The Pre-Wedding Preparations (Part 3)

Okay, sudah tiba masa for my last installment entry on my pre-wedding preparations! Baik ah man, satu lagi entry, siap!

27 October 2013 (Sunday)

Facial Appointment at Spa Jelita

Remember I booked a facial session promotion with Spa Jelita in January this year during a wedding exhibition? After 10 long months, I finally fixed my facial appointment with Spa Jelita the Sunday before my wedding day!

I thought I'd be excited to go for my first facial session ever (yes, I've never done facials before!) but surprisingly, I was pretty blasé when I went... might be because I was ngantok and just wanted it over and done with ah haha.

The entrance and the waiting area!

I think I'm quite lucky to have girlfriends who regularly go for facial sessions and they've shared with me before that facial extractions can hurt like a mother efffffff, so I sort of knew what I was in for? But I don't think all the horror stories from my girlfriends prepared me for the actual freaking pain ah.

Remember I mentioned that I have high pain threshold in my previous entry? Looks like I might have found something that borders closely near my pain threshold haha! Let's just say if I had to choose between kena hit on the face with a periuk besi and facial extraction, I'd choose getting hit on the face with a periuk besi anytime any day 20 TIMES OVER LAH EH.

The consultant did ask me whether I was doing fine and whether the pain was too unbearable for me at the initial stage of the extraction but because I just wanted it to be over and done with, I told her I was fine and she can continue at the pace that she was going at.

But really, this was me when the consultant was doing the facial extraction on my nose... for what felt like a million days of summer:

And here's a picture of the torture chamber. Hahahahaha what what.

And the nice cosy bathroom area that you can meraung at after your torture session is over hahahahaha

But only extraction part yang buat aku macam nak nangis bawah ketiak mak aku ah. The rest of the facial was fine, and I even got some needed shut-eye during the session.

So what is my verdict on my first ever facial session with Spa Jelita?

Verdict: Meh. I don't think I'll go back to them for facials lagi ah. It seems like whatever facial treatment they did for me was not very suitable for my skin because my skin became much much much drier after that D: Or is dryness of skin supposed to be normal after a facial session??? I wouldn't really know because I've never been for facial sessions before this lah kan.

I let it be for about three days but the maha dryness didn't let up so I decided to buy a box of My Beauty Diary's Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizing Mask from Sasa and wore them for half an hour before I went to sleep for the last few nights before the wedding. Helped to alleviate the dryness, heng! I must admit the facial extraction did what it was supposed to do though, because I can haz no blackheads and whiteheads on my face, y'allz! Itu part ah yang workz.

And I guess I should be grateful it didn't turn out teruk like the incident I mentioned here previously, right??? Itu rabak siak, till today I wonder which beauty establishment caused that whole uproar tau.

The mehness of the facial session made me a bit apprehensive about my spa and massage session with Spa Jelita (which was scheduled a few days after that) but as it turns out, I didn't really have to worry because it was much better than my facial session. Deets in the later part of this entry!

30 October 2013 (Wednesday)
Haircut, Face Threading & Purchase of Contact Lens 

My leave already started by this time so I took the opportunity to tie up loose ends, give more instructions to vendors, as well as moarrrrr personal grooming.

First up was a much needed haircut at my usual hairdresser because my split ends was so serabai here there everywhere!!! I know, I know, I'm always having hair issues (had one during my engagement and another during my pre-wedding photoshoot bah) so this was actually another gamble I took - cutting my hair a few days before the wedding ha ha ha ha ha TAK SERIK SERIK AH INI ANAK. Memang mintak kena rotan.

Lucky it turned out fine this time round ah. Nasib pengantin kot?! :P

The next session was a full face threading session - as recommended by Nani because she said that it will make a difference to the kecerahan and glow of my face! So I scheduled a full face threading session with my regular threader (?) instead of my usual eyebrow threading session, and I am happy to report that memang ada difference seh! Awesome or whuttttttt.

Also went to my neighbourhood optician after my threading session to buy the "big eye" contacts! You know the ones yang make your eyes look bigger??? I think they're also known as circle eye contacts - I chose Geo Bella's black ones because the salesgirl told me it's the most natural-looking. (You can also read reviews here and here.)

