campak campak

Have you guys seen this??? The demonstration video on how penyangak penyangak can break into and reseal your locked luggage bag with just a ballpoint pen?????

Such a disturbing thing to know lor. A good thing flyboy Azrul was with us when we bought our honeymoon luggage because he was the one who strongly advised us to get a clam shell luggage instead of the regular zipped ones (macam the one dalam the video above) because the latter memang senang kena tamper :/

Our huge clam shell luggage bag with 360degree wheels + Complimentary cabin luggage that we bought in February because there was a great promotion!

The pink ones are mine! 

My mat's black ones not in picture because he was - unsurprisingly - playing with them.

Anywaaayyy. Cakap cakap pasal benda untuk honeymoon ni kan, my mat and I recently went to Mustafa Centre to get ourselves barang baik (also known as monopod haha) for our honeymoon as recommended by Eleventh October in her entry here.

Ini bendealah seriously useful gila, please. My sisters and I had a go at it when I brought it home two weeks ago and we did an impromptu Beauty and The Beat music video at home hahahahaha. Will probably go back and buy another one! Satu untuk pakai for honeymoon, lagi satu buat pakai sekarang. Hwa hwa hwa.

Ok, there's something else that I want to share - it's not honeymoon-related though, so very the sorry eh this entry ada kena campak campak sikit macam rojak (mmm rojak). My baby sister (who worked on our dinner invitation cards) also worked on a little something else that I asked her to! And that little something else is this:

Contact card for our vendors! Yay! I'm assuming that we'll be too busy in the days leading up to the wedding + on the wedding day itself so we'll pass contact cards to all our vendors so they know who to contact for arrangements, payments, extra help, etc. (Our parents and siblings punya numbers are also on the list)

There's also another copy with all our vendors' contact numbers which we will print on the other side of the card and hand out to our parents, siblings and orang orang kuat. Never know when they'll need the vendors' contact details, y'all.

I mean, you letak your vendors punya contact numbers dalam your handphone aje pun buat ape kan? Buat jeruk? Maaaaana lah tau electricity blow so kena panggil the orang venue ke, kaki meja patah so kena panggil caterers ke, tok kadi lambat so kena pressure dia suruh cepat sikit ke, things like that, y'know? Must prepare as best as you can for emergencies ma (Unexpected things are bound to happen of course, but even if they do despite your best efforts, at least you know you've tried your best, yes???)

Might also prepare a bridal emergency kit for our orang orang kuat in case of emergencies - sooommmmmething like this ah:

(Source: Swatchbook Weddings)

Click to enlarge image.

(Source: Bayside Bride)

Oooooh paling penting must remember to add blue tack and straws into the kit! Terpikir nak letak blue tack based on previous experience (Nad and I terkial kial nak cari something to stick the food label stands because they kept falling down macam London bridge due to strong wind for Nani's wedding ok. Nasib baik Zahrin from Kasai Sayang had a wad of blue tack and let us use the whole thing) whereas straw was mentioned by someone before - was it turun temurun btb advice from Rina or Dyan? (From Dyan to Rina, right?)

Something about the straws being useful for pengantin to minum from because kalau dah pakai lipstick setebal Great Wall of China, how to minum direct from cawan kan??? Plus will look more sopan if use straw to minum ah haha (Eh. But if I want to mintak swirly straw instead of the regular straight ones, rasa rasa my orang orang kuat bo layan tak??? Hahahahaha.)

Ok dah lah tu je for now. Sekarang tengah sabar menanti for our kursus rumahtangga which is coming up in less than two weeks and for Great Singapore Sale 2013 to start on 31 May 2013. Once GSS starts, we can finally buy the final item for my dulang and we'll be done din dun for the whole barang dulang thingamajig woohoo! Completed almost all of our purchases for the barang dulang in early March and it's been such a motherfreaking pain waiting for the final item to be ticked off the barang dulang list ok.

But pain schmain ni semua lain hari boleh cerita, I'd now like to end ini entry with this:

Happy 4 and a half years anniversary, baby! We're halfway there so hang on tight ok XX

XOXO

Woohoo! Settling our booking for chiavari chairs next week!

We were talking about our decor setup recently when I remembered that we have to book chiavari chairs for our reception soon (since our decorators don't have their own chiavari chairs in stock). Texted Zahrin from Kasai Sayang about it and being the superbly helpful darling that he is, he told me that XOXO & Co is having a promo rental price for their chiavari chairs!!!

