three weekends down, three more to go

Last three weekends have been nothing but madness!

Now that we're down to the final month before the wedding hits (gasps!), my mat and I have been scrambling to meet vendors, shooting out confirmation emails to vendors, tying up loose ends, making bulk payments and travelling all around the island to run our errands.

 Collection of Bridesmaids' Outfits 

 We started out last two Saturdays with a trip to Manja to collect our bridesmaids' outfits!

So excited to see my bridesmaids excited, and I am happy to report that both their outfits for afternoon and evening receptions are very pretty and flattering! :D

Something simple and tertib - we're not into fancy schmancy drastically over the top designs.

Oh, and guess what - what we've heard about Manja and their workmanship? 

It's true. Their workmanship is superb. Just very sayang my experience dealing with the Manja tailor who attended to us was freaking horrible lor. Pfft.

So now that I've seen their workmanship for myself, do I think Manja is worth paying more for, since they're slightly pricier than other tailors? Yep. Would I go back to Manja to tailor baju in the future? Well, that would be a... maaaybe. Maybe, because if I do opt to go back, I'll probably avoid that grumpy auntie who first attended to us lor. She wasn't around during collection, and the other auntie who attended to us seemed nice and normal, thank God.

Had our hearty lunch at Hajjah Maimunah before running through the itinerary!

No picture of the itinerary, so I put picture of my lunch lah okay:

YUM YUMZZZZZ IN MY TUM TUMZZZZZ.

I would totes take up their catering package if I'm having an intimate 150pax to 250 pax wedding! Heh. (Dulu time engagement tak tau nak take up eh. Chet.)

Discussion on Bridal Room with Bonito By Bob

My mat and I made our way to my place after that because we had an appointment with Bob of Bonito By Bob! We were pretty early so we decided to make a pitstop at the petrol station but turns out Bob and his assistant Zura lagi cepat dari kita lah seh. Appointment 4pm but they came half an hour earlier! Dorang datang naik kilat and petir, aku rasa.

Bob and Zura took some pictures and measurements of my bedroom and went through the timeline and some ideas with us - discussion was very rancak and I love how they were really warm and sincere and friendly! Totally felt at ease even though baru first time jumpa :D

And oh oh oh, whaddya know - kita happen to mention that we're looking for white cushions for solemnization (alas nikah) since our decorators takde white ones and Bob said that he rents them out!!! Sui or what!!!!! So one more task struck off the list, baik ah.

To siapa siapa yang tengah cari alas nikah rental, you know who to look for lah eh heh heh. In case you're wondering how the alas nikah looks like, it's yang macam dalam gambar ni:

Now that we've sorted out our alas nikah issue, I'd just like to say this to my mamat: Sekarang lu gi tanam lu punya cita cita nak nikah atas beanbag lah ye. HAHA.

OH. BY THE WAY. Since we're talking about Bonito By Bob...

Have you guys seen one of his latest gubahan designs?!?!?!?!?!

AKU SUKAAAAA!!! AKU SUKA. GILA. OKAY.

I was telling him ini very the kena with my pop art engagement theme lah eh.

Delivery of Barang Barang Dulang to Ola Lola

The next day (which was a Sunday), we went to send our barang barang dulang to Ola Lola kat Hougang! Seriously tak guna okay kita, we lost our way and had to tawaf the area three times before we finally located the exact address. Dah macam nak naik haji pulak bertawaf tawaf. Nasib baik we went out early and reached in time for our appointment. 

(Saliheen and I - and our friends pfft - have unanimously agreed that if we ever masuk Amazing Race, kita sure banyak gaduh especially on the road but that also means we'll definitely be milked for TV entertainment purposes to death haha)

No pictures from our Ola Lola meeting because I very shy to ~take picture ~take picture together (hahaha) so I letak gambar makanan from the wedding we attended before we made our trip to meet Ola Lola lah okay. Walaupun takde link ah sebenarnye hahahahaha

Makanan from this wedding was superb, by the way. The sambal goreng, the udang black pepper and wadeh was power gila and the nasi berderai very nicely one okay!!!!! 

Pengantin (who is my primary schoolmate and also my first boyfriend ha. ha. ha. ha. ha.) told me it's by Zaiton & Family Catering, which is a longstanding family business that has no online presence whatsoever so they're usually highly recommended via the old school word-of-mouth style instead of through social media sharing (they have no website and no Facebook, guys!)

Apparently the pengantin's relatives have used this particular caterer for 5 of his cousins' weddings and semua memang consistently sedap and sempurna! For $12 per head and up, I say this is sungguh the worth it, man. 

If anyone wants the caterer's number, feel free to email me please! But I warning you all dulu eh - one of the pengantin's cousins told me her aunt spoke to the caterer and apparently they're fully booked even until the end of 2015 wtf?! But no surprise lah kan, since their food sedap sedap belaka.  So at most kalau nak, boleh try luck je lor.

