The chills.

Bila nak kahwin ni soalan yang orang selalu tanya, 'Dah ready ke nak jadi isteri orang?' My usual answer is 'Entahlah'. Sama macam bila nak ambil exam. Sebelum masuk dewan sure ada member tanya, 'Ko dah ready ke?' Serba salah tahu tak nak jawab. Kalau jawab 'Dah ready!' nanti sure kena label 'berlagak'. Kalau jawab 'Weh aku tak ready dowh, semalam half way study aku tertidur, subuh tadi baru jaga'. Lepas tu bila results keluar dapat 95, kawan yang tanya tadi dapat 78 and akan cakap, 'Gila lah kau tak sempat habis study pun 95, aku yang tak tidur semalam dapat B je'. Tak pasal-pasal jadi gila pulak. Ha dah tu kena label 'Nak cover la tu cakap tak habis study padahal genius'. See, serba salah tahu tak??

Truth is, we can never be ready for anything, unless we go through it. Lepas tu baru lah tahu sebenarnya ready ke tak. 

When Mama came to visit the other day, that was one of the things she asked me. My answer was 'No, I am not!' I could list 100 of things that I need brushing up, but even if I practice/find ways to overcome the 100 things, there will be 100 things more on my plate.

I told my mom, before the ceremony, I need to practice my 'siang ikan' skill. Not that I don't know how to siang ikan *defensive mode*, it's just that the ikan I siang is always not pretty (dasyat nya grammar kau). They will turn out clean and edible *of course* but tak sedap mata memandang. Get what I mean?

Another thing of my concern, 'apa nak masak kat rumah mertua nanti?'. My cooking skills are really basic, janji untuk selamat perut sendiri. I call it masakan bujang LOL. Specialty dish pun belum ada. Kalau at least ada satu dua yang terror gila kalau masak confirm sedap, ok lah jugak. Kalau tiba-tiba mak mertua suruh take over the kitchen boleh berpeluh just thinking what to cook, belum start masak lagi. Tambah nervous Harris has a big family, kalau tak sedap mana nak letak muka??

That's just two out of hundreds.

But I guess, mana yang boleh brush up tu, boleh la kan nak start from now.  But as we go along, we will learn how to deal with things and masa tu lah kita jadi ready. There and then. Moral of the story, we can stop asking the areyouready question because no one knows. Instead, kita doakan orang yang nak kahwin tu dapat mengharungi cabaran dan dugaan after kahwin seperti siang ikan depan mak mertua dengan jayanya :P

Inspiration boards :)

Sharing some of the inspiration boards I use as reference. If you must know, choosing a color palette is so hard! I keep changing my mind every now and then. So far we've nailed the colors for solemnization and 2nd reception (I hope so!). We thought we've got the 1st reception done as well, but me being a fickle minded person thought of changing it yet again :P Oh you know what, I didn't expect Harris to be so detailed about colors and stuff, but he surely surprised me there!

Images from here and here and Mr.Google.

Hi-speed wedding preparation

Technically I have 5-6 months before my wedding, but practically I don't really have that much time to spend on the preparation. So last Aug/Sep when I was home for Raya and my engagement, I managed to cross out most of the major things on my wedding checklist. 

I had the most hectic weekend of the year on the Merdeka weekend. I spent 3 days in Penang (Tue-Thu), drove back to Ipoh on Friday midnight, met with the photographer cum videographer on Friday morning, wedding planner (sort of) for Ipoh's reception on the evening, went around Ipoh to look for outdoor photoshoot venue, took a bus to KL at 6 pm, arrived in Puchong at 9 pm. The next day, we drove to Melaka for a wedding, rushed back to KL at 3 to meet the designer at 5 but of course we didn't  factor in traffic jam when we estimated what time we should leave Melaka. There was a massive traffic jam at Tol Sg Besi, so we made a U-turn 100 m from the toll booth and took Bangi exit and continued our journey to Bangsar. In the end I had to make a call to the designer to move the appointment to 6, but was told that the boutique closes at 6.30 on Saturday. It was 6 and we were somewhere in Puchong. Both of us were silent, a lot was going through my head because that was the only weekend I'd be in KL, so I thought there was no way I could make my wedding dress with the designer. Harris was also silent, maybe in his head he was thinking he better not say anything, afraid that I would end up in tears if he asked me whether I'm okay or not. We reached the area at 6.15 pm, I got off the car, called the girls who were already waiting for me at Pappa Rich while Harris went around looking for parking. Met the designer, discussed about the dress, and she asked to come again the next day to see the sketch and also to take measurement. (pheww that was a long one).

