oh hai, tok kadi!

WE CAN HAZ A TOK KADI, Y'ALLZ.

Dah tengok wedding videos berlongok longok and dah list down nama tok tok kadi segala in this entry, and now we've already gotten ourselves a tok kadi!!! Alhamdullilah!

Actually kan dulu dulu masa time baru berjinak jinak dengan wedding preparations, my mat always cakap dia nak consider Ustaz Firdaus Yahya because his parents kenal his mother whereas I was kind of hoping to realize the dream of having Kadi Hassan because he was the tok kadi who solemnized my parents. But as fate would have it, we met Ustaz Mohd Khair at our kursus rumahtangga, my mat identified him as the person who made him cry with his powerful khutbah at Masjid Al-Falah once upon a time and both of us fell in love with his voice after looking through wedding videos with him in them.

Which was why Ustaz Mohd Khair ended up as our #1 choice for tok kadi.

So my mat called Ustaz Mohd Khair yesterday afternoon to give him a heads up about wanting to book him during our online registration later that night but ALAS! He informed us that he can only do solemnizations after 2pm on Saturdays because he needs to be at work at Masjid Sultan on Saturday mornings!!! The only way we can go around it is to have our solemnization at Masjid Sultan itself so he can get back to work right after our nikah but we agreed that option is not possible because of logistics issues :(

We're reaaaaally bummed because both of us really really really like Ustaz Mohd Khair + his voice and delivery is freaking awesome but this is one of those things that we just have to write off as not our rezeki.

Cuma rasa macam very cruel lah kan, kalau while waiting for midnight to submit our online application on ROMM website, I gatal pergi tertengok video ni:

Hanafee + Liza_The Actual Day (Highlights) from rizal amir khan on Vimeo.

USTAZ KHAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRR VAI U DO THIZ TO UZ VAIIIII

Tak tau nak nangis sebab tengok wedding orang yang sungguh cantik atau nak nangis tengok Ustaz Khair dalam wedding video ni lah kan sebenarnye hahahahahahaha

Aaanyway~~~ There is a good reason why kita ada list kan kan kan??? Untuk tackle situasi situasi macam gini lah ye, my friends. So my mat and I pun move along and went down our list - our choice #2 is Ustaz Mohd Suhaimi!

Very simple reasons why he is choice #2, really:

(1) He was the tok kadi for Sham and Aisyah's wedding and my mat finds himself comfortable with Ustaz Mohd Suhaimi (plus Sham is very chummy with him because they went for a course together before);

(2) He stays in Tampines (3 streets away from me! If kita nikah at my place, dia boleh jalan kaki je seh hehehe) sooooo he should be familiar with our venue which is located in the East. It's been recommended to choose a tok kadi who stays near to your solemnization venue so lesser chance of the tok kadi getting lost along the way and being late for your solemization; and

(3) We like how he sounds when he does the akad and the khubah as well - you can refresh by watching Fiza O and KC's wedding video here.

(It was either Ustaz Mohd Suhaimi or Ustaz Nor Razak Bakar actually, the latter did Azmin and Nat's solemnization and comes highly recommended by Miza, my long-time online friend who was the same person who recommended us Maldives resorts for our honeymoon.)

Sham, our ever so helpful and resourceful wak kahwing kahwing, texted Ustaz Mohd Suhaimi during lunchtime yesterday to give him a heads up before my mat called him lepas kerja (after establishing that there is no way we can get Ustaz Mohd Khair to be our tok kadi.) Ustaz Suhaimi immediately gave us his word that he will block the slot for us so that called for a yippie yay! Takde hek takde hok, settle the kettle, ok get set go.

Waited until midnight to do the online registration -  here are some screenshots from the registration page! I've always wondered how it looks like because you cannot reach this page until you dah confirm and masukkan all the details ma hahaha so this is for those kaypoh people like me who pernah wonder how it looks like:

Remember to click on images to enlarge images for better viewing!

 There's a drop down list of tok kadi names for us to choose from...

OH HAI our tok kadi who lives 3 streets away from me! :D

Raya nanti saya datang passing lauk pauk and kuih muih ok Ustaz hehehehehe

Click on your solemnization date and then choose the time block that you want - available slots start from 10.00am until 10.00pm. (Dah macam operating hours untuk shopping malls lah pulak.)

Siape perangai kurang ajar, sila lah pilih slot untuk nikah at 10 malam ok.

Made payment for registration fees of S$39.00 and we're done and good to go!

It was easy, quick and painless to use the online registration portal - the next thing for us to do is to report to the Registry with my wali pulak!

(Click to enlarge image)

My mat, my wali (hey daddy!) and I have already taken leave and blocked the date where we can all go to ROMM so definitely looking forward to that!!!!! At first I thought we can only go to the Registry strictly 5 weeks before our solemnization date aje seh BUT thanks to the awesome kakak-kakak kahwing network and this entry from Raudah of Seven Twelve Thirteen, I got confirmation that we can go anytime after we've registered online as long as it is at least 5 weeks before solemnization date.

And with that.......... 150 DAYS TO GO, PEOPLE.

P.S. We realized 5 minutes before our online registration that our wedding is on a public holiday (thanks to his supermother who reminded us!), which means there is a chance Ustaz Mohd Khair might not have to go to work on that day after all. But we weren't sure whether mosques and Islamic organizations follow secular public holidays and didn't want to risk waiting until the next day to call him again to ask, which was why we went ahead with Ustaz Mohd Suhaimi instead.

P.P.S Sorry to our friends and families who were hoping we'd take good-looking Ustaz Syakir Pasuni! I was open to having him but my mat refused and bantah keras keras because he says "I tak nak our tok kadi to be more handsome than me, I AM THE GROOM, OUR TOK KADI CANNOT BE MORE HANDSOME THAN ME!"

WHATEVZ, PLEASE. Kadang kadang aku memang sayang ah dengan ini mamat but kadang kadang MACAM MINTAK KENA BANTAI SAK.

[Editted as at 7 June 2013, 2:15pm - the story on tok kadi continues here.]