signed, sealed and ordered!

Went JB yesterday with my mamat and my future in-laws!

I previously mentioned that we were having a tough time convincing his parents to print invitation cards for their guests with local vendors so we ended up accompanying them to JB instead (Even though they were reluctant to get their invitation cards done in JB initially because of the inconvenience.)

Didn't know where my future in-laws wanted to go to for the card printing at first - realized upon reaching that it looked familiar and found out we were in Larkin! 

[Side story: My parents used to bring my sisters and I to Larkin for Raya shopping when we were younger, and the last time I went was when I was in my teens - I was about 14 going on 15, I think? I remember getting into a heated argument with a bloody unscrupulous pakcik cab driver who was trying to cheat my dad out of his money. Told my dad to throw dua puluh ringgit at his seat, ordered my mum and my sisters to angkut all our barang barang out of his boot, banged all the doors and screamed at the pakcik telling him that he will get into an accident and die a horrible excruciating death right after that for wanting to cheat a family during Ramadhan no less!!!!! I can still remember the idiotic pakcik muka crook with his mulut terbuka ternganga while I stomped my family away haha such an angsty personality sebiji limau teenager I was. Haiiiii now who is going to defend my parents and sisters from such idiots when I go off to have my own family nanti? :( Ah dahlah start lah ni rasa rasa emosi ni lagi.]

ANYWAY. Back to the current cerita. Parked at the open space carpark opposite Larkin, crossed over via the overhead bridge, went for our late breakfast before taking the escalator up to the 2nd level to find the card printing shop recommended by my future supermother-in-law's student who printed her wedding cards there. She showed me the shop name and address that her student gave while we were heading up the escalator and I immediately remembered that this was the same shop where Raudhah of The Wedding Plan ordered her wedding invitation cards!

Mainly because of the shop name lah! When Raudhah tweeted about printing the cards at the said shop, my first thought was "Hah?! Tong Seng (the halal Chinese coffeeshop at Bugis) dah branch out into invitation card printing services pe?!" Hahahahaha sambil sambil ambik orders for nasi ayam and fried wantans, ambik orders for kad kahwin sekali ah kirakan hahaha

So you all jangan salah faham ok. Kita pergi print cards kat Syarikat Thong Seng in JB eh, bukan kedai kopi Tong Seng in Bugis eh! The kedai is located on the second floor, orange signboard, one of the corner units.

Signed, sealed and ordered! :D

Process is the old school way (new age way would be confirmation of orders and drafts by emails, payment by i-banking) but seems simple and straightforward enough - confirm order by completing their standard form and paying 50% deposit, return to the shop in two weeks' time to confirm the draft before they send the cards for printing, then collection will be one month after. Price-wise, definitely dapat harga baik ah - it was about 60 cents each for 500 pieces + additional costs for hotstamping of our names on the cover (additional RM100, I think.) Definitely cheaper if you get more lah, Raudhah got hers at about 30 cents each for 1000 pieces, if I remember correctly.

I really love the card design that his parents eventually chose, by the way!!! (Also pleased with the fact that the design was spotted and recommended by me heh heh) It was one of the prettiest choices that was presented to us, I thought, and it really fits his supermother punya requirements - off-white base, silver hotstamping detail and design that has unsur-unsur kemelayuan. I mean, it has a freaking songket design lah sia. That is as melayu as you can get, correct not?!?!?! How melayu lagi can it be??? Nak selet bau belacan to the card pastu suruh orang "scratch here to smell" or what sia hahahahaha 

sweet dreams are made of laduree

My mat and I won't be having a wedding cake.

We're not planning on having a cake-cutting ceremony / suap-menyuap session (not a requirement in some kind of Malay wedding guidebook we don't know about, right?) so we haven't bothered to research or source for wedding cakes. We're definitely open to the idea if any of our relatives or friends express their intention to sponsor one for us but other than that, we don't really see a need for a wedding cake at our reception.

But yesterday, my mamat bontot gatal pergi tunjuk his mum a vvvery nice picture of a vvvery nice macaron tower posted by Syarfique of Bliss Photocinema on his Instagram:

A vvvery nice macaron tower by Ladurée, no less! 

I think the little girly girl in my future mother-in-law must have squealed so hard.

Secara kebetulan, my future brother-in-law recently bought a box of Ladurée macarons for her because she is a hardcore macaron lover. (As most of us would know by now, Laduree recently opened a store in good old sunny Singapore.) Oh, and when I say hardcore, I mean junkie punya hardcore ok - kalau boleh shoot up macarons up her nerves three times a day, mesti dia nak try punya! Haha! Unsurprisingly, my mat told me that she reaaaaally loved the Ladurée macarons and said they tasted so much better than all the other macarons that she has tasted. 

