onward to the second stage of preparation, comrades!

Looks like half of the items on our list for the next stage of proceedings are more or less settled!

Padahal supposed to look see look see dulu aje tau then early January 2013 baru start chop, but after kita dah recce and we like what we see, we didn't want to hegeh or bother ourselves with details any longer so out out out the deposits go. No pain, no gain, no guts, no glory, y'all.

1. Kompang

Signed, sealed and happily settled with Kompang Zapin Berdendang!

2. Kursus rumahtangga (Pre-Marriage preparation course)

Already identified when and where we want to attend the pre-marriage preparation course and am now waiting for 2013 slots (at the masjid that we want to go to) to open! Called the main centre and they said most probably December baru the slots will keluar.

Ni macam baru betul kalau gua bukak line "Lu tunggu Christmas ka pa?!" hahahahaha

3. Berkat (Wedding favours) 

I last wrote about berkat here and here and since then, both our mothers (whom we've given the right and freedom to choose our wedding favours) has stuck to their choices, which is pulut kuning with telur merah and macarons respectively. Very decisive, I very like!

I'm also liking the fact that these two items are such a contrast from each other  - pulut kuning with telur merah is such an old school berkat whereas macaron is such a modern berkat. Berkat yang lama bergading bahu dengan berkat yang baru at a combined reception, fuhhhhh dah macam sepakat membawa berkat, babe! (Takde link as usual hahahaha)

My mum's been bugging me about confirming her orders and placing the deposit... I think she maha excited about her pulut kuning and telur merah berkat because she's not the sort who bugs me about stuff! Hahaha so cute lah my mother ni. Pasal decor, dia tak kacau aku, pasal bridal, dia tak kacau aku, pasal catering, dia tak kacau aku, pasal berkats pulak dia betul punya enthu.

Ok lah, terus terang I was sliiightly dragging my feet on this because as much as I lurrrvvveee the idea of pulut kuning and telur merah as wedding favours (so nostalgik!), I'm still takut and apprehensive about my mum's berkat choice because I'm concerned about the quality of the pulut kuning berkats! It's quite tricky to maintain the freshness of pulut kuning and I wouldn't want the pulut kuning to become basi when my family gives them out to guests :(

But almost every other day the goddamn berkat issue bugs me to end sampai otak aku yang naik basi ok! So I decided to tawakkal and went ahead to book the berkat for my mum few days ago. SETTLE THE KETTLE. No more thinking about pulut sampai brain cells pun boleh basi.

In my previous entry on berkats, I mentioned Ovenly Sweet and Rasa Syiokur @ Breeze Bait (and Rita Pretty Pastries but she confirmed with me that she does not do bulk orders for pulut kuning - such a shame, because she's super friendly!) but I ended up booking the pulut kuning favours with MelJ's Genre! Mostly because Ovenly Sweet did not reply my messages and because both my mum and I prefer MelJ's Genre punya design over Rasa Syiokur @ Breeze Bait.

My encounter with MelJ's Genre is another one of those twist of fate moments that I've experienced on this wedding preparation journey! (Which I'm very versyukur about, Alhamdullilah):

Added them on Facebook sometime back for something totally unrelated - a girlfriend asked me for contacts for coconut blossoms earlier this year and I happened to see MelJ's Genre's blossoms picture tagged on someone's wall so I added them to see more of their albums - but somehow when I was compiling information for pulut kuning berkat, I didn't notice them in my Facebook list (which is why they're not listed in my initial list for pulut kuning berkat vendors).

As mentioned previously, I was dragging my feet on this pulut kuning business until sometime last two weeks, I thought ok stop stalling and let's get this settled once and for all. Logged in my Facebook account and lo and behold - a picture of their berkat pulut kuning appeared at the top of my feed!!! Coincidental maha coincidental sak. Realized that I missed them out after checking through my list so I immediately messaged them to for quotes! Took me two weeks to finally sit down and show pictures to my mum, who immediately approved the design and quote, so I gave them my confirmation, deposit transferred and there you go: another piece of kahwin khronicles history.

