happy updates! (and one less than manja experience)

Happy updates on the last few items on our wedding list!

(1) Bridal Shoes

Can you freaking believe it - I've found my dream bridal shoes for the wedding without any intention of doing so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I have been paying special attention to shoe shops whenever I go out for lunch (perks of working within walking distance to two shopping centres) for the past two months but nothing ever catches my eye. I was not too bothered by it really, because:

(a) I still have 6 more months to search for the perfect pair... and I think that's more than enough time to find bridal shoes. Right?!

(b) There is a possibility I might change my mind and have to buy another pair after I go for my outfit selection. Never know what'll happen - dah happy happy beli kasut kahwing way before outfit selection lepas tu bila pergi choose baju pengantin three months before the wedding tiba tiba colour and/or design tak kena with the outfits pulak.

(c) My married girlfriends tell me I can worry about getting a pair that I will love wearing because a good and pretty pair will make me feel really happy about wearing it but not too much sampai tulis emo poems slit wrist segala because firstly, there is a high chance I'll wear it during the wedding only and secondly, nobody will really notice during the wedding anyway (Aisyah asked me whether I remembered her bridal shoes to which I had to sheepishly admit with an "Errrrr... no.")

After considering the above, I figured bridal shoes is not something that I have to prioritize now and told myself I'll only actively search after I've gone for my outfit selection three months before the wedding.

And then... this happened:

Sham, Aisyah, my mat and I went to JB over the weekend to cut hair and buy groceries at Southern City and after we were done, we had to decide whether to head to KSL City Mall or City Square JB for lunch. Sham was championing KSL City Mall because my mat and I have never been there before - I actually preferred to go to City Square JB because terasa macam nak makan at Sizzling Stone Grill. But tak tau kenape, someway or another, my heart macam reluctant to voice it out because Sham seemed really keen on checking out the makan places in KSL City Mall.

Plus! My mat and I already told them before the trip that we'd follow their itinerary (because they were the ones who wanted to run errands in JB and we were there just to teman them for fun) and there really was no harm checking out a place we've never been to before kan? So I shrugged it off and we went with Sham's suggestion. 

Reached KSL City Mall and started walking around to look for interesting makan places that are not available in Singapore - takde maksud eh pergi JB pastu makan kat KFC or Seoul Garden (speaking of which... did you know that Seoul Garden provides halal catering for weddings too?!) But someway somehow by a fantastic twist of fate, I caught sight of a super cute concept shoe shop called 'Sugar'... and that was when I saw it - I SAW THE BRIDAL SHOES OF MY FREAKING DREAMS!!!!!!!!!!

Wish I took photos of the super cute shopfront but I was too distracted and excited to remember so here's a lousy screenshot off KSL City Mall's website haha:
 

They had a glass display filled with sparkly and glittery shoes suitable for weddings and just before the salesgirl brought down the pair I pointed out, I caught a glimpse of the price for another pair on a higher shelf - looked like RM239 or RM259. Thought that was not too bad, considering that it wasn't too far off from my budget for bridal shoes. Slipped on the pair I wanted and this, my friends, was how I felt and looked like:

So what else was there to do, right??? Told the salesgirl "I'm taking this!" and then she told me the pair I chose was on 20% off! Ish ish ish, ini anak... siang siang tak cakap, pandai betul kau buat orang lompat kegembiraan eh?! But just when I thought nothing could have made me happier after that, I asked her to confirm the price for the pair I chose so I could calculate the discounted price... and she said the original price for that particular pair was RM199!!!!! And all the while I thought it was above RM200 lor!!!

So there you have it - dream bridal shoes cost me RM199 + 20% discount = RM159.20 = SGD64.90. Ok, now. Exactly how does my dream pair of bridal shoes look like ni???

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I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE MY BRIDAL SHOES TO THE END OF TIME, CAN?!?!?!?!?!

Ok, here's a close-up for those yang suka tengok benda dekat dekat:

 

(I suspect the black markings on the sole was caused by me doing a little shuffle dance inside the shop because I wanted to see whether I can move freely in the shoes. Also because I wanted to dance my excitement out before I burst into flames of glory hahaha)

Took about a million pictures because I am freaking obsessed with my bridal shoes.

