The Bridal Room

I was quite insistent that I wanted to plan the wedding myself without help from the parents but I did ask my Mom to help make my bedroom look like, y’know a bride’s room. This wasn’t something I wanted to fork out more money for so I asked her to DIY where possible.

After repeated trips to my room, I think my Mother probably had a meltdown. She is OCD about neatness (something I didn’t inherit) and couldn’t see any way to make it look like a bridal room because my cupboard was bursting at the seams. I also had like 98643578 luggages and knick knacks which couldn’t be concealed and my idea of cleaning my room looks like this:

So my mom then broached the idea of doing up the guest room at her house instead. I wasn’t too keen on the idea but relented after awhile because dah malas and had too many things on my plate. Also, it was a lot easier to make an empty room look more photogenic.

I am also a bit of a rebel and while I thought the usual curtains and drapery thing which you find in bridal rooms was beautiful, it wasn’t very me. In the past few years, I seem to have picked up my mother’s love for plants and appreciation for leaves (don’t really care for plants with flowers, so weird). Thus I requested for her to do it up using my Favourite leaves – ferns, monsteras and to keep plants to a minimum. 

Something like this:

And once she saw it, she fell in love and then went bonkers with the execution. Despite having fractured her arm, she made repeated trips to JB to buy the flowers and leaves. 

My aunt also sponsored my bed sheets and new pillow sets. 

So beautiful, I love it! Macam hutan rimba! 

Also just wanted to show how my mum decorated the rest of the house 

The house was going to be the main base for the groomsmen and bridesmaids and Photographer and videorapher to take a rest during the wedding. We needed the space and God knows we needed the aircon. 

It also worked out because at the last minute Zak decided to cancel having our outdoor photoshoot at Bedok Reservoir and just have it at my mother’s garden instead. 

Pictures coming up in the wedding entries! 

The Day Before The Wedding & Malam Rewang

Errands:

The few days before the wedding were so jam packed with activities that there were still major errands left pending, namely my hair and nails.

I warned Kak Lina from Ishq about my beast hair and asked whether 2 hours would be enough to handle it. Seeing as to how we weren’t certain if Kak Nora could make it on my day, I think she didn’t want to take the risk so she asked if I could straighten it the day before. So I went to my regular hairdresser who was so happy to see me getting married. Although that didn’t stop her from grumbling at having to wash and straighten my hair though. 

We also had to pick up our outfits and money boxes which we rented. We had also prepared photo frames ($2 from Daiso) with pictures from our pre wedding photoshoot to be placed on each table but because Kak Sham didn’t see it until the day before, she made a request for us to have it painted a different Colour as the white was too stark.

At a loss as to what to do, I turned to my Brother for help. He listened quietly and then said “don’t worry Nad, I’ll take care of it.”

Two hours later, he messaged me a photo of the finished product.

So beautiful and so quick! I’m not one to bother people with my problems but I was so grateful that he managed to solve my problems for me.

Meanwhile, over at our venue, the vendors were already starting to setup. Town Council was also being a giant dick by not allowing us to switch on electricity, not switching the fans on because they said fans weren’t allowed to be switched on during non-event days (we had paid for two days – the wedding day and the day prior so this rule really doesn’t make sense to me). Ridzwan was busy getting his stitches removed so it was up to me to supervise and yell at Town Council over the phone. Unseemly of a new bride to be, but sometimes you just have to get things done. 

We also dropped in occasionally to spy on our vendors. Here are some sneak pics of the initial parts of the decor:

See those wooden panels at the back? We never knew that Mariah and Sham’s wooden panels were made on-site and customised for each venue.

Even got saw on-site seh.

We were mostly shooed away by Mariah and Sham for hanging around the venue: “Korang jangan kat sini ah! Kita belom habis tau!”

So we ran away and hid behind some bushes but still got caught by Kak Sham anyway. 

Hehehehehehehe. 

I went home for abit, completely exhausted but couldn’t nap because you can’t rest till AFTER the wedding.

Malam Rewang

Couple of hours later, we made our way to the venue again to have our Malam Rewang. What’s on the menu? Tulang and a deceptively mild looking spaghetti goreng – that is until you ate it and realised that kiwak, pedas per.

So what was on the to-do list? Tying our bottles…

Putting together our bunga rampai in their holders – these beautiful holders were brought from JB for about 0.30 SGD per piece.

And not forgetting our evening berkat – the books! How lovely is that? Ridzwan and I also prepared bookmarks to be given away for our evening berkat.

Here’s a picture of the bookmark in its entirety

And how it looked at the end. How lovely is that?!

As part of our storybook theme, we also had to transport some hardcover books for our decor. These would be put up on each table as part of the table setting. We were told to find 60 hardcover books so we appealed to all our friends and family and managed to dig up about 57 books in total – ranging from cookbooks to encyclopedias.

In our quest to find these hardcover books, we also turned to Carousell to find hardcover books being sold cheaply. Here’s a picture of some of the books we managed to get –

A condemned library book from JLn Teck Whye Sec, printed in 1965. What a valuable find!

This is a random picture of my Brother transporting the exhausted bride to go get the hardcover books from her house. 

One thing I loved about our malam rewang is how everyone got together to help. It was really the spirit of gotong-royong at its best.

We finished really late that night, about 1.30 – 2 and I remember thinking to myself that I was beyond exhausted. How was I going to even wake up at 6 am for makeup and get through an entire exhausting day of my own wedding? 

