... when you see a wedding invitation card with YOUR NAMES ON IT.
SO. FREAKING. SURREAL. CAN?!
Love love love the wedding invitation card that my mamat's family will be giving to their side of guests, by the way!!! Which is the one pictured above lah. Cantik kan! The design seriously ikut my FMIL punya taste and I'm so happy she is pleased with it!
I personally think it's very lawa and the quality is pretty good... I still wish Syarikat Thong Seng (the company in Larkin JB where we printed the cards) would replace their old school
way of dealing face-to-face or via fax only though. It would really help to cut down the hassle of
customers having to travel to and fro JB just to approve drafts and
collect the cards okay.
But okay lah~~~ since it's murah and cepat and senonoh, tak pasal lah eh.
As for the invitation cards for my side of the family, I'm still trying to finalize the design but am expecting to wrap it up soon so can send for printing! Sneak peak of the design:
Cute and bubbly, just like how I want it to be! :D
Ooh, I have updates on our dinner invitation cards too!!!
Finallysat down with my baby sister to finalize the design and got printing contacts from Nani... eventually chose The One Inkjet because they gave me the lowest quote ($40 for 200pieces of A6
double-side printed cards... inclusive of GST somemore ok!) and I most definitely did not regret choosing them!!!
This printing company is damn amazeballz ok!!!!!!! Everything was done simple and quick - submitted my designs and made the
payment YESTERDAY morning and this is the text message I received from them after lunch today:
GILA BABZ. Dorang pakai Speedy Gonzales as dorang punya pekerja or what sak ni.
Needless to say, I am sooooo tak sabar to see the printed cards... which is why I'm heading to their office after work later to collect the cards yay yay! Hopefully the colour and quality will not disappoint. Thank you to Nani once again for the awesome contact :D
Oh oh oh, this does not mean our dinner invitation card is settled though. We'll be adding a special feature to the cards and since I only ordered the necessary add-on item from the States on Monday, we'll have to wait until the shipment arrives before we can start putting the final touches to the cards. Hehe excitez!
In the meantime, yok tengok tracking status:
By the way, even though I've ordered so many stuff from the States before, I still have no idea how to look at this tracking thing eh. Asal the dates macam jumble jumble up ni, akak tak paham! Haha. Perangai kentalan buah lychee sak.
Happy updates on the last few items on our wedding list!
(1) Bridal Shoes
Can you freaking believe it - I've found my dream bridal shoes for the wedding without any intention of doing so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, I have been paying special attention to shoe shops whenever I go out for lunch (perks of working within walking distance to two shopping centres) for the past two months but nothing ever catches my eye. I was not too bothered by it really, because:
(a) I still have 6 more months to search for the perfect pair... and I think that's more than enough time to find bridal shoes. Right?!
(b) There is a possibility I might change my mind and have to buy another pair after I go for my outfit selection. Never know what'll happen - dah happy happy beli kasut kahwing way before outfit selection lepas tu bila pergi choose baju pengantin three months before the wedding tiba tiba colour and/or design tak kena with the outfits pulak.
(c) My married girlfriends tell me I can worry about getting a pair that I will love wearing because a good and pretty pair will make me feel really happy about wearing it but not too much sampai tulis emo poems slit wrist segala because firstly, there is a high chance I'll wear it during the wedding only and secondly, nobody will really notice during the wedding anyway (Aisyah asked me whether I remembered her bridal shoes to which I had to sheepishly admit with an "Errrrr... no.")
After considering the above, I figured bridal shoes is not something that I have to prioritize now and told myself I'll only actively search after I've gone for my outfit selection three months before the wedding.
And then... this happened:
Sham, Aisyah, my mat and I went to JB over the weekend to cut hair and buy groceries at Southern City and after we were done, we had to decide whether to head to KSL City Mall or City Square JB for lunch. Sham was championing KSL City Mall because my mat and I have never been there before - I actually preferred to go to City Square JB because terasa macam nak makan at Sizzling Stone Grill. But tak tau kenape, someway or another, my heart macam reluctant to voice it out because Sham seemed really keen on checking out the makan places in KSL City Mall.
Plus! My mat and I already told them before the trip that we'd follow their itinerary (because they were the ones who wanted to run errands in JB and we were there just to teman them for fun) and there really was no harm checking out a place we've never been to before kan? So I shrugged it off and we went with Sham's suggestion.
Reached KSL City Mall and started walking around to look for interesting makan places that are not available in Singapore - takde maksud eh pergi JB pastu makan kat KFC or Seoul Garden (speaking of which... did you know that Seoul Garden provides halal catering for weddings too?!) But someway somehow by a fantastic twist of fate, I caught sight of a super cute concept shoe shop called 'Sugar'... and that was when I saw it - I SAW THE BRIDAL SHOES OF MY FREAKING DREAMS!!!!!!!!!!
