The Pre-Wedding Preparations (Part 3)

Okay, sudah tiba masa for my last installment entry on my pre-wedding preparations! Baik ah man, satu lagi entry, siap!

27 October 2013 (Sunday)

Facial Appointment at Spa Jelita

Remember I booked a facial session promotion with Spa Jelita in January this year during a wedding exhibition? After 10 long months, I finally fixed my facial appointment with Spa Jelita the Sunday before my wedding day!

I thought I'd be excited to go for my first facial session ever (yes, I've never done facials before!) but surprisingly, I was pretty blasé when I went... might be because I was ngantok and just wanted it over and done with ah haha.

The entrance and the waiting area!

I think I'm quite lucky to have girlfriends who regularly go for facial sessions and they've shared with me before that facial extractions can hurt like a mother efffffff, so I sort of knew what I was in for? But I don't think all the horror stories from my girlfriends prepared me for the actual freaking pain ah.

Remember I mentioned that I have high pain threshold in my previous entry? Looks like I might have found something that borders closely near my pain threshold haha! Let's just say if I had to choose between kena hit on the face with a periuk besi and facial extraction, I'd choose getting hit on the face with a periuk besi anytime any day 20 TIMES OVER LAH EH.

The consultant did ask me whether I was doing fine and whether the pain was too unbearable for me at the initial stage of the extraction but because I just wanted it to be over and done with, I told her I was fine and she can continue at the pace that she was going at.

But really, this was me when the consultant was doing the facial extraction on my nose... for what felt like a million days of summer:

And here's a picture of the torture chamber. Hahahahaha what what.

And the nice cosy bathroom area that you can meraung at after your torture session is over hahahahaha

But only extraction part yang buat aku macam nak nangis bawah ketiak mak aku ah. The rest of the facial was fine, and I even got some needed shut-eye during the session.

So what is my verdict on my first ever facial session with Spa Jelita?

Verdict: Meh. I don't think I'll go back to them for facials lagi ah. It seems like whatever facial treatment they did for me was not very suitable for my skin because my skin became much much much drier after that D: Or is dryness of skin supposed to be normal after a facial session??? I wouldn't really know because I've never been for facial sessions before this lah kan.

I let it be for about three days but the maha dryness didn't let up so I decided to buy a box of My Beauty Diary's Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizing Mask from Sasa and wore them for half an hour before I went to sleep for the last few nights before the wedding. Helped to alleviate the dryness, heng! I must admit the facial extraction did what it was supposed to do though, because I can haz no blackheads and whiteheads on my face, y'allz! Itu part ah yang workz.

And I guess I should be grateful it didn't turn out teruk like the incident I mentioned here previously, right??? Itu rabak siak, till today I wonder which beauty establishment caused that whole uproar tau.

The mehness of the facial session made me a bit apprehensive about my spa and massage session with Spa Jelita (which was scheduled a few days after that) but as it turns out, I didn't really have to worry because it was much better than my facial session. Deets in the later part of this entry!

30 October 2013 (Wednesday)
Haircut, Face Threading & Purchase of Contact Lens 

My leave already started by this time so I took the opportunity to tie up loose ends, give more instructions to vendors, as well as moarrrrr personal grooming.

First up was a much needed haircut at my usual hairdresser because my split ends was so serabai here there everywhere!!! I know, I know, I'm always having hair issues (had one during my engagement and another during my pre-wedding photoshoot bah) so this was actually another gamble I took - cutting my hair a few days before the wedding ha ha ha ha ha TAK SERIK SERIK AH INI ANAK. Memang mintak kena rotan.

Lucky it turned out fine this time round ah. Nasib pengantin kot?! :P

The next session was a full face threading session - as recommended by Nani because she said that it will make a difference to the kecerahan and glow of my face! So I scheduled a full face threading session with my regular threader (?) instead of my usual eyebrow threading session, and I am happy to report that memang ada difference seh! Awesome or whuttttttt.

Also went to my neighbourhood optician after my threading session to buy the "big eye" contacts! You know the ones yang make your eyes look bigger??? I think they're also known as circle eye contacts - I chose Geo Bella's black ones because the salesgirl told me it's the most natural-looking. (You can also read reviews here and here.)

Yang ini, Kak Nora from Ishq By Nora Zee was the one who suggested I get a pair because she said it'll make a (positive) difference to the way I look!