Then from there Harris left me with the girls because we were having our sleepover that night. Went straight to Jakel to buy kain for them, then off to Kekngah's house. Nope, the day was still long after that. In the car we were busy planning for Kekny's surprise birthday celebration. Me and Kekya in one car. Kekny and Kekngah in another car while Kekna was in the other. We arrived at Kekngah's place still with no solid plan. Golek-golek a bit, gossip a bit, then it was already 12 am. We haven't had dinner yet because from 8 pm we couldn't decide whether to eat out or call in delivery. And, still no solid plan on Kekny's birthday surprise. With eyes half opened, we went to Williams Danau Kota, finally came up with a plan, and ate and talked like nobody's business. Went back home at 2 ish, continued catching up till 3 ish before everybody dozed off. 

The next morning, I had another wedding to attend in Bangi and this time we actually left early to drive to Bangsar and even arrived earlier than the appointment time, we couldn't see the designer right away. Had Tutti Frutti just opposite the boutique and slowly taking our time walking up the stairs when it was time. After the appointment, went back to Harris's place to get ready to take the bus back to Ipoh at 6. Reached Ipoh at 9, and poor Harris he had to continue his journey back to Penang. 

And that was by far, the busiest weekend in my life. Everything was crammed to that weekend because it was my last weekend in Malaysia. I was a bit sad because Kekwa couldn't join us for the sleepover. It could be our last sleepover :(

But Alhamdulillah all the major things are now done, just waiting for the results (nervous!!). Hope everything turn out okay :)

Jakel with the girls.

I've always wished that on my wedding day I could doll up my girls in the same dress and all they have to do is sit around me, smile and simply be pretty :) Coz I malu malu kucing like that so segan to sit at the dais all by myself getting all the attention. Why do that when I can spread the attention to 9 other beautiful ladies hehe.

So off I went to Jakel again this time with the girls. I wish all of them could be there but of course it wasn't easy to gather 9 girls at the same time. It was raya season and everyone was still busy with open houses and whatnot.

Long story short, I already had the color in mind and we just had one hour to shop as we arrived quite late. I called the kakak who helped me with my purchase few days before, did some kenyit kenyit mata to the tauke/anak tauke/something like that, got the price quote I wanted and voila! 9 kain pasang ready for the girls. Hope they all like it and will look all pretty and dressy on the day :)

My beautiful companions :)

Konon-konon pening kepala kira budget lol.

Walked out from Jakel and found pasar malam. Cendol time!

p/s: God knows how packed that day was for me, will blog about it later :)

Jakel Trip No.1

To be honest, it was my first ever trip to Jakel. It's been years since I last (or my mom to be exact) bought kain pasang to make baju kurung for whatever occasions. So on one Monday morning while waiting for Ayah to finish his meeting before we could all go back to Ipoh (pheww that's a long one) I decided to pay a visit to Jakel Jalan TAR.

Objective: Kain pasang hunting for the family.

Since I am a chicken at driving in KL, I decided to take public transport to get there, dragging my mom along. So from Putrajaya we took the KLIA Transit to KL Central, then LRT to Masjid Jamek, and later used Google Maps to walk to Jakel (I had no idea where it is). Long journey.

To cut the story short, I managed to get kain pasang for both nikah and reception for my family. Mama didn't agree with the idea of me buying for everyone because she said I could save the money for something else and everyone could just buy in their own. But I thought bila lagi nak belanja family kan.

Initially I planned to just browse and not to buy because I'd be going there again on Saturday, this time with my girls and most importantly by car! Oh well, one can only plan. Not only I ended up with 12 kain pasang, but a bridal bedroom set as well! So heavy okay! Probably we were too engrossed with shopping that we forgot we came by train!

Luckily, Jakel was so baik they asked one staff to carry our stuff from the store to Masjid Jamek LRT. Nak jalan pergi LRT tu je yang jauh, after that we were all fine and made our way back to Putrajaya with full hands and happy but tired faces :D

Engaged :)

Happy 1st monthiversary to us! Yeay!

