The Dinner Reception

And finally... here comes the last part of the wedding - the dinner reception!

It was a freaking mad rush from our outdoor photoshoot back to our wedding venue for the dinner reception because we (and our vendors) only had turnover time of about 2 hours before the dinner reception starts proper!

There was a whole lot of madness that happened between that two tight hours but if I were to list them all.......... I will finish writing this entry only in the year 2020 lah kan. But if there is one thing that I really want to mention and express my thanks for is the fact that I was so freaking glad I opted to top up for fresh make-up!!! Penting wor!!!

My face was thick with oil and grim and what disgusting have yous by the time we returned to the venue - I actually started feeling very icky during the later part of the sanding reception already so to be able to wash off the thick gunk and have fresh make-up for the dinner reception felt SO GOOD.

We have A WHOLE LOT of people to thank particularly for the success of our dinner reception but I'll leave that to the 'Thank you' entry that will precede the end of this blog (Yes, there will be a 'Thank you' entry lol) so let's just jump straight in to the story now lah okay:

Us, getting ready for the night:

And this is us, all ready to get the party staaarteddddddd!

Orang orang kuat! Roll out!

We marched in to Mozella's Love is Endless, as mentioned here.

I look damn toothy in all the march-in pictures, but that's because I was grinning so hard, I was so exhilarated!!!!! I really don't know how to describe the whole experience but it was truly a special kind of joy to see beaming, happy faces of all our friends who made the time and effort to come celebrate our love and happiness :,) 

Us, giving our half-baked speeches lol (I dilly dallied on preparing my speech and ended up with NO speech prepared on wedding day. So I just blurted a quick impromptu one, as did Saliheen.):

Settling down to give way to the video highlights and our speech givers...

Love love love our wedding video highlights, by the way! Well worth the same-day edit top up and the video editor used the song we suggested (Love is Easy by McFly) so it was nice to groove to something we like :D

Ahmad and Nadiah were our speech givers that night. Sayang korang!

Not posting up the picture of Nadiah giving the speech because... she will haunt my dreams as a cik pon if I do hahahahahaha. (Tip to all photographers: NEVER EVER photograph a plus-sized person from a bottom angle. EVER.)

Lainlah kalau it's someone skinny like my brother-in-law.....

(Brother-in-law seh...)

And yes, my brother-in-law ended up giving a speech, too! It was a last minute addition because he told my mamat he wanted to give a speech about two weeks before the wedding. Ngawww. The addition kind of dragged the time for a bit though, and I was feeling slightly anxious about making people wait for their food but I guess it turned out fine in the end? :/

(My mamat specifically didn't want to make our guests wait for the video highlights and speeches to be over before they can makan the food macam Chinese weddings so we explicitly stated in our wedding website AND we made our wedding emcee announce that guests were free to take their food before the ceremony started (before we marched in) and they were free to eat during the speeches as well.

But nobody moved an inch towards the buffet tables pun so everyone ended up waiting for the video highlights and speeches to end before they had their fill!!!!! This one I blame my mamat bulat bulat okay! I told him it's natural for guests to wait until after the video highlights and speeches before they help themselves to the buffet so no matter what you do, it will happen that way - after all, it's only good manners, and I would think all our colleagues and friends have that, right?! 

But nooOOOoooOoooOoo, he insisted that if we give notice and the emcee makes the announcement urging guests to start eating first before our march-in and during the speeches, people won't have to starve through the video highlights and speeches. PFFT. Yet another instance where I am proven right but will this rebel without a cause listen to me the next time we try to sort through a possible issue?!?!?! NooOOOoooOoooOoo)

Ho well. Dah terjadi. At least everyone enjoyed their food in the end! :D

And yes, that's our guest seating chart which I love love looovvveeeee ♥ ♥ ♥

But I wished I had left the description of which group goes to which tables... apparently some guests didn't know where to start bila nak cari their names! 

Actually the initial draft had the description of all the groups e.g. 1 - TNPS, 2 - TNPS, 3 - TKGS, 4 - TKGS, 5 - TP, but the descriptions made the design look jarring + Saliheen and I have mutual friends yang cannot be categorized into a description (Macam mana nak explain eh????? Susah.) so we scrapped that off. Heh. So sorry kepada mereka meraka yang had to spend some time trying to find your names eh hehehehehe

Besides our guest seating chart, one of the stars of the evening was Dessert Artisans' freaking amazing dessert tier, of course!!! My mamat and I were extremely pleased with it and so were the guests!!!!! But of course, reviews will come in a separate entry lah ye, macam tak tau pulak the SOP by now :P

SO AWESOME HOR?! ♥ ♥ ♥

It was SO awesome, someone was caught on camera hijacking desserts off the setup that night.......... 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. EVIDENCE KUAT PE ILI!!!!!