Which is why she is now considering whether to order a macaron tower for our reception since we're not going to have a wedding cake at our reception! But nothing's confirmed yet - she wants to see their quote and think it through first so I (unsurprisingly) was handed the honourable task of asking Ladurée for their quote. The whole process was quick and painless - made a call to their store, was attended to by a very friendly assistant store manager who immediately emailed me a copy of their brochure.

Realized from their brochure that they also offer the macaron cube!

 (Source: Ladurée)

VAIR CUTE HOR?! I think I prefer the macaron cube to the macaron tower, actually!

But this, my friends, is not a decision for me or my mat to make of course, since his supermother is the one who is interested and contemplating on ordering one for our reception. Yang penting I dah jalankan my amanah to obtain the quote, betul tak! If she tak nak order anything in the end then we'll be back to having no wedding cake or any other wedding cake alternatives at our reception. But at least something useful came out of this, I guess - since I already have the brochure, I'm more than happy to email it over to anyone who is interested! Alternatively, if you want to consider other choices, you can refer to Feeling Feeling Kawin's entry on macaron towers here. 

May you find the macaron tower of your sweet dreams, darlings!

the right amount of plush

Oh my goodness me. My future mother-in-law will definitely adore this!!!!!

 

 

(Source: Facelift Designs & Interiors

Design & Floral Works: Facelift Designs & Interiors 

Event Contractors: Jentayu Gallery

Venue: Alkaff Mansion)

Very plush, very sophisticated, very my future mother-in-law. 

Even unsophisticated me (lol) fell head over heels the solemnization canopy ok!!!!!

Excuse the possible slew of entries featuring stuff that my future mother-in-law might like or love! Maklumlah going to discuss pasal decor dengan bakal mak mertua soon ma, so kena pandai pandai sediakan materials and ammo sebelum masuk gelanggang.

SCHEME

Saaaaayang the liaison person for our venue sooo much for being such a sweetheart!

When we first asked Dzul for our first site visit, we requested for it to be scheduled on a Sunday (which was his non-working day) because of our circumstances at that time and he graciously allowed an exception for us to do so. Then baru baru ni when we wanted to go down for a second site visit, we contacted him to ask whether we could go down to the venue last Deepavali break - we were trying our luck, really, it was a public holiday seh - we actually expected him to tell us to re-schedule and would've applied for half day leave or head down after work. But he gave us a quick OK and so off we went to our wedding venue for the second time!

Ok.  The reason why we wanted to do a second site visit was because memories of our wedding venue were pretty sketchy and we couldn't really remember the colours of the venue itself, which hampered our decision on our wedding colour scheme. You see, initially we sort of had an idea on what colours we wanted for our wedding decor but I told my mat to put a hold to it first because I was feeling 50/50 as to whether our initial colour scheme will match the colours of our venue.

Lo and behold, our second site visit proved to be really useful because after we took pictures and refreshed our memories on the venue size and colours - BAM! - we realized that our initial colour scheme did not really match the venue! Plus, the venue is much bigger than I remembered it to be!

I guess it's true what some of our friends have said about our venue - that our decor might tenggelam or look bare because of the size of our venue. Ini part dah kena accept the fact that we can't have our cake and eat it too - since we want a huge spacious venue, we'll have to accept this possibility of our venue looking quite bare even after dah kena decorated cantik cantik, ye tak?!

(Remember to take note of the size and colours of your venue the first time you visit it, especially if it's somewhere that is not as accessible as void decks or neighbourhood multi-purpose halls ok guys. It'll help with layout and colour scheme planning! Take pictures if possible, if not, ask for pictures from the venue's liaison person for reference. We didn't do this the first time we went down to our chosen venue, which is why we had to schedule this second trip after we couldn't visualize solely based on memory.

Now that I'm saying this, it's actually quite silly because it sounds like something very basic but my mamat and I were so taken in by how it was the best possible venue choice for us and it was a whirlwind process of understanding the terms and conditions and coming up with possible various layouts on the spot that it totally slipped our minds.)

Went back to our drawing board after the second site visit and our planning became so much more easier and clearer because we've decided to incorporate the colour of the large windows of our venue as one of the main colours for our colour scheme! The downside is that we're limited to the colours that can match the colours of the venue windows, but the upside is that we've become much more focused on what colours to use and play around with for our decor colour scheme.

Very, very, very glad we went down to the venue again! Might also go down to see the venue when there is a wedding in full swing as suggested by another one of our unofficial wedding advisors Sham (Thanks for all your help and input so far, bro! Heehee), but for now the wedding pictures that Dzul has given us and the pictures we've seen of weddings held at the same venue on Facebook is sufficient for us to roughly visualize how a wedding will look like at our chosen venue.