 

(Source: MelJ's Genre)

Silly thought but I'mwondering why the name was MelJ's Genre seh. Kenapa genre? Pulut pun ada genre eh? Pulut soul? Pulut reggae? Pulut rock? Pulut pop? Pulut K-pop? And kenape MelJ? Adik beradik dengan Mel B and Mel C from the Spice Girls ka? Tapi ni Spice Girls dah bercampur dengan rendang spices ka? Hahahahaha)

Ok ok I'll quit it with the cheap lawak jenaka and move on to the next part on our quest for wedding berkat - now for my mat's side! His mum right from the start memang dah cakap nak macarons so I've been looking for vendors on her behalf - as of now, I have three vendors who have given quotes:

Cake Love Couture: I've mentioned that their stuff are very sedap before and I trust that their macarons will be just as sedap but I'm not a big fan of the speed of their response (the lack of it, rather) - so I'm not going to consider them.

Sweet Merveilles (under Macarons, Cookies and Cakes): Never tasted their stuff before so I don't know what to expect. Seems nice and reliable enough, and gives very prompt response. Thought of getting a sampler pack so we can taste their macarons before making a decision.

Ola Lola: I was pleasantly surprised when they told me they do bulk orders for macarons as wedding favours because I was under the impression that they do smaller quantities! Am paling keen on them - they'll be doing our dulang hantarans anyway so satu shot sekali ah kirakan.

I also asked Dessert Artisans but they have their hands full with our wedding dessert tier that weekend so they can't quote us for macaron wedding favours heh heh heh.

There's also another player in the market who does sweet treats like macarons for wedding favours but I cannot seem to put my finger as to why I don't really fancy or trust this company / person all that much. I know it might seem silly to not trust and engage a company / person based on a gut feeling but better to be safe than sorry, tio bo?

Anyway I mentioned about this person to Nani, who gave me a good reason as to why I might be feeling this way: she is always posting pictures of "inspiration" - which is totally fine by the way - but the problem is she posts very little pictures of her own creations. Even the very few pictures that she does post are heavily editted or angled in such a way that you cannot really tell the quality of her workmanship. Sorry eh geng, lu dodgy, gua dodge, selamat jalan romeo, sister!

Anywaaayyyyy, the update on this is:

We've decided not to wait any longer and have confirmed our interest with Ola Lola! Waiting for them to confirm that we can transfer our deposit before this berkat issue can be laid to rest and our minds will have more space to think about other more pressing wedding-related issues like deciding on a wedding theme once and for all!!! Maklumlah, akak ni one year away from being on the wrong side of my twenties, memory space pun makin lama makin kurang and makin karat. Akak punya bakal pulak jangan cakap, memang dah maha on the wrong side of twenties pun.

 (Source: Ola Lola)

4. Barang barang dulang

Nothing concrete yet - although we do have a more or less confirmed list of the type of things that we want to put on the dulangs - but we'll definitely borong during the next Great Singapore Sale! This one cannot bring forward in advance eh because sale period memang dah fixed June/July 2013.

Also glad we have flying friends (no, no, not pigeons or fatimah rockers, mak ai SERAM PE kalau ada kawan pigeons or fatimah rockers hahaha) and travelling friends who are willing to help us purchase our stuff from overseas to take advantage of the cheaper costs, if need be! His parents might also be going to London sometime in June next year for his brother's graduation and we're hoping to tumpang bahagia by kirim-ing an item or two for our dulangs heh heh heh

5. Wedding Bands

December is coming up in a week's time so let the Christmas sales begin!!!

Since we didn't buy a ring for my mamat masa time beli cincin for my engagement, we're not very sure how the selection is like for lelaki rings - will need to set aside one of the weekends before Christmas to pergi recce wedding bands. Sesiapa yang baru jejak masuk ke alam wedding planning ni, ingat eh, number one golden rule among the kakak kakak kahwin network is that you must always always always wait for Great Singapore Sale or pre and post Christmas/Chinese New Year sales to buy cincin tunang or cincin kahwin because the harga all kena slash maha slash!!! If you beli your barang barang outside of these sales period punya windows then you're either terlalu selenge or terlalu kaya. Or both. Or mintak kena back hand.

6. Bridal Henna

Henna is not really an issue now since I've already made my booking with my henna artist sometime in March this year. (Not because slots get snapped up fast but because I already knew who I wanted and didn't want to put it off.) I mentioned before that I'm not a fan of henna but my dad will probably make noise about it and henna is seriously something that is perkara kecik as compared to all the other wedding-related things. My feelings towards henna is impartial anyway (I don't love it but I don't hate it either - same as my feelings towards cats! Meow~) and I can choose to opt a super simple design anyway sooooo book bridal henna it was! And with Syraskins it was!

