you pop the question, i'll pop art the engagement

 Lama tak you all tunggu I finish up this blog entry about our engagement???

Seberapa lama you all tunggu I untuk finish up and publish this blog entry, lagi lama lah time I tunggu untuk sampai to this milestone with my mamat. After 1 and a half year of jeling menjeling, half a year of usik mengusik and 4 years of relationship, we finally got engaged last weekend!!!

If there was one thing that did NOT happen at our engagement, it was... the engagement turning out as how we hoped it would be.

Granted, I stuck to not having any professional make-up artist dolling me up and to not rent a fancy bridal outfit, and I also didn't have to engage any caterers because my mum and my aunts semua gotong royong masak memasak for the event!

Everything else was so much more than we initially wanted... but I am very happy to report that we have no regrets! (O hai Ruzanna, my fellow btb, you were right! Hee hee hee)

Ok, actually I have a few minor pangs of regret HAHA but more on that later.

I guess the good thing about the whole thing was that even though the event went out of control (after I promised my mat to let go and let our parents have their fun), it went out of control on both sides. For example, actually janji both sides ada less than 20 pax - we ended up with more than 20 pax on his side and my side each. Bagus lah sangat both keluarga boleh in sync eh.

The only thing that didn't really "tally" was the number of dulangs - his parents had agak agak five trays on his side, so my side decided to prepare five trays as well. Tup tup tup, before the ceremony started, his relatives started bringing tray after tray after tray after tray after tray to the point that it was not really that kelakar eh!

Orang lain bukak tupperware party, relatives dia bukak tray party.

Amaciam geng, next week mau buck the trend and bukak tuala party pulak pe?! Hahahahaha

Apparently, it's true what you hear through the kakak kakak kahwin network - makciks pakciks will randomly throw in a cake or two, a basket of fruits here and a stash of chips and coffee there, and the items just kept adding up! He ended up giving me ten dulangs ok. Jejak dua digit seh! Whereas mine cuma tambah satu (became 6 trays) because my makciks pakciks contributed more on the makan makan end, rather than the barang dulangs. But it was ok lah I guess, because after the ceremony was over, my mat told me that he heard his relatives saying that "what should be given from guy to girl and girl to guy was what we gave each other so we got it right"

Oooookkkaaaaaaayyy.

Whatever the hell that means eh guys. Tak tau pulak ada certain guidelines that we have to adhere to when it comes to exchanging of dulangs for an engagement ceremony?!

I think the thing that made the engagement ceremony well worth it was to see our parents happy hosting their guests + the joy, laughter and genuine well wishes from our relatives made me enjoy the event so much more than I expected.

Our engagement ceremony was over super duper quick, though! It was so maha chop chop that even I was surprised. My makciks and my friends were telling me that the ones they've attended or had themselves dragged on for berkurun lamanya ok! For ours, his relatives came over, discussed, had bacaan doa, took some photos, ate some food and wham bam slam his relatives left and it was over in less than two hours. Dah macam tengok movie kat Tampines Mall lah pulak kan.

Ok I know I'm being panjang lebar ~as usual~ so let's just start with some pictures ok! 

Very grateful that I have a gila artsy fartsy friend like Nani who likes doing DIY stuff because she offered to do a DIY bouquet for me! We went merata tempat to grab materials and spent two nights after work to finish it and the completed bouquet was AMAZINK!!!!!

I love it with all my hati jantung limpa kaki tangan tekak segala!!!

Ok come, I show you final product:

I know you can't really see it from here because it's dark blue in colour but the feature I love the most is the felt pom pom flower! Very pretty! I chanced upon the tutorial on one of my random web research sessions and knew I wanted to incorporate it somewhere - anywhere - for my engagement, and even though it was only incorporated into the DIY bouquet, I was very, very happy about it :D

In case you want to try it for your DIY projeks, the tutorial can be found here!

