Sunday Monday

52 days to the wedding and here I am enjoying (somewhat) my strawberry yogurt. No, I'm not on diet (as you'd hear a lot of that from B2B), it's just that I caught some bug from my recent trip to Paris and have been having diarrhea for a week now. Well that's how I'd like to think about it, you know, traveler's diarrhea :P So, I have been eating rice porridge, soups, breads, biscuits and yogurts for 7 days.  Of course there were times when I cheated a bit, for example when Kak Hani made lasagna the other day. No matter how sedap your rice porridge is, it can never win over lasagna okay! Milk and milk-related products are a no-no when you are having diarrhea because the enzyme lactase that is needed to breakdown lactose in milk is reduced when you have diarrhea. So you might make the condition worse. Tetiba ade science lesson. Dalam lasagna kan ada cheese, so the morning after tu, lagi keraplah ke toilet hihu.

On a brighter note, 5 more weeks before I board the plane back home. Yippie!

On a not-so-bright note, days leading up to my holiday are gonna be super duper hectic. I don't even remember the last time I Skyped with H to discuss about the wedding. When Mama calls me on Skype these days to talk about the wedding, usually at night before I go to bed, I often have to stop her :( I can't think of anything wedding-ish at such hour because my brain is already tired for working non-stop in the day. 

InshALLAH everything will be fine :D


Sekian bebelan hari ini.


p/s: Oh btw, yogurt consumption is fine because it has the good bacteria that helps fight the bad bacteria that's causing the diarrhea in your intestines.

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

Kira Kira Kahwin

Salam,

Pada suatu malam yang indah, tiba-tiba datanglah satu 'random thought' untuk buat belanjawan. Well actually takde lah random mana. Ada satu hari tu ternampak status seseorang di Facebook, pasal dia sit for an hour untuk buat financial projection/planning dia for the next 10 years. 'Interesting', hati ku berkata. Makanya pada suatu malam yang bosan, terjadilah Kira Kira Kahwin seperti di bawah.

Mungkin ada yang kata I went overboard by planning all these, tapi saja ada aku kesah? Aku nak kahwin grand and most importantly tak mahu buat pinjaman *InsyALLAH*. Jadi, if you are with me, teruskan membaca. Sharing is caring, yo!

Umur yang standard orang sekarang kahwin ialah sekitar 26-28 tahun. Masa tu kerja dah stabil, tak lompat-lompat lagi, income pun of course dah stabil once kerja dah stabil.

Let's give ourselves four years from now before we get hitched. 

Let say you need..

RM 15,000 for wedding

RM   6,000 for honeymoon (kalau local maybe less, ini contoh yang nak honeymoon pergi buat umrah)

RM  5,000 (contribution on your part) untuk fill up your first house with your spouse. Rumah ni tak semestinya korang beli lagi, could be korang sewa je dulu. This amount untuk korang start beli perabot etc. 

So total korang perlukan RM 26,000.

Jadi berapa banyak korang kena save sebulan untuk dapat RM 26,000 dalam account by end of four years? Simple math.

RM 26,000/ 4(12) = RM 542

Yes, korang kena save up RM 542 sebulan. Nampak macam banyak kan? Lepas buat kira-kira hari tu pun rasa macam 'Mak oi banyak nya, nak makan apa???' 

Tapi kira-kira ni sangat relevan ye kawan-kawan. Mungkin korang fikir eh muda lagi, nak fikir pasal kahwin buat pe, buat sesak otak je, nak berfoya-foya dulu lah. Ye, berfoya-foya lah korang selagi larat, tapi at the end of the day, korang nak kena kahwin jugak. 

Nabi Muhammad SAW pun pernah bersabda;

"Perkahwinan itu Sunnahku, sesiapa yang tidak suka kepada Sunnahku, dia bukan daripada kalangan umatku"

(riwayat Al-Bukhari)

Takkan lagi 6 bulan nak kahwin baru menggagau garu kepala fikir mana nak cari duit. Kan bagus kalau dari awal bekerja dah sebelahkan duit untuk belanja kahwin. Sebelahkanlah jugak duit untuk korang berfoya-foya. Tak salah pun. Fair and square. 

Ye, RM 542 sekarang nampak sangat besar. Tapi bayangkan kalau korang start lambat, tinggal setahun lagi nak kahwin, korang kena simpan double tau. RM 1000 sebulan. Pergghhh, masa tu lah terpaksa makan maggi 20 hari sebulan, tak beli baju and kasut 4 bulan, tak kasi duit kat mak 6 bulan, tak tengok movie 8 bulan. Sure taknak kan macam tu? Biarlah nak kahwin pun boleh lagi makan Fish N Chips :)))

Oleh itu, mari semua, kita start menabung. Ini juga peringatan untuk diri saya sendiri. Saya nak wedding yang boleh tahan grand, tapi bukan tahap artis lah yang pasti. Tee hee hee. Simple tapi grand, cemana tu? I mean at least dapat la apa yang nak, takde la kene kemut sebab tak cukup bajet, you know what I mean? Tapi harapnya tak go overboard lah, thanks to TheOtherKhairul kerana mengingatkan. 

Jom menabung?


p/s: Jangan lupa simpan kat Tabung Haji jugak okay?

Color crazyyyyy

OMG OMG, I'm so excited.

Chill Dila chill..take deep breathe..In..Out..In..Out

Fuuuhhhhhhhh...

OK now I'm more composed. NOT!!

Blame the mating season, everyone is talking about wedding these few weeks. Me included! But I have been keeping it to myself, or just on Twitter, but I cannot tahan alreadyyyy! This must go out!

I found out an awesome blog 'The Perfect Palette' from my friend's blog, NenaMalek. OMG I fell in love with it the moment I saw the first color palette. Not even after reading the first post. I haven't really read the blog, which is something I would normally do (read cover-to-cover) when I found an awesome blog like this. I just had to blog about it first. Cannot tahan, cannot tahan.

I know I know, I'm not getting married anytime soon, but berangan tak salah, kan? Girls just wanna have fun, haha. Definitely going to be my reference, when the time comes :))

So you brides-to-be, please check it out! Grooms-to-be nak check out boleh jugak, tee hee hee.

Now, who wants to berangan with me? Let's jom!

Pic taken from The Perfect Palette

OK OK now back to work...(Let's see if I can do that muahahaha)