To be honest kan, I was very apprehensive about wearing these on my wedding day, and the reason is because I've used them before and they made me look like kakak kepada Ju-on lah siak. Tak bedek, geng. I'd put up a picture from when I wore them briefly back in 2007 but if I did, habislah korang tak boleh tido, terkencing kencing kat atas katil malam ni.

But I really didn't have to worry so much because the contacts turned out great on me (after make-up) in the end and did make a difference okay!!!!! If I may say so myself lah eh. Hur hur.

I didn't take a 'before contacts' and 'after contacts' picture (drats!) so I just sharing this gambar which I kapok from Kak Nora's Facebook je okay:

The contacts still look a bit weird on me when I'm not wearing make-up (possibly weird with light daily make-up too) so not sure if I'll wear these contacts again for daily use :/ Maybe during special occasions when eyeshadow + thicker make-up than usual is required??? 

30 October 2013 (Wednesday)

Bridal Room Setup By Bonito By Bob

That night, after I was back from running errands and my personal grooming sessions semua, Bob and his awesome Bonito By Bob team came over to start setting up my bridal room! It took a little longer than their usual setup time of about 2 hours but it was so worth it and I am very excited to report that this was one of my favourite highlights from the whole wedding!!!!!

How can it not be, when my bridal room setup LOOKED LIKE THIS:

 You can watch an instavid of the bridal room tour (lol) here.

IT WAS SO PRETTY, I CAN'T EVEN. SERIOUSLY. But all these excitement yang membuak buak I shall save for later later eh, when I do my final review on Bonito By Bob. For now, all you need to know is that my bridal room was crazy awesome and if you want a bridal room that is as crazy awesome, you all know lah who to look for!!!!!

Oh, another thing - by a stroke of luck, Bob also passed me two of my pre-wedding pictures which he initially printed out to put up as decor but didn't use in the end - I was feeling uninspired on how to do the signages for our afternoon reception tables, you see, and the pictures he gave were perfect. One of me, and one of Saliheen :D

Activated my sisters to help me cut out the wordings from construction paper before sending it off to the printing shop for lamination.

Tadaaaaa~! Not the most creative of ideas but as long as it serves its purpose, it was good enough for me.

31 October 2013 (Thursday)

Spa and Massage Appointment at Spa Jelita

Two days before the wedding, I started the day bright and early with a bridal spa and massage session at Spa Jelita.

Their lorong lorong:

The spa and massage room:

This session turned out better than my facial - I felt rejuvenated by the end of it, and I don't really have any major complaints about the whole experience. The masseuse who attended to me was friendly and their ambience was pretty great + I expected some kind of package hardselling at the end of the session but there was none of that so that's a yay!

If you ask me whether I'll go back there for another session, I'll probably give you an unenthusiastic "Maybe" though - the overall experience was fine but I feel as if the spa and massage sessions that I've had in Batam and Bintan were more satisfying and  lagi worth my money? (I would've gone for a bridal spa and massage session in Batam or Bintan if I could, but I didn't want to travel days before the wedding so that was out of the question.

Also, I've not been to other spa and massage salons in Singapore so I can't really do a legit comparison.

31 October 2013 (Thursday)

Printing of Guest Seating Chart  

As some may know by now, my guest seating chart list for the dinner reception looked a little something awesome hahaha like this:

My mamat and I had a bit of trouble with the guest seating chart - due to the uncertain nature of guest lists, we had to constantly change the seating arrangements and couldn't print the chart earlier to get it out of the way.

(As a matter of fact, I was still inviting people weeks before the wedding because I had a few more people I wanted to invite and had to puss-in-boots-face my way through my mamat's heart first in order to get him to agree to an extra table hehehe)

 

I actually thought of a way to counter this issue - I suggested printing out the table bases on big boards, then separately print and cut the cartoon faces into individual pieces so we can still play around with the seating arrangements as and when our guests informed us they were able or unable to attend. We could have put velcro or sticky tape at the back of the face pieces and pasted them onto the board according to the assigned tables - the concept is a little something like this, you know?

But the idea of the guest seating chart not looking as seamless if done that way remained as a bugbear for me so I persevered to the end and only printed out the guest seating chart two days before the wedding (oh wait, was it one?). Cut it pretty close but IT WAS BLOODY WORTH IT, SUCKERS!!!

This was from the night before, when my sister was helping me make the last minute changes and improvements to the seating chart. Thank you my adik tersayang for spending so much time on this lovely piece!!!!!