(It was also through this process that Nani discovered my talent at cutting freehand hahaha)

The rest were tulle, yarn (of different thickness) and tissue paper pompoms whereas yang fabric pom pom colour white with shades of light red, blue and yellow tu I korbankan my New Look babydoll tube top ok. But oklah tak rugi because sejak dua menjak dah put on 20kg, tube top pun dah tak rupa tube top lah kan,  macam table top kat living room rumah aku yang boleh muat lapan orang tu adalah hahahahaha

Ok this is the main feature on my wall for that day, which I veryyyyy suka:

And here are my amazinkkkkk girlfriends Nani and Nad who came the night before the engagement to help me clean up my room and setup the photobooth!!! I am seriously super lucky lah ada these dua ekor, kalau tak, TUNANG DALAM KANDANG LEMBU JE LAH AKU. Daaahhhhh kena tukar theme Animal Farm.

Hahahahaha haiya my fault again lah, my fault lah, I procastinated too long and too hard sampai I didn't have time to clean up my room (the berselerakness was worsened by the fact the Nani and I did the DIY stuff on my bedroom floor - pictorial evidence as produced above) so these girls immediately came over to my place lepas kerja on a Friday night to whip my bedroom into shape. 

Mana nak dapat kawan gaya mutu keunggulan macam gini kan?!?!?! 

(Answer: Kat Twitter. Because that's where I made friends with these girls few years ago. Hahahahaha. I always get a kick out of it when people ask me where I know Nad and Nani from, and they give me the most surprised "OH?!" when I tell them Twitter. Kwa kwa kwa. 

OK LAH TO BE FAIR, I knew Nani back when she was my senior in secondary school and Nad when we were still on Livejournal but we only grew close and started hanging out in real life after hitting it off on Twitter. Muacks! Love ya Twitter! And you two bitches, of course. Geez.)

  Ok next, next. My caaaaaaantik banget trays and bunga rampai that I sayang setengah mati!!! 

Awesome trendy gubahan by WHO ELSE but Kasai Sayang *kowtows*

In case tak puas with the above pictures, I throw in sekali clearer gambars that Kasai Sayang uploaded on their Facebook:

(Source: Kasai Sayang)

I still remember waiting for the lift after collecting the poster I printed when I decided to refresh my Facebook timeline and saw pictures of 'em adorably pretty things and gasped out loud sendiri! Fireworks terus exploded from my dada ala Katy Perry and my heart started racing macam masuk marathon ok!!! Kasai Sayang had over exceeded my expectations lor!!! I had faith that they'll do the gubahan for my trays nice and good but didn't think it'd be that exceptional considering my instructions were simple and pretty vague, but this is - this is more than I can ask for. 

The best kind of indication that they did a fantastic job was when I had friends and acquaintances telling me how the dulang gubahan and bunga rampai "are sooooo you!" They're right - the designs are very me, and I'm glad Kasai Sayang was able to translate "me" into their creations for my special occasion. Haiz. Dah lah, tak nak cakap lagi lah, I dah nak start nangis tears of joy ni.

Oh, and you know how you'll always see pictures of other couples or their dais and decor or their gubahan on wedding vendors' punya Facebooks??? (Provided you're actively stalking wedding vendors online lah.) There's a different kind of special surreal feeling when you see YOUR OWN STUFF WITH YOUR OWN NAMES uploaded on their Facebooks ok. 

Darah gemuruh naik tak kembali sampai besok pagi, geng.

  

The main highlight of the food spread was the colourful roti kirai!!! The most famous question that my friends and cousins got when they posted pictures on social media was "How does it taste like???" Eh eh korang ni pun, roti kirai rasa macam roti kirai lah. Takkan lah makcik buat roti kirai gi letak strawberry and blueberry flavouring setakat to get the colours eh??? Weird sak.

The morning of the engagement I was greeted bright and early by my girls who turned into dayang dayang for the day to help me out with loose ends! And help to prettify the ceremony, of course. I tak mampu to fly Victoria Secrets angels over for my engagement so I calling calling dorang je lah.

 

 

Cookie favours for my darling angels!!!!!

OK how IRRITZ is it that everyone asked "Why kena 311 people likes this?" when they saw the cookie favours?!?!?!?!?! Even my own tunang sampai hati boleh tanye kenape ada 311 likes. So menyampah sampah mintak kena rejam dengan terompah lah all these people. 

311 = 3/11 = 3rd November. Duh.

Oh and can you believe it??? My sisters flipped their calendar to the month of November and the graphics happened to kena mengena with the theme of our engagement!!! I was so thrilled when they turned the page to November and I saw the graphics.

