Part 5 : Quest of The Ring..and Others.

Smacked tired. Bliss nevertheless. I'mma sleep like a baby tonight.

Went to have a look at the stuff to buy, in order to establish our final choices and more importantly, to have a establish our budget on each of the item. We can't go on a careless shopping spree and risk at the end of the day having a budget shortage for something super important like the ring. 

In terms of that, today was a success. The ring, the doorgift, invitation cards, hantaran and the fabric for wedding and akad nikah's ceremony; we have found the place, in which we have set our eyes on selected few items. We just need to sleep them over and hopefully by the next two weeks, when we meet again for kursus kahwin we can finalize our choice and set everything into motion. 

Mom told us to check out Jakel. They have this bridal package in which the bride gets to choose the fabric for dresses and the guy's fabric in matching color will come for free. The arrangement makes it looks like the bride is supposed to be the star of the day and the groom is just the handsome accessory, which of course is how things are meant to be! Weddings are for the bride! But not in my case apparently as my groom is the kind of man who actually cares about the color scheme being almost as much of a vainpot as I am. I've never spent that much time in a kedai kain before without being bored! Akak salesgirl dah muncung-muncung dah when we kept changing from one theme to another. Chill la, that's the first time we ever went to see the fabric for our wedding suit/dress, you can't expect us to make up our mind on the spot. 

They have every fabric imaginable, even the lace, beaded lining in any color and shapes, multi-tone chiffon fabric which is so Zuhair Murad pon ada. And the fabric comes in a broad price spectrum, from 240 per set to 2500. Pilihlah ikut kemampuan masing-masing. 

Final status : He wishes for me to dress up in brighter color for our wedding day while I'm still mulling over wearing cream/off-white for both our nikah and wedding day. I mean, it's a classic color right?? You can NEVER go wrong in it. Repetitive, yes, but....I don't know. But we have a few other options now to think over.

Wedding ring. First time I saw this rose gold/white gold ring with diamond-studded butterflies, I fell in love! Though I admit it's a tad too playful to be a wedding ring..he asked me to imagine being 50 years old and still wearing it. I mean he has a point but 50 is double my age now it's still a long way to go I can't really imagine it and well, when I reach 50, don't I deserve a new ring from my husband?? The butterfly ring can be turned into a pendant or something..

Before this I kinda like the diamond band thingy. But as I tried one after another after another just now, they simply do not look good on me. They look awkward on my ring finger! =( Frustrated, I asked him to pick one he likes to see best, disregarding my preference whatsoever. He chose this brilliant cut diamond ring, the diamond placed against a heart-shaped mini-diamond-studded plate. Good luck imagining it I know my description sucks so bad. So anyways, this ring looks very feminine, very timeless..I love it! I think I might consider my diamond-band-ring only policy. 

Doorgift. 

That'll have to wait some other time. So tired and sleepy right now.

Second week of Ramadhan. Have a blessed one! 

Bridezilla Part 4 : Next Step

So the venue is confirmed. Ocean Glow Hall, Putra Brasmana Hotel, Kuala Perlis.

What the venue looks like at night captured by the lens of a highly-skilled photographer.

What the venue looks like during sunset captured by the lens of a artistically-inclined photographer.

What the venue actually looks like through the naked eyes and captured by a shutter-click-happy newbie.

So it's a not-quite-beach-wedding we're having. Finding ways to work with that. Praise to God, there's still a slot left free for us on the 8th December 2012. The remaining weekends of the month is already booked. Coincidentally, 8th December turned out to be the only date convenient for ALL of parties involved. Phew..

Date and venue for the wedding confirmed so what's next on the list?

Solemnization!

We chose to have it a month earlier for many reasons. Utmost important reason being, again, convenience for all the parties involved. Having it on the same day of the wedding would be a bit kelam kabut, having it on the weekend prior to the wedding would mean we both have to take almost 2 consecutive weeks of leave..

Hence we decided to have the solemnization on 10.11.12. Pretty neat date, huh? ;) Boleh ambil cuti sehari plus weekend untuk selesaikan semua urusan. Or maybe another extra 2 days of pre-honeymoon. Oops. Hehe.