Much love for helping me design my invitation cards for the dinner reception tooooooo! Which of course, looks like this:

The front part has a scratch out portion!

Something very simple but I loved that we managed to incorporate scratch out stickers into our invitation cards!!! The scratch off portion, when scratched, reveals our names and the link to our wedding website :D

You can also see an instavid of the card getting scratched (haha that sounds so salah somehow) here.

I was a bit concerned about the invitation cards being too simple but it turned out to be a hit! We were especially surprised when we realized our male guests were the ones who got all excited over the scratch off portions haha (I mean, it's always safe to assume that females will be more appreciative of such... fun details, yes?)

On the other hand, a lot of our female guests told us they didn't want to scratch the card off because dorang rasa macam "sayang" wtf. Melampau eh korang, yang korang nak sayangkan card jemputan aku tu dah kenape?!?!?!

I also know that the element of surprise is not reaaaaally there because, well, all of our guests already knew we were getting married during the Deepavali weekend but we decided to just go ahead with this card design just for the fun of it. Initially the main wording was supposed to be different, though - it was supposed to be "Saliheen and Farhana are getting married! Guess when?" and the scratch off portion was supposed to reveal the date. But I decided to make the changes a few weeks before we sent the cards for printing... because I am just a kakak yang suka menyusahkan adik like that :P

31 October 2013 (Thursday)

Bridal Henna Session with Syraskins

After getting my bridal spa and massage done and printing of collateral settled during the earlier part of the day, I went home hoping for a quick nap before my 10pm henna session with Syraskins. But it was not meant to be, because Syra called me slightly before 5pm, asking whether she can come by at 6pm instead because her 6pm client was still settling other things and requested for postponement of appointment.

Since I initially wanted the 6pm slot anyway (but didn't get since that other bride beat me to it... well, like I always say, if it's your rezeki, it will be your rezeki hehe) and I didn't really feel like doing anything else at that point of time, I agreed! So Syra and her sister came at about 6.30pm, and it must have been the most. freaking. boring. henna session they have ever been to... because it was just me, myself and I hahaha.

I didn't want a big festive henna session since I'm not a big henna fan in the first place (I've mentioned this here and here) and the only reason I was having bridal henna is because I succumbed to societal pressure and had some on just to "nampak macam pengantin". All I wanted was to get it over and done with as quickly as possible and with no fanfare so that was an *achievement unlocked*!

Picture of the bridal henna on my feet! None from my hands because by the time my sister came home to tolong ambikkan gambar, the henna was dry and peeling and looked pretty horrendous.

 Mandatory happy shot with the henna masters!

Them henna masters told me to leave the henna on for 4 hours to max out effect but because I didn't want to risk the henna stain staying longer than I wanted it to (again, I reiterate, I do not fancy henna all that much and specifically wanted them off as quickly as possible after the wedding), aku pun cowboy and peeled the henna off after 1 and a half hours hahahahaha.

1 November 2013 (Friday)

Onsite venue visit

Delivery of Ola Lola Trays

And then came... the day before the wedding. JENG JENG JENG.

Can't really remember what happened during the early part of the day because it went by very very very fast (I do remember a string of hasty phonecalls and flurry of emails though... masih ah nak bertukar emails at the eleventh hour hahaha) but by 5pm, I made my way down to Silat Federation to take a look at the pelamin and decor setup and make sure everything was in place. 

My mamat was already there with his family and groomsmen and this was one of the things that he and one of his groomsmen Sham were up to:

TENGAH PRACTISE NAMPAK? TENGAH PRACTISE NAMPAK? Hahahahaha.

Went home straight after that to finish up last minute DIY photoshoot props (like pasting and cutting out the alphabets you saw in an earlier picture here) with the help of my sisters and the laki bini si Poji and Nani, start packing final payments into envelopes and start packing my staycation bag.

And while I was doing all that, my living room was buzzing with chatter and activity because a whole bunch of relatives came over at night to makan makan!!! I was very happy to see my aunts and uncles and cousins merrymaking over at my place, made the whole night really meriah :D

Just after they left, the wonderful girls of Ola Lola came over to my place to deliver my gift trays (gift trays from me to my mamat) after delivering his (gift trays from him to me) and it was pretty surreal to see all the barang barang that we've accumulated over the past year all wrapped, tied and prettied up for our very own special occasion!

