of prints and kicks

Now that I've updated the previous entry about Fluff Bakery postponing their official opening date  boohoo (check their Instagram for updates okay), back to our wedding planning progress!

Quite glad my mamat and I managed to complete all of our major tasks together by the first week of October because he had a work-related summit to go to last weekend.

Which is just as well lah, because that means we get to cut down the number of times we meet each other before the wedding. We've decided not to strictly follow the jangan-jumpa-40-hari-sebelum-kahwin pantang since we'll have to meet for the final fitting anyway, but somehow the stars are aligned in such a way sampai we didn't have to meet this week as well as the next. The weekend after next will be our final fitting (already?!!!), so we'll have to wait until then to see each other again before we officially and legally become husband and wife.

Since I was on my own last weekend, I decided to run through the list of items that my little sister has painstakingly designed for my wedding and finally went out to get half of them printed (since the other half still needs last minute edits.) Been putting off this task for quite a bit because I am very... malas. Haha. Give me a break lah okay, I'm suffering from wedding planning burnout lah!!!

(Also, my little sister will be too busy with her don't know what runway event setup two weeks leading up to my wedding so kena catch her before she starts coming back late and tired and too cranky to take my instructions lol)

Printed out the stuff at Tampines Printing Services, which is located at Century Square because I'm, again, too malas to travel out from my neighbourhood to the usual printing shops I go to at Sunshine Plaza (91 Bencoolen Street). Slightly pricier I think, but what the heck, at least I don't have to brave through the weekend crowd at Bugis area!!! Tak kuasa pe.

In case anyone wants to know which shops I usually go to when I print stuff out at Sunshine Plaza, they are Out De Box and Image N Print, located on the ground level and look like these:

For bigger orders, I've printed with One Ink Jet, which is located at Bendemeer Road, and I've blogged about their maha efficiency here. Would suggest opting for One Ink Jet only if you have transport though, because it's located at flatted factory area and kena masuk a bit dalam. Kalau nak somewhere more accessible, Sunshine Plaza lah jawabnye ye. (Thank Nani for this because she was the one who gave me all the reliable contacts when I first started out!!!)

Anyway, service at Tampines Printing Services was okay okay je, the auntie that attended to me was quite blur so I had to guide her step by step. Nasib baik I numbered the items in my thumbdrive and renamed each and every filename with the description + size required + number of pieces required e.g. 01. Contact Card (A7) x 25 pieces. So senang tengok from one glance. Kalau tak, dengan aku aku sekali confused, dengan aku aku sekali mata blink blink blink macam lampu rosak tak tau nak repair hahaha.

Oooh remember I mentioned about contact cards in my blog entry here? Finally got them printed as well so will pass them to our family, our orang orang kuat and the relevant vendors soon.

 Mad love!

And here's a cheeky picture of my sisters, who have decided to impose ERP charges on those who wish to pass through their bedroom door hahahahaha:

These speech bubbles are my favourite pieces from the loot! I know it's usually "He asked..." and "And... She said yes!" but since our original love story is terbalek, become like that lor. Hehe.

A special board to counter our concern about lurking Uncle Bobs! I've blogged about the Uncle Bob phenomenon here.

This board actually ruffled my cousin's feathers for a bit, but I hope he understands now, after my explanation. I guess if he had read and understood the message fully before jumping, he would have realized that guests are free to take their own photos and videos, not the other way round.

I mean, that's exactly what the board says, isn't it? "Take your own photos and videos if you wish"! As long as guests don't block the official photographers and videographers and only start taking their own pictures and videos after the official people are done with their shots, we're good to go. Heh. The response has been generally positive though, so I guess we're not the only ones who feel strongly about this! Hehe.

Oh, and of course I would not have finished cutting and pasting and assembling all the signages and props within such a short amount of time if not for my supermother and sisters!!!!!

Cinta sampai mati <3 <3 <3

Anyway, since dah terlanjur keluar to print the signages and props and stuff, I managed to find back-up bridal shoes at Tampines 1! Woo hoo hoo.

Yes, yes, I already have one pair of bridal shoes which I bought from JB and I really, really love but all it took was a horrified "What do you mean you only have one pair of bridal shoes??? What happens if you break your one and only pair of bridal shoes on your wedding day?!?!?!" from my middle sister to convince me to buy another pair of bridal shoes as back-up. Muahahaha.

I mean... that little naggy girl does have a point lah kan.

