The Invitation

Ok, so The Invitation. The drama behind this goes something like this:

1. The Family went to Jakarta, one of the important item on the itinerary; getting the Invitation Cards. Read here on the part of the trip about the Invitation Card.

2. So, we left for home VERY happy because we got a really good bargain on the cards. As discussed with the vendor in Jakarta (the guy who attended to us is Dharnoto) the wordings will be finalised via email. (I also had a secret agenda to change the color of the ribbon from maroon to white, which was to be done via email as well).

3. The emailing started quite late, about 1 month after the trip. Reason: WORK. and I got a little comfortable with the fact that it's still about 4 months away from the date. Dharnoto even texted me reminding me that I have not sent him the wordings...

4. We emailed back and forth for about 5-6 times and exchanged numerous text messages. And took about another month to finalise the whole design of the card. I dont know if this is normal, I was actually expecting maybe exchanging emails twice and everything could be finalised in a week or two? Reason for the long period for the card to be finalised: Partly, MY fault. Hahah. The first time Dharnoto came back with the draft of the card, there were quite a lot of spelling mistakes - which was not my fault, because the draft I emailed him had perfect spelling. What was my fault was the fact that I changed the wordings/design quite a few times, i.e; getting the name of the hall right, the dates for the RSVP, the floral motives of the inside of the card. Ofcourse Bapak also intervened quite a few times changing the dresscode and the MAP.

5. Oh my, the Map. The first map we got was from the hall itself. Bapak was not satisfied, he said the map was not accurate. So I contacted a friend who had his wedding at the same hall and asked for the map they used in their card. Ibu also dug up invitation cards they received where the wedding was held at the same hall. Bapak was NOT satisfied with any maps used. So, he asked his officer to design the map from scratch.

These are some of the Maps that were rejected:

This is the Map that was FINALLY approved by him:

 6. So, the FINAL draft of the card was finalised about 2 months before the date. Dharnoto said they needed 1 month to get the cards ready. (Something that we forgot to ask - TIP: Please REMEMBER to ask about the TIMELINE!) So, we will be getting the cards about 1 month before the date, which is just in time, so we can start circulating all the invites 3-4 weeks before the date.

7. The LACE. I've always wanted a laced card for my wedding card. Something like these:

I found one shop which had a full-laced wedding card, but tooooo expensive. So, (anticipating that the price would be beyond the budget for a full-laced card) I settled with just a strip of white lace to be placed below the ribbon at the middle of the card's cover, like so:

I brought a piece of white lace from Malaysia and gave it to Dharnoto as sample. At the time the order was made; i.e at Jakarta, Dharnoto said he knows where to get the lace. Fine.

Then he emailed me this picture:

YIKES. NOT the lace I gave him and definitely NOT the right substitute. The material of the lace is totally off. It looks like cotton doesn't it? He said he didn't find the lace that I wanted. WHAT? Then I told him that I didn't want that lace and told him I saw the lace that I gave him at Mangga Dua while I was there and asked him to find it there. OMG. Nasib baik he emailed me the lace before sticking it on to my card! Then he emailed me another picture, which was a HUGE relief to me...he got the RIGHT lace this time! I was almost prepared to let go of the lace from the card if he didn't find the lace that I liked.

8.  POSTAGE. This was the REAL DRAMA. Another TIP I can give to those who plans to get their cards from Indonesia, don't get too excited (like me) when you get a hard-covered card which is quite big in size for a really good price. You can definitely get it real cheap, compared than the ones here, because their labour charges are quite low, BUT PLEASE discuss on the postage and the delivery period. TIMELINE is very important! Something I FORGOT to discuss with the vendor! The plan was either; my dad's friend who is working in Jakarta bring it back for us when he comes back for holiday, or my mum and dad come back to Jakarta and bring them home (this only if we needed to get additional things from Indon la) or, they post it to us. The third alternative was actually the first plan. At that time I thought the cost would be a few hundreds and the timeline of the delivery did not occur to me. Guess how shocked I was when I was told that my cards weighed 87kgs and the postage fees is twice the total amount of the cards. WHAT? so now the cost of card has tripled? So, why is it so expensive? Because of the weight (87kgs) and we wanted it to arrive ASAP, like the next day, as we were behind schedule. It was about 1 month before the date. You can actually get a cheaper fare if you can wait atleast 10 days or really cheap if you can wait for 30 days. After much deliberation with the calculator, my parents decided to go for a day trip to Jakarta to bring home the cards. Air Asia tickets was quite reasonable and we pre-booked 60kgs of check-in luggage and the balance of 27kg will be carried as carry on. 27kg is quite heavy, didn't know how my parents managed to get away with it. I OWE them big time!

My card FINALLY arrived at my doorstep on the 7th of May 2011, 40 days before the date.

And I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the final product!

9. That's not the end of the Drama. Because the envelope had a window, cards that need to be posted had to be covered with a plastic envelope AND a bigger-fully-covered envelope so that the lace and ribbon would not get dirty. This was actually something I had warned Bapak while ordering the cards at Jakarta, but he insisted to have the window... so, the cost of getting the bigger envelopes was on Bapak :) Then, we found that the RSVP card was toooo small, and I checked with POS Malaysia, it is smaller than the minimum size for a postcard. So, we got small envelopes which we slipped in the card. More extra costs!

Although the cost of the card has now almost more than doubled to what it actually cost, my personal SATISFACTION and all the COMPLIMENTS made it worth it! Hahaha. And, to make me feel better, the cost for the same card if done here is still more expensive. So double YEAY!

TIP of getting cards from Jakarta/anywhere else where the cards will posted -

Make sure you get all these information to save you from sudden heart attacks later :

1. the time they need to complete the cards
2. the total weight of the cards and the estimate number of boxes needed for packaging
3. the postage - the couriers, the cost, the delivery period
4. make sure the size of the RSVP card is the standard postcard size or atleast the minimum size set by POS Malaysia (can check their website).

Then, discuss on the timeline taking into account the finalisation of the wordings, their labor and the postage. It will be better if you already have the wordings (including the doa etc), lay out and map - this will save you a lot of emailing back and forth.

So, I started to get everyone's addresses few weeks ago....which was quite a challenge. I changed phones and lost everyone's number. So, I did everything through FB. I missed out a couple of friends who are not in my Friend's List (should add them now!) and also those who did not have FB (ada orang tak ada FB!).Have been distributing the cards for the past 3 weeks and the last cards have been posted out today (2 weeks before the date - I know, I procrastinated a bit).

Thank you those who had RSVP-ed, attending or not. BELIEVE me, RSVP is VERY handy and actually very crucial for a seated event. People, PLEASE PLEASE RSVP if requested. And if you RSVP "attending", please attend. And if you RSVP "not attending", please do not attend....boleh tak? Hahahhahahaha...the latter can still be kautim lah. But seriously, RSVP is very important for the host.

Everyone I invited have played some role in my life, be it for the shortest time. My guestlist comprised of childhood and highschool friends, varsity friends and office mates. Some, although I have not kept in touch with for a long time, I invite because they were, some time in my life, a significant part of it. Some because they invited me to their wedding, some because they've made nice comments about my engagement :) , and some, well just because I just like them...ahahhaha...Everyone has their own criterias right? I hope I didn't miss out anyone.

11 more days baby!

Feelings: No mood to work but files are still piling, eventhough I have put in extra hours since the past 3 weeks to finish them off...arghhhhh...work never stops, not even for Brides-To-Be.... Feel like going home and do all the wedding stuff. My mind is not at work anymore!