Very glad I booked with Syraskins because the owner is so so so uber nice and prompt!

Ok what happened is really caused by my gatalness because what happened was: I initially booked my henna appointment date on the Friday afternoon before the wedding - thought it through and decided that it was too close for comfort, and what happens if I have last minute things to do on that day?! So I recently asked to change the appointment date to the Thursday before the wedding date via email, got a phonecall from Quraisha from Syraskins letting me know the available timeslots to choose from and I carelessly chose an 11am timing (tengah tak concentrate seh tu... I was tucking in to my Samurai burger leh!).

Processed the idea after that but realized I didn't like the idea of waking up early to get the bridal henna done (hahaha what WHAT) and what if I want to schedule my spa session that Thursday afternoon?! Ok probably won't make any difference but I'd rather not "kacau" the henna on my hands and feet right after it's applied *cough* irrational fear *cough* Called Quraisha again to ask if I can change to an afternoon timeslot instead - unfortunately, the best timeslot (6pm) already taken by another bride-to-be :(

Had to make do with a night timeslot instead, which I guess is ok lah because I don't plan on doing anything intricate (so I shall assume the process will take a shorter time) and it also means that I will have time on that Thursday afternoon to settle other stuff before winding down with a henna appointment (Apa ni?! Two days before the wedding masih planning "to settle other stuff" ni?!)

Quraisha was super nice and patient and oh so bubbly with me even though I kept changing my appointment  - BOO ME!- and I am so grateful she didn't reach out through the computer screen or telephone to give me a tight bitchslap even though she should have lah seriously. Benda lain boleh decisive tapi bila part henna menggelabah semacam. Ape maksuddddd.

Bridal henna prices and packages are easily found on Syraskins' Facebook page!

Some designs from their Silver package:

 

... and some from their Gold package:

(Source: Syraskins)

Another bride-to-be blogger Strip Shidah did an entry on bridal henna here before so if you're more particular about bridal henna than I am, you might want to read on. Tapi kalau tak particular pun boleh baca because she listed down some tips on booking bridal henna... very useful!

Ok dah tu je for now. Next step is to meet my future mother-in-law to run through decor ideas!!! :O

But that one I kena come back and bukak entry baru pulak ok. Kalau tak nanti overrun pulak entry I ni nanti.

gendang si gendrum

Ok so which one of you buggers did not get engaged or married on 10/11/12???

Hahahahaha kecoh pe Facebook, Twitter and Instagram aku jadinya, everywhere flooded with pictures of engagements and weddings and congratulatory messages for even more engagements and weddings! Congratulations to all 158 Malay-Muslim couples who got married last weekend!

Unsurprisingly, my mat and I had weddings of our good friends to attend, so off to Bedok and Clementi we went last weekend! Ok, I must explain here that I've never really followed my mat to any of his friends-related events like dinner gatherings, housewarming parties, birthday celebrations, weddings, stuff like that - I'm usually busy with my own events or feeling extra bloated or extra pemalu hahahahaha so I almost never make an appearance at his friends' events. Sampai to the point that they actually asked him before whether he really has a girlfriend, whether I actually do exist and jokingly speculated that he must have "an imaginary girlfriend".

SO TAK BAIK YOU ALL.

So when my mat asked whether I wanted to accompany him to his good friend Shahrizat's wedding in Clementi last weekend, naturally I flat out refused and used the excuse that I wanted to stay on at my good friend Sheikh's wedding in Bedok. He quietly grumbled about how we're already engaged and I'm still not open to meeting his friends but knew better than to nag about it.

He must be in luck that day, though - I don't usually change my position no matter how crestfallen he looks, but I was positively buzzing from all the happy wedding vibes and he looked extra adorable quietly grumbling and pujuking his disappointed self that day that I decided oh what the heck, let's go rentas to Clementi together. Anyway, no harm lah, right? Clementi je, ape. Cuma kena bawak passport je.