Selection of chiavari chairs and cushions that they have in stock for rent:

 

(Source: Tiffany Chairs by XOXO & Co)

SWEE.

When we first set aside our budget for chiavari chairs, it was at $10 per chair but with XOXO & Co's awesome promo of $6 per chair, syukur Alhamdullilah for... *calculates pakai calculator sebab weak in mental sums* ... $800 savings!!!

Actually all savings are welcome when it comes to wedding planning lah - $8 savings ke, $80 savings ke, $800 savings ke, savings is savings is savings. The only thing yang lain is savings dulu simpan dalam kotak tin bawah katil, savings sekarang simpan dalam joint bank account dengan orang yang tersayang :P

And taaaaalking about savings! We recently made some savings on our wedding bands too!!! Went to recce for wedding bands last week, found bands that we both loved (even though they're not matching wedding bands - not really a big deal for us since I'm not that big a sucker for matching things and my mat doesn't mind, anyway) aaaaand the best part is - we got them within our set budget even though there weren't any Christmas sale discounts for the ones we picked out.

Yay yay! My mat dah boleh put a ring on it! Hee hee.

Tak sia sia overestimate and jack up our budget sebab whenever something we book or buy for the wedding falls way below or at least within our budget, the flood of euphoria bursting through us seriously awesome tak belum angz. If you're not doing this already, please do so ok! Always, always, always overestimate your budget for emergencies. Kalau takde emergencies, even better - you'll feel damn good when you have excess cash to save or play around with after paying off whatever it is that you need to pay for.

And I cannot thank Zahrin from Kasai Sayang enough for recommending XOXO & Co and their promo to me!!! Why you so tulen and so baik hati ni. Another vendor who is dengki and mata duitan might have done something devious instead: Book chairs on clients' behalf at $6 per piece, quote $10 per piece to the clients and diam diam about it in hopes that the clients tak tau about the promo, and pocket the difference for themselves as profit.

Sooooo kalau you all you all pun nak tempah chiavari chairs for your reception, don't miss this opportunity to grab them from XOXO & Co at a much lower price ok! Tapi promo sampai January 2013 aje tau, so you all tak boleh hegeh hegeh macam makcik ke pasar membeli ikan, membeli ikan si ikan tenggiri, lambat booking promo lari, melalak menangis lah you sorang diri!

I must give you all heads up, though - dorang maybe reply lambat sikit because apparently their admin person is away for maternity leave so manpower ada kureeeeennnggggg sikit. It took them 10 days to email me and their service is more business-like than warm, although I might be wrong - nak kena meet the owner in person next week before I know for sure.

Ok lah tu je goodie I nak share for today. Have a good weekend errrrrbody! XOXO sama you all!

let me sing that song-ong-ong

Another list that we've started on besides our guestlist is our songlist!

We've enlisted the help of our siblings and Orang-Orang Kuat for song suggestions because we plan to have a mix of all the different genres in our songlist (because we're all-inclusive like that y'all) - kirakan nak kena activate our reinforcements lah because between my mat and I, we're mostly familiar with pop and R&B aje. So ada kawan music lovers buat ape?! Perhiasan pe?! Hahaha.

Ahmad our indie master suggested a few indie songs, which I greatly appreciate really, but sekarang akak nak tanya satu soalan cepuk emas cepuk kepala eh - kenape indie songs DEPRESSING NAK MAMPOS NI. Baru dengar halfway rasa macam dah takde lagi makna dalam dunia ni seh wtf even the love songs made me want to CUT MYSELF.

Two or three passable radio-friendly ones made the cut though (geddit??? geddit???) so sesiape yang suka indie music and coming for our dinner reception boleh keep a look out for it lah eh. Think we'll wait for Nad to submit her song recommendations next but ada chance she might boycott this songlist task because we told her what we really think of her preference in song choices...

LULZ SORRY NAD WE WURVE YOU, THUMPING SLUTFEST AND ALL!!!

