26.6.2011 Groom's Reception

The week after my wedding hoopla was the Groom's Reception, on Sunday night, held at Dewan Merak Kayangan FELDA, Off Jalan Semarak, KL. It was a dinner reception which seated about 450 guests, of the Groom's family and closest friends.

There was not much preparation on my side, just to sort out the MUA and the ensembles. Basically my role is just to be present at the wedding! So, it was pretty much a breeze compared to the Nikah and Bride's Reception preparation. The MUA and the ensembles had been taken care of. The MUA is Aunty Faizah, who did my make up for the Nikah, and the ensembles were songkets which my MIL got from Indonesia and it was tailored by Faiz Boutique.  The ensembles were quite last minute as the songkets only arrived about a month before the date! Faiz did a good job in getting it ready in less than a month! All I needed to do was find someone to do the henna on my hand and get a flower bouquet (which I was told to arrange myself like 2 days before, ok, no worries, plenty of florist in Subang).

On Friday night, me and Aliff went to KLIA to pick up his uni friend back when he was in UK, who came all the way from Moscow. The next morning, we went again to KLIA to pick up another 2 of his friends who came from London. These 3 friends were Aliff's closest mates during his post-grad studies. I am guessing they are pretty tight as they flew in half across the world to attend his wedding reception on Sunday and flew back on Monday morning! They planned to stay longer for a vacation in Malaysia, but they were busy with work, so could only schedule 3 days off, 2 of which spent on the airplane. Anyway, Aliff is lucky to have such good friends! Aliff will have to save up to attend their weddings pulak!

After we sent his friends to their hotel and had breakfast with them, we went to Aliff's grandma's house to attend a khatam Quran. After that we went to Flowerworld, a florist in Subang to get the flower bouquet. Unfortunately, because it was already Saturday, and I needed the flowers the next day, the selection were scarce. Had to settle for white roses and eustomas. I actually planned to get calla lilies. Oh well.

Anyway, so yeah ok, like I have said in a previous entry, Aliff did not have time to have a bachelors party as he was busy with his CFA exams and Jakarta and work. So, eventhough he is a bachelor no more as of 17th June 2011, I gave him the night off to have his post-no-longer-bachelor's party with his friends on Saturday night. He told me he will be coming home, but it would be really late. Fine. I on the other hand, spent my night having Rekha (who was recommended by a fellow former bride, Hudra) drawing henna on my palms and feet. She told me to keep the inai on until it dried off, but I was already sleepy by 11pm, that I washed it off. I washed off the feet first, and to my horror, it turned out reaallly reallly dark! So I quickly washed off the ones on the palms, and it was dark as well! *Bridezilla moment alert* Soaked my hands and feet in water in the hopes that it would lighten. Rubbed minyak cap kapak as well because I heard it can make ur inai red. OMG...minyak cap kapak and water, my fingers kecut habis! Because I was rubbing them off and soaking them in water, some patterns of the henna on my nails and palms were fading away...so I asked Syida to reapply them using the henna tube I bought for the nikah. And I thought there won't be any drama left!

...or so I thought...Aliff didn't come home that night. Called him endlessly the morning after and he didn't pcik up. I got worried. I am pretty sure he fell asleep at his friends' hotel after the party, and if he is that tired, he won't be able to wake up to the ring/alarm of a phone unless someone shakes him real hard...but, the fact that he had told me he was coming home...that made me worried! So, atlast, at about 11am, he picked up the phone and said he had accidentally fell asleep at his friends' hotel while hanging out there after the party...HAISHH! He came home, and went back to his place to pack. Then his mum told him that the seating arrangements were all gone, because her laptop suddenly crashed! OMG. What else can go wrong? He had to do everything from scratch.

We FINALLY made our way to the hotel at about 4.30pm to pick up his best man, and reached the hall at about 5pm. Rehearsal was supposed to start at 4.30pm because there was a wedding before that, but the wedding party only cleared from the hall at 5pm, so rehearsal only started at 5.30pm.  I could not join the rehearsal, as I had to get ready for my make up. But it was fine because I'll just have to follow Aliff's que and the format is about the same for Malay weddings, so no worries there. Asyraf took my place as the Bride :)

Aliff and his Bestman

Aliff being the "Groom-Zilla"

Started my make up at 5.30pm. My family started coming by 7.00pm and hung out with me in the preparation room. By then Aliff had finished his rehearsal and joined me to get ready. Syida, Asyraf, Han and Aliff's bestman, Aran, also got ready in the same room. ALL IS FINALLY ON TRACK and everything went smoothly after. By 7.30pm guests started to arrive. Aliff's 2 other friends came and joined us.

the Inspiration for the look



Bride helping MOH getting ready



 

 

Aran preparing his speech

 

 

putting on my grandma's gold gelang kaki

Around 8.30pm most guests have arrived and seated and me and Aliff made our entrance to the hall to the sound of live kompang and "Gelora" by P.Ramlee and Saloma (my absolute FAV!). Aliff's reception is traditional, so through out the night we were accompanied by traditional songs. Once seated on the pelamin, and after the recitation of the doa, we were presented with a silat performance. It was quite aggresive, the silat fighthers we jumping on and off stage, but it was cool and definitely enlightening to the foreign guests. There were a number of foreign guests, most of them Aliff's mother's guests, so the reception was bilingual and every step of the ceremony was explained. That was one of the reasons his mother insisted on a really traditional reception.