In the end I was very glad I had that tergerak hati moment to follow him that day because I was "rewarded" in two ways! Firstly, I found out that the caterers for his friend's wedding was Haji Abu Catering when I went to the buffet line! Been wanting to taste their food since berkurun lamanye because I keep hearing good reviews, so it was nice to finally try their food myself.

Hahahahaha yes as you can see, I had to seize the opportunity and tried the usual nasi minyak with sambal goreng pengantin, ayam masak merah and rendang and the mee soto and the gado-gado. His friends must've thought I was such a gelojoh perakus hahaha what what, this is the giveaway signs of an enthusiastic bride-to-be lah ok. Musttt try everything at the wedding baru muai!

[Personal opinion: Have tasted better food from other caterers - and the daging rendang was keras ke-batu! - but I usually forgive if one or two out of so many dishes fall short of expectation because things can't be perfect all the time sooooo overall, the food tasted pretty good and I liked their neat and clean presentation - almost similar, if not the same, as Maria's Le Caterer's presentation. Just the right amount of variety in terms of food (Personally liked their gado-gado sauce! Thick and spicy, yum yum), servers behind food counters were attentive, kendarat was fast and efficient, but not in an annoying way like some over-enthusiastic kendarats who hover over you like a pesky little housefly while you're still trying to savour your last few bites. Eeeyer. At least housefly boleh sebat dengan fly swatter seh. Kalau kau sebat budak kendarat dengan fly swatter kat majlis kahwin orang dah jadi lawak tengahari nama nye tu.]

I know there are quite a number of fellow Malay btbs who keep Googling and keep asking around for Haji Abu Catering punya contacts because the latter does not have a presence on the online platform and social media, which sucks for modern young 'uns like myself who depend on social media to find vendors, read reviews, trawl through albums, etc, when planning a wedding. So for those who are searching for Haji Abu Catering contacts, here you go bbs!

 (There's no email addresses, only handphone numbers, but still better than nothing hor.)

Now for the second "reward" that I'm very excited about!!!

Ok, you see, now that the engagement's out of the way, my mat and I are starting to gear up for our next stage of preparations. The last few months have been very peaceful on the wedding preparation front since we didn't have anything else to do after settling the major vendors on our list, except wait until the next wave due early next year.

We talked about it a few weeks back and decided on five main things that we want to start recce for, and one of the items on our list is a good and reliable kompang group for our reception.

We've started to actively recce a few groups since then, but have not really firmed up on anything because we didn't really have any opinions on the kompang groups that we saw online. (Although a few of them were quite meh). We weren't really too bothered about it though, because we were only planning on recce-ing the players in the market first so that our research can help us decide from a list of kompang groups by the time January next year comes around.

Well, well, whad'dya know?

The kompang group that played at Shahrizat and Nadia's wedding turned out to be awesome!!!

When the kompang group came in to iring the pengantin, I was so impressed ok! The bunyi of their kompang playing was very sedap and crispy (rasa dia sikit sikit macam ayam KFC gitu ah) and it was so loud and thunderous, it created a rancak and bertenaga atmosphere where everyone was so excited to see and sambut the pengantins! Not lemau like some other groups punya kompang playing at all! And something that really, really appealed to me was the fact that the kompang group comprised of sturdy grown men who were dressed to the nines in their matching bright baju melayus and their trademark songkoks adorned with a piece of feather!

Oooooh aesthetic value! Akak very appreciate all these! Look!

(Source: Kompang Zapin Berdendang)

Ok I'm not a fan of anything feathery (Bulu bulu feather ni semua very the feeling feeling cabaret, nyah) but that distinguishing mark of theirs really stood out fabulously enough for me to accept it, man. Even caught the attention of my mat who immediately declared that he was going to have his own feather on his songkok for our nikah!!!!!

Korang tengok ah dekni. Perangai dasar jantan cabaret sak.

Anyway. Bakal laki perangai cabaret who I shall deal with at another time aside.

I posted the picture below on Instagram, and mentioned that it was a lovely wedding with lovely pengantins and that I fell in love with their kompang group!!! My mat thought they were fabulous as well and we agreed that we've found the kompang group for our wedding reception!!!

The first thing we needed to do was find out the name of the kompang group.