Satu Hotel Room Service kasi sama dia ah! Hahahahahahaha

We've decided that my mat will do more of the song searching and overall compilation since he's more of a music person than I am - kalau depend on aku, wedding songlist kita chop confirm double seal plus guarantee certified true copy mesti copy paste from 98.7fm Top 40 Countdown ha ha ha ha ha. He surprised me the other day when he suggested Little Things by One Direction, though! Sejak bila pulak mamat aku pandai dengar lagu One Direction ni haha but but buttttt I have to admit the song is very nice and the lyrics made some reference to us as a couple (My mat is more particular about the song arrangement and melody all that whereas I'm a sucker for lyrics):

Your hand fits in mine like it's made just for me
but bear this mind it was meant to be
and I'm joining up the dots with the freckles on your cheeks
and it all makes sense to me

I know you've never loved the crinkles by your eyes when you smile,
you've never loved your stomach or your thighs
the dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine
But I'll love them endlessly

I won't let this little things slip out of my mouth
But if I do, it's you, oh it's you, they add up to
I'm in love with you and all these little things

You can't go to bed without a cup of tea
maybe that's the reason that you talk in your sleep
and all those conversations are the secrets that I keep
though it makes no sense to me

I know you've never loved the sound of your voice on tape
you never want to know how much you weigh
you still have to squeeze into your jeans
but you're perfect to me

I won't let this little things slips out of my mouth
But if it's true, it's you, it's you, they add up to
I'm in love with you and all these little things

You never love yourself half as much as I love you
You'll never treat yourself right darling but I want you to
If I let you know, I'm here for you
Maybe you'll love yourself like I love you oh

I've just let these little things slips out of my mouth
Because it's you, oh it's you, it's you they add up to
And I'm in love with you (all these little things)
I won't let these little things slip out of my mouth
But if it's true, it's you, it's you they add up to
I'm in love with you, and all your little things.

Awww nak mampos, please.

But it seems like the person who has been really good and spot-on with song recommendations are my sisters! Especially my baby sister Fazlin (she's 21 this year but still a baby to me!) whose song choices are ~per~fect~ for us - also because she seems to get what kind of sounds I'm inclined towards (think Zee Avi, Yuna, Regina Spektor, Lisa Hannigan, Laura Marling)

We actually need one main song for our Save The Date video (if it does materialize - more on this another time), one main song for our walk-in and about 30 songs that our emcee can play during lull periods for our dinner reception. We have a rough list of about 30 songs (and growing) now but it's the choosing of the songs for the Save The Date and the dinner walk-in tu yang kena lagi in-depth thinking tu... although I'm seriously considering this super lovely one recommended by my baby sister to be one of the two main songs:

Everything you do it sends me 
Higher than the moon with every 
Twinkle in your eye  
You strike a match that lights my heart on fire
 
When you’re near, I hide my blushing face  
And trip on my shoelaces  
Grace just isn’t my forté  
But it brings me to my knees when you say
 
Hello, how are you, my darling today? 
I fall into a pile on the floor  
Puppy love is hard to ignore  
When every little thing you do, I do adore
 
We’re as different as can be  
I’ve noticed you’re remarkably relaxed 
And I’m overly uptight  
We balance out each other nicely
 
You wear sandals in the snow 
In mid-July I still feel cold  
We’re opposites in every way  
But I can’t resist it when say 
 
Hello, how are you, my darling today?  
I fall into a pile on the floor  
Puppy love is hard to ignore  
When every little thing you do, I do adore
 
Finding words, I mutter  
Tongue-tied, twisted  
Foot in mouth, 
I start to stutter Ha, ha, 
Heaven help me 
 
Hello, how are you, my darling today?  
I fall into a pile on the floor 
Puppy love is hard to ignore  
When every little thing you do, I do adore

It's perfect! Brings me back to when I used to see him around in school and kita baru start interacting *blushes*

I still fall into a pile on the floor when he asks me how I am sometimes though, and I still adore every little thing that he does, no matter how child-like or annoying he becomes he he heeeee

(AND YES, he's still a polar bear jadi-jadian who sleeps with the aircon and the fan switched on full blast. Seriously nasib baik cuma ada BTO / DBSS flats je lah kat Singapore ni, kalau tak aku rasa dia dah suggest kita beli igloo as our rumah seh.)