Yang ini, Kak Nora from Ishq By Nora Zee was the one who suggested I get a pair because she said it'll make a (positive) difference to the way I look!

To be honest kan, I was very apprehensive about wearing these on my wedding day, and the reason is because I've used them before and they made me look like kakak kepada Ju-on lah siak. Tak bedek, geng. I'd put up a picture from when I wore them briefly back in 2007 but if I did, habislah korang tak boleh tido, terkencing kencing kat atas katil malam ni.

But I really didn't have to worry so much because the contacts turned out great on me (after make-up) in the end and did make a difference okay!!!!! If I may say so myself lah eh. Hur hur.

I didn't take a 'before contacts' and 'after contacts' picture (drats!) so I just sharing this gambar which I kapok from Kak Nora's Facebook je okay:

The contacts still look a bit weird on me when I'm not wearing make-up (possibly weird with light daily make-up too) so not sure if I'll wear these contacts again for daily use :/ Maybe during special occasions when eyeshadow + thicker make-up than usual is required??? 

30 October 2013 (Wednesday)

Bridal Room Setup By Bonito By Bob

That night, after I was back from running errands and my personal grooming sessions semua, Bob and his awesome Bonito By Bob team came over to start setting up my bridal room! It took a little longer than their usual setup time of about 2 hours but it was so worth it and I am very excited to report that this was one of my favourite highlights from the whole wedding!!!!!

How can it not be, when my bridal room setup LOOKED LIKE THIS:

 You can watch an instavid of the bridal room tour (lol) here.

IT WAS SO PRETTY, I CAN'T EVEN. SERIOUSLY. But all these excitement yang membuak buak I shall save for later later eh, when I do my final review on Bonito By Bob. For now, all you need to know is that my bridal room was crazy awesome and if you want a bridal room that is as crazy awesome, you all know lah who to look for!!!!!

Oh, another thing - by a stroke of luck, Bob also passed me two of my pre-wedding pictures which he initially printed out to put up as decor but didn't use in the end - I was feeling uninspired on how to do the signages for our afternoon reception tables, you see, and the pictures he gave were perfect. One of me, and one of Saliheen :D

Activated my sisters to help me cut out the wordings from construction paper before sending it off to the printing shop for lamination.

Tadaaaaa~! Not the most creative of ideas but as long as it serves its purpose, it was good enough for me.

31 October 2013 (Thursday)

Spa and Massage Appointment at Spa Jelita

Two days before the wedding, I started the day bright and early with a bridal spa and massage session at Spa Jelita.

Their lorong lorong:

The spa and massage room:

This session turned out better than my facial - I felt rejuvenated by the end of it, and I don't really have any major complaints about the whole experience. The masseuse who attended to me was friendly and their ambience was pretty great + I expected some kind of package hardselling at the end of the session but there was none of that so that's a yay!

If you ask me whether I'll go back there for another session, I'll probably give you an unenthusiastic "Maybe" though - the overall experience was fine but I feel as if the spa and massage sessions that I've had in Batam and Bintan were more satisfying and  lagi worth my money? (I would've gone for a bridal spa and massage session in Batam or Bintan if I could, but I didn't want to travel days before the wedding so that was out of the question.

Also, I've not been to other spa and massage salons in Singapore so I can't really do a legit comparison.

31 October 2013 (Thursday)

Printing of Guest Seating Chart  

As some may know by now, my guest seating chart list for the dinner reception looked a little something awesome hahaha like this:

My mamat and I had a bit of trouble with the guest seating chart - due to the uncertain nature of guest lists, we had to constantly change the seating arrangements and couldn't print the chart earlier to get it out of the way.

(As a matter of fact, I was still inviting people weeks before the wedding because I had a few more people I wanted to invite and had to puss-in-boots-face my way through my mamat's heart first in order to get him to agree to an extra table hehehe)

 

I actually thought of a way to counter this issue - I suggested printing out the table bases on big boards, then separately print and cut the cartoon faces into individual pieces so we can still play around with the seating arrangements as and when our guests informed us they were able or unable to attend. We could have put velcro or sticky tape at the back of the face pieces and pasted them onto the board according to the assigned tables - the concept is a little something like this, you know?