Discussion on Menu with Puteri Wedding Services

And since kita dah rancak berbual pasal makanan, let's talk about our meeting with our caterers next! Coincidentally they're the next vendor in line that we met, anyway. Heh.

Just like Bonito By Bob, our caterer was early for our appointment by half an hour! Sampai terlintang pukang aku sekejap nak siap (because I just came back from work, and belum sempat wash up) but of course, we still had to wait until my mat and his parents sampai. Ours is a combined reception so must have combined discussion and combined decisions ma.

Very happy with the menus for both our sanding and dinner receptions!!! I'm still a bit skeptical about having black pepper chicken instead of ayam masak merah for the dinner reception though - do people look for ayam masak merah when they go for wedding receptions??? Because I do ah. Hmmm.

(Explanation: Since the dinner reception will be for our friends only, they will not get to eat the ayam masak merah, which will be served during the lunch reception instead.)

Oh, my mat and I also decided to give up our cita cita to have square tables instead of round tables after consulting Kasai Sayang as well as Puteri - will be susah for them to arrange due to the layout and size of our venue as well as measurements of the square tables themselves. We didn't mind giving this up because we trust the professionals' judgment and didn't want to trouble them with this! Asalkan sempurna, tak kisah lah kan square ke, round ke, octagon ke.

Final Appointment with CST Singapore

Woke up bright and early for our appointment with our videographers, whose office is located in Woodlands! Grabbed a quick snack because tak sempat nak duduk and have a proper breakfast since dah buat temu janji dengan orang, and we must respect people's time lah kan.

Turns out we could have afforded a nice and long breakfast because the staff who attended to us was very late and made us wait for more than an hour without an acceptable reason. Guess tagging yourself as #bestintheindustry in Instagram gives you the right to get cocky, bersikap sambil lewa and regard your clients as unimportant? Didn't know being "the #bestintheindustry" means having sloppy administration and shabby customer service, really.

Wish I can explain in detail what happened that day (and more) but I guess it's best I leave this for another day, in a few months' time, because I want to be fair and see the quality of work, service during event and the after service first. For now, let's just say we left in a bit of a huff... well, actually more like stomping out with balls of fire blazing behind us lah kan. Haha.

Anyway, the unnecessary delay caused by someone else's tardiness screwed up our schedule for the day so we had to rush through our next errand - zoomed to Arab Street to grab a quick bite at Working Title (15 minutes) and quickly raced through our material selection at Princess Fabrics (10 minutes) when we were supposed to have slightly more than two hours to do both.

Which meant we didn't get to have the nice leisurely brunch we were planning for and we couldn't slowly and carefully pore over the different materials to ensure we got our colours right - we wanted to buy kain in our theme colours to pass to our decorators and dessert tier vendor so they can use the colour of the kains as reference,  you see.

I guess if I want to look at it positively... this can help us prepare mentally for unexpectant delays which might happen during the actual wedding day????? Although we're already expecting delays anyway, didn't really need a vendor to tolong demonstratekan lah kan.

Called Naz from Bliss Photocinema to tell him we might be late (since our appointment with him was next) but turns out Arab Street was nearer than expected and kita sampai just on time. Phew.

Final Appointment with Bliss Photocinema

How surreal is it to be standing in front of a door we last saw almost two years ago? I hadn't even started blogging when we booked Bliss! (I started blogging about wedding preparations only after booking videographers, photographers and ex-andaman)

Discussed our itinerary with him and this was yet another appointment that I genuinely enjoyed because Naz is so nice and friendly and professional. I remember being wary when we first met him because he seemed really reserved but all it took was my mamat to crack a few jokes + them finding out that one of Naz's buddies is my mat's cousin to warm things up (Tak nak cakap heat things up lah, heat things up dah macam lain macam pulak bunyinye haha)

(Side note: My mat has this habit / itch as well as the ability to make people laugh whenever we meet people for the first time and he feels that the other person is reserved or shy or uncomfortable or awkward, and this is one of the great qualities that I really love about him.

Just before we were officially together, I was concurrently seeing another guy who I could converse with in private but when thrown in social settings with my friends and strangers, he clammed up and became very reserved... whereas for my mamat ni, he flourishes under social settings and makes great company when we meet new people and make new friends. Guess that was one of the things that pushed the other guy down to friendzone and Saliheen up to marriageable zone for me personally! Hehe.)

Anyway, I was telling my mat the other day that kalau ada orang tanya bila kita punya wedding, we can say "bulan depan" and truly mean it already!!!!! Ambik kau, dulu suka sangat kan, main main jawab "bulan depan" bila relatives tanya bila nak kahwin... now happening for real already.

Our countdown as at today:

So many things to do, with so little time, to the point that even on our 4th year and 11th month anniversary recently, we were too busy running wedding-related errands.

But that's okay lah. Because by the time our 5th anniversary comes around, we'll get to go big and celebrate it with a kompang procession, photobooths, rows and rows of delish food and desserts, and the company of our family, friends and guests we do not know personally, yes?

Sounds like a smashing 5th anniversary celebration to me :P