"Eh dik! Tolong circle 3rd November pastu ambik gambar, dik!"

Hahaha photo opportunity jangan dilepaskan, y'alllll. Gua thrilled macam menang lottery, y'alllll.

And of course, one of the main star attraction of the day is the DIY photobooth! 

Ok lah the booth itself tak lah se-awesome mana but my loved ones who took pictures in the booth were awesome pulak *flips hair*

The props above were the awesome colourful props awesomely designed by Nani!!! 

Printed by the super grumpy apek at tingkat tiga Peace Centre hahahahaha

 

Super love my lovely and comfy baju!!!!!

To the makcik of the kedai who tsked my choice when it was revealed by my big-mouth mamat that the baju I'm buying is for our engagement... TSK YOU BACK OK. My mamat got some serious glaring that night because I didn't want to reveal I'm buying the baju for an engagement ceremony because I tengok the makcik salesperson at the kedai je I know she's the typical makcik who will recoil in horror at such a choice because it does not fall under the template of what she and her persatuan makcik-makcik thinks a girl yang nak bertunang should wear. Got quite a earful about how "baju ni bukan untuk tunang, tunang mana boleh pakai macam gini, kalau adik nak baju tunang meh sini cik tunjuk lagi satu punya collection, ah ni baru untuk tunang" from the makcik kedai. No prizes for guessing who got a earful for putting me in that tricky situation. Pfft.

I didn't really like my hairdo, though :( The story on this later.

Oh but the make-up by Nani was lovely by the way!!! It was really light and breezy, which was a perfect contrast again the brightness of my outfit. Damn shame we didn't take a close-up shot of the eye make-up because it was zeee bestttttt!!! Totally in love with the fake lashes too, even though it is not as thick as the va-va-voom super thick sexy ones that I'm used to! 

(Not that I pakai va-va-voom super thick sexy fake lashes on a daily basis pergi office pergi kedai mama segala lah... I only use fake lashes for special occasions and clubbing nights - which I seldom do anymore anyway, since zaman gemilang dah over - and when I do, I usually go for the tebal buang tebiat types. So I'm pleasantly surprised that I took to something that was not as OTT)

Ok, now must selit picture with my little love on the side:

Conversation that happened between me and my little love on the side:

Me: Nah! Chah Inn pegang the flower.

Him: No! Cannot! Ni orang kahwin punya!
Me: Oh? Chah Inn bukan orang kahwin?
Him: Bukan, Chah Inn hari raya.

OH LULZ. Damn kid associated him wearing baju kurung and visiting my place as a Hari Raya visit lor omg how adorable is this anak! Minta kena tendang keluar tingkap! My mum was cracking up when she told me about how he was so senang hati singing a Hari Raya song at the top of his lungs when he walked through my house door hahahahahaha

Oh! OH! And hahahahahaha the girls and I were damn amazed and jakun by the renda renda on the Starbucks bottles that my mat's family letak on his dulang to me ok! Whichever makcik who did the damned renda is seriously damn rajin, please. 

Starbucks should totally jump in and follow up on this brilliant idea, man. Decorate their bottle caps with renda renda and manik manik. Boleh target the makcik market, they sure come in to Starbucks to beli kopi on days they malas want to bancuh kopi for their husbands hahahahaha

Anyway, some pictures are from my Instagram, some pictures are from my friends' Instagram, some pictures are from my sisters' Instagram. Awesome kan ini bendealah Instagram???

And now there's a service for you to print your Instagram pictures lagik! I recently ordered 84 prints of pictures from my Instagram feed via Portagram (freaking brilliant idea, by the way) for $29.40 only because there was a promo code via Penny's Daybook (original price for 84 prints would have been $42).

Instagram pun so laku among my friends and my peers now sampai engagements and weddings nowadays pun have its own official hashtags seh! I still remember my mat and I hanging out bawah block, trying to figure out our official hashtag (hahahahaha priorities salah bawak sak).

