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!)

permaisuri for a day (or two)

Super duper in love with sneak peaks of Norseha's siraman and solemnization pictures:
 

(Source: Aeqmal Huat Photography via Jentayu Gallery)

(Source: Kiera Roxanne)

 
Must have been a drop dead gorgeous reception bursting with traditional elements! Suka suka sukaaaaa.

(Kind of reminds me of my Indonesian cousin's wedding last year where they had the siraman exercise carried out, very proper, and very sarat with Javanese tradition - not sure if local brides-to-be still do this since I haven't seen or heard about it until now.)

I think sekarang most Melayu brides-to-be won't bersiram bermandi bunga berbadak berendam ni semua because most of us will go for bridal spa and massage sessions! Whiiiiiccchhh I'll be going for probably a few days before my wedding!!! I didn't really have any niat to book my bridal spa and massage anytime soon because it's something that can be easily done two to three months before the actual day since I already know which spa I want to go to. Buttttt as kahwin khronicles history (and all the histories in the world) has proven - kita hanya boleh merancang tetapi hanya Tuhan yang akan menentukan.

So this is how the whole thing happened - Went down to the Mega Xpress' Wedding & Lifestyle Exhibition last Friday evening with my mamat (he was the one who asked whether I wanted to go then suddenly wailed about how he has "turned into a BTB" LULZ) and found Spa Jelita at one of the booths! I've been asking around for reviews and Googling bridal spa and massage places in Singapore and the name that keeps coming up (in a good two-thumbs-up way) is Spa Jelita, so dalam hati jiwa dan raga memang dah tanam niat to book their bridal spa and massage services nearer to our wedding date. But lo and behold! Tengah jalan jalan aimlessly kat wedding exhibition boleh ternampak their booth right before my eyes, so that was such a lovely pleasant surprise.

Tapi yang buat lagi lovely pleasant surprise is their banner that showed a list of all their bridal spa and massage promos!!!!! SO APE LAGI...

Grabbed their 1-day bridal spa package called the Cleopatra Royal Ritual (Boleh feeling feeling macam Cleopatra, y'all! Tapi jangan sampai keluar spa raut muka and rambut semua macam Cleopatra y'all! Itu macam dah seram y'all! Hur hur.) - this package includes steam and sauna bath, body scrub, body massage, milk bath and ganggang for a period of three hours plus at $150, which is down 50% from its original price of $300++! There's another package which I thought was good but did not take because I didn't want to have to go there on three different occasions plus I'm not that much of a spa fanatic - 3-day bridal spa package with the whole beauty and pampering works segala at $399, down from its original price of $700++.

Fuh. Sungguh lumayan.

My mat even threw in a spa facial for me at the last minute - it was going for $48, instead of its usual price of $70++. Looks like I'll still have to add on an additional trip down to Spa Jelita, probably a week or two before the wedding - the staff (and a few of my girlfriends) told me that it's best to go for facials one or two weeks before the actual day. Which is ok lah, since Guthrie Building is located in the East. Kalau somewhere in the West ke, across the Causeway ke, it's ok it's alright kirim salam peluk cium and waffles A&W je, please.

(And since we're on the topic, here's my personal verdict of the exhibition: I don't know whether there were really lesser stalls and reduction in exhibition size or whether there is really a difference in atmosphere of a wedding exhibition on a Friday evening and a wedding exhibition on a Saturday afternoon, but I found this year's slightly disappointing than last year's. Might also be because I no longer have anything to really look out for so daya tarikannya not as strong as last year's hur hur hur)

Oh! I don't know if they will still have this package in their menu even after the exhibition is over, but when I was at their booth, I also saw bridal spa packages that include pampering treats for your bridesmaids! Something nice to reward your bridesmaids with if this is something up your alley (and theirs too, of course.)

I have something else that's entirely different prepared for my bridesmaids, though! It's not as awesome or as major as a spa and massage treat but I'm still pretty excited to meet all of them soon :D

Ok dah, that's all for tonight, be back to blog... soon-ish! (I have a few pending blog drafts screaming to be published. Yikes. Blog drafts pun dah pandai nak screaming screaming eh sekarang.)