The next thing to do relating to our wedding colour scheme is to send it for my future mother-in-law's approval! Ala ala hantar proposal to management for approval gitu! Egads!

Akak iz very seram and very sejuk because unlike my own chill-lek semua-ok-boleh-go-lantak-kau-lah-budak mother, my future mother-in-law has... specific things that she likes or prefers.

Jeng jeng jenggggggg.

Bila dengar gitu, rasa macam gerun kan! Turun Battlestar Galactica rollercoaster kat USS tak pakai seatbelts pun tak gerun macam gini seh.

Ok that made her sound very the bekas bridezilla bakal mertua buas hahahahaha but hep heppppp, don't get me wrong eh! She's actually very easy to get along with (at least from my observation and interaction with her so far, Alhamdullilah), she's very learned and tertib and very pentingkan adab - senang cakap she's made up of a good heart, good manners and all the good stuff.

My only concern as of now is the fact that her taste is very different from mine.

I know some people complain their parents or future parents-in-law suka design or nak benda yang orbit orbit but my issue is of a different kind - I have no complains about my future mother-in-law's taste in decor and stuff because her taste is, in actual fact, top of the notch! She loves and appreciates all things classic and sophisticated and romantic and I'm grateful to have such a fabulously modern future mother-in-law.

Unfortunately, it is because her taste is very classic and sophisticated and romantic, there is an issue - my taste is far from classic and sophisticated and romantic.

Aku kalau boleh nak bentang rainbow carpet, gantung party streamers all over the ceiling and walls and set up colourful waterslides segala right smack in the middle of our reception seh kalau boleh. Hahahahaha. Senang cakap, I prefer things to be loud and bright and fresh and fun! Y'know? (This explains the choice of colours for my engagement, really. Haha)

And anak dia sendiri tak romantic langsung! Ape kebenda decor kahwin nak feeling feeling romantic?! To have a romantic setting for our wedding will not reflective of us as couple and we will only be lying to ourselves *cough drama cough auta cough*

I guess the good thing is both my mat and I have identified this possible clash earlier on, which is why we decided to arrange a discussion with his parents (or specifically, his mother) sometime next month - at least we can get to a persefahaman before we meet the boys from Kasai Sayang. Kalau tak kesian dorang, headache the pengantin want that and this but the future parents-in-law don't agree! I pun tak nak my future mother-in-law to get a rude shock when she masuk the wedding venue and suddenly find a circus for her majlis haha.

We're trying to strike a balance between my taste and his mother's taste in particular, although I've already mentally prepared myself for the possibility that I might even end up with a subdued wedding decor, siap with pale colours to suit a classy romantic setting (bye bye bright colours ku sayang..........)

Haiiiii, belum masuk gelanggang dah kena give up satu benda hahahahaha kalau ada cita cita nak jadi freedom fighter, dah boleh lupakan saje seh ni hahaha

Going for the discussion with a positive mind and positive heart, though! Because positive mind + positive heart = positive results. (Betul tak bedek! Cuba try. Dah cuba lepas tu try) Cannottttt wait for all the menyebok sebok kerja things to be settled latest by mid December so I can start working on my moodboards and proposal for presentation to my future mother-in-law before the year ends. Just for kicks, I'm going to do two moodboards - one that incorporates elements that I like and I think she might like and approve and another one that has all the elements that I like and will include if I didn't have to consider someone else's opinions and tastes for my presentation to her as well!

Mana lah tau......................................................

oh happy day

So our parents finally met and discussed our engagement plans last night.

The finalized arrangement is more than what we really want: I’m still going to use my own baju and own kawan for make-up and hair and my mum will cook food for the guests but the number of guests and the number of dulangs have increased.

I am strangely unconcerned about this anymore, probably because my friends have given me ample warning about how it will always be bigger than what we really want, and also because my mat has put his foot down and said that he does not want to interfere with our parents’ wishes anymore.

Let them be, he says, let them have their fun and let’s just enjoy this journey together.

My dreamy handsome mamat, always so lovable and adorable when he behaves like a child but ever so steady and wise when it comes to adult matters. Patutlah aku very sayang kat kau jantan!!!

In other weddingy news, I’m going to get ready for Elvy’s solemnization, happening later at 2pm!!!




We were so young and so reckless and always chattering about homework and boys, and now you’re going to be someone’s WIFE. I still can’t get over it baby girl, but I guess it will sink in when I see you dressed in your pengantin best in front of your tok kadi later.