My mat texted his friend for the name of the group but we didn't get the answer immediately (For obvious reasons, of course. Aku rasa kalau Shahrizat keluarkan handphone dia kat atas pelamin, itu jam jugak bini dia crack out dia nye whip hahaha) so we thought we'd wait it out. In the end tak payah tunggu lah pun sebenarnya because less than an hour after posting the picture, one of my girlfriends Faezah told me that the kompang group in question is... Kompang Zapin Berdendang!

(Later that night, Shahrizat replied my mat's text and said the name of the group is "Gendrum Network". We did a quick check on Google and Facebook and discovered that both our friends' answers were correct - Kompang Zapin Berdendang is in fact under the wing of Gendrum Network. In other words, sama sama lah aiyah.)

The next step was to watch videos of their performance online to reaffirm our decision on engaging Kompang Zapin Berdendang as our kompang group. Unfortunately, there are no videos of them tengah iring the pengantins (not an issue though, since we've already seen them in action at Shahrizat and Nadia's wedding) but they've posted up videos of their short performances after they iring pengantin - one of our favourites is this one:

So niiiiiccceee! I very like and I very approve! Ada accordion somemore!

In a way, this helps to soothe the ache of sadness I felt after letting go of Sri Mahligai! Tak dapat awesome traditional Malay music at my wedding for 6 hours, dapat sikit for a 3 minute performance pun jadi lah. Jamah sikit so tak kempunan, betul tak, geng! Hur hur hur.

Tanpa berlengah lagi, that night jugak I sent a private message to Kompang Zapin Berdendang on Facebook! For good measure (or a bakal pengantin's irrational anxiety, whichever way you see it haha), I called up the number listed on their Facebook page the next day to confirm that they're available on our wedding date and confirm our booking but my call was unanswered! So I emailed directly to Gendrum Network in hopes that they'll reply faster via emails.

No such luck. It turned into an excruciating week long wait because there was no reply to my Facebook message, no return call and no email reply received. I usually don't bother anymore when a vendor or service provider does not reply within a week but we really like them and we weren't as keen as this when we saw other kompang groups so I decided to make an exception and thought well, ok, let's wait it out then - maybe their administrator has had a very busy week.

Yesterday, my mat and I were discussing about another one of the five major items that we want to settle for the next stage of preparations when I mentioned to him that I was having no luck getting a reply from Gendrum Network/Kompang Zapin Berdendang as a form of update. At the spur of the moment, we opened up their Facebook page again and I saw that there was another number that I hadn't tried yet so I said "Ok let me try texting this number and see whether boleh dapat response."

Lo and behold, we got an almost immediate response and the text correspondence went like this:

"You are in luck." "That's our last slot in November." 

With heart racing and head pounding (a very familiar feeling I've gotten ever since I embarked on this crazy wild journey of planning aggressively for a Malay wedding muahahaha), I immediately flashed the text message to my mat, who shot me a stern "Book." and after that was pure Kahwin Khronicles history - texted the person back with my confirmation and transferred the deposit sepantas gazelle yang kena kejar dengan a pack of lions. It was only after I transferred the deposit and got confirmation that the receipt will be sent to my email inbox come Monday that I could go through my thought process, which went something like this:

"Are you freaking kidding me??? Last freaking slot for November??? Next year??? KOMPANG???"

My mat and I were so relieved after that, we started high five-ing and patting each other on our backs macam baru menang a million dollars from a game show or something hahahahaha (Ok bedek. Kalau betul menang a million dollars, I'll be so happy sampai PENGSAN BERDIRI LAH OK)

SO THAT SETTLES THE PART FOR KOMPANG!!! So much for waiting until early next year to settle it. Hur hur. Looks like we don't really have a need for the list of kompang groups that we've complied! In case you're at the same stage as us and looking for kompang groups for your wedding receptions or whatever other event that you have, I've included the list that we've complied below:

Andika Prak Bing Bing  
Facebook: Andika Prak Bing Bing
Youtube: Andika Prak Bing Bing

Putra Al-Qawi 
Facebook: Putra Al-Qawi
Youtube: Putra Al-Qawi

MizteeQ Services
Facebook: MizteeQ Services
Blog: MizteeQ Services
Youtube: MizteeQ Services

Kompang Fityan Darul Ghufran
Facebook: Fityan Ghufran Love
Blog: Kompang Fityan Darul Ghufran
Youtube: Kompang Fityan Darul Ghufran