Aaaaannnddddd the lyrics! Like it's meant for us! Suka :D

There are a few other awesome songs which she recommended and made me immediately want to shower her with sloppy kisses (she's always rejecting my advances though - haiz, all these unappreciative baby siblings, thinking they're too cool and all that for kisses from their kakaks) and terus text my mat to key it into our songlist database! But I think I'd like to keep those under wraps until after the wedding lah hee hee must keep some things special for our guests first ma

I have to say I'm still quite miffed we can't use some of "our songs" (Oh, don't all couples have "their song(s)" hahahahaha) because they're not... suitable for a wedding reception. Like Kekasih Gelapku unsuitable. Haiz. That damn song has significance (and an inside joke!) for our relationship but it really is too unfortunate that it doesn't fit the mood of a wedding reception :(  

Thought of sneaking it in into the songlist somewhere but nanti ada orang cakap tak appropriate pulak! Just the other day one of my friends posted on Facebook about orang nyanyi lagu 'Tenda Biru' (and the deejay allowing it) kat majlis orang kahwin!!! Ok fine, that one is lagi maha inappropriate much???

The lyrics, for the uninitated:

Tak sengaja lewat depan rumahmu
Ku melihat ada tenda biru
Dihiasi indahnya janur kuning
Hati bertanya pernikahan siapa

Tak percaya tapi ini terjadi
Kau bersanding duduk di pelaminan
Airmata jatuh tak tertahankan
Kau khianati cinta suci ini

Tanpa undangan , Diriku kau lupakan
Tanpa utusan . . . Diriku kau tinggalkan
Tanpa bicara . . . Kau buat ku kecewa
Tanpa berdosa . . . Kau buatku merana
Ku tak percaya . . . Dirimu tega
Nodai cinta . . . Khianati cinta

GILA.

We were not planning on giving a songlist for the afternoon reception to our emcee (nak mampos, siape mau layan research and korek for five hours worth of lagu for majlis kahwin, pikir senang macam korek hidung pe?!) but on hindsight, we figured no harm lah in letting him know the kind of songs that should never make it to our afternoon reception and a short list of the songs we've very much like to hear during the afternoon reception - yang the rest of time, he can pandai pandai and do his magic. I really do trust our emcee 100% though! He comes across as someone very capable and sensitive to such things so I feel very assured having him as our wedding emcee. Yayness!

So with that, the search for songs to beef up our songlist continues! I have to say our discussion on song selection a few nights ago took a pretty scary turn because it steered towards possibly playing techno beats when our guests start streaming in for the dinner reception hahahahaha MAU PASANG LASER BEAM LIGHTS SEKALI KA PA

one kursus perkahwinan... coming right up!

We initially wanted to attend the pre-marriage preparation course as close as possible to our wedding date because we wanted to "tangkap feel" - konon kononnye the nearer the kursus is to our wedding date, lagi rasa and lagi hangat the bahang nak kahwin, you know!

Unfortunately, we've been worrying about our vendor appointments and whether we will have the time and energy to rush everything because most of our appointments have to be scheduled 3 months before our wedding. If we count it backwards from November 2013, this means that our vendor appointments will have to be in October 2013 -> September 2013 -> August 2013.

Unfortunately for us, Hari Raya this year falls on 8 August 2013, which means that Ramadhan will be a month before i.e. July 2013. Can we even jumpa vendors during fasting month??? Really need to ask our vendors and our friends who got married few months after fasting month about this! If we can't meet vendors during fasting month, that means we can jumpa vendors only in late August 2013 or in September 2013... which means we will only have two months (or two months plus, if we're lucky) before the wedding to meet everyone and start the ball rolling! Nightmare!

Of course we can consider the fact that most pre-marriage preparation courses are held on weekends whereas appointments with vendors are most of the times, if not all, held on weekdays for obvious reasons (vendors kan ada weddings orang lain to settlekan and jayakan on weekends, dol!) so technically our kursus dates won't clash or rob our free weekdays to arrange appointments with our vendors. But the idea of everything coming together one after another at almost the same time... we become so penat just thinking about it ok. Which is why we don't want to risk it and we're trying to find ways to ease the time crunch two months before our wedding.

And it is because of this possible time crunch, we're now contemplating going for the pre-marriage preparation course before bulan puasa starts early July next year. Get it out of the way, we cry!