How can I not be? It is exactly what I dreamt of having but thought impossible because it looks like it only belongs on the glorious pages of Pinterest. And how often do you get something that fits all your pre-set criteria? This beauty fits all my criteria for bridal shoes ok:

- Must have thick platform

- Must have thick heels

- Must have bling blings all over

- Must be white or nude in colour

- Must be at least 4 inches high

- Must be covered (cannot be open-toe)

- Must cost less than SGD100

I was actually quite ready to let go of the "Must have bling blings all over" criteria because I figured it must be difficult to find something like that for under SGD100, and there is NO way I am ever going to DIY and pasang the bling blings one by one onto a plain kasut just to get that effect. Looks like I'm wrong because someone somewhere out there had taken on the daunting task of painstakingly pasting the bling blings one by one onto the kasut just so someone (me) can have her dream bridal shoes at a very good price - so whoever you are, I'm sending you lots of love and sparkle ok! ♥☆♥☆♥☆♥☆♥☆

And oh, guess what! With me hugging the shoes close to my chest (haha takut kasut tu lari pe), we headed to Oyster King for lunch after that... but found out that they were out of oysters for the day! (Ridiculous kan Oyster King running out of oysters?!?!?! Ape punya king tak guna ni, pergi letak jawatan and jadi nelayan sua. Gi pancing oysters sana.) We looked around for other makan places but tak berkenan with anything else so we ended up leaving KSL City Mall to have lunch at City Square JB instead. Turns out Aisyah wanted to makan at Sizzling Stone Grill but didn't voice it out earlier as well! So end up we went to KSL City Mall for nothing... except for me to unintentionally discover the bridal shoes of my dreams! YAY!

Fate works in wonderfully mysterious ways, doesn't it? My mat and I punya belief in rezeki and takdir was strongly reinforced after what happened during our BTO journey and this is another example that God has rewarded us with. Alhamdullilah for that! And now I can't wait to bring them babies out for my bridal outfit fitting appointment :D
 

Might have to peel them off my feet now and stop wearing them to sleep so they'll stay fresh and new for the wedding..........

(2) Invitation Cards

Already settled the invitation card design for our dinner reception (I love it!!! Thanks Adik!!! I love you till the end of time muah muah) so last I updated, we're left with the afternoon reception punya invitation cards.

A little hiccup here because we cannot seem to find anything his parents like :( Kita dah tunjuk invitation card vendors to them but semua macam cannot fit their liking. His mum quite liked Ruzanna's invitation card which was designed and printed by Card Maison (we passed her the card as sample) but even after we tried to steer them towards making a decision by telling them about Card Maison's promo last March, it was a no go.

Then we recently saw something from From Fran With Love that we thought might suit his parents' taste but even after a few rounds of possible revisions and suggestions, they are still not budging! My mat sampai dah give up wholesale and told his mum to cari her own sources haha.

(This was the card design that we thought his parents might like, by the way - if you prefer to have something other than the usual trendy postcard fare that's very popular now, you can approach From Fran With Love for this kind of card design:

Very simple but very pretty hor~~~)

On my end, I asked my mum the paling-relek-jek mak pengantin and my dad for their preferences but their replies were "Sembarang" and "Kau lah pilih, ayah ibu pilih nanti kau tak suka, kau tu kan cerewet" respectively. Lol. Trust my parents to know me so well lor.

So I looked through the different card design and printing service providers in the market (other than Card Maison, since we already missed the cut off period to place orders for our November wedding) - there's Pretty White Veil, Kad Pengantin, The Card Room, Studioflux Concepts, Khookhoodoodle (sister company of Innovazione Gubahans - whose gubahan designs are getting even more prettier by the day!) and the newly launched Paperkard (With a fellow kakak kahwing behind it! Hi Shuhada! :D)

But somehow I'm already very comfortable with From Fran With Love after liasing with her for the past two to three weeks sooooo I've finally decided to engage her services to design and print my wedding invitation cards! Absolutely love her service ok! She's super duper patient with my queries, always very cheery and friendly (Yay fellow Farhana! "Farhana" means "Happiness" by the way hehe) and keeps apologizing for "late replies" padahal lambat reply two to three hours je seh. Heh. Some sample designs off her Facebook page, in case you're interested!

(Source: From Fran With Love)

So yes, I settle the kettle for the wedding cards already YAYYYYYYY. Damn outstanding task been bugging me for months and now it's finally out of the way woohoohooooo.

(3) Baju for Groomsmen and Bridesmaids

Another thing that's finally out of the way is the baju baju kuat for our orang orang kuat! My mat met the guys to choose their fabrics and have their measurements taken at Grand City Tailor whereas I met the girls at Joo Chiat Complex to have their measurements taken and pass the fabrics we previously bought from Princess Fabrics to a well-known tailor called Manja last weekend and had both groups meet for lunch.

BY THE WAY - Can I just use this opportunity to complain about my horrible maha terrible experience at Manja??? The nyonya who attended to us WAS FREAKING RUDE AND CONDESCENDING TO THE MAX, PLEASE. Every single thing we requested for was replied with a "Ini design tak lawa lah!!!" "Lu buat gini tak cantik!!!!" "Apa pasal lu mau buat macam gitu???" "Wah lu mau bikin ini design wa manyak susah wor" "Ini design manyak leceh lah!!!" siap with jeling menjeling and annoying jabbing gestures EH SIAL LAH, aku peh suka, aku peh pasal ah aku nak buat macam mana sak.