Moving on. What you actually NEED to get married are :

1. Kursus kahwin
2. Sijil kursus kahwin
3. Surat akuan bujang
4. HIV, talasemia test
5. Borang kebenaran nikah
6. Salinan IC wali
7. Salinan IC dua orang saksi
8. Sijil nikah parents
9. Borang nikah dari Pejabat Agama
10. Jurunikah/Tok Kadi

These are actually the only things you need to be pronounced as husband and wife in God's eyes; the rest is just icing, frosting, fondant topped with sprinkles, sugar balls and chocolate sprinkles. Islam itu mudah. But I guess kalau tak menyulitkan keadaan, apa salahnya buat wedding untuk mewar-warkan ikatan yang sah tu dan juga meraikan pengantin, sesuai dengan kemampuan.

Lepas dah hadiri kursus kahwin, suruh si bakal suami ambil borang nikah dari Pejabat Agama, isi semua yang berkaitan, lepas tu suruh dia hand over semua documents untuk dilampirkan bersama borang yang telah diisi oleh si bakal isteri. Please take note, tak semua jurunikah mahu nikahkan dekat rumah, dan jurunikah ni kena book awal-awal jangan nanti nak berebut dengan Bridezilla lain pulak. But, the approved borang nikah is only valid for ONE MONTH for us ladies and THREE MONTHS for the guys. Jadi nak book awal sangat pon tak boleh jugak. Kena standby borang, cukup-cukup sebulan submit. But I do plan to call the Jurunikah 3 months in advance, who knows perhaps we can come to an agreement that the date can be reserved for us, even before any black and white is submitted.

Next up are

1. Photographer

I've been eyeing this very talented duo which happened to be my schoolmate during my SMK Sultanah Asma days. Asked for quote and the price is at a staggering range between RM2k to RM4k! Is that normal? I mean, I do respect people's talent and passion but that is quite pricey.. So that leaves me to square one and I'm gonna have to keep on searching.

2. Kain untuk baju akad nikah

The plan is to go shopping with the beau this weekend. We opted to go for the safe cream colour so we have to shop together because as you know, there's countless shades of whites available, off by 2-3 shade and it's going to look very odd.

3. Wedding dress

Kalau sempat nak pergi test baju sekali.

4. Cincin & hantaran.

Going browsing/shopping this week too. Lima dulang berbalas tujuh. Cincin dengan sirih junjung tu termasuk sekali dalam hantaran ka asing eh? Kalau sekali rugi la! Boleh tak cincin tu selit masuk di celahan daun sirih? Hmm..have to refer to Ibu and Mama Rohana.

5. Kad kahwin.

Have a few ideas running through my head now, have to finalize it with The Future Husband, materialize it somehow and discuss with The Mom and The In-Laws before going to the printer. or should we go to the printer first and ask them to materialize the ideas we have? Have to find out.

6. A house.

Utmost important thing is going shopping/window shopping for a house this weekend. Ibu is planning to take Maktok back to kampung pretty soon; Maktok's longing for a kampung life, come on, at the age of 70, jalan-jalan pusing The Curve, Putrajaya, Melaka, shopping complex lost its appeal soon enough in favor of the quiet, tranquil kampung life where everybody knows everybody.

The house I'm renting now is very comfortable in terms of the facilities, convenience and security it provides. The rent I'm paying now is however around 25-30% under market price, God bless the landlord who has not increased the rent for the last 5 years or so I believe. I should perhaps rent the house out at the current market price, and pocket the extra cash heh? If only.. Point is, if we decide to buy the house I'm staying now, at the current market price, the monthly payment would be 25-30% higher than what I'm actually paying.

Condos/landed houses around this area come with a price tag that makes mouths drop, eyes wide open, but there are some gems lay hidden if you are willing to look properly. I don't see the point of us paying a sum of money every month to repay someone else's loan. Money we worked hard for, money earned while being apart from each other.

So yeah. Definitely making a few appointments to have a look at the houses these weekends.

Gosh how I wish I have an extra 2 hours each day just to plan for these. Good thing is, with all these hecticness, the 4-5 months are going to fly by very fast!

15 minutes to berbuka! Selamat berbuka!