 Gift trays sitting in all their prettiness against an equally pretty backdrop <3

After I was done with all the packing and fussing around, I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep and expected to toss and turn in bed that night (a number of ex-brides told me this will happen!) but as it turns out I wasn't nervous or anxious enough for that to happen??? Because believe it or not, both of us (I asked Saliheen after our wedding day) slept like babies that night.

But babies we were not, because babies don't do adult things like get married the next day... betul tak? :P

no henna, no go?

Whyyyyyyyyyy am I still so indecisive on bridal henna ni?!

This internal debate on bridal henna has been raging within me since the start of mankind (Ok ah, bedek ah, I only started thinking about bridal henna a year ago hahaha) but until now masih tak boleh buat decision.

I've blogged before about how I'm neutral about bridal henna (here) and it really is dependent on whether our parents want me to wear the bridal henna. When I asked my supermother who is also the mother of all rilek jek, she gave me one of her template replies "Suka hati kau lah Na..." 

She didn't even bat an eyelid when I asked "Abeh kalau ada tetamu tanya Ibu kenapa pengantin tak pakai inai, Ibu cakap ape?"! Her reply steady je: "Biarlah orang nak cakap ape, kalau dorang tanya Ibu, Ibu jawab je lah budak budak sekarang kan ada citarasa sendiri..."

Haiiiii sejuk hati ni bila dengar jawapan macam tu, I love you till the end of time lah supermother!

Actually the person we expected resistance from is my mat's mother since she's usually more inclined towards retaining tradition (she told us it is not advisable to "cut corners" when it comes to customs bila kita tanya for her opinion on scrapping sireh dara and bunga pahar) but she was surprisingly chill about it and said that it is up to me to decide whether I want to wear inai for our wedding. She did say that my mat is to not wear inai, though, which is more than fine with us since we didn't want him to wear any in the first place! Yay! Can I just say that I am really starting to love his supermother also?! Hehe.

I was pretty set on not wearing bridal henna sometime back and was quite ready to cancel my appointment with Syraskins but wanted to get opinions from my girlfriends first... but I think that turned out to be the salah step haha because it seems like everytime I ask a girlfriend, the reply will come in a form of a shrieky "Of course you must wear inai! If you don't wear inai macam bukan pengantin!"

Oh. Got such thing one ah??? Hahahahaha. Ok lah, I have to admit that I actually do understand where my girlfriends are coming from - this bridal henna tradition is so deeply ingrained in our Malay society, that macam takde "kick" if the bride tak pakai inai. But it was this acknowledgement yang brought me back to this state of undecisiveness lor! Plus a girlfriend once told me that I can try and get special bridal treatment and/or perks like freebies or discounts or room upgrade if I go to certain places for honeymoon or go for staycation after the wedding because some of the staff I meet along the way will recognize the bridal henna. Bah.

I tried looking through pictures of pengantins who did not wear bridal henna for their wedding and saw a picture of this one pengantin who didn't pakai bridal henna and she looked pretty ok to me...

(Source: Fad Manaf Photography)

Kalau tak pakai inai, kan boleh pakai french manicure!!! Heh heh heh heh heh

Ok dah, dah. Once again macam nak self-service je tampar diri sendiri eh! Tak nak pakai bridal henna sebab kononnya tradition Hindu, pastu nak pakai manicure! Step tak nak ikut tradition Hindu tapi nak terikut-ikut tradition omputeh. Perangai songsang. Asking to kena azan kat telinga lah this one. Haha.

Oh well. Even if I do decide to pakai bridal henna, I'll most probably do away with the intricate designs yang naik sampai lengan, sampai ketiak segala, (or design ikan koi or design dragon as previously suggested by my mamat hahahahaha siak ah ini budak) and opt for simple palm design and finger tips aje. Something like this:

(Source: Fad Manaf Photography)

Looks ok kan? Plus if I wash off the henna paste really quickly then the effects won't be as gelap and it will fade out faster, kan? That's how it works, kan? Also Googled for methods to speed up the fading process, and I got this and this. Ok, bookmark!!!

One of the reasons why I'm reluctant to wear henna (besides the whole religious controversy and the fact that I'm not really a fan of henna) is also because of our post-wedding photoshoot scheduled one day after the wedding - I don't want to have henna on my hands bila ambik gambar!!! Tried negotiating with my mat to postpone the photoshoot until the henna fades off but he's resistant to the idea. So menyampah when he starts his perangai rebel without a cause tu. Pfft. One option we have is to have a pre-wedding photoshoot... which is something that both of us are trying very, very hard to avoid. Personal preference, really, don't mind us.