Not as fab as my current pair of bridal shoes imho, and does not exactly fit what I usually like but I think it looks nice and decent enough to act as back-up! What I love about this pair is the thick glittery glittery straps, and the small elastic band at the back strap which makes wearing this pair sooooo much more comfortable than my current pair of bridal shoes!!! And considering the fact that I only paid $15 for these babies... okay lah tu kan. Yay for sales at Payless! :D

Maybe I should consider wearing this pair for the solemnization... or dinner reception instead eh??? My current bridal dress for dinner reception has a bit of train and I am very, very concerned as to whether I will be able to walk properly when the time comes! Bila try try during first fitting je macam anytime boleh wobble seh. At least with this pair tak payah maintain balance sangat since it's slightly lower and I can stabilize my balance better.

Seriously tak balek modal eh, kalau pengantin dah pakai cantik cantik pastu jatuh tersungkur padang terkukur di depan khalayak ramai. ITU JAM JUGAK aku patahkan aku punya heels and walk down the aisle dengan kaki ayam. Kaki ayam as in kaki ayam the peribahasa eh, not literally kaki ayam yang beli kat pasar untuk buat jadi sup.

about goddamn time, goddamnit

Oh my oh my, what do we have here?

 

 (Credit: The Project Pixel Photography)

(Credit: Adib & Mizah)

 (Credit: @kieraroxanne)

 (Credit: @ninahalim. For more pictures, search #rssecretgarden on Instagram)

Looks like the future of local Malay wedding decor is finally starting to pick up some goddamn momentum. I am seriously loving the direction local Malay weddings are heading towards and I really can't wait to see how local Malay weddings will start to look like in the next year or so!

Note: I don't know who the decorator is for the first wedding (Edit: Now confirmed to be FM Events!), second and third weddings were DIY-ed by the pengantins, whereas I have reason to believe that the concept for the fourth wedding was executed by the same creative people who did Helmindra and Fizah's wedding (Edit: Or maybe not, judging from the comments below)

get your glitter on

Currently obsessing over:

(Source: Rock N Roll Bride)

 

Aigooooo why so cute one, I very suka tau benda benda kawaii gini!!! 

Nak pakai for outdoor photoshoot, please!!!!! 

I know I've considered wearing veils and bows and turbands for my photoshoot before but I still belum make up my mind so masih considering all my options ye.

 

Haizzzzz pakkal lah kepala ada satu je, nyah.

Eh tapi kan, on second thoughts, kalau nak beli any one of the above pieces from Crown & Glory macam tak worth it seh after dah convert to SG dollar + shipping. I wonder if can DIY???! Dah nak kena start cari online tutorials ni JENG JENG JENG. Hehehehehe. Eh I tengah semangat nak buat benda DIY walaupun my DIY skills haprak okay! Just did one DIY trial yesterday, in fact:

Okay laaahhhhh. Granted this DIY project is play cheat because it is very chicken mcnugget one. So chicken mcnugget that it turned out pretty well in my hands hur hur. Might need to tone down on the glue and enlarge the size of the letters if I really do confirm this project, though. We'll see lah how my mood nanti.

count to the down

About five days ago, I posted a screenshot of our wedding countdown on Instagram:

 

Which pretty much means that by now we've already crossed over to a double digit countdown, you gaize!!!!! 95 days left, to be exact. Our friends weren't kidding sak when they warned us that time will zzzooooommm by like nobody punya business.

Naik motokar ape ni sampai laju macam gini!

But I think the countdown paling dekat and paling scary for now is this countdown:

(Yes. I have a countdown for our photoshoot, countdown for our engagement, countdown for our wedding and countdown for receipt of keys to our future home. Kalau boleh buat countdown to my next toilet break memang aku dah buat dah.)

Less than a month to the outdoor photoshoot already okay!!! Badan masih macam tong, macam mana ni?!?!?! Pakai stunt double yang muka sama but lagi kurus boleh tak????? Hahahahaha. (No progress on the #kilokhronicles journey so far - I keep losing and gaining a few kgs every other day haiz. Tengoklah macam mana nanti lepas bulan puasa. Mungkin pindah Africa untuk sementara waktu or what.)

Ooh talking about the photoshoot, coincidentally I received postcards from our photoshoot photographer Zakaria Zainal slightly after the countdown went down to less than a month -  ahhhhh I've always love receiving mail from vendors by the way, baik mails in my email inbox or mails in my physical mailbox :D

Love the postcards and note! The note started off with a "half a year has passed, with another to go" and it reminded me all the more about the next big change that both my mat and I are going to go through this fateful year.

Boleh bikin I sentimental, you know.