Wish I took photos of the super cute shopfront but I was too distracted and excited to remember so here's a lousy screenshot off KSL City Mall's website haha:
They had a glass display filled with sparkly and glittery shoes suitable for weddings and just before the salesgirl brought down the pair I pointed out, I caught a glimpse of the price for another pair on a higher shelf - looked like RM239 or RM259. Thought that was not too bad, considering that it wasn't too far off from my budget for bridal shoes. Slipped on the pair I wanted and this, my friends, was how I felt and looked like:
So what else was there to do, right??? Told the salesgirl "I'm taking this!" and then she told me the pair I chose was on 20% off! Ish ish ish, ini anak... siang siang tak cakap, pandai betul kau buat orang lompat kegembiraan eh?! But just when I thought nothing could have made me happier after that, I asked her to confirm the price for the pair I chose so I could calculate the discounted price... and she said the original price for that particular pair was RM199!!!!! And all the while I thought it was above RM200 lor!!!
So there you have it - dream bridal shoes cost me RM199 + 20% discount = RM159.20 = SGD64.90. Ok, now. Exactly how does my dream pair of bridal shoes look like ni???
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I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE MY BRIDAL SHOES TO THE END OF TIME, CAN?!?!?!?!?!
Ok, here's a close-up for those yang suka tengok benda dekat dekat:
(I suspect the black markings on the sole was caused by me doing a little shuffle dance inside the shop because I wanted to see whether I can move freely in the shoes. Also because I wanted to dance my excitement out before I burst into flames of glory hahaha)
Took about a million pictures because I am freaking obsessed with my bridal shoes.
How can I not be? It is exactly what I dreamt of having but thought impossible because it looks like it only belongs on the glorious pages of Pinterest. And how often do you get something that fits all your pre-set criteria? This beauty fits all my criteria for bridal shoes ok:
- Must have thick platform
- Must have thick heels
- Must have bling blings all over
- Must be white or nude in colour
- Must be at least 4 inches high
- Must be covered (cannot be open-toe)
- Must cost less than SGD100
I was actually quite ready to let go of the "Must have bling blings all over" criteria because I figured it must be difficult to find something like that for under SGD100, and there is NO way I am ever going to DIY and pasang the bling blings one by one onto a plain kasut just to get that effect. Looks like I'm wrong because someone somewhere out there had taken on the daunting task of painstakingly pasting the bling blings one by one onto the kasut just so someone (me) can have her dream bridal shoes at a very good price - so whoever you are, I'm sending you lots of love and sparkle ok! ♥☆♥☆♥☆♥☆♥☆
And oh, guess what! With me hugging the shoes close to my chest (haha takut kasut tu lari pe), we headed to Oyster King for lunch after that... but found out that they were out of oysters for the day! (Ridiculous kan Oyster King running out of oysters?!?!?! Ape punya king tak guna ni, pergi letak jawatan and jadi nelayan sua. Gi pancing oysters sana.) We looked around for other makan places but tak berkenan with anything else so we ended up leaving KSL City Mall to have lunch at City Square JB instead. Turns out Aisyah wanted to makan at Sizzling Stone Grill but didn't voice it out earlier as well! So end up we went to KSL City Mall for nothing... except for me to unintentionally discover the bridal shoes of my dreams! YAY!
Fate works in wonderfully mysterious ways, doesn't it? My mat and I punya belief in rezeki and takdir was strongly reinforced after what happened during our BTO journey and this is another example that God has rewarded us with. Alhamdullilah for that! And now I can't wait to bring them babies out for my bridal outfit fitting appointment :D
Might have to peel them off my feet now and stop wearing them to sleep so they'll stay fresh and new for the wedding..........
(2) Invitation Cards
Already settled the invitation card design for our dinner reception (I love it!!! Thanks Adik!!! I love you till the end of time muah muah) so last I updated, we're left with the afternoon reception punya invitation cards.
A little hiccup here because we cannot seem to find anything his parents like :( Kita dah tunjuk invitation card vendors to them but semua macam cannot fit their liking. His mum quite liked Ruzanna's invitation card which was designed and printed by Card Maison (we passed her the card as sample) but even after we tried to steer them towards making a decision by telling them about Card Maison's promo last March, it was a no go.
Then we recently saw something from From Fran With Love that we thought might suit his parents' taste but even after a few rounds of possible revisions and suggestions, they are still not budging! My mat sampai dah give up wholesale and told his mum to cari her own sources haha.