 

So, after the merenjis, was the Pulut Kuning-Cutting. Then as we walked down the pelamin to the high table, we stopped by our respective grandmother's tables for them to merenjis...as they were quite old, and Aliff's grandmother being on the wheelchair, Aliff's aunts decided that we go to them to merenjis, instead of them having to go up the pelamin. Very good idea! Then we walked down to the hightable to the song "Saat Yang Bahagia" again by P. Ramlee and Saloma.

Dinner was then served. The picture and video montage was played during dessert. And after dessert we went back up to the pelamin for the speech by Iqa, Aliff's sister and Aran, Aliff's bestman. Aliff's uncle made Aran read a few pantun in malay and that got the guests cracking. After the speeches, the MC announced that it was the end of the night and me and Aliff made our way to the entrance to greet the guests goodbye, to the song of "Selamat Pengantin Baru" by Saloma. After, some guests mostly family and Aliff's close friends stayed back for pictures.



The MIL's foreign guests



Aliff's Cambridge mates

Both sides of the family

After the last guest left, me and Aliff went to the Trader's Hotel, which was a treat from my parents :) Kakmyra and family also spent the night at the same hotel, so we had breakfast together the next morning. Me and Aliff missed the breakfast at Shangri La and ended up ordering room service for breakfast, so this time, we made sure to wake up in time for the breakfast buffet. Went home at about 2pm and sent Han back to Gopeng. On the way home we stopped by a rest stop and had tea...

Ok, I'm going on and on even though the part of the wedding is over...because, after 3 months, I am still in denial that the wedding is finally OVER! I MISS being called a Bride-to-Be....

But the reality is, it is over ......... BUT, the Marriage is only BEGINNING!

I look forward to growing old with my bestfriend, my soulmate, my husband.

Till then.

Muaxxxxxxxxxxx.

18.6.2011 The Bride's Reception - Part I

I need to write about the wedding before I forget everything...so 2 months after, this is what I could recall about the day after I became a Mrs.

Woke up not as early as I have been waking up for the past few weeks, less anxiety as the biggest event ie; getting married all settled...I walked out of my room and everyone was busy cleaning up and packing for Putrajaya tonight. The plan was for everyone to leave around 10am and start the rehearsal somewhere around 11am. I stayed back with Han and waited for my beloved husband to pick me up. Aliff came at about 11.30am, but we had to wait for Han to bathe and get ready...its ok, no rush, we were Raja Sehari kan? People wait for us! Haha.

So, at this point of time I still have not received my wedding dress from you know who. At about 1200 noon he mms-ed me my dress and asked me whether it was ok...from the very-very-very beginning, 5 months ago and repeatedly for the past 2 weeks I told him, FULL. I think he was trying his luck sending me that picture...Cut the story short, when I received the picture, I ruined my contact lenses (which I proudly wore my self) that Syida had run to Empire and get me a new one and I reached Putrajaya at 4pm, with THREE back up dresses (thanx to some lovely angels).

Anyway, imagine, I reached there 3 and a half hours before the guests started to arrive. Rehearsal ofcourse terbantut because the main people, ie; the Bride and Groom was not there. And because I planned everything myself and being the control freak I was, everyone was panicking as everything needed my final say.

Ok, so anyway, once I reached the hall, I immediately lighted up...from the frown I wore since morning, I finally cracked a smile, albeit a small one. I LOVE the walkway that Que had decorated...Lamp posts with white ostrich plumes on top. It was lovely...although I was a lil bit dissapointed that the plumes on the pelamin was not as much as I would hoped it to be, but oh well, tak kisahlah, it looks fine. We started rehearsal right away. There was a little bit of a commotion between me and Father-of-the-Bride-Zilla on the flow of the pengantin's entrance, but it was sorted out to my favor, yeay.

So, me and Aliff stood below the arch and the bridesmaids started walking down the aisle. Then the intro of "At Last" started and Maria started singing...OMG...that was the first time I heard her sang that song, and I completely fell in LOVE and knew that I picked the right person to sing it! I know Maria has a beautiful voice, I've heard her sing before, but I've not heard her sing At Last and she had told me that she has never sang that song before. I had goosebumps as I was practicing walking down the aisle as she sang because it was just angelic. So, my smile grew bigger, and I remembered feeling, ok, this night won't be a disaster.