I tried to Google the Islamic stand on bridal henna (in a bid to try and sway my decision) but I keep reading different views sampai pening sampai mabuk sampai nak muntah jadi nya. Ada say haram, ada say tak haram! How! How to decide like that! Cock up! Fed up! Give up! (Haha yes, well, obviously for some things it's best to refer to experts and not Google)

Giving myself until the end of the month to decide this. Kalau tak boleh decide jugak nanti aku half half kan je lah eh. Right hand pakai inai, left hand don't pakai inai. Kalau tetamu tanya, cakap je trend baru, budak budak sekarang kan ada citarasa sendiri. (Hahahahaha what what, this one my mother say one ok!)

demi cintaku padaku wahai si kotak

Ingat tak few months ago I wrote about acrylic boxed gift trays?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Tak ingat??? Benda cantik boleh eh tak ingat??? Ok meh I tolong ingatkan, come sini, you baca here.

Kan last I mentioned the two local vendors who I know offers acrylic boxed gift trays in their gubahan selection are Jentayu Gallery and Love Createz??? Now I iz very excited and I iz very suka because the vendor doing my gift trays pun dah introduce acrylic boxed gift trays to their gubahan selection!!!!!

                

 (Source: Ola Lola)

Of course tanpa berlengah dan tanpa berhegeh lagi I emailed Ola Lola to chope these trays!!!!! Champion eh, gubahan pun kena main chope chope. Heh heh.

The only thing that's sliiightly bugging me is the fact that one of my barang dulang will probably be without an acrylic box because it won't fit the box dimensions. Which means it might look cacat! Oh, the travesty! Ni semua my mamat punya pasal ah! (Kesian itu anak kena dipersalahkan hahaha eh but really his fault lor)

TE-TA-PI! Oleh kerana this newest offering from Ola Lola is tooooo cantik to ignore, I shall try very, very hard to ignore it because... seriously takde maksud eh nak anal sampai macam tu.

Self-service terajang diri sendiri satu, please.

onward to the second stage of preparation, comrades!

Looks like half of the items on our list for the next stage of proceedings are more or less settled!

Padahal supposed to look see look see dulu aje tau then early January 2013 baru start chop, but after kita dah recce and we like what we see, we didn't want to hegeh or bother ourselves with details any longer so out out out the deposits go. No pain, no gain, no guts, no glory, y'all.

1. Kompang

Signed, sealed and happily settled with Kompang Zapin Berdendang!

2. Kursus rumahtangga (Pre-Marriage preparation course)

Already identified when and where we want to attend the pre-marriage preparation course and am now waiting for 2013 slots (at the masjid that we want to go to) to open! Called the main centre and they said most probably December baru the slots will keluar.

Ni macam baru betul kalau gua bukak line "Lu tunggu Christmas ka pa?!" hahahahaha

3. Berkat (Wedding favours) 

I last wrote about berkat here and here and since then, both our mothers (whom we've given the right and freedom to choose our wedding favours) has stuck to their choices, which is pulut kuning with telur merah and macarons respectively. Very decisive, I very like!

I'm also liking the fact that these two items are such a contrast from each other  - pulut kuning with telur merah is such an old school berkat whereas macaron is such a modern berkat. Berkat yang lama bergading bahu dengan berkat yang baru at a combined reception, fuhhhhh dah macam sepakat membawa berkat, babe! (Takde link as usual hahahaha)

My mum's been bugging me about confirming her orders and placing the deposit... I think she maha excited about her pulut kuning and telur merah berkat because she's not the sort who bugs me about stuff! Hahaha so cute lah my mother ni. Pasal decor, dia tak kacau aku, pasal bridal, dia tak kacau aku, pasal catering, dia tak kacau aku, pasal berkats pulak dia betul punya enthu.

Ok lah, terus terang I was sliiightly dragging my feet on this because as much as I lurrrvvveee the idea of pulut kuning and telur merah as wedding favours (so nostalgik!), I'm still takut and apprehensive about my mum's berkat choice because I'm concerned about the quality of the pulut kuning berkats! It's quite tricky to maintain the freshness of pulut kuning and I wouldn't want the pulut kuning to become basi when my family gives them out to guests :(

But almost every other day the goddamn berkat issue bugs me to end sampai otak aku yang naik basi ok! So I decided to tawakkal and went ahead to book the berkat for my mum few days ago. SETTLE THE KETTLE. No more thinking about pulut sampai brain cells pun boleh basi.

