Preparations for the Engagement : The Hunt for the Perfect Lace

As some would know, I have been planning for my wedding since forever. So, it would also be natural that I've also planned for my engagement.

Since I am very definite that my wedding dresses would be white (for both nikah and reception) I wanted my engagement dress to be of color. Up till 2009, I've always thought that I would be wearing pink. Then everyone got engaged in pink. I have nothing against that, it's just that I think it became a bit cliche. So i thought, ok, maybe pink and grey would be something slightly less of a cliche. One day, while I was browsing through the internet I found this picture, and fell in love with the soft blue (as i was informed later, it's the color of smoke blue).

So, I begin my hunt for this smoke blue material for my engagement. I wanted plain chiffon for my sarung and the selendang. Since I'll be wearing the traditional-long-kurung for the nikah, I thought for the Engagement I'd wear a short top-kebaya like. The material would be soft crepe. I also wanted some pieces of silver french lace to be patched on the top and the selendang. I limited my quest-area to Jalan TAR, cause it is, the central of the fabric stores in KL.

Me and Kakmira started with Jakel. And we found the chiffon, satin and the crepe with the exact color of smoke blue. We also found silver bordered french lace. The tag on the chiffon per metre is about RM22. I can't remember the tag on the crepe, I think about RM40 per metre. I also needed some satin material as lining for the chiffon sarung, which is about RM30 per metre. The price, for 2 metres of the bordered lace is RM150. I would be needing about 3 metres of the lace for my top and my selendang.  I was pretty satisfied with what we found at our first stop, albeit a little choked up with the price of the lace, so I scoured every other shop, just in case they had nicer laces with a better price tag. 

There were actually not many choices for bordered laces. Full french lace would just cost a bomb, ranging about RM300-400 per metre, and it would be a waste as I don't intend to have my baju to be in full lace. There was this lace that I found in Gulatis -  french lace, beaded. And it was on sale. But the color wasn't right and it was full lace. I was still unsatisified and called off the search at Jalan TAR. I continued my pursuit for the perfect lace in Puchong at this store called Dios, it was recomended by an aunt. It is a bridal shop that provides hantaran stuff, decorations, materials and also tailoring. They have ready-made bridal wears, but not to my liking sangat, cause their designs are quite elaborate. But what I like about this store is that they have, although quite limited, a range of lace materials sold at a really reasonable price. 1 panel of lace, which is 2 and half metres would cost about RM150-250. They have some old-school laces which are quite beautiful. Kakmira bought her material for my engagement here. I loved her lace. So vintage. 

             

But I noticed that they don't have french lace. They also don't have bordered lace. And I didn't find the color that I wanted. So, after the long search, I decided to go with the lace at Jakel, the first place that I went. Kakmira told me that Along Fara can get huge discounts from Jakel, and that she was planning to shop for materials for Raya at Jakel. So we got in touch with Along Fara and scheduled a day to Jakel to finally get the materials for my Engagement.

Well, there was no problem with the chiffon and the crepe as the color that I wanted was still available, although I had the last 3.85 metres of the smoke blue chiffon. I would need about 2 metres for the sarung and the rest would be for the selendang. Nasib baik cukup.

The lace. I have set my mind for french lace. Then Kakmira found this bordered korean lace that she thought was really nice. 

The lace was nice, and Korean lace was slightly cheaper than french lace. So, it took about an hour or so for me to finally decide, to go with the french lace. The korean lace was beautiful, but its pattern was quite big and I didn't want the whole ensemble to be about the lace so much. I wanted the lace as ummmm...embelishments, and I wanted it to look soft, cause most of it will go on the selendang. So, I finally decided on the french lace.

Along Fara and Kakmira did the bargaining and I got a really really really nice price for the lace. Lets just say with its initial price, I could only afford 2 metres, but after the bargaining, I got a full 3 metres. yeay! :) 

So that was the end for the hunt of the perfect lace. These are a few pictures of how my dress turned out (the tailoring was by my one and only Cindy :) )