But the idea of the guest seating chart not looking as seamless if done that way remained as a bugbear for me so I persevered to the end and only printed out the guest seating chart two days before the wedding (oh wait, was it one?). Cut it pretty close but IT WAS BLOODY WORTH IT, SUCKERS!!!

This was from the night before, when my sister was helping me make the last minute changes and improvements to the seating chart. Thank you my adik tersayang for spending so much time on this lovely piece!!!!!

Much love for helping me design my invitation cards for the dinner reception tooooooo! Which of course, looks like this:

The front part has a scratch out portion!

Something very simple but I loved that we managed to incorporate scratch out stickers into our invitation cards!!! The scratch off portion, when scratched, reveals our names and the link to our wedding website :D

You can also see an instavid of the card getting scratched (haha that sounds so salah somehow) here.

I was a bit concerned about the invitation cards being too simple but it turned out to be a hit! We were especially surprised when we realized our male guests were the ones who got all excited over the scratch off portions haha (I mean, it's always safe to assume that females will be more appreciative of such... fun details, yes?)

On the other hand, a lot of our female guests told us they didn't want to scratch the card off because dorang rasa macam "sayang" wtf. Melampau eh korang, yang korang nak sayangkan card jemputan aku tu dah kenape?!?!?!

I also know that the element of surprise is not reaaaaally there because, well, all of our guests already knew we were getting married during the Deepavali weekend but we decided to just go ahead with this card design just for the fun of it. Initially the main wording was supposed to be different, though - it was supposed to be "Saliheen and Farhana are getting married! Guess when?" and the scratch off portion was supposed to reveal the date. But I decided to make the changes a few weeks before we sent the cards for printing... because I am just a kakak yang suka menyusahkan adik like that :P

31 October 2013 (Thursday)

Bridal Henna Session with Syraskins

After getting my bridal spa and massage done and printing of collateral settled during the earlier part of the day, I went home hoping for a quick nap before my 10pm henna session with Syraskins. But it was not meant to be, because Syra called me slightly before 5pm, asking whether she can come by at 6pm instead because her 6pm client was still settling other things and requested for postponement of appointment.

Since I initially wanted the 6pm slot anyway (but didn't get since that other bride beat me to it... well, like I always say, if it's your rezeki, it will be your rezeki hehe) and I didn't really feel like doing anything else at that point of time, I agreed! So Syra and her sister came at about 6.30pm, and it must have been the most. freaking. boring. henna session they have ever been to... because it was just me, myself and I hahaha.

I didn't want a big festive henna session since I'm not a big henna fan in the first place (I've mentioned this here and here) and the only reason I was having bridal henna is because I succumbed to societal pressure and had some on just to "nampak macam pengantin". All I wanted was to get it over and done with as quickly as possible and with no fanfare so that was an *achievement unlocked*!

Picture of the bridal henna on my feet! None from my hands because by the time my sister came home to tolong ambikkan gambar, the henna was dry and peeling and looked pretty horrendous.

 Mandatory happy shot with the henna masters!

Them henna masters told me to leave the henna on for 4 hours to max out effect but because I didn't want to risk the henna stain staying longer than I wanted it to (again, I reiterate, I do not fancy henna all that much and specifically wanted them off as quickly as possible after the wedding), aku pun cowboy and peeled the henna off after 1 and a half hours hahahahaha.

1 November 2013 (Friday)

Onsite venue visit

Delivery of Ola Lola Trays

And then came... the day before the wedding. JENG JENG JENG.

Can't really remember what happened during the early part of the day because it went by very very very fast (I do remember a string of hasty phonecalls and flurry of emails though... masih ah nak bertukar emails at the eleventh hour hahaha) but by 5pm, I made my way down to Silat Federation to take a look at the pelamin and decor setup and make sure everything was in place. 

My mamat was already there with his family and groomsmen and this was one of the things that he and one of his groomsmen Sham were up to:

TENGAH PRACTISE NAMPAK? TENGAH PRACTISE NAMPAK? Hahahahaha.

Went home straight after that to finish up last minute DIY photoshoot props (like pasting and cutting out the alphabets you saw in an earlier picture here) with the help of my sisters and the laki bini si Poji and Nani, start packing final payments into envelopes and start packing my staycation bag.