Kompang Al-Itqaan
Facebook: Kumpulan Kompang Al-Itqaan
Youtube: Kompang Al-Itqaan

Ilhan Damai
Facebook: Ihman Damai
Youtube: Ilhan Damai

Ikatan Setia
Facebook: Ikatan Setia
Youtube: Ikatan Setia

Kompang Kumpulan Ikhwan & Al-Mujahhid
Youtube: Kompang Kumpulan Ikhwan & Al-Mujahhid

Kencana Kayangan Satria Dewi
Facebook: Kencana Kayangan Satria Dewi
Youtube: Kencana Kayangan Satria Dewi

Kumpulan Kompang Nurul Ihsan
Facebook: Kumpulan Kompang Nurul Ihsan
Youtube: Kumpulan Kompang Nurul Ihsan

Sinaran Surya
Facebook: Sinaran Surya
Youtube: Sinaran Surya

Kompang Warisan Utara & Putri
Facebook: Kompang Warisan Utara & Putri
Youtube: Kompang Warisan Utara & Putri

Kumpulan Kompang Syabab

Facebook: Kumpulan Kompang Syabab 

Twitter: @teamsyabab

Instagram: @teamsyabab

Blog: Kumpulan Kompang Syabab
Team Eva-luna
Facebook: Team Eva-Luna Wedding Services
Website: Team Eva-luna Weddings
Youtube: Team Eva-luna 

Ukiran Rentak
Facebook: Ukiran Rentak
Youtube: Ukiran Rentak

Etrust Services (Kompang by Nurul Iman Connectionz)
Website: Etrust Services
Youtube: Nurul Iman Connectionz

Lanang Warisan
Facebook: Lanang Warisan
Multiply: Lanang Warisan

Kumpulan Kompang Sehati Sejiwa (Qalbu Hapbun)
Facebook: Kumpulan Kompang Sehati Sejiwa
Multiply: Qalbu Hapbun

Sriwana 
Facebook: Sriwana
Website: Sriwana
Youtube: Sriwana Kompang

Sri Warisan
Website: Sri Warisan
Youtube: Sri Warisan

Firqatul Wannazam 
Facebook: Firqatul Wannazam
Youtube: Firqatul Wannazam

 Kompang Kumpulan Al-Muqtadir
Youtube: Kumpulan Kompang Al-Muqtadir

(Kindly note that I do not have contact details of all of the groups listed above because I only got to the stage of compiling names and links, but belum dapat all of their contact details and prices.)

Thank you to Nurul and Seri Pengantin for providing a list of recommended kompang groups as well as trusty old Youtube for recommending links after links of one kompang group's videos to another hahaha wah helpful lor that function! Actually got more groups lurking around Facebook and Youtube but since we already found one kompang group that we really like, now I malas want to go through and put them into the list already.

Biasa lah... Habis madu sepah dibuang! Cis! (Takde link hahaha)

More on what's next on our list in another entry because this one is getting a little bit out of hand already! Seriously minta kena serve with Beyond Parental Control order ah ini blogger hahahahaha

Next up in December! Ashik and Fisz's wedding! Quite excited to attend their wedding because Ashik stays a block away from me so it'll be easy breezy lemon squeezy for me to make my way to his reception - turun lift, walk across the carpark, daaahhhhh selamat sampai haha! Partly also because Fisz's wedding will be held at Siglap Community Centre, and I've been wanting to see how the venue is like. I keep hearing from other people and reading on forums about how Siglap CC is one of the community centres in Singapore that has a special area kat sebelah where you can cook onsite, instead of having to incur extra costs booking a nearby void deck for your caterers to cook and wash. Sounds good hor? Which is why I really want to see how it looks like!

Plus plus plus they shared with me that the rental cost is less than $2K! When most community centres in the East side can easily cost $2+++K! How damn awesome is that!

Really liked their matching matching hard cover invitation cards as well - not my cup of tea but it's really nice and simple and functional and oh ho ho, whad'dya know - it's lovingly designed and printed by the pengantins themselves! So if you want to know what they have to offer in terms of invitation card designing and printing, you can give them a call at their numbers (see below) ok! Sorry no website or Facebook page, I think they're planning to launch full speed ahead only after their wedding.

Ok guys, bergendang bergendrum, over and out!