In my previous entry on berkats, I mentioned Ovenly Sweet and Rasa Syiokur @ Breeze Bait (and Rita Pretty Pastries but she confirmed with me that she does not do bulk orders for pulut kuning - such a shame, because she's super friendly!) but I ended up booking the pulut kuning favours with MelJ's Genre! Mostly because Ovenly Sweet did not reply my messages and because both my mum and I prefer MelJ's Genre punya design over Rasa Syiokur @ Breeze Bait.

My encounter with MelJ's Genre is another one of those twist of fate moments that I've experienced on this wedding preparation journey! (Which I'm very versyukur about, Alhamdullilah):

Added them on Facebook sometime back for something totally unrelated - a girlfriend asked me for contacts for coconut blossoms earlier this year and I happened to see MelJ's Genre's blossoms picture tagged on someone's wall so I added them to see more of their albums - but somehow when I was compiling information for pulut kuning berkat, I didn't notice them in my Facebook list (which is why they're not listed in my initial list for pulut kuning berkat vendors).

As mentioned previously, I was dragging my feet on this pulut kuning business until sometime last two weeks, I thought ok stop stalling and let's get this settled once and for all. Logged in my Facebook account and lo and behold - a picture of their berkat pulut kuning appeared at the top of my feed!!! Coincidental maha coincidental sak. Realized that I missed them out after checking through my list so I immediately messaged them to for quotes! Took me two weeks to finally sit down and show pictures to my mum, who immediately approved the design and quote, so I gave them my confirmation, deposit transferred and there you go: another piece of kahwin khronicles history.

 

(Source: MelJ's Genre)

Silly thought but I'mwondering why the name was MelJ's Genre seh. Kenapa genre? Pulut pun ada genre eh? Pulut soul? Pulut reggae? Pulut rock? Pulut pop? Pulut K-pop? And kenape MelJ? Adik beradik dengan Mel B and Mel C from the Spice Girls ka? Tapi ni Spice Girls dah bercampur dengan rendang spices ka? Hahahahaha)

Ok ok I'll quit it with the cheap lawak jenaka and move on to the next part on our quest for wedding berkat - now for my mat's side! His mum right from the start memang dah cakap nak macarons so I've been looking for vendors on her behalf - as of now, I have three vendors who have given quotes:

Cake Love Couture: I've mentioned that their stuff are very sedap before and I trust that their macarons will be just as sedap but I'm not a big fan of the speed of their response (the lack of it, rather) - so I'm not going to consider them.

Sweet Merveilles (under Macarons, Cookies and Cakes): Never tasted their stuff before so I don't know what to expect. Seems nice and reliable enough, and gives very prompt response. Thought of getting a sampler pack so we can taste their macarons before making a decision.

Ola Lola: I was pleasantly surprised when they told me they do bulk orders for macarons as wedding favours because I was under the impression that they do smaller quantities! Am paling keen on them - they'll be doing our dulang hantarans anyway so satu shot sekali ah kirakan.

I also asked Dessert Artisans but they have their hands full with our wedding dessert tier that weekend so they can't quote us for macaron wedding favours heh heh heh.

There's also another player in the market who does sweet treats like macarons for wedding favours but I cannot seem to put my finger as to why I don't really fancy or trust this company / person all that much. I know it might seem silly to not trust and engage a company / person based on a gut feeling but better to be safe than sorry, tio bo?

Anyway I mentioned about this person to Nani, who gave me a good reason as to why I might be feeling this way: she is always posting pictures of "inspiration" - which is totally fine by the way - but the problem is she posts very little pictures of her own creations. Even the very few pictures that she does post are heavily editted or angled in such a way that you cannot really tell the quality of her workmanship. Sorry eh geng, lu dodgy, gua dodge, selamat jalan romeo, sister!

Anywaaayyyyy, the update on this is:

We've decided not to wait any longer and have confirmed our interest with Ola Lola! Waiting for them to confirm that we can transfer our deposit before this berkat issue can be laid to rest and our minds will have more space to think about other more pressing wedding-related issues like deciding on a wedding theme once and for all!!! Maklumlah, akak ni one year away from being on the wrong side of my twenties, memory space pun makin lama makin kurang and makin karat. Akak punya bakal pulak jangan cakap, memang dah maha on the wrong side of twenties pun.