And Nunu, you jangan nak ketawa ketawa eh, what is this I hear about you running around with a plate of Puteri's desserts around the hall????? Hahahahahahahaha!

Oh oh oh, by the way, I should also mention that Dessert Artisans did not just set up our wedding dessert tier that night - they were also responsible for the maha lovely guestbook and guest reception table for our dinner reception tau!!!!! This guest reception table setup came complimentary with the package that we booked with them at last year's wedding exhibition held by Jentayu Gallery (See, this is why people go to wedding exhibitions, you know. To get discounts and freebies. Although we went to that exhibition with no intention of booking anything lah actually :P)

Yummy nak mampos macaron favours from Ola Lola for our dinner guests! ♥

Favours were arranged by my little fairies tau! Little fairies being my sisters, my cousin Mimi and our family friend (who is also my middle sister's good friend) Haziqah - I enlisted their help because I knew my bridesmaids would have their hands full, what with the tight turnover time to clean up and get everything running, and having extra (helpful) hands wouldn't hurt.

I was so happy with them in the end because they were such great help!!! Oh, and apparently, salah satu of them was the one who came up with the brilliant idea of displaying the macaron favours on the table in an 'S ♥ F' arrangement and I totes love it!!! So teratur and pretty!!! Made for pretty pictures for our guests, who snapped pictures of the arrangement and posted them on Instagram!

I would have been happy enough if the macaron favours were just stacked up nicely so this is above and beyond my expectations ♥♥♥

(Side story: When I first enlisted their help, I told my sisters I'll call their group "my little elves". My baby sister, being the cute, naive and maha selenge bacin girl that she is, actually asked innocently: "Huh??? Kakak nak kita dress like little elves during the dinner???" HAHAHAHAHA LEPAK KE APE KAU BUDAK. 

Was almost tempted to rent elf costumes for them after that!!! Tapi takpe lah, nanti orang ingatkan early Christmas dinner lah pulak :P)

And of course, the other star of the reception would be our Hello Forever photobooth, of course!!!!! AKU MAHA SAYANG ITU PHOTOBOOTH TAU!!! But more on that in my review entry, lagipun you guys would have seen the video of all the photobooth shots which I posted here, and reproduce below:

Hello Forever | Saliheen & Farhana from Hello Forever on Vimeo.

Another thing that we were very happy about was our wedding emcee pairing up with our videographers during our dinner reception to walk around and get guests to record video dedications for us!

We didn't catch everyone's video dedications while they were ongoing because we were busy walking from table to table to mingle with our guests when we weren't on the pelamin taking pictures, so now we can't wait to see the actual video footage of all the dedications!!! (We can't wait to watch the whole wedding video lah, period.)

Oh, and in case I didn't make it clear enough - our dinner reception was made up of our colleagues and friends only, by the way. Right from the start, we'd already agreed that we'd want an arrangement that can separate our families and relatives from our colleagues and friends for our wedding.

The main reason for this was because we wanted to have more time to interact with our colleagues and friends during our wedding rather than a quick phototaking session and a rushed "hi! congratulations! bye!", which is something that usually happens when we go for our friends' wedding receptions.

This became one of our best decisions because we were really happy with how the dinner reception turned out and we definitely got what we wanted - we had time to chat and mingle with our different groups of friends, even took photobooth shots with some of them, and our friends didn't have to worry about "kena kasi family members ambik gambar dulu" or anything of that sort. Senang cakap, they didn't have to compete with our relatives for space and attention, and we were very, very, very pleased with that.

And with that.......... THE WEDDING IS OVER, SUCKERS!!!!!!! 

OVER! FINISH! FINITO! THE END! HAAAAABIS!

Aku punya blog entries je yang macam tak habis habis ni.

akan datang

Still trying to find time, energy and inspiration to blog about the wedding amidst crazy work period, catching up with family and friends, running post-wedding errands, sorting out bedroom arrangements and... taking care of a suami, of course hehehehehe

So in the meantime, while waiting for the time, energy and inspiration to lai lai come, I'll just post up this adorable video of fun shots from our dinner photobooth which Hello Forever awesomely put together!!!!!

Hello Forever | Saliheen & Farhana from Hello Forever on Vimeo.

Y'know, truth be told, one of the reasons why I keep trying to stall from blogging is because... I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START LAH SIAK. There's just SO many things to say, SO many angles to cover, SO much memories to jot down, SO much happiness at what went super duper right and SO. much. angst. at what went wrong ha ha ha ha ha

In a bid to try and collate my thoughts, I've decided to list down how I want to structure my upcoming blog entries so hopefully I can stick to this list as much as possible! Of course kalau tiba tiba ada lebih inspiration datang melanda, I'll happily add to this list.