You're already so overpriced because you pride yourself for good tailoring and workmanship kan??? If you're so bloody good at tailoring then how come semua pun you tak boleh buat and semua design pun leceh to buat or tak cantik to you???? One of the girls kept saying I should tolerate it because "semua tailor memang grumpy macam gitu pe" but I super hate when people who are good at what they do become mother bloody yaya and act like an asshole just because "they can afford to do so".

Plus she was not just grumpy, she was RUDE and she was CONDESCENDING. Not manja at all lor. I pay you good money to do your tailoring magic, not to be give me and my friends your perangai puaka. My regular tailor (who is also a nyonya by the way) is nowhere near grumpy like this mother bitchy nyonya, and even when she thinks a particular design tak akan suit the person wearing it, she will patiently explain why and suggest sound alterations to the original requested design.

It might have been my rotten luck to be attended to by that particular nyonya at Manja though - my girlfriend who often sends her stuff for tailoring at Manja told me that there are two shops at Joo Chiat Complex under the name Manja and the one that she always go to is another unit and the service there is much better than the one I went to. Pfft.

Will go to the other unit with my sisters next two weeks (because I need to get their measurements done as well for their baju) to see whether the experience is any better. For what it's worth, after I posted a picture on Instagram and captioned out my grievance with the nyonya, I had a few other people commenting to tell me they have had less than desirable service from the unit that I went to. Workmanship memang tip top tapi service macam siak. Urgh, marah ni >:-(

Ok dah that's it lah, tak nak angry and negative lagi because angry and negative vibes will be rewarded with angry and negative karma. So I shall now be a true blue Farhana and be very happy that at least we got to meet and catch up with every single one of our orang orang kuat all at one shot last weekend! :D :D :D :D :D

Sayang korang ke hujung dunia and thanks for making the effort to indulge us, guys!!!

And thank you for reading this whole chunk of an entry, korang. Sorry nak kena potong this entry abruptly because dah nak masuk my sleeptime. I pun kena get some sleep ok, you think I 24 jam blogging, vendor stalking and cari inspiration for the wedding is it.

bridesmaids over brunch

Finally met my bridesmaids for our bridesmaids convention brunch after 3 kali postpone!

Discussed their bridesmaids' outfits over brunch at Fika Cafe (siap with Powerpoint presentation heh heh heh dah bagus tu takde give out notes or show step-by-step video tutorials ok korang pfft) before walking down Arab Street to go kain hunting! (We ended up at Princess Fabrics because dah chummy with the staff and they've given good discounts to my family and my mat's family during our previous visits heh)

But before that, let me share pictures of their pretty bridesmaids gifts that I've been painfully keeping under wraps for almost two months!!!

Itched me so bad to not send them pictures via our Whatsapp chat group ok!!! But it was all worth it in the end because I got to see their surprised expressions and hear their excited squeals firsthand so super freaking huge YAY to that! :D :D :D

Another super freaking huge YAY is the fact that we also used the time to finally buy fabrics for their bridemaids outfits!!! Aku suka nak mampos ok!!! Very fresh, very pretty, and very "me" - whatever that means ah actually hahaha. Loved the fabrics so much sampai I started hugging and caressing them while bursting out into random squealing fits when the girls and I went to lepak at Nabins after the whole borong memborong session hahahahaha

Haiz kenape lah aku as the bride tak dapat tumpang gembira and pakai the outfits jugak eh. Nak jadi the bridesmaid instead of the bride ah gini.

updates from the long weekend

Oooh! Saw pictures of Liyana Jasmay's pretty wedding reception over the weekend!

(Source: Mukhriz Latif Photography)

(Source: Ryaniez Moments Photography)

Super cute couple, prefer her nikah reception punya decor over her dinner reception's, thought her wedding dress for the dinner reception is pretty adorable! Love the ribbon detail in her hair as well, might want to have something like that for my dinner reception tee hee :D

Loved the sleekness of her bridesmaids' outfits and hair for the dinner reception...

... but seriously not digging their outfits during the nikah reception:

(Source: Ryaniez Moments Photography)

I don't know - the outfits macam inspired by baju Gregorian and seems really weird to me :/

But again - orang punya majlis, orang punya citarasa, yes?

(Post note: Ok, seems like she really likes this Gregorian style...)

Anyway, taaaaalking about bridesmaids' outfits - meeting my bridesmaids at the end of this month to get our cupcake fix, I'll be passing them their gifts (Very excited about this! Been keeping their gifts under wraps for close to a month now) aaaaand discuss about their outfits. Yay yay! Already prompted the girls to start looking for ideas and inspiration so we can hopefully decide on their outfit design on that day itself then we can terus head down to Arab Street to get the kain. Chop chop, settle the kettle, no need to wait for buah to jatuh.

