a surprise engagement.

i did tell you my other half decided to get married in 6 months' right?  i (and everyone else for that matter) thought that THAT would be the last crazy stunt pulled by my man. until he called me up last week and made another decision that we get engaged next friday.

-_________-

initially, it was just supposed to a discussion among both families. but somehow, it has become more than that. hehe. obviously, i didn't prepare anything. luckily i found 1 tailor who was willing to do my dress overnight. of course, the cut was ok but it wasn't exactly jawbreakingly beautiful. it was simple and it didn't help that the tailor refused to do the dress the way i desired. that said, i  called up the ever so sweet zaza, who is kind enough to take up the challenge of beautifying an otherwise ugly plain dress within 5-6 days. i can't wait to see how the dress turns out but i trust that zaza will work her magic, just like what she did to my mum's baju kurung.

on another great note, we picked up my wedding ring yesterday. it was beautiful (to me at least) and it was exactly how i envisioned my wedding ring to be - a classic round solitaire in a 4-prong setting. something like this, but not this huge definitely (image courtesy of google). mine is only slightly over half a carat. takpe, ada rezeki, we can always upgrade, insha Allah. in the mean time, this is already good enough, if not great. Alhamdulillah.

on the downside, haven't found a ring for the other half. still looking around for slightly affordable custom made platinum rings. the thing is, he is a size 24 (and i'm 8. triple!). clearly, it would be rather detrimental to my pocket but he put his foot down that he wants platinum. grrr. any ideas where to get competitive price for platinum rings? 

til then!

ps: i have no idea how my engagement ring looks like. the other half bought it himself and insisted that i see it only on the engagement day for that element of surprise. stubborn much?

unreluctant venue-hunting / venue checked!

yes, this sure as heaven has been such a long delay.

so sorry but i just came back from work last monday (yes, i had 1 long leave!) & already my darling of a boss swamped us with a mountain of workload. gee, thanks Boss!

anyway, wedding update. at the risk of having only 5 months or so to prepare for our wedding, both of us decided that by hook or by crook, we must at least, look out for potential venues before eid.

after a lot of rescheduling and taking god-knows-how-many raincheck, on the saturday before raya, the other half & i finally managed to steal some time to hunt for venues. in a span of 3 hours, we had the opportunity to check out Dewan Tun Rahah, KL and Laman Penchala. 

before i dish out the deets on both venues, let me tell you what my dream wedding was. honestly, i've always wanted a beach wedding. a small, private one, with only 100 guests tops. but we couldn't materialise that due to some issues, and the fact that one ustaz from the pre-marriage course we attended mentioned that weddings should be done in a closed area or if you insist on having it outside, then your dais must be covered on the sides. something like that. failure to do so will see your majlis be one yang tidak diberkati oleh Allah swt. so, there goes my dream wedding setting.

which leaves us to these options (which are still available on our initially-proposed wedding date) as follows:

1. Dewan Tun Rahah

- liaised with Mr Herry. excellent customer service and i love the fact that he's excited about my wedding. yes, i know it's part of his job, but even if he does that on a pretense, i highly appreciate people, strangers to boot, who are keen on making your dream wedding a reality. however, i have a few concerns. first being the colour of the carpet and the wall deco. if you guys must know, i am a perfectionist by nature so i'm a bit particular with these things. i have my mind set on yellow + blue, so i'm not exactly thrilled with the red/yellow carpet adorning the floors of tun rahah. we can definitely cover the walls, i've seen a number of blogs where they cover the whole place with kain or whatnot, but for the carpet, i was told, there's nothing i can do about it. it might not be an issue to other people, but it is to me. i don't want my wedding to look like, how do i say this in the nicest way possible, colours of rangoli?

- package: buffet starts from RM68. not sure about the quality of the food (apparently, their resident caterer is seri melayu restaurant) but been getting reviews from friends alike that the food isn't as good as a few years ago. another downer.

2. Laman Penchala

- a friend of mine suggested this place since it's owned by his aunt. so, out of curiosity and courtesy to a dear friend, we decided to have a look at the venue. the place is quite ok and ili, the cute lady who attended to us, mentioned something about renovating the place, sometime november, specifically the roof, since the rust and dirt have started to show up. however, the other half is a bit apprehensive and isn't really feeling this place. and one more thing, parking will be an issue since guests would have to park by the roadside. ili told us that it's not a concern among the residents around the vicinity but it is to my other half. as for me, i quite liked the place (due to the chiavari chairs hahaha) but i wasn't exactly smitten. numsaying?

- package: buffet starts from RM50. have no idea if their food are nice though. has anyone attended any wedding here?

********

so, after much thought and consideration, we finally decided on our venue and that'd be Bukit Damansara Community Hall. haha i know it's not in the list above, but we both mutually love the place for the convenience in terms of carpark, mosque, ambience etc AND the fact that we have the liberty to choose our caterer. my other half & i are avid food lovers and we both want our guests to only have good food on that day. insha Allah. of course, the date we wanted wasn't available so we asked Encik Samad/Encik Shidi the next available one and we booked right away. i must say, i'm a bit upset i didn't get to have my wedding on my mum's birthday but now, it's no longer about having the date you desire, it's the availability. saya redha. i can't always get what i want right? anyway, placed our booking deposit yesterday and basically, i can check the venue off my wedding preps! 

:)

selamat hari raya.

since it's the raya season week and all, i won't be able to update as much.

having said that, i'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a blessed eid mubarak and may Allah grace us with bliss, peace and rizq. Insha Allah..

drive safe and here's to a joyous eid ul-fitr! :)

first entry of the unreluctant bride.

so you may wonder, why must i name my blog as the unreluctant bride?

like any other girls, face it, we all love weddings.  but truth be told, i fear the idea of preparing for a wedding. who doesn't? the nerve-wrecking, hair-raising, patience-testing preparations. it takes a lioness to muddle through all that! and may i add, i have a short time span simply because my lunatic of a boyfriend decided to get married in about 6 months (does that  not give me the right to strangle him? hehe). yes, i was that reluctant to plan for my own wedding  and in fact, was considering a WP but..

through it all, when you get to do the preps with your loved ones (esp when you see how hard they work in making  your day a success), and best of all, to see your dream wedding materialises,  all the tears, blood and sweat shed from day 1 leading up to your big day, will all be worth it. that i'm sure of.

and due to that fact, i decided to take charge of my own wedding, hence, the unreluctant bride - however short notice it is.

that said, watch this space because i'm going to unleash the lioness in me. 

to all other brides, happy preparing.  :)