01. The Pre-Wedding Preparations (Part 1) ✔
02. The Pre-Wedding Preparations (Part 2) ✔
03. The Pre-Wedding Preparations (Part 3) ✔
04. The Solemnization ✔
05. The Sanding Reception ✔
06. The Outdoor Photoshoot ✔
07. The Dinner Reception ✔
08. The Post-Wedding Errands ✔
09. Vendor Reviews - Catering, Decor and Entertainment ✔
10. Vendor Reviews - Andaman, Photography and Videography ✔
11. Vendor Reviews - Dessert Tier, Chiavari Chairs and Kompang, Gubahan, Favours and Photobooths, Bridal Room, Henna, Bouquet and Invitations ✔
12. Thank You Notes, Final Overview and Goodbye

Ada bagus? Bagus. Let's get cracking, suckers!

#shamsyah + #natazmin

It's been so freaking hectic at work!

Not that I'm surprised, of course, because after working at my current workplace for two years plus, I'm well aware that peak periods for my department are from late February to late April and from late September to late November. Just gotta grit through the next one month plus because once December cruises by, I'll be back with quicker email replies and regular updates. Hehe.

First things first, before I officially change the name for one of my vendors under the Vendors page (Yes, we changed one of our vendors! Gasp!), I just want to do a quick one on Shamir and Aisyah's wedding that happened last two weeks. Mari kita mulakan dengan gambar gambar dulu yer.

 

[Pictures from my Instagram, Flipside Stories and friends of the couple who tagged pictures in FB]

Overall it was a lovely wedding for the lovely couple (even though there were issues that could've been handled better) and they looked super fab on their wedding day thanks to Aisyah (lol Aisyah the MUA dolling up Aisyah the bride) from Anggun Wedding Services! Absolutely adored the nikah outfit and accessories, the baju melayu for sanding was a bit so-so (only my opinion, of course) but the indian outfit for their sanding was so exquisitely cantik and I very suka! But the hot favourite among the guests (also the bride's favourite) is the wedding dinner dress which suited Aisyah's style so, so well. Looks like the couple's brave decision to switch their andaman to Anggun Wedding Services two months before their wedding was well worth it :D

As for the wedding food, personally I wasn't a fan of  the way the food was served and its presentation but tak boleh deny that the food from Hassan Rabit Catering is super good and from reviews, guests enjoyed eating the food tremendously... itulah yang paling penting for a majlis kahwin, betul tak! Part part cerewet pasal presentation and serving style ni semua only leceh people like me will fuss about. Heh heh heh.

Oh, in case anyone's looking for a super big air-conditioned hall for a Malay wedding (especially suitable for combined wedding receptions), the multi-purpose hall at Grassroots Club is a very good place for you to consider! Their hall is very spacious and the location is easily accessible to your guests, even if they're travelling by public transport (Yio Chu Kang MRT kat sebelah je, you buat two or three standing broad jumps je dah sampai). It really is unfortunate that the venue is in Ang Mo Kio, because this would have been our first choice if it's in the Eastern/Central part of Singapore!

Ok I know this was supposed to be a quick one but I have a buruk habit of not making my blog entries "a quick one" because I'm panjang lebar menjela like that - so the next time I say it'll be a quick one, you JANGAN HARAP LAH it'll be a quick one. Hahahahaha.

The reason why this entry will not be a quick one is because I also want to blog about the maha gorgeous wedding of Natasha and Azmin!!! Ok, Nat and I have never actually met in real life - Nat came across this blog few months back, and after few comments here and there and a long list of recommended venues (with pros and cons) which she very generously shared with me, we started corresponding via emails. When I lamented that I've never tasted wedding food from Anggun Wedding Services before, Nat very kindly invited my mat and I to her wedding because they're her wedding caterers! So nice, hor?!

Which reminds me... I should remember to ask Nat whether they delivered their services well and whether their food is as good as I've heard.

Ok the reason why I need to ask is because I couldn't make it to her wedding in the end!!!

Boo freaking hoo, please. It was really unfortunate for me that her wedding date fell on the same day(s) as Nani's! I really thought I could've made it in time because I already planned the timing sui sui in my head but it was just not my rezeki. It started raining after Nani's solemnization and we had to wait until cuaca reda before we can head out for the outdoor photoshoot (the sun turned merciless while we were finally out for it!!! Cilakz). By the time we were done, my mat and I dah almost terlentang kat tepi longkang and it was already too late to make it for the wedding.

We ended up skipping two other weddings that we had on that day as well.