(This was the card design that we thought his parents might like, by the way - if you prefer to have something other than the usual trendy postcard fare that's very popular now, you can approach From Fran With Love for this kind of card design:
Very simple but very pretty hor~~~)
On my end, I asked my mum the paling-relek-jek mak pengantin and my dad for their preferences but their replies were "Sembarang" and "Kau lah pilih, ayah ibu pilih nanti kau tak suka, kau tu kan cerewet" respectively. Lol. Trust my parents to know me so well lor.
So I looked through the different card design and printing service providers in the market (other than Card Maison, since we already missed the cut off period to place orders for our November wedding) - there's Pretty White Veil, Kad Pengantin, The Card Room, Studioflux Concepts, Khookhoodoodle (sister company of Innovazione Gubahans - whose gubahan designs are getting even more prettier by the day!) and the newly launched Paperkard (With a fellow kakak kahwing behind it! Hi Shuhada! :D)
But somehow I'm already very comfortable with From Fran With Love after liasing with her for the past two to three weeks sooooo I've finally decided to engage her services to design and print my wedding invitation cards! Absolutely love her service ok! She's super duper patient with my queries, always very cheery and friendly (Yay fellow Farhana! "Farhana" means "Happiness" by the way hehe) and keeps apologizing for "late replies" padahal lambat reply two to three hours je seh. Heh. Some sample designs off her Facebook page, in case you're interested!
So yes, I settle the kettle for the wedding cards already YAYYYYYYY. Damn outstanding task been bugging me for months and now it's finally out of the way woohoohooooo.
(3) Baju for Groomsmen and Bridesmaids
Another thing that's finally out of the way is the baju baju kuat for our orang orang kuat! My mat met the guys to choose their fabrics and have their measurements taken at Grand City Tailor whereas I met the girls at Joo Chiat Complex to have their measurements taken and pass the fabrics we previously bought from Princess Fabrics to a well-known tailor called Manja last weekend and had both groups meet for lunch.
BY THE WAY - Can I just use this opportunity to complain about my horrible maha terrible experience at Manja??? The nyonya who attended to us WAS FREAKING RUDE AND CONDESCENDING TO THE MAX, PLEASE. Every single thing we requested for was replied with a "Ini design tak lawa lah!!!" "Lu buat gini tak cantik!!!!" "Apa pasal lu mau buat macam gitu???" "Wah lu mau bikin ini design wa manyak susah wor" "Ini design manyak leceh lah!!!" siap with jeling menjeling and annoying jabbing gestures EH SIAL LAH, aku peh suka, aku peh pasal ah aku nak buat macam mana sak.
You're already so overpriced because you pride yourself for good tailoring and workmanship kan??? If you're so bloody good at tailoring then how come semua pun you tak boleh buat and semua design pun leceh to buat or tak cantik to you???? One of the girls kept saying I should tolerate it because "semua tailor memang grumpy macam gitu pe" but I super hate when people who are good at what they do become mother bloody yaya and act like an asshole just because "they can afford to do so".
Plus she was not just grumpy, she was RUDE and she was CONDESCENDING. Not manja at all lor. I pay you good money to do your tailoring magic, not to be give me and my friends your perangai puaka. My regular tailor (who is also a nyonya by the way) is nowhere near grumpy like this mother bitchy nyonya, and even when she thinks a particular design tak akan suit the person wearing it, she will patiently explain why and suggest sound alterations to the original requested design.
It might have been my rotten luck to be attended to by that particular nyonya at Manja though - my girlfriend who often sends her stuff for tailoring at Manja told me that there are two shops at Joo Chiat Complex under the name Manja and the one that she always go to is another unit and the service there is much better than the one I went to. Pfft.
Will go to the other unit with my sisters next two weeks (because I need to get their measurements done as well for their baju) to see whether the experience is any better. For what it's worth, after I posted a picture on Instagram and captioned out my grievance with the nyonya, I had a few other people commenting to tell me they have had less than desirable service from the unit that I went to. Workmanship memang tip top tapi service macam siak. Urgh, marah ni >:-(
Ok dah that's it lah, tak nak angry and negative lagi because angry and negative vibes will be rewarded with angry and negative karma. So I shall now be a true blue Farhana and be very happy that at least we got to meet and catch up with every single one of our orang orang kuat all at one shot last weekend! :D :D :D :D :D
Sayang korang ke hujung dunia and thanks for making the effort to indulge us, guys!!!
And thank you for reading this whole chunk of an entry, korang. Sorry nak kena potong this entry abruptly because dah nak masuk my sleeptime. I pun kena get some sleep ok, you think I 24 jam blogging, vendor stalking and cari inspiration for the wedding is it.
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 isa 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!
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:
(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.