 (Source: Ola Lola)

4. Barang barang dulang

Nothing concrete yet - although we do have a more or less confirmed list of the type of things that we want to put on the dulangs - but we'll definitely borong during the next Great Singapore Sale! This one cannot bring forward in advance eh because sale period memang dah fixed June/July 2013.

Also glad we have flying friends (no, no, not pigeons or fatimah rockers, mak ai SERAM PE kalau ada kawan pigeons or fatimah rockers hahaha) and travelling friends who are willing to help us purchase our stuff from overseas to take advantage of the cheaper costs, if need be! His parents might also be going to London sometime in June next year for his brother's graduation and we're hoping to tumpang bahagia by kirim-ing an item or two for our dulangs heh heh heh

5. Wedding Bands

December is coming up in a week's time so let the Christmas sales begin!!!

Since we didn't buy a ring for my mamat masa time beli cincin for my engagement, we're not very sure how the selection is like for lelaki rings - will need to set aside one of the weekends before Christmas to pergi recce wedding bands. Sesiapa yang baru jejak masuk ke alam wedding planning ni, ingat eh, number one golden rule among the kakak kakak kahwin network is that you must always always always wait for Great Singapore Sale or pre and post Christmas/Chinese New Year sales to buy cincin tunang or cincin kahwin because the harga all kena slash maha slash!!! If you beli your barang barang outside of these sales period punya windows then you're either terlalu selenge or terlalu kaya. Or both. Or mintak kena back hand.

6. Bridal Henna

Henna is not really an issue now since I've already made my booking with my henna artist sometime in March this year. (Not because slots get snapped up fast but because I already knew who I wanted and didn't want to put it off.) I mentioned before that I'm not a fan of henna but my dad will probably make noise about it and henna is seriously something that is perkara kecik as compared to all the other wedding-related things. My feelings towards henna is impartial anyway (I don't love it but I don't hate it either - same as my feelings towards cats! Meow~) and I can choose to opt a super simple design anyway sooooo book bridal henna it was! And with Syraskins it was!

Very glad I booked with Syraskins because the owner is so so so uber nice and prompt!

Ok what happened is really caused by my gatalness because what happened was: I initially booked my henna appointment date on the Friday afternoon before the wedding - thought it through and decided that it was too close for comfort, and what happens if I have last minute things to do on that day?! So I recently asked to change the appointment date to the Thursday before the wedding date via email, got a phonecall from Quraisha from Syraskins letting me know the available timeslots to choose from and I carelessly chose an 11am timing (tengah tak concentrate seh tu... I was tucking in to my Samurai burger leh!).

Processed the idea after that but realized I didn't like the idea of waking up early to get the bridal henna done (hahaha what WHAT) and what if I want to schedule my spa session that Thursday afternoon?! Ok probably won't make any difference but I'd rather not "kacau" the henna on my hands and feet right after it's applied *cough* irrational fear *cough* Called Quraisha again to ask if I can change to an afternoon timeslot instead - unfortunately, the best timeslot (6pm) already taken by another bride-to-be :(

Had to make do with a night timeslot instead, which I guess is ok lah because I don't plan on doing anything intricate (so I shall assume the process will take a shorter time) and it also means that I will have time on that Thursday afternoon to settle other stuff before winding down with a henna appointment (Apa ni?! Two days before the wedding masih planning "to settle other stuff" ni?!)

Quraisha was super nice and patient and oh so bubbly with me even though I kept changing my appointment  - BOO ME!- and I am so grateful she didn't reach out through the computer screen or telephone to give me a tight bitchslap even though she should have lah seriously. Benda lain boleh decisive tapi bila part henna menggelabah semacam. Ape maksuddddd.

Bridal henna prices and packages are easily found on Syraskins' Facebook page!

Some designs from their Silver package:

 

... and some from their Gold package:

(Source: Syraskins)

Another bride-to-be blogger Strip Shidah did an entry on bridal henna here before so if you're more particular about bridal henna than I am, you might want to read on. Tapi kalau tak particular pun boleh baca because she listed down some tips on booking bridal henna... very useful!

Ok dah tu je for now. Next step is to meet my future mother-in-law to run through decor ideas!!! :O

But that one I kena come back and bukak entry baru pulak ok. Kalau tak nanti overrun pulak entry I ni nanti.