Bridezilla Part 3 : Venue - Confirmed

By yesterday the venue was down to 3 choices; Timah Tasoh Lake, Putra Brasmana, and Dewan Warisan or 2020. The latter choice we didn`t have any contact so we proceeded wih the first two.

Mama Rohana said Timah Tasoh if she remembered correctly wasn`t so pricey so we went to have a look. The place evokes a romantic mood. The hall overlooks the tranquil lake, series of lush green hills acts as the perfect backdrop.

One minor downside is it`s about 15km from the city center. Second major one is Fasha Sandha. Given the recent exposure of the place thanks to her, the place is overglamorized now the price has shot through the

roof. RM18 per head PLUS you have to also take the wedding decoration package they offer which includes RM500 for wedding cake table, RM1500 for walkway, RM3500 for pelamin, RM1000 for meja pengantin. These are the areas you can cut corners on, areas where you can save a lot. I`d rather splurge on good food for the guests.

Next up is Ocean Glow, Putra Brasmana. First look and I fell in love. From afar you can see these white canopy arranged on a jetty extending out into the sea. I can imagine the scenery during sunset. Mesti romantik abessss. *dreams*

The person we talked to was super sweet. Looks like an easy person to have to work with. We can bring outside food too in addition of the ones that were prepared under the package. Personally I like to pay for a hall which includes food, meja kerusi semua. Senang. Less hassle for my inlaws and my mom since I won`t be able to handle everything.

This package which is at RM12 per head includes all that and more. Meja makan beradap pengantin, red carpet, PA system, semua pon termasuk. Ada 10% discount on the hotel room kalau sedara mara nak duduk. I think the price is fair enough. And the management is also ready to accommodate our other needs macam pelamin, extra food etc.

What sold me on the place is...ada horse carriage! Kalau ada kuda putih, nak letak horn bagi jadi unicorn! Maybe the excitement was all over my face that both families agreed on the venue. We booked it on the same day.

Venue: settled. Time to fuss over other fun details!

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Bridezilla : Part 2 : Venue

In the office today. Trying to finish up some work since I've taken 3 days off last week. Next week the survey team for the new project will be mobilized to the middle of nowhere off the coast of Johor. I've no office laptop, so that means more things to be done once I got back from the survey. Working on my personal laptop is no use since I need access to this stupid server thingy which has the template ready for every kind of document/report to be written; I need to change whatever I wrote into the said template and the process is super tedious.

Or perhaps I shouldn't have came in to the office today, just so that my work would pile up just enough to drive the boss crazy and then I can complain about having to be sent off somewhere every alternating week without a laptop which renders me unable to do write-up on-site. But maybe, a laptop would just be a curse; the boss can just demand things to be sent on time. Arghh such is the dilemma.

So anyways. The boss asked if I still wanted to on on sampling. "You tak nak jage kecantikan ke babe?" referring to my impending wedding. Perhaps I'll stop somewhere in mid-October.

Back to the wedding plans. Got an SMS from girlfriend early this morning, hinting me on the promotion AirAsia will be carrying out starting tomorrow. She urged me to book fast. Appreciate her effort!

The thing is, the date is still up in the air to be decided. I'll be going back to Perlis this weekend, to discuss with mother-in-law-to-be about the date and the venue since we are having a double reception the reason being boyfriend can't afford to take too many day off, company kedekut cuti siot. AND since we share almost half mutual friends it would be kind of redundant and a waste to hold a wedding for more or less the same set of people back-to-back during the same weekend.

I know this could be a tricky path to thread in but Aunty Rohana doesn't seem like a cerewet mother-in-law so hopefully the planning and eveything will go well. How will this work? How about the color scheme; do we divide the hall into two separate sides with two themes??? Those are the things I've yet to find out.

One of the possible venue is the one by the lake. Tapi nak buat siang ka malam? Kalau siang baru nampak tasik, tapi panas nya tambah-tambah panas Perlis uishhh kalah panas padang pasir. Kalau malam buat outdoor tak nampak tasik pulak. Dilemma.

Last night, a girlfriend asked me to check out this other venue, facing the beach tapi seriously, beach kat Kuala Perlis? Bau kola, mood-killer kot. But I'll try to drop by the place when I go back to Perlis next weekend.