LOL, this entry is so long overdue. It's been a month since Harris and I got engaged, Alhamdulillah for His blessing.

I actually don't know where and how to start this entry-how we got together or the preparation or how the day went yada yada yada. If I combined all together it'll too wordy so yeah I'll save some for later. For now let's just talk about the day.

A little inside stories:

1. That morning, most of my family members (aunties, uncles, cousins included) had really bad diarrhea. My sister had it first on the evening of the 1st Raya and we blamed the mee goreng mamak she had for tea that day. Came morning the next day, I woke up at 4 am to use the toilet, then my mom went at 6. When everybody woke up, we checked on each other, we even called kampung to ask if anybody there experienced the same. It turned out that almost everyone at my kampung had diarrhea as well. We now know who the real culprit was, rendang ayam! So when my auntie came to our house that morning, she gave me pills to eat. Man, I was panicking the whole time. What if I really cannot tahan and want to use the toilet during the sarung cincin time? Lucky it didn't happen pheww. After the sarung cincin thing was done and most people were at the khemah eating, my auntie took me to a corner and gave some pills again, this time they were green ones. Two times, 4 pills down the throat, I thought I should be fine for the day. Boy, was I wrong! When most people had left, I sat down with my friends to fill my growling stomach, and just two 'suap' in, my stomach couldn't take it I had to run to the toilet, in that pink dress! In the end, I only had my lunch at 6 that day. Story of my life.

2. I wish I was creative and had time to DIY my hantaran. Since I lacked both, I let the expert to do it. All my hantaran were done by my dear auntie. She has a shop in Seri Iskandar called Rampai Sari. So you bride-to-be, if you need help like I did, you know where to find her :)

3.  Guess who made the hantaran for Harris? His dad! His mom told me that during the fasting month, his dad would make the hantaran deco little by little, after sahur and before Maghrib. He even sketched each hantaran! So impressive okay.

4. Why did it on 2nd raya? Well, not only we had it on 2nd raya, but my brother also got engaged 3 days after I did. Haha! Two celebrations in a week! Well it was because my auntie who currently reside in Australia wanted to attend both ceremonies and she'd be going back to OZ on the 6th raya. She's like our second mother so we wanted to fulfill her wish. That was why we crammed it all in one week. This year's raya didn't really feel like a real raya to me because we were too busy preparing for both ceremonies. A twist to our regular raya routines :) 

5. Alhamdulillah most people came back to us saying that the catered food was really good. We were so thankful that my neighbor's sister was willing to cater the food for that day. It was for 2nd raya where most caterer wouldn't bother to take small orders like ours (baik dorang pergi beraya, unless order banyak berbaloi la korbankan raya). If not, our plan B was to cook the dishes ourselves, in which would involve a lot of stress women in the kitchen. LOL.

6. Harris and I decided to just exchange food and the likes for our engagement hantaran. My mom made pineapple tarts, butter cookies and pulut kuning for me :) And she also made the cookies for doorgifts and cupcakes for the candy booth. Fully sponsored by Mamunchkin Homemade Bakery :)

OK lah, enough inside stories already. Time for pictures! I thought of posting pictures from the official photographer SSgraphy, but I was already here when the DVD came and my cousin will only bring it to me next week so for now these pictures are from my cousin's camera and my iPhone.

Pictures from the OP here.

**

Thank you to all my family and friends who made that day a memorable one :)

And to Harris Arisyi, je t'aime mon cheri :)

In a week or so

Planning for something big from far away can be quite stressful. Indeed it is VERY stressful! Especially when you have no control whatsoever over it, and all you could do is to depend on your best friends to make decisions for you and hoping that internet connection won't go cranky on both ends because Whatsapp and Skype now become your new BFFs. And of course, pray that Allah makes it easy for everyone involved and for all things to run smoothly.

But all the stress aside, it's actually still fun. Everything is done through e-mails or Facebook messages and replies go through while waiting for the bus, or while waiting for the doctor's appointment (like right now). And to see everything gets 'confirmed' one by one, sure bring smile to this face :)

A few things still need to be attend to. Well a lot actually. I can't wait to go home to finish what my family and friends started and wait for the day where I just have to sit and be pretty (luls).

Oh and after that, it will all start again :) Looking forward to meeting all the people I spoke to via e-mails :)