(Yes. We had four freaking weddings to attend that weekend ok. FOUR. Asal tak multiply by five jadikan twenty weddings sekali kan?!?!?!

Hahaha ok lah, takmu drama lah, actually we could have made it for all four weddings if we were not Nani and Poji's orang kuat lah. But we were, so... we should've anticipated the last minute plan changes and the physical and mental exhaustion that orang-orang kuat for weddings pikul lah.)

Very sorry to pengantins whose weddings we missed! Kita janji tak buat lagi ok. Haha.)

Anyway, it was our loss to miss Nat and Azmin's wedding, because it was so awesomely lawa!

No picture, no talk? NAH. PICTURES.

[Pictures from friends of the couple who tagged them on FB]

How bloody lawa are the outfits and the make-up hairdo segala?! I know some might not agree with me (especially those yang lagi suka dramatic make-up and complicated bridal outfits with renda renda bulu bulu labuci labuci berkilauan from head to toe with puffed up sleeves and kain terikat terbelit) but I like my bridal outfits and andaman simple but classy level: 1000 ok.

Of course, it's a bonus that the bride herself is a natural stunner so semua baju pakai pun will nampak lawa gila lah! Just a touch from the magical hands of Abang Hadi from Versari Ade, and we have a winner, betul tak?!

Oh, and I very the jatuh hati jatuh tangga with the wedding dinner dress, please!!! If that was my wedding dress, I'd wear it to sleep for the next ten years of my life. Betul tak bedek.

Also have nothing but praises for the decor and dais for their afternoon reception (not my style but how can I deny how lawa and royal they are kan?!) but the decor for their dinner reception lagi an absolute dream!!! Why am I not surprised that the decor company responsible for such awesomeness is The Wedding Chateau??? I love, love, love the stuff done by The Wedding Chateau but I think I'll save my thoughts on them for another day. Because kalau I go on, this will become a 3000-page report. Bukan 3000-word report yer, 3000-PAGE report.

(I must mention that I'm digging the napoleon chairs - although I know there are people who will throw up their arms and say "IT'S ONLY A BLOODY CHAIR! THEY ALL WORK THE SAME!" which is true lah but WHATEVZ, aku suka pulak and malas nak explain myself pulak. Haha!

Anyway, when I was telling Nani about Nat's wedding, I joked about how Nat has earned the right to flip her hair and say "Chiavari chairs? What chiavari chairs? Bitch please, I'm having Napoleon chairs at my wedding.")

Hahaha! Sorry, I couldn't help but finish that off with a gif.

I think it also helps that the venue that the couple booked for their wedding dinner memang cantik on its own!!! It's none other than the beautiful Alkaff Mansion, located at Telok Blangah Green. Nat told me they have a huge outdoor courtyard at the bottom of the hill (the mansion itself is on the hill), where there's an air-conditioned marquee specially for events. Best part is: you can bring in your own caterers! (Beautiful music to your ears, if you're a bride-to-be struggling to find a spacious venue that allows you to bring in your own caterers. I cannot even begin to express how unbearably pissed I get when I see or hear the line "you must use our in-house caterers if you want to book our venue for your wedding event" URGH. SO JIJIK.)

Ok that wraps up my blog entry for today! In case anyone starts thinking that every wedding pun amazing and gorgeous and awesome to me hahaha I should probably put on record yang that's not true!!! The only reason why it sounds like I'm always raving or almost raving about my friends' weddings is because...

... takkan I want to talk bad or make fun of weddings that I don't like / don't enjoy kan??? If it was your wedding I find fault with, you suka tak??? Tak suka kan??? Tak baik of me kan??? Which is why I only blog about weddings that I truly and genuinely enjoy attending or seeing on Facebook, which also explains why I'm always squealing about the awesomeness of the ones I do end up blogging about. Heh heh. If there are aspects of the wedding that I personally did not like, I usually glaze over with an unenthusiastic line or two or totally not mention about it at all.

Of course there are times I want to fully bitch and fully whine about the merepek and buruk parts of weddings or the dirty tactics or perangai buruk of merepek and/or snarky wedding vendors that I've heard or seen with my own kepala mata but I can't and I won't (unless they've been reported all over) because lain orang, lain experience, lain pendapat.

All these things better to simpan belakang tabir because very the sensitip, nyah. Kawan kewat I pun tak sensitive sampai tahap kritikal macam gini, nyah.

Ok, ok, I'm well aware that I started this entry wanting to ceritakan about changing one of our wedding vendors but dah tak cukup masa ni because I'm rushing off to have breakfast and movie with my mamat. Ni kirakan aku macam feeling feeling drama cliffhanger lah gitu, kalau nak tau perkembangan seterusnya, watch out for the next episode update! Ciao.