I was actually planning on settling the bridesmaids' outfits only in April/May 2013 (before Ramadhan/Hari Raya period sets in) but as with all other things in this #kahwinkhronicles journey, someway somehow semua kena brought forward ha ha ha. I figured there's no harm in starting now anyway, because sekarang memang period kita tengah takde anything much to settle or decide so might as well use the free time, betul tak! Plus, this whole buy kain thingamajig is actually triggered by our parents' recent borong-memborong session of kain!

What happened was: I went for lunch with my family last Saturday, and since we didn't have any plans after that, I asked my mum whether she wanted to go recce for kain for our relatives. She's been talking about buying kain to give to our relatives so everyone can buat baju sepasang to pakai during my wedding, and I thought it was a good opportunity for kita sekeluarga to do something related to my wedding together.

The intention was really to just recce for fabrics after our lunch but once kita masuk the kedai kain at Arab Street, my mum said not to waste time (I think I take after her in this aspect heh heh heh) and terus proceeded to borong the prada lace that she wanted to buy for our relatives!!!

I called my mamat (who was out with his mum) to ask how much his mum paid for the prada lace she bought few weeks earlier to act as a gauge as to whether the price that the shop assistant was quoting us boleh considered reasonable and the price she paid earlier turned out to be higher! $9 per metre higher ok! Told her we were getting the kain at a much better discounted price and she immediately told my mamat that they'll make a trip down to the kedai at that moment jugak - she was planning to buy kain for their relatives anyway (sama lah macam my mum, nak semua orang pakai boriah), so it was a golden opportunity because she pun get to buy the kain at the same discounted price. Ala ala strike while the iron is still hot, y'know? 

Told my mum about it, and she told me (away from the store assistant's earshot) that the reason why she was keen to buy itu jam jugak was because the price that the store assistant initially quoted us was already considered cheaper than those quoted by other shops that she's been to. What made it even better was my supermother managed to bargain the price down to $7 less per metre than the initial quote!!!!!

Wah, seriously tabik all our mak-mak for their bargaining skillz, man. They all ada pergi some kind of sekolah mak-mak to learn such skillz is it?!?!?! Once I kahwin and have anak, can I enrol in this sekolah to belajar the skillz jugak?!?!?! Hur hur hur.

I think it also helped that the store assistant who attended to us was super duper nice and friendly and patient nak mampos!!! If you're interested, you can look for Nabilah (She calls herself "Ilah") from Princess Fabrics located at 96 Arab Street (sebelah Royal Fabrics). We eventually left with 10 bags in hand, even bumped into my mamat and his mum (who proceeded to borong kain for their relatives as well!) on our way out heh heh

But that was not the end of it - went back to the shop the next day with my mamat and my future in-laws to buy prada lace to letak on his dulang to me, and kain samping to letak on my dulang to him. We were too distracted by the borong memborong kekecohan the day before sampai kain for dulang sendiri pun lupa!

Really super glad for the Chinese New Year long weekend because it was a very fruitful period for us, wedding-related wise - besides finally buying the kain for our dulangs and for our relatives, my mamat and I managed to spend some time catching up on our favourite show together (SAYANG RUNNING MAN!), checked our wedding budget (we're on track!) and brainstormed ideas for our Save the Date, invitation cards and seating chart for dinner reception :D

Since we've firmed up the design that we want for the said three items, I went on to prepare the instructions and mock-up for my sister and emailed them over so she can start work on them:

After all, what are little (visual communications graduate) sisters for, right? :P

Really can't wait to see how they turn out!!!!! If my sister can get them done by next month, then the next thing we need to do is source for printing quotes... although I'll probably go down the malas route and just ask my cousin (the genius behind Dekor Geeks) whether she can pass us her printing contacts heh heh heh

Oh, also decided to scrape the Save the Date video idea because now I'm too malas to carry out the idea hahahahaha so we'll just do a simple e-card to send out to our friends nearer to our wedding date. Still trying to decide when we want to send our Save the Dates out though - 3 months before? 4 months before? Can't release it too early because our guests might forget, can't release it too late because it'll beat the purpose of Save the Dates then, which is for our guests to block their schedules and plan their holiday trips around our date.

Ok lah that's all for now! Off to research for ideas and inspiration for my bridesmaids' outfits!

Besok suspect kuat ambik MC because I'm doing this while nursing a fever and a bad sorethroat. Sakit sakit pun masih nak research pasal wedding eh. Ni lah my mother panggil, perangai bersemangat tak bertempat.