We had to do a few trial runs to get everyone's timing right, my dad ofcourse had to tweak every SINGLE thing, as he looked over the hall in the AV room upstairs yelling this and that with his cap on. Thinking back about it, he looked so cute and I know that he was a perfectionist and he wanted that night to run as smoothly as possible, although at that time I was ready to bite his little cap of off his head! I love you Bapak!

Bapak with his little cap :)

So, we finished at about 5.30pm and my MUA (Kak Liza - the bestest EVER!! HIGHLY recommended!) arrived, on the dot as promised. Then I realised (although I have been pursuing for this since last week), my guests who I invited (friends, colleagues) did not have designated tables. I ran to my mum and asked for "Nadiah's Friends" tags. Then I had to run around and place the tags at tables which had no tags. Could not remove those already with tags because they're already assigned according to Bapak's list! Arghhhhh so I had to split my guests into 3 groups I think, front, middle and back. If I had arrived sooner I could have sorted the seatings out, but because of the dress-drama-thank-you-so-much-to-you-know-who, I had to run around the hall finding empty tables to place the tags when i'm supposed to be getting all dolled up. While I was running around, I saw the cake that I ordered arrived. Didn't get to see how it looked like because I was too busy. Oh, and my dress has not even arrived yet, and it was close to 6pm. At that point of time, I was thinking that there is a high chance I might have to wear either one of the back up dresses! So went up to the Bilik Pengantin, and I found out that it is bloody locked! Screamed from the top to get somebody to open it up. Syida also helped scream, you can count on her to do that! Thanx Syida! (She was doing her best to assist me all day because of the dress drama - I have the bestest sister ever! [minus the PMS and OCD])

At about 6pm I was seated infront of the mirror, shutting my ears from everything and focussed on looking pretty. Thank goodness I made, I think one of my best decision to book Kak Liza as my MUA. She did her magic so gracefully and I'm not one to brag, but I received a handful of compliments on how I looked that night. I know I've said this before, but Kak Liza is HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended. Her work is fabulous, she has the best personality and the best heart.

 

So, I asked Aliff, Syida and Han to get ready in the same room with me. The room was huge, and I like to be surrounded by people to help ease the nerves. So they got ready there. Altho it was quite chaotic, with all of us and the photographers and videographer in one room and Syida and Aliff "trying" to iron their clothes (both failed, had to call reinforcements; ie KakHuriah to the rescue)...the chaos somehow made me so calm. At about close to 7pm, THE dress finally arrived. So, I had 4 dresses to choose from........................................and I chose to wear the original dress. At the end of the day, that's the dress I have been envisioning to wear, and although it wasn't as perfect as I had hoped and imagined it to be, it did look nice and waaaaay better than the picture he sent me earlier in the day. So, while getting ready I was doing last minute changes to the seating arrangements. Aliff and Han also got in the Kak Liza magic - to touch up on their face...Han later washed it all off because he said he felt like he was wearing make up! haha

 

 

Then few of my friends who arrived early came up and met with me. The reactions I got from people who came up and met me made my little smile grew larger and larger and I started letting go of the Bridezilla in me. I think I suddenly realised that it was about time to say goodbye to the "Zilla" part of me and enjoyed being the "Bride". At that moment, I suddenly felt soooooooo much lighter and I didn't have a care in the world of what was going on, whether guests have arrived, whether they got their seats right, whether everything is in the right place....I was enjoying the moment so so much, wearing a white dress, meeting my family and friends, taking pictures...I was having tooooo much fun! And the best part of it all, Kakmyra, Adri, Lulu and Baby Ahmadi surprised us by showing up (actually I already knew, tapi buat2 surprise la as usual). If you read my previous entry, Ahmadi was admitted for a slight fever and there was a high possibility Kakmyra and family will not be able to make it that night. They already missed the Nikah. So, having everyone I loved with me, I just enjoyed EVERY moment and did not have a Bridezilla moment from then on.

Kakmyra and family!

with the fabulous Que

By 8.00pm I was ready, veil, shoes, flower bouquet (which was also from Que - he is also VERY highly recommended!) and all. My lovely bridesmaids, each in beautiful royal purple/maroon dresses joined me in the Bilik Pengantin. The guys, including Que, were there too, all handsome in their suits. Everything was perfect. 

The Groom and The Bestman

The MOH and the Bridesmaids

My 4 Lovely Bridesmaids

Then we were called to come down to meet the guests of honor in the holding room. Took pictures with them and made our way back to the main entrance, waiting for the que for us to make our big entrance as man and wife.

Dam dam da dam .... Dam dam da dam ....

To be continued...