We couldn't come up with anything brilliant or catchy because our names takde a nice ring to it when put together (e.g. sham  + aisyah = #shamsyah), and our names don't have the same first and last alphabets that we can amalgamate (e.g. faezah + hairul = #faezahairul), so we ended up with boring old #saliheenfarhana because #salihana #farheen #eenana #anaeen #salifar #heenhana just did not quite cut it. Hur hur.

Oh, and in case you couldn't tell, my engagement ceremony was decked out in bold shades of red, yellow and blues, inspired by Lichtenstein Pop Art! AKU SUKA! I think I could've done more if I had more time but still quite happy that I managed to incorporate some of the elements into the ceremony :D

Ok, the reason why I didn't have more time was because I refused to start early on anything related to the engagement!!! Only truly realized the gravity of it two, three days before the day itself and by that time, I had so many things to do/settle!!! But I nasib very baik because my dad memang automatic orangnye and memang dah take leave for the Friday before the engagement because he figured that my mum and/or I will need him to chauffeur us around for engagement-related tasks!

Al-maklumlah... anak bini tak tau drive...

(Of course, times like these I wish I had a driving license..... NOT.

Hahahahaha sorry lah, I really don't have any desire to learn how to drive whatsoever, mainly because I know (I don't think, I know) that I pose a danger to other road users if I'm allowed to drive. Also because I am very malas to drive. I like to take pictures, read news, dance to music, eat snacks, etc - things that I can only do if I'm the one being driven, betul tak?! If driving, kena check blindspot lah, pasang brake lah, buat three point turn lah. Too lechz for me, bro.

Don't think I can run away from this for too long though, because my mat has already mentioned that I should learn how to drive once we're married because it's a useful life skill. Haiz banyak nye benda you nak I belajar! You choose ok - you nak I belajar masak ke you nak I belajar drive... hahahahaha)

Ok, I shall now mention the good vibes, happy vibes and the minor pangs of regret that hit me when I ran around to get things done before the engagement.

Good Vibes, Happy Vibes #1

While waiting for a cab to meet Nat for lunch a day before the engagement, I refreshed Instagram and saw that a baker I follow on Instagram posted about an extra set of coconut blossoms and whaddya know???

Her coconut blossoms coincidentally had blue, red and yellow polka dots on them!!!

And she wanted the coconut blossoms to be collected on that very day!!!

AND she's located in Pasir Ris!!! #EASTFTWYO

Thank you My Bakes Your Craves for making the coconut blossoms with blue, red and yellow polka dots on the day before my engagement and posting them up for sale on Instagram betul betul at the point of time when I refreshed my Instagram feed!!! Walaupun it happened dengan secara kebetulan, I still nak thank you yer :D

Good Vibes, Happy Vibes #2

I was fretting about the chair that I was going to sit on during the ceremony because my dining table chairs have weird slanted backings and my back wouldn't have proper support (I don't have a good sitting posture and I tend to slouch so I didn't want to look all lazy and gross when his relatives see me for the first time) so when my parents and I went to Giant Tampines and saw a pair of sturdy chairs going for $39.90, we decided to grab them! And then when we reached the cashier, we were told that there was a promotion going on so the chairs cost $19.90 instead! Woohoo!

Busu and Kak Yati who accompanied us made irritz jokes like "Eh sekali dah sampai rumah bukak box, dalam ada seat je eh, kaki dia takde eh, tu pasal price slashed by half hahahahaha" Thanks eh korang, thanks for your weekend badut entertainment eh hahahahaha

Minor Pangs of Regret #1

I think one of my regrets for this event was going to the hair salon to "trim my hair". Trim my hair kebabai. The hairdresser who attended to me was not my usual hairdresser but I didn't think much of it and went ahead with the hair trim. Hair trim turned out into a haircut because she chopped off more inches than I wanted her to!!! AND she cut my fringe short sampai it started looking like rambut Fauziah Latif zaman lapan puluhan (according to my mat, at least, because he saw me later that night when we went out for dinner with our friends).  

And because of the hair trim that turned into a haircut that I didn't want, I didn't really have the volume and length that I wanted for my hairstyle so I gave up on the idea and Nani just worked up a half updo in the end. The girls were telling me my hair looked really pretty but I just couldn't convince myself because I really, really hate having my hair pulled away from my face because it makes me feel super insecure - I am very, very conscious of my jawline :(

My own fault for going to the hair salon last minute even though I knew better than trimming or cutting hair daysss before an important occasion. I thought I could wing it, because my hairdresser trimmed my hair before and it always turned out fine but I didn't count on her not being able to attend to me and getting her staff to do it instead. Oh well, guess I'll just treat this as a life lesson learnt... not to be repeated! Amin!

