18.6.2011 The Bride's Reception - Part II

... it started with the MC announcing the entrance of the guests of honor. And after they took their seats infront of the pelamin, the kompang started. My entourage walked with me and Aliff and we stopped right below the arch, followed by the selawat, very beautiful and soothing. Then, the bridesmaids, one by one, walked down the aisle to the song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Harry Neilson. They looked so pretty.

The music stopped once the last bridesmaid reached where the guests of honor were seating. And then, the spotlight was on us, the next song came up and me and Aliff walked, for the first time as man and wife, hand in hand, to the beautiful voice of Maria singing "At Last" by Etta James (which was covered again by Beyonce).  The room was dark, but for the spot light following me and Aliff as we walk down the aisle to the pelamin. Friends and family lined up next to aisle and took pictures and waved...I see so many faces, the ones I've not seen for so long, the ones who have been by me for the wedding, I was HAPPY beyond words. All the drama, sweat and tears a few hours before dissapeared as if they never existed. The feeling I felt, walking in the arms of my newly husband, to the most PERFECT song befitting our love story, was indescribable. It was magical, it was surreal, I felt like i was floating. I know this sounds exagerrated, but that was how I felt. I was so excited that I was walking quite fast at one time, and Aliff whispered to me to walk slower and to enjoy the moment. And I realised, I am NEVER (hopefully) going to experience this again, and I started to slow down and enjoyed every bit of attention I was receiving.

The aisle was quite long (go for halls with long aisle, so you can soak in all the attention longer! believe me its the best feeling walking down that aisle with all eyes on you!), and it was just nice for the lenght of the song, we reached the top of the stage on the pelamin, just nicely as Maria finished singing. Then we took our seat followed by the recitation of the doa. The spotlight on us was sooooooo bright, but as I said, I was too happy that nothing bothered me...and it worked for the better as Kakmyra (who had the best seat that night, a bird's eye view of the whole hall, sitting upstairs on the balcony, because she still had to quarantine Ahmadi from everyone) said my dress was sparkling under the spot light and it looked really beautiful.

As the malay tradition went, the guests of honor and the parents went up couple by couple to bless us with the merenjis. After that was done, they were escorted to the main table. Followed by me and Aliff, escorted by my bridesmaids to the song of "Only You" by the Platters. One of my all time favorite song!

Then dinner was served. And, the same as the night before, I ate my heart out. Imagine, with all the drama earlier, that was my first meal that day. So, everything that the waiter served I said yes, put it on my plate! I think I was soo hungry that Que had to wipe off some stain on my cheeks later...sooo embarassing, as it was on my left cheek, which was ofcourse facing Tok Pa's wife. Imagine, I was talking to her all night with the stain on my cheek. OMG MALU! Takpelah. Whatevs. Like i said, nothing could ruin how i felt that night. And the same as the night before, Aliff didn't eat much. He said because he was really enjoying getting the chance to talk to Mukhriz who sat next to him. Mukhriz even tweeted a picture of us on his tweeter! While the guests enjoyed the dinner, my parents went around meeting their guests.

While they were serving the dinner, we were serenaded by the band that my dad had hired. They were quite good, singing SOME of the songs I had requested, but it's ok :) Suddenly I saw Adibah Noor on the stage singing...it was my mother's "surprise" to me and Aliff...BUT, as with all the surprises/secrets they tried to keep from me, I already knew...haha...But, I acted as surprised as I could, to make my mum happy. It was just delightful having dessert to the tune of Adibah Noor's beautiful voice.

Then they played the video montage...the first part was a 3 minute informal interview of Aliff and me (although Aliff's friend said Aliff talked as if he was giving a presentation hahah) on how we met and got together. This we recorded about a week before the wedding, as I have written here. The second part was another 3 minutes of the Nikah highlights, the night before. The video montage was done by our videographer Mimota Studio, and he is also HIGHLY recommended. He is very laid back, cool and most important VERY affordable! And his work on the montage was AWESOME. Me and Aliff loved it. The final product has not been presented to us yet, so hopefully that will turn out as good as the montage. Anyway, he was recommended by a fellow former bride-to-be, Shu and am so thankful to her.

 

The montage was followed by a short and sweet speech by the one and only Bapak.

After dinner was over, me and Aliff made our way back to the stage for the cake cutting. We were again escorted by my bridesmaids while Adibah Noor sang "L.O.V.E" by Nat King Cole (which was "supposedly" to be sang by Kakmyra). Finally saw the cake, and it was beautiful, just as ordered. And I loved the topper, a dancing bride and groom...so cute!

After the cake cutting, the MC announced that its the end of the reception, and the bride and groom will be making our way out to the main entrance to meet with the guests. Then "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" again by The Platters was played as me and Aliff made our way out...as we walked down the aisle, my beautiful lady friends who were lined up at both sides of the aisle threw flower petals at us. LOVED it!

We reached the end of the aisle and was met by my parents. Guests started to line up to meet us. That was the only time I get to actually mingle and meet my guests! My former colleagues, current colleagues, bosses, friends from school, childhood friends...I was quite bummed as I didn't get to spend so much time with them, especially those I have not met for yearssssssss. But the number of guests was too overwhelming, so I only get to spend a few measely seconds with each guest.

Some family and friends stayed back to take pictures with us. We actually planned to have an after party of poco-poco and karaoke, but poco-poco was banned, and there was going to be another wedding the next day and we had to leave the hall by 1130pm...so after pictures, everyone went home.

 

Kakmyra and Adri had booked us a night in Shangri La, Putrajaya as a wedding gift. So, after taking pictures at the hall, we made our way to the hotel. We asked Syida and the cousins to join us for supper at the hotel. We ordered room service - Nasi Goreng Special...very nice! Everyone digged in and enjoyed the food because everyone was TIRED. These were my helpers, my assistants, my runners for the wedding, and they finally got to rest! Hahaha.... I on the other hand was still pumped up...in denial that my wedding day is about to end. Hahaha...They hung out until about 2/3am.

So, that was my wedding. Only God knows the challenges that we had to face, but in the end, with all the drama and flaws, I feel that I had a SPECTACULAR night! And the best part of it all, is that I get the bestest life companion out of it!

Our Next-Morning Breakfast

...but I took comfort that although the Nikah is over, the Wedding Reception is over....I still have one more Wedding Reception the week after! Although I will not have any control over it, I felt consoled that The Wedding is still not YET over!!! Hahah...

Toodles.

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...