There were still many things to be wrapped up at that point for example, making sure the DJ got the Programme and thumbdrive and ensuring the proper people got the seating charts etc. 

But at that point, I was so exhausted I couldn’t even move already. It was really time to just let go and let God. 

Giving away jute string

Hey guys, just writing a note here to say that I might have been a little overzealous in my efforts to DIY so much of my wedding. Realised that I have 10 rolls of jute string left And I’d like to give them away to any bride who wants them or else they will just collect dust in my room. I got them from Daiso and the packaging says each roll is about 120m Long. Just pay for your postage ok? Anyone interested? Email me at caramelle@gmail.com

My Kampong Themed Malam Berinai

So about two days before the wedding, I had my mehendi night. My Mother insisted on throwing me a mehendi party since I insisted on Organising the wedding myself so she wanted to do something back for me. She did ask me for a theme though (I think she expected me to say retro pin up girl but was pleasantly surprised when I requested for Kampung).

“You sure ah? You sure you want kampung ah?” Still retro what, hahahaha.

She pretty much kept me out of the discussions for the party with my girls and invited all my friends herself using my Brother to design her invite. 

Farnamals found a shop selling Baju opah at Pasar Geylang (3 for $10) and even said she could have outfit changes throughout the night if I wanted her to, HAHAHA WHAT.

Also I’d joked that the above picture was the most Colour I’d seen in her closet. To which she replied: 

Trolls. All my friends are trolls. 

So! Fast forward to the party – my mum drew Lat characters and placed them around the house. 

Leaves were just trimmed from her garden haha.

Check out my outfit. Also bought from same place as Farnamals. 

And my family’s outfits:

My cousins:

My friends were slowly coming in after work and we were all mostly shrieking in laughter at how cute everyone looked in their bajus. 

Kampong girls still carry handbags ke??

Suddenly at about 830, the bell rang. I ran out only to find that it was Ridzwan and two of his groomsmen, come to crash the party dressed like kampung boys and insisting that they were there to find their cat. Apparently, my Mother had arranged for them to drop by and even equipped them with props (lanterns/torchlights for added kampong feel) I was so happy to see them (at a point where you are feeling very overwhelmed with the things that are happening, it’s really just a nice feeling to see your fiancé acting so silly). 

This was them insisting that their cat was under my Mum’s car. 

And then finally we get to eat! Satay and Mee goreng! 

Also, can I just show you all how everybody looked? SO DAMN CUTE, I CANNOT.

And then it was time for games! All old school games and gender reversed! The boys had to play five stones and the girls had to play capteh.

Tak manis langsung hahahaha.

And of course, what party would it be without playing mercun right?

Also got photo taking time:

Check out the hovering hand. 

And then finally it was time to chase the boys home so that the girls could do their inai. Nausheen from Heavenly Henna did my inai that night. She’s a good Friend and a former colleague and the thing I liked about her work is how she is Super teliti when it comes to the lines. She makes all the henna paste herself and even sprays a self made concoction of lemon juice and sugar to help Ensure the inai retains longer on your skin. She also made periodic checks on my the day after to see how the stain was progressing. Oh, she also hid Ridzwans name in my inai As part of the hadang games.

This was mine (finger capping added later).

It was a Super lovely night, all thanks to my friends and family who were so sporting. I love love loved my malam berinai and it still makes me smile just thinking about it. 

Revealing my final inai:

So gorgeous, I love it! 

Ok onward to wedding posts (can u tell I’m tired already? Hahaha)

The Wedding Invite

When Nadiah asked me what I envisioned my wedding to be like, I was a little taken aback. I had honestly never put much thought into it.

In my head I had visions of a well-manicured Parisian garden filled with uptight people and a string quartet playing Vivaldi all day, or perhaps that’s just a movie scene I remembered from somewhere.

In any case, I didn’t really have an exact image of what it was supposed to look like but as a designer, I had always wanted to create the fanciest wedding invite that anyone had ever laid their eyes upon!

It started with our theme of having a Storybook Wedding and this was the initial design I came up with:

We were actually quite pleased with this but something didn’t sit quite right with us.

Firstly, we didn’t think that it captured our personalities enough and secondly, if there were to be any “vision”, my designer “vision” would be to letterpress the heck out of the invite. I had never done so before and this would be the perfect opportunity!

After another couple of weeks we came up with a completely new design that encapsulated both our love for reading, and the fact that we love stargazing—reading under the stars, how perfect:

We even have a rocket!

Feeling rather pleased with ourselves, we set out to find the best Letterpress supplier within our budget. After a week of back-and-forth between more than a few letterpress studios, we settled with The Fingersmith Letterpress. Jackie, the sole proprietor and furiously talented designer who owns the company invited us over to her lovely studio to have a chat about how to go about producing the printed invites.

That’s Jackie on the right who was probably wondering why I couldn’t keep still. I couldn’t contain my excitement because the smell of ink and being in such close proximity to a real and proper old school letterpress machine made me feel like a kid in a candy shop!

The beautiful yet mighty ‘Heidelberg’ Letterpress machine. There are only a few in Singapore.

We had a lengthy discussion and Jackie gave us an expert tip—to make the artwork have as many fine, crisp details as possible in order to make the letterpress effect show. Filled, solid areas would end up feeling ‘flat’ instead of having more texture/details.

We also decided to change the gold colour into one that had a more ‘copper’ effect instead, as we thought it looked less dull and more elegant.

The final artwork that we sent for printing—notice the change in the details of the trees!

The finished product. We were more than impressed with how it turned out. An experiment in letterpress as first