The Big Day

Malay weddings usually last about 2 to 3 days. There's the malam berinai (Henna Night). And akad nikah (Solemnization). And then the majlis makan/resepsi (Reception).

Malam berinai is usually where the brides would have professional to draw henna arts on their hands and feet. On that night, families would come over, as well as close friends. Like a gathering. To kick in the merry feels, the wedding feels. 

My henna night was heartwarming though exhausting. Some of the family& friends came over and helped with the last preparations.

Managed to finish my henna past midnight. It was 2am I think. God I was so sleepy. As soon as my henna dried up, I fell straight to sleep on the floor without even getting a shower with my hijab still on my head. Can you imagine how tired I was.

~Dadadada here comes the bride~ 

It's the Day! 

My solemnization and reception are on the same day. We decided to give it a straight go instead of making it two days. It was after Asar prayer. 

All dolled up and ready to marry the man of my life

Achievement unlocked!

I'm finally someone's wife! 

 And to those who came, thankyou so much!

Preparations

Sorry for the long overdue, was too busy settling down life as a wife, daughter in-law, works. I know, there's a lot to tell! But one story at a time. And now let's focus on the beginning first, the preparations for the new phase of my life.
I am literally smilling like an idiot myself while typing these.
So here goes...
It took us 2 months to start all the preparations.
We had been waiting for this day to come since a year ago. But all those while we can't seem to make it a go. There would always be something that stop us from planning. And eventually, we kind of just, let it be.
And until 2 months before the BigDay, he called to say he have something to tell me but it needed to wait until he is back in town. And when he's back, he was like: Baby I've saved enough money, I am all ready. I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?
I've been dreaming to be his wife since ever but to actually hear him said that it was so dreamy.  Because this time you know that it is not about planning anymore. It is about making it really happen like actually taking real actions, so I said YES! And then there goes all the preparations. We didn't pretty much announce it until later, because maybe somehow we don't want to jinx it. We decided to start a few preparations first before announcing it.
We went surveying the bridal dais ( pelamin ). It was a quick decision and quite cheap. Going for both of our favorite colour, blue. And this is what we had at the wedding day.

And next was the wedding suit & dress. Oh my favourite part! Always dream of trying out those white dresses since I was a little girl. Can't believe I'm finally trying one for real this time! At first we thought of buying the suit and dress. But we search the whole town like up to almost 10stores still there's none that really caught our eyes. Finally we gave up the intention of buying it, took up the idea and recommendation of a friend's to just rent the suit & dress at Anna Bridal. We didn't put on high hopes for this bridal shop. Because we thought it would be just like the rest in town. But we were wrong. it took him only 10minutes to chose his favourite suit. and mine like less than 30minutes to spot my favourite one.

And so he had been going in & out of town every week during all those time, constantly in between works and getting ready for all the preparations. It was really tiring for him. So we came to an agreement for me to be in charge of surveying the doorgifts and invitaion cards. The doorgifts were easy, we had decided earlier to make candies & chocolates our choices of doorgifts. The only thing that makes it hard is that there are too many cute choices for the doorgifts packaging! Too cute I just want it all! But finally we chose this

Found it at a china online shop, taobao, if you're familiar with it. There are so much more cute doorgifts packaging you can find there, and its super cheap! But mind you, it will take about 2-3 weeks time to reach your door step.
Invitation cards. Did all the design, printing all by ourselves.

To prepare all of this was easy. But I clearly remember being so stress during these preparations. Both me and the Mr. But I swear preparing these things were easy, the problem was preparing for the judgements around us. Specially when we decided to make our wedding a simple one. But then we kept reminding each other that we are choosing to be with each other despite anything. So whatever anyone said about the wedding will be pointless because its not them that we're spending our lives with.
Oh and the part where you find the perfect wedding rings are a bit hard. A bit only lah. I don't like gold. Because to me it looks old. And I don't fancy the thought of buying expensive wedding rings. To me, wedding rings are just symbols to prove that you're married. It doesn't define your love to one another. And plus, in your whole lifetime, you might risk at least a chance of losing your wedding ring. Either you miss place it, your kids plays with it, accidentally flush it down the toilet bowl. We never know kan. So why buy expensive one?
So, this is the rings we both chose at the end. It's not expensive, but it's really beautiful.

Okay so what's left? Oh the flower bouquet. That one I have my mother in law picking out the plastic flowers for me and my sister in law arranging it for me.

And the dulang hantaran (dowry tray). Traditionally if the grooms give 5 dowry, the brides must give 7 back. The brides need to give extra 2 more than the grooms. And it's usually in odd numbers. But in my case, I am a revert. So the elders said I don't have to give any dowry if the groom is okay with it. Ofcourse the groom is okay with it hehe. 

So the Mr has 3 dowry for me : praying mat, praying veil and the Quran. 

All of the dowry trays were decorated by my mother in law & sister in law. 

So, bridal dais-dresses-flowers-cards-doorgifts-dowry-rings. And we're all set to the big day!