I cannot be any more happier for you (Sadiq’s an absolute gem! A very loyar buruk one hahaha) and I wish the both of you nothing but the very best in your next adventure together.

And tolong jangan melalak lalak sampai jadi rudolph the red-nosed reindeer eh. LAST WARNING.

much ado about hairdo (part two)

Still trying to find ideas for my engagement hair.

I last wrote about this engagement hair issue in an entry back in July… it’s September now and I’m still undecided as to how I want to wear my hair! I was considering a few options, including the one that my sister suggested, but after much thought I decided her idea was too young and too casual for an engagement.

I mean, I like young and casual, but I still want to retain some kind of mmm formality (?) for our engagement so we’ll stick to a little bit of normalcy this time round, shall we? Heehee.

(Plus it’ll involve sweeping my hair away from my face which I do not like to do because I am very, very insecure about my face shape. It’s round like a prata! Wait no, it’s not just round… it’s round and it’s mampat. Like a burger. Mmmmm burger……)

Which made me start to think about how I shouldn’t be too ambitious, and that I should probably stick to tried-and-tested hairdos for – ahem – full-figured women. Haha!

And which kakak lawa will come to mind when I think of full-figured?

Kakak Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, of course.

(Although I can’t really decide whether her face shape is round or heart-shaped. Did a quick search on Google, the results seem divided.)

(Source: Unknown)

Macam mana she make her hair lipat lipat like that niii?!

(Not that I like this hairstyle much… I’m only sharing this picture because I like her bibir and her bulu mata here hahahahaha priorities songsang, nyah.)

(Source: Hair Romance)

I like her hair here because I like rambut messy messy!

But kalau buat rambut macam gini for engagement, maybe will backfire because nanti our parents will tanya why I baru bangun and never sikat rambut hahahahaha (A’AH, rambut aku ni macam bila aku baru bangun tido, asal, kau ade hal pe?)

(Source: Glamour Magazine)

Looks tertib and cantik! But tie hair up = round face shape = insecurity y’all

(Source: VIP Hairstyles)

Goldilocks-style kat hujung hujung! Not a fan. Not loving the fringe too.

(Source: College Fashion)

Yay! My feberet ikat tepi hairstyle!

(Source: Unknown)

Meh. Looks boring to me.

(Source: US Magazine)

This one so cantik melentik!

The last hairstyle above reminded me of something that Nani previously recommended to me! Tapi ini angan angan taik kuda, taik unta dan taik lalat sahaje ye tuan tuan dan puan puan.

(Source: One Wed)

VOLUME! VOLUME! VOLUME!

Unfortunately the only thing inside my house yang ada volume is my TV and stereo. Also my 2nd sister bila dia screaming at me to pick up my sampah sarap from her bed. Hur hur hur

(Source: Women in Me)

(Source: We Heart It)

(Source: Ruby Red Styles)

A style that I like but won't do (because of my insecurities): beehives! Them beehives can be reaaally cute when done right:

(Source: You & Your Wedding)

(Source: Unknown)

(Source: Wedding Bee)

(Source: Graph Paper Heart)

(Source: Handbag.com)

(Or if you want a slight twist, you can opt for french braid meets beehive hairstyle. Kalau shampoo boleh 2-in-1, takkan rambut tak boleh 2-in-1 kan)

GARRRGGGGGHHH can I just letak a mangkuk or a baldi over my head so I don’t have to worry about my hair and get this hairy issue out of the way already?!

***************

Taaaaalking about engagements.

We are dangerously close to not being able to realize our ideal engagement setting (something simple, as mentioned here and here) because my future father-in-law dah heboh roboh sekampung dua about our engagement and talking about “catering food from Minang” segala?!?!?! To our horror!!!

(Our, meaning, my mat, his mother and I. Have I mentioned how much I sayang my future supermother-in-law for having expectations that are seerti seiras with our ideal plans???)

My parents don’t know the specific details yet because they’re due to meet slightly before the end of this month so we’ll have to wait and see what comes out from that discussion.

Truth be told, I’m quittttteee close to giving up and giving in to my future father-in-law if he insists on a (hopefully, only slightly) bigger majlis because of two reasons:

(1) Most times I can control and scold my own parents if need be, but I cannot suka suka control or scold someone else’s parents kan! Especially when their own anak wants to give them leeway with everything *gives evil eye to my mamat*

(2) We’ve already “moulded” him into accepting a combined wedding reception, so no harm letting him have some fun with the engagement ceremony, yes? (I hope I don’t regret these words, my friends)

Oh well. Another round of waiting before we know the fate of our engagement plans. Asyik wait wait wait, tapi tak settle settle jugak. Nanti kita tunang lari, baru you all tau eh.