt have to choose, however, hopefully by then, Hazrieq is big enough to let mummy attending to mama Yien for a lil while. *kiss*

I have also confirmed on my bridesmaids for my reception. The four bridesmaids are my cousins. How did I choose? Also wasn't very hard.. One girl cousin from each family... So for arwah Maklong's family who has 5 daughters....? I get them to choose the most suitable candidate. AND they chose my single and available cousin to be the representative. Hopefully dapat jodoh jugak nanti? :) InsyaAllah....

Today I have completed buying the kain-kain for my bridesmaids and MOH. Many people say that Jakel is expensive. I thought so too when I bought my kain for my engagement. Tapi when we tried going to Nilai 3, kononnya the wedding heaven...:( takder yang menarik minat.. I suggest dont waste time and minyak. Jalan TAR lagi best. Price? Sama jer... Jln TAR is more economical, since you don't have to travel that far.

Next, we went to all other kedai kain like Kamdar, Gulati's, Euromoda...........some kain tak cantik, murah sangat pun takder la... But yg paling tak best is when the sales girl dont even know how to sell. Dah la we have to go round and find our own kain, when we ask for the lining, she said 'tak ada la kot'!!

OK, maybe other people have never encountered this before in any of these shops, tapi...since it happened to us.. and my mom very skeptical pasal service service ni... hence, in the end, Jakel here we comeee!!! The selection of kain is very nice, with good quality.. Yes, the price you can't compare dgn those you buy in Jakarta or Bandung..but...if you consider time to go there, money for accomodation and logistics for few people, not forgetting the extra money you will spend for fake designer handbags and casual wear, I think it is the about the same or maybe just a biiiiiiit less that what you can get at jakel. You do the calculation.

Sekurang-kurangnya, beli di jakel, if you think it is expensive, tapi puas hati...kain-kain dia bawak dpn mata you to choose, you just sit and enjoy them modelling in front of you. well, there are always pros and cons la i guess. Tolak la perangai-perangia buruk the owners of the store tuh... They are very pushy, determined, and adamant on you buying their kain. If you weak like me, suggest find someone who is as strong as my mom who can say "No, let me look around first!" or "Takmo la... MAHAL!" so, you're safe! :)

So.. what is the story of my baju kahwin???? BELUM SETTLE..:)

2 months to go! At least kain for bridesmaids and family of bride - DONE!

  

MUA second wave - DONE

In my previous entry, I mentioned that I have confirmed all MUAs for all three events (nikah, sanding and tandang). In fact, that was the first thing I did after confirming on the venue of course.

Unfortunately, I can't remember, I think about weeks after that, the MUA I hired for my nikah, Ian Sham, called me to give me a bad news. She said she will not be able to make it for my nikah because she has booked a ticket to Bali and she forgot about that when she called to confirm on the date. When she told me the first time, I was blank. I couldnt get at first, I didnt know what was she trying to tell me. I slowly absorbed, but I was still blank.. I did not know whether to be angry or to be sad. She said she can get a replacement for me. But I have lost my confidence. She refunded me, the next day.

The first time when I found her website, I fell in love with her work. I kinda like what she does to certain people. But 'certain people' would mean, not all of her work are enticing. I guess, it depends on the bride laa..

When I called to ask for availability, she was nice.. and friendly. But what I didn't like about her that time was... the terms and condition that she provided to me before I banked in the deposit. I was comparing to Su Cantik of course. Or even Saidatulnisa.. those are the famous MUAs. Although their prices are higher than Ian (because I guess Ian is not really that famous), the amount of deposit that she requested was higher. And she had other terms like transportation cost, extra cost for staying back bla bla bla..that was made clear to me on the phone. So that gave me a bad impression the first time.

But because I had no choice, it was between Ian and Saidatulnisa, of course I chose the cheaper one. Now that she has cancelled on me...I had to turn to Saidatul.

This is Saidatulnisa's work. Her make up are all natural, which I like..but sometimes, they seem too normal. But what's important in MUA is not what colour she puts on your face. It is more like whether she understands your face, she knows how thick and how thin the make up should be in order to appear nice on tv/magazine/picture/video. And she has that expertise.

What I heard about her is, dia a bit sombong and hanya nak layan VIPs sahaja. But when I first talked to her, I swear she was nice and humble. She didn't sound snorbish at all. However, she told me that she has a contract with the Queen, so whenever the Queen calls her, she has to cancel on her client. But she will put her assistant, Liza to replace.

Based on other friends' experience, Liza does her magic too. She learned a lot from Saidatulnisa. So I thought, hey why not? If I lose a diamond, I get a gemstone. Both are equally beautiful. I imediately booked her and I feel very good about it.

Setiap yang berlaku, ada hikmah. I was told by Sue who had experiences with Ian Sham that her make up is not really nice after all.. She makes your skin looks darker. Alhamdulillah.. and when people know that I booked Saidatulnisa, they give positive feedbacks. Alhamdulillah.....syukur..confident sikit.

I have 3 months and 4 days left!!!

Theme colour - DONE

I am three months away from my wedding day. Oh boy, yes, I have just decided on the theme colour. These are the colours that I would like to have in my weddings, and I have pre-discussed them with my wedding planner. But I need to go through them again with him.

Nikah Day

Green. Well, don't ask me why I choose green. Suci, no? Like very soothing, yes!. The rest of my family members may be wearing the apple green shade as follows:

Parents of the bride, the special people, may wear another tone of green that is slightly different from other members. Yellowish green.

My wedding reception

My wedding planner told me to choose between salmon and mauve colour. I chose Mauve! The theme colour for the deco should be the same with the colour of cherry blossom.

So family member decided to wear Salmon color to match with the family of this cherry blossom's colour (I dunno the name). The colour that will be worn by my family member is:

So my friends as well as the M.O.H will be wearing Mauve as how I had always wanted it to be.

Many would think that it looks like lilac, but it is not. This is called Taupe Mauve.
The groom's entourage will be wearing something silver-ish or grey-ish. I hope the colour matches with the main theme colour of the reception.

Bertandang

The theme colour would be a combination of blue, green and gold colour...the colour of a peacock!

My family members would be wearing something gold-ish like below:

Ali's family will be wearing blue colour, since they have decided to wear blue, but the pengantin's baju is green, the only blue that suits green and gold is the 'peacock color"

Although I have decided on the colours, they are still open for changes. But as for now, I am settled with the colours.