And while I was doing all that, my living room was buzzing with chatter and activity because a whole bunch of relatives came over at night to makan makan!!! I was very happy to see my aunts and uncles and cousins merrymaking over at my place, made the whole night really meriah :D

Just after they left, the wonderful girls of Ola Lola came over to my place to deliver my gift trays (gift trays from me to my mamat) after delivering his (gift trays from him to me) and it was pretty surreal to see all the barang barang that we've accumulated over the past year all wrapped, tied and prettied up for our very own special occasion!

 Gift trays sitting in all their prettiness against an equally pretty backdrop <3

After I was done with all the packing and fussing around, I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep and expected to toss and turn in bed that night (a number of ex-brides told me this will happen!) but as it turns out I wasn't nervous or anxious enough for that to happen??? Because believe it or not, both of us (I asked Saliheen after our wedding day) slept like babies that night.

But babies we were not, because babies don't do adult things like get married the next day... betul tak? :P

The Pre-Wedding Preparations (Part 2)

After part 1 of the pre-wedding preparations, here comes part 2!

Yang ini will cover some of the stuff that happened on the last weekend before the wedding.

25 October 2013 (Friday)

Final Fitting at SY Boutique (Tailor) with Ishq By Nora Zee

We had our final fitting at the tailor itself (which is SY Boutique) lepas kerja because Kak Nora wanted our outfits to fit really well and it's better when the tailors measure the baju against us directly instead of referring to pre-taken measurements aje... and I think I quite like the auntie tailors at this boutique! 

Yang buat bonus: their workmanship pun good good jugak so I might consider sending kain to tailor to them besides Manja. No pictures from this trip to SY Boutique because we looked really masai lepas kerja hahahahaha

26 October 2013 (Saturday)

Purchase of Norethisterone

First order of the day was to visit my regular doctor to purchase Norethisterone! (You can read up about this pill here, here, here, here and here... or you know, you could always Google it up yourself.) Serious adult stuff going on there, y'all.

I actually forgot all about wanting to do this until about 2 weeks before the wedding, and the only reason I remembered was because an angry pimple popped out on my forehead... so gua panic ah geng, sebab dah dapat tanda.

So I re-read Ili of Eleventh October's entry which mentioned the topic (here) because I remembered ex-BTBs commenting on that entry about the existence of a "pill that helps to stop menstrual period temporarily". Asked around after re-reading that entry before taking the plunge because I really didn't want to risk getting my monthly friend during the wedding and honeymoon. 

Disclaimer di sini! As with most medications and approved drugs in the market, this may cause different effects and reactions for different people, so it is always always always best to consult your own GP as to whether you can take this in the first place and how, if you plan to do so!

For my personal experience, I didn't experience any other side effects except for bouts of giddiness, I didn't get any allergic reactions and the pill worked its magic perfectly. And my monthly friend really did make its appearance about 2 days after I stopped the dosage eh.

But I really must stress on this point - as with most medications and approved drugs in the market, it is not healthy to take such pills on a regular basis, unless otherwise prescribed. I only wanted to take this for my wedding and honeymoon (imagine the discomfort throughout the day kalau period tengah heavy duty during the wedding and honeymoon yikes). Might take this again when I plan to go on a long holiday trip in the future, but other than that I'll let my cycle run naturally, which is really the best thing to do for my body and its system.

26 October 2013 (Saturday)

Charity Bake Sale at Penny University

So yes, anyway! After getting that little adult business out of the way, I hopped down to Penny University! And why??? Remember me blogging about the charity bake sale which was to happen one week before my wedding???

Decided to spend my last weekend as a single girl grabbing and gobbling down some omnomnom bakes by Minah Crocker and Dimpled Chicks at the bake sale which was also co-planned/organized with The Tudung Traveller!

Me with the three lovely ladies behind the charity bake sale :D

You can read more about what happened at The Alternative Food Blog - which, by the way, is the blog to read if you're constantly looking for halal as well vegetarian cafes and F&B establishments all around Singapore! You can also follow their latest finds on Instagram here. Had the privilege to meet the dynamic duo behind the blog as well but totes forgot to take a picture together after the kekecohan! Apadah.