But before I ter-start I punya sentimental sakit mental, some updates on the preparations we've done so far for the photoshoot itself:

Photoshoot Location

Dropped by Bidadari during one of our free weekends since everyone keeps telling us about how good and spacious and quiet it is (including those who commented on my photoshoot location recce entry here) so we went to check it out... and fell in love!!! 

Exactly what we really want - spacious, ada patches of grassy fields, interesting pokok pieces without having too many trees... love it love it love it. 

It is pretty quiet - which is a good thing - but there was the occasional jogger and cyclist passing through the area while we were there so gotta keep that in mind. But okay lah boleh lah, that pretty much wraps up our chronicles in looking for a photoshoot location woop woop!

Photoshoot Dress

 

Remember I asked my mum to sew my photoshoot dress for me????? Turns out she's now too busy with Ramadhan and Syawal and ada time constraints segala so she won't be sewing one for me. BAH. 

Can't sew it myself because I am pretty much orang paling hopeless dalam dunia when it comes to DIY so tak penting eh ada hati nak sew a whole freaking dress. I knew I had to just purchase it off the rack or online... spent a few days trawling through malls but nothing caught my eye. Another BAH.

So in the end I had to turn to trusty old Etsy and found someone who can sew a dress for a slightly higher budget than I intended... but at least it will be close enough to what I've envisioned, insya Allah. Will make some minor tweaks once it arrives and I am very excitez!!! I'm actually 50/50 dengan ini budak Kim but tawakkal je lah eh?

My dress won't exactly be like the one posted in the gambar above because I requested for some tweaks - cannot be too terdedah dedah because that was one of the terms and conditions imposed by his parents before they gave us permission for a pre-wedding photoshoot ye (1. No intimate pictures 2. No revealing outfits. Yang No.2 tu nampak sah for aku lah kan, yang mamat aku nak pakai revealing revealing dah buang tebiat ke ape. Although he does have cleavage.....)

Photoshoot Props

These are DIY pompoms from my awesome tahap maksima future mother-in-law! She did the pompoms "suka suka" she says, and we're free to use them any way we want. So we thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to use them for our photoshoot! Yay yay!

So now all we have to do is figure out what exactly we want to do with them. Heh. Have one or two ideas in mind so we'll see how that pans out. We've also bought / ordered three props that we have in mind for our photoshoot so save for a few minor DIY touches, we're actually pretty ready when it comes to props :D

Oh! Also draaagged my mat to Plaza Singapura to get materials for a patricular DIY projek after visiting Bidadari and I can't wait to get cracking! Cuma between now and end of August, entah boleh dapat the free time to do it ke tidak :/

A few other stuff happening this weekend for me as well but the two wedding-related tasks would be... *drum roll perut roll lapis roll*

- Meeting my photoshoot MUA for my make-up trial. Yay!

- Collecting my lunch reception punya cards from From Fran With Love! Yay!

Hur hur. Baru benda kecik tapi excited semacam eh aku. Yay sana yay sini.

And ni baru photoshoot seh, belum lagi wedding, perasaan rollercoaster dah membuak membuak rabak macam gini. How to handle the bundles of nerves and excitement once the wedding comes ni?! 

Must remind my bridesmaids to sediakan 10 gallons of oxygen, epidural, sedatives segala during my akad nikah and sanding lah like this.

DIY this, DIY that

We were actually not planning to buy any props for our outdoor photoshoot because we figured the main feature that we'll be bringing in will more than make up for it.

But after our discussion with Zakaria Zainal (who is very lovely and very insightful in person, by the way!) on Monday, we realized that what we're planning might not be sufficient... which is why we've now decided to have propsssss, y'all :D

I'm trying my best to make the photoshoot as DIY as possible (even though I am the most rubbish person when it comes to DIY lolololol) so I've already collated several tutorials to run trials on. Some of the stuff we're incorporating our outdoor photoshoot with!

Pinwheels

 (Source: Measured by the Heart)

(Source: Etsy)

(Source: Bridesmaid)

 (Source: Unknown)

(Source: Postcards and Pretties)

(Source: Wscottchester Blog) 

(Source: Project Wedding)

This was actually sparked by the memory of my little cousin Shah Indra playing with this pinwheel toy at our engagement ceremony....