Minor Pangs of Regret #2

If there is another regret that I have is not proceeding with my cake order from Spatula Bakery!!! If you're not following this awesome online bakery on Facebook and Instagram then you seriously tengah living a sad life seh. Haha! I love love love their presentation (their cupcakes, their packaging, their website... everything! So modern and bersih and lawa) and their cupcakes are seriously delish and the baker herself is super lovely!

Initially wanted to get the engagement cake from her but after some discussion with my supermother, it was decided that I will order the engagement cake from her tempat kerja instead. (It was also during this discussion about cake sponsorship that I realize I have four aunts working with bakeries. FOUR OK. Not including my own mum wtf)

[Sidetrack: I personally prefer the red velvet cupcakes from Fluff Bakery, though! (Instagram here.) Seriously sedap!!! Makan sekali, nak mintak lagi 10 biji. I serious tak bedek because even my single and eligible kawan si Abang Ahmad who bravely proclaimed that "all red velvet cupcakes taste of disappointment" had to telan and jilat balik his words because he fell in love with their red velvet cupcakes. Now tinggal nak find girlfriend for him to fall in love with aje.  

Unfortunately, Fluff Bakery dah stop taking online orders and making deliveries until further notice. Very sayang lah but it's good for the baker herself because she's also a btb!!! Need lots of rehat months before the wedding, yo. But if you really nak rasa her red velvet cupcakes jugak, you can head over to Penny University (East Coast Road) or Societe Canteen (Bukit Timah) to get your fix.]

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Fuh. Happening pe aku. Tengah berbual pasal majlis tunang sendiri, boleh sempat promote cupcakes orang hahahahaha SONGSANG. Perangai budak gemuk menyerlah, you guys!

ANYWAY.

I want to give my thanks and love to everyone who made our engagement such a lovely roaring success :D To our parents for being awesomely nice people who get along fantastically with each other and loving us enough to throw us such a wonderful party, and to our makciks pakciks sedara maras who helped with everything engagement-related (special mention for Busu and Kak Yati for accompanying my parents and I on our runs to Pasir Ris, Pasar Geylang, Century Square and Giant Tampines, fixing up stuff for our house and giving input yang boleh pakai dan boleh harap for our preparations! Sayang you all! Nak kasi hati and jantung I kat you all!)

To my dayang dayangs: Nani and Nad for doing so so so much for me even though you guys have other commitments like your laki (Nani) and your work (Nad) to layan, to Aisyah and Nina for taking the time away from your significant others on a weekend and travelling down all the way from your foreign lands to jejak tanah Tampines yang awesome ni hahaha and thanks to all you dolls for instagramming the important bits like crazy!!! (Lovely gifts, by the way, Nina, my mamat and I love them to bits and pieces!), Lisa for greeting me bright and early and rushing all over for all the last minute touch-ups and tasks...

God be willing, I renew you all punya dayang-dayang contracts next year ok :P

Ok now that the engagement ceremony itself is over and done, of course the next important post engagement item on the list to follow up on is... to change our relationship status on Facebook yer tuan tuan dan puan puan hahahahaha

Can you imagine, when he went back to office, one moment his colleagues were congratulating him (because he told them about it before the weekend) and the next moment they were all, like, "Eh! How come haven't change status on Facebook?!?!?!"

Bu yao ji, man man lai, you all ni punnnnn.

I trawled through my old blog posts to dig this old gem of a screenshot out:

[Side note: Saw this screenshot again and realized that it was just the day before that Najib added me on Facebook..... D:]

Fast forward to 2012:

Yay yay dah tukar relationship status on Facebook! Hahahahaha.

Mesti and harus enjoy and appreciate this part of our journey while it lasts because this relationship status is expiring in 11 months 22 days and 21 hours! (Or so my wedding countdown app says).

And with that...

Till the next milestone! And the next panjang nak mampos blog post hahahahaha