For the time being, am contemplating peach-cream with dark brown color scheme.

Things are moving slow...when do I get to try on the dream wedding dress??

Bridezilla : Part 1

It's a Saturday. Just got back from road trip with my mom. Exhausted but the trip was worth every second spent. We had so much fun, learnt a lot about each other and made memories that will stay with us for as long as we breathe. She's a bit melodramatic though; I on the other hand am convinced that this will definitely not be the last trip we'll take together. Come on, I'm not marrying some psychotic control-freak who's trying to alienate me from you by relocating us to some isolated village in Indonesia. But yeah, I can understand where the sentiment comes from. In less than a year, I won't be ultimately hers anymore, she would have to officially share me with my husband.

Even on the day of the merisik, me and my mom are still debating on the date of the wedding. She wasn't ready for it to take place so soon. During our road trip, I asked her if she resented my decision, on wanting to get married this year and she said she was shocked at first, but she respects my decision and now she's all giddy up planning the details of my wedding. She has even started to call up friends complaining on the immensity of things to be done; which I know she secretly enjoys.

Our engagement which was planned to take place next month might not happen; as of now, it is 90% confirmed that our engagement will not take place next month.

Seronoknya time merisik semangat declare nak kahwin secepat mungkin, bulan December 2012, but now, seems like there's a gazillion thing to be done and we are all hard-pressed on time. Duit pon tengah kumpul lagi ni. But come what may, we will try our best to braze this through together and have fun along the way. Dah alang-alang kan. Buat apa nak stress.

5 bulan. To plan a wedding. From scratch. Rasakan!!!!

Since time is running out, our E-day will be postponed to the day of the akad itself. Tak sempat la nak merasa jadi tunang orang, nak rasa darah lebih manis daripada biasa. Hihi.

Before we could go to the fun detail like the wedding dress (dah awal lagi dah ada, cuma nak pergi kedai tu balik and test pulak!), doorgift (dah jumpa possible candidate masa roadtrip pi Terengganu 2-3 hari lepas), backdrop, wedding theme, etc, there are a few things that need to be settled first :

1) Tetapkan date! 22.12.2012 seems to be no good to bakal suami tercinta. He'll be busy towards the end of the mnth which would mean we need to cut our honeymoon trip short. Alternative : 15.12.12. This might be it and when I found out this morning that it's the date my parents got married, oooo I'm in love with the date already!

2) Book dewan. December would be THE month to get married, right? So most dewan will be full-booked awal-awal lagi. So kena secure the date cepat-cepat.

3) Test darah. HIV and Talasemia. HIV test result will be valid 6 months before akad.

4) Kursus kahwin. Booked a slot already for us on 11-12th August.

5) Book ticket to earthly paradise! A friend booked her honeymoon package 1 year earlier and it saved her like RM1.5k.

6) Decide where to have the akad, and apply for the tok kadi etc. A friend will have her akad next month, and since she had moved to a different district than where the address of her IC dictates, the procedure she has to go through is a bit tedious. You have to declare why you are having your akad someplace else than in the district you applied your IC. Arghhh why do they have to come up with the rules that's such a hassle?? I'm sure there's a reason behind it but seriously, takkan la dia expect orang semua bermastautin tak berpindah randah dari tempat apply IC tu?? Hmm. Oh well since I can't beat the system, this is another important thing to do. It took months in some cases to clear this thing, and hopefully my friend got a clearance before her akad!

Once all that is done, baru la boleh nak fikir pasal lain-lain.

Things would have been perfect had I have all my other GMI girlfriends with me right now planning this wedding. Some of them are here, and I will definitely be bothering them to accompany me to various fitting/sampling/browsing, just you wait (wink wink Moon hint hint). But everyone elses' lives won't stop, the whole world won't pause, just so you could plan your wedding so yeah.

I guess this blog, which hopefully will be updated from time to time as the plan for the wedding progresses, is like a living documentary of the whole process, so that even though I can't have you my dearie friends with me for every step of the way, keeping you guys abreast (hate that phrase, seriously, hating it even more as I typed it!) of the entire process is like a way for me to deal with our distance, be it time or space.

So here comes bridezilla! =D