... and I thought it'd be great to incorporate pinwheels into the photoshoot since they're fun and they're colourful - the two exact elements that we want for our outdoor photoshoot. The only part I'm still not sure about is whether to do the usual matte ones using papers or felts or shiny ones like these. (Of course if the DIY process doesn't pan out well, we can always ask Shah Indra where he bought his pinwheel toy HAHA)

Oh, the best part about DIY pinwheels is the part where I can rope in people to help me with this: My sister has these awesome patterned square papers that she has used before to make pinwheels for her bedroom decor + and then there's Nani the DIY Diva! HALLO NANI! Amaciam, dah lama tak unleash the DIY Diva in you kan heh heh heh. 

Especially great to rope her in for this because she was the one who pernah cakap she wants to have a go at creating a DIY pinwheel bouquet, and she was the one who DIY-ed pinwheels for one of our picnics a few years back:

Oh, I also thought pinwheels will be great because it's senang nak buat ha. ha. ha. ha. ha.

Fabric or Felt Bouquets

At first I thought of just buying rainbow roses bouquet but on second thoughts, I didn't think that it would be fun enough as compared to some of the DIY fabric or DIY felt bouquets that I've seen before sooooo...

 (Source: Unknown)

 (Source: Camille Styles)

(Source: The Brides' Cafe)

(Source: Kreated by Kelly)

(Source: Labelle Bride)

(Source: Elizabeth Anne Designs)

(Source: Rock 'N' Roll Bride)

(Source: The Wonder Forest)

I was so excited squealing through pages and pages of the wonderful world wide web during the last half an hour in office that I decided to drop by the Art Friend outlet near my office to grab some materials to do a trial once I reached home:

Not perfect but I quite like it! Not bad for a DIY noobie who is used to taking the easy way out by paying someone else to do it for me ok. I had a very hard time trying to suppress thoughts of "Eh nak patah pe tulang belakang aku duduk potong ini bendealah" (padahal baru buat 1, 2 pieces LOL) and "Siak ah aku bayar $12 for everything, puas hati aku top up lagi $12 to $15 boleh beli and ship in the pom pom flowers bouquet from Etsy seh." 

HAIYA HOW ALL YOU DIY QUEENS DO THIS NI?!?!?! HAIZZZZZ

Anyway. Will experiment with a few other materials and few other designs (from the links above) before I decide which one will work the best. Maybe buying a cute pom pom bouquet from Etsy will work the best eh OK NO.

There are a few more ideas that we have on hand when it comes to props for the outdoor photoshoot but I think don't need to share everything right now lah ok. Nak jugak kasi surprise to our friends! Hehe. Plus I don't want to be too ambitious sampai everything gets rushed or terlalu banyak props sampai it messes up the look too much - too many elements in a photoshoot might take the essence away from the main purpose of the photoshoot - the couple themselves. (Zakaria warned us about this too!)

There are some ideas here if you're not sure what props you want for your wedding photoshoot... I think I quite like the exploding lollipops one hahahahaha. I know balloons are popular but definitely no balloons for us because I'm not a fan. My mat jangan cakap, dia lagi not a fan because he is scared of balloons.

And yes guys, you read that right - my mat yang badan besar muka fierce ni is scared of balloons ok. Macamlah itu balloon nak creep up on him in the middle of the night and drag him to a torture dungeon lah kan.

ZOMG

Guess what my mamat and I did over the weekend??? We watched our favourite Running Man episodes, revised our draft wedding itinerary, recalculated our budget... 

... aaaaand we changed the photographer for our outdoor photoshoot.

Very gatal, I know, but this last minute change, my friend, is well worth a million times over. Because our new photographer for our outdoor photoshoot?

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Is the ridiculously talented Zakaria Zainal (who I blogged about before here)

(For better viewing, you can visit his website here and Facebook profile here.)

MAHA LOVE HIS STUFF OK! Reaaally cannot wait for our outdoor photoshoot now!!!

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but my mum has agreed to sew my outdoor photoshoot dress for me - Have to resort to a DIY dress because I've tried looking online for a nice pretty dress under SGD100 but can't seem to find anything I like with such a budget hence the shameless cry for help to my supermother.

Tapi yang buat lagi exciting is ape tau?! The fact that I've found the perfect dress sample for her to recreate!!!!! Ran through that dress sample with two other dress samples with my bridesmaids just to see what they say and they voted for the exact one I wanted (without knowing that it was my #1 choice) because they agreed that the dress is "very me" :D :D :D

Happy sigh. Really love the amazing wonders of good old Internet lah - I was aimlessly browsing through wedding inspiration ideas and stumbled upon the dress by chance ok. Even found a super detailed online tutorial for my mum to follow step by step after that. So freaking happy!

Going out with my supermother this weekend to buy the fabrics! I am SO pumped to see how this turns out! (Pumped with excitement eh, not pumped with minyak)