As of now, we're targeting classes scheduled in early 2013... excluding May 2013, of course, because it's my birthday month (I'll officially be on the wrong side of my twenties! Yikes!) and I want to keep it free for celebrations. Last birthday as a single woman, you! Mesti celebrate 30 hari 30 malam korban ayam and itik and angsa all ok hur hur hur

I've started monitoring (OK FINE, STALKING) the schedules of the four main organizations that offer pre-marriage preparation courses for Muslim couples in Singapore (at the least the ones I know of!) and so far, the basic information and the possible locations that we're comfortable with/nearest to us that I've identified are as follows:

Apkim (Link: Apkim)

For personalized 1 day session

Duration: 1-day programme from 9.30am to 6.00pm (for personalized 1-day session)
Cost:
$300 per couple (Mon to Sat) in Malay
$320 per couple (Sundays) in Malay
$400 per couple ( Fri & Sat) in English
Possible Locations: Only at Apkim Resources (134 Arab Street, Singapore 199824)

For 2-days Programme (Small group workshop) 

Duration: 2-days programme (small group workshop) 
Cost: $260 per couple for both English and Malay workshops
Possible Locations: Only at Jalan Besar Community Centre

Bio Dew Management International (Link: BDMI)

Duration: 2-day programme
Cost: $260 per couple (weekend), $400 per couple (weekday)
Possible Locations:
Kampong Ubi CC (Malay)
Changi Simei CC (Malay)
Tampines Changkat CC (Malay)
Masjid Kassim (Malay)

Kasih Sejati (Suchi Success) (Link: Kasih Sejati (Suchi Success))

Duration: 2-day programme
Cost: $300 per couple
Possible Locations:
Suchi Success Training Centre (Prosper House #03-00, 101 Lorong 23 Geylang)
Masjid Mydin (67 Jalan Lapang, Singapore 419007)
Masjid Sultan (3 Muscat Street, Singapore 198833)

SPMC (Link: SPMC)

Duration: 2-day programme
Cost: $260 per couple
Possible Locations:
Bedok Library (English)
Tampines Library (English)
Masjid Darul Ghufran (Malay)

What we've heard is that it is best to go for the kursus at a masjid because the feel and ambience is apparently better because participants are more careful and respectful due to the nature of the venue. Kalau nak go dating dating on special occasions kan mesti nak pergi good cosy restaurants to tangkap ambience, sooooo nak learn how to be a good married partner for a better married future pun nak kena ada the right feel and ambience pe! Have heard not very good reviews from more than one couple about the ones held in libraries so we're definitely going to avoid that :/

As for the language of the kursus, we have no issues attending one held in either English or Malay since both of us can switch comfortably from one language to the other. (Kita proud of kita nye bilingualism ok!) Asalkan jangan bukak bahasa Jawa or bahasa Boyan sudah. Kalau you tanya I "Wes mangan?" maybe I tau jawab you "Wes!" but other than that, kalau you ajak I ngomong Jowo, I angkat white flag and surrender ok. My mamat, jangan cakap lah, satu patah Boyan pun tak tau. Tapi bila part makan roti Boyan... woiiiii, laju macam peluru!

We weren't really that particular about which organization to sign up with at first, (although the personalized 1-day express course by Apkim sounds very tempting) because we assumed that the course content and learning process should be more or less the same, but then we started getting rave reviews from our friends and contacts about the kursus perkahwinan at Kasih Sejati under Suchi Success (some examples below)...

... and that includes our official wedding advisor Nani, my dear girlfriend Elvy (who blogged about her experience here!), fellow bride bloggers Ruzanna (who blogged about her experience here!) and Nasaty (who blogged about her experience here!) sooooo we've more or less decided on where to go for our kursus! Only need to wait for Suchi Success to open up slots at their partner mosques before we can book one that's good for us! Yay!

Earlier today, I asked my mat whether he has any preferences on the mosque itself:

Me: Nearest masjid for us under Suchi Success is Masjid Mydin or Masjid Sultan. You got any preferences between the two mosques not?
Him: Masjid Sultan ah... because nearby got Zam Zam.
Me: Eh ya. Opposite got Rumah Makan Minang also.

AH. BAGUS.

The next time anyone asks why we chose to attend the one at Masjid Sultan, our reply will be "Sebab dekat dengan Rumah Makan Minang and Zam Zam". Which is very tamak and very disgusting and very memalukan eh my friends. Budak gemuk je lah akan spot such #pbg things.

[Post-Edit: Our kursus rumahtangga experience here.]