Had to reschedule my facial appointment with Spa Jelita to the following day just so I could have the time to drop by the bake sale but it was no biggie - what's a rescheduled facial appointment if I get to contribute to a good cause and get a box of sweet treats while I'm at it, right?! I mean, what bridal diet?

Plus I wanted to bring some sweet treats to our inaugural visit to #shamsyah's new home anyway (more on this later) so it was ala ala kill two birds with one stone lah gitu (Asal kill birds with stones eh??? As far as I know birds kalau kena campak dengan batu dorang terus terbang away seh hur hur)

26 October 2013 (Saturday)

Waxing Appointment at Fabulous Aesthetics 

But there was one appointment that I didn't have to reschedule because it was to happen after I left the bake sale - which was my waxing appointment!

It was my 1st experience of such nature and naturally I was apprehensive and uncertain jugak! Must really thank Bride Barista for layaning my Whatsapp messages, because she is, like, the BTB guru of waxing, y'all! Hur hur hur. In fact, the reason why I booked my waxing appointment with Fabulous Aesthetics instead of other established shops like Strip or Pink Parlour (which I initially considered) is because she recommended it hehe. Thank you sayang!

Moments before my first experience!

Tubs of hot, hot wax! I actually thought the shade for the red coloured one looked very pretty glistening in the light and reminded me of raspberry sauce whereas the golden coloured one looks like honey wtf

I feel that the only downside about Fabulous Aesthetics is the fact that they only have 3 outlets in Singapore. Meh. But the service turned out pretty okay and truthfully kan, I'd rather go to an established name recommended by someone who dah lau chao with these things (hehe) rather than anyhow chop a promotion deal off Groupon or Deal.com with a salon whose reputation and credentials are questionable, just because it's cheap seh.

Sure, you can Google for reviews before purchasing off deal sites but I don't know lah, I'd rather hear from someone that I can put a face, a name and some form of credibility to, and not just random reviews on the world wide web yang tak tau mana asalnye and tak pasti kesahihannye when it comes to such... sensitive things. Heh. But that's just me lah, you know.

Anyway. I won't blog publicly in detail about my experience but I can tell you right now - without having to set my entry to 'private with password' and then shamelessly haggle for 'likes' or 'shares' on social media before I share the experience with you lol - that the experience is really not as bad as it sounds!

In fact, I loved the experience so much that... I actually signed up for a package with Fabulous Aesthetics in the end hahahahaha. If you want to know more because you're planning to do for it yourself then feel free to email me directly so I can share my experience privately and comfortably okay! (Although my reply might come a liiiiittle late than usual, because I still have a backlog of emails to reply to wtf, maybe I should employ someone to be an admin person EH ILI can pay you to be my admin not hehehehehe)

It wasn't as intimidating or torturous as I thought it'd be lor - but that might be because I'm ~pretty~ comfortable with me, myself and my body, I can be quite confident when put in such a... errrrr, "precarious" situation haha AND I have a high threshold for pain.

(I have many weaknesses of course, which includes anything to do with DIY and mathematics (urgh mathematics) but if I had to list my strengths, it'd be everything I just listed hur hur hur. Unfortunately ini macam punya strengths tak boleh pakai eh during job interviews hahahahaha)

In fact, when my bridesmaids and akak Bride Barista asked me whether I found the process painful and how I fared during and after the waxing session, my reply is basically encapsulated in this fabulous GIF:

HAHAHAHAHAHA GOT SEE ANYONE MORE EKSYEN NOT?! 

Hahaha okay lah okay lah maybe I was lucky to get a nice consultant who did the job well - ask for Eunice to do the waxing for you if you're going to the Bugis outlet! In fact, if anyone wants to bump one session off my package ($41 per session, I think, usual price is about $60+) and want to ajak me as teman, I'd gladly do so if you can align with my next appointment :D

26 October 2013 (Saturday)

Bridal Room Setup By Bonito By Bob

So after the waxing appointment, I rushed home because the team from Bonito By Bob was coming over my place to store their barang barang and do the necessary drilling works! Process took about an hour or so, if I remember correctly, and they didn't need me to duduk macam bongok tengok dorang buat kerja so I left them to do their work while I temankan my mother tengok Hindustan hahaha (Not a fan of hindustan because they are too auta for me but I can take their autaness in small doses once in a blue moon ah hahaha)

How my bedroom looked like after the necessary drilling and props are stored:

Had small tingles up my spine when I saw my room all tidied and packed up like this, because I then knew that the special day was coming faster than I can say "Selamat Pengantin Baru! Semoga kekal ke an-" EH EH CIK BEDAH the day dah sampai pun?! *auta*

After Bonito By Bob left (proper review will come in a separate entry!), I had a quick nap before washing up to go to #shamsyah's new home for our final meeting with our orang orang kuat!

26 October 2013 (Saturday)

Final Run-Through with Orang Orang Kuat

This one is another kill two birds with one stone sort of situation - kitaorang memang nak meet our orang orang kuat to discuss and finalize the wedding details and at the same time, memang nak sebok sebok tengok Sham and Aisyah's new home. So ape lagi, sambil menyelam minum air lah kan. 

(Although I can never quite understand why anyone would want to selam dalam laut or sungei and then minum the air.......... unless you tengah selam dalam air bandung or iced milo ah, which then begs the question as to why you tengah selam dalam air bandung or iced milo in the first place..........)

Copies of the wedding itinerary for our bridal party to refer to!

I've had quite a number of people asking me for sample itinerary for their own weddings but I'll only upload mine for reference in a later entry. Sorry gaize! Still need time to edit and delete the crucial names and contact numbers away from my actual one. (But seems like sample wedding itinerary for Malay weddings is really hot in demand eh?!)

Okay dah, back to our last meeting with our orang orang kuat before the wedding! Kita telah ambik chance to turn it into a homemade steamboat dinner gathering heh heh heh NOM NOM NOM

The girls fussing around in the kitchen! (Gender stereotype much?!) Tapi orang rumah feeling malu that night so she kept her face away in all of the pictures taken that night lolololol

We ambik kesempatan to get some tips for home renovation and interior design from Pak Sham and Puan Aisyah that night as well! Super in love with their white and tiffany-coloured guestroom and they can haz a walk-in wardrobe!!! 

Would love to share picturesss but since it's not my rumah sendiri takkan aku nak pandai pandai ye. You all pun tau kan, sepandai pandai tupai melompat, akhirnya tak masuk Olympics jugak kan. (Takde link ah actually hahahahaha)

If it was about my own house, tadi pagi dah announce pun kat front page of Berita Harian, nyah! Hahahahaha. Oh oh oh, I also have a picture of Nadai collapsed on the floor of their walk-in wardrobe which is sungguh buruk lolololol but not sharing that as well because... well, it is buruk, you know. LOL.

Our speech givers Ahmad and Nadai comparing their speeches after dinner. 

Suruh hantar drafts for vetting kat aku, tak nak.

Discussion was long and intense, and thank God for technology because kita sampai hook up laptop to TV and flash the itinerary on the TV monitor for everyone's easy reference lah eh hehehe.

And remember I mentioned about our orang orang kuat groaning about our initial snoozefest of a march-in song and we had to change to another kind? I really wanted to see if a regular march-in is possible with a fast tempo song so I made everyone practise walking down a few times to our eventual march-in song, which is Mozella's Love Is Endless. So yes, we had 10 adults walking down over and over again. In front of #shamsyah's toilet. At 2 freaking am. 

Hahahahaha eh, eh, but seriously, puas hati ah geng, at least bila kita practise I could see that the song could work for the march-in and I was more than happy to make the change. Hurray! 

And yes this is the TV which we used to flash the... ummmmm, wedding itinerary presentation haha. And that wall at the back, ladies and gentlemen, is the feature wall which pasangan suami isteri Sham and Aisyah painstakingly built up themselves okay!!!!!!! :O Very semangat, and very cool eh korang.

Don't think Saliheen and I will do anything like that for our own feature wall for our new home though since kita laki bini are such lazy asses when it comes to DIY stuff.......... 

(Sorry for the sudden turn to home decor topic, you must understand that my mind is now tuned to home renovations and interior decor since the wedding is over and done, and the next major project we have as a married couple is our first home together! Hehe mega excitez)

Okay sampai di sini aje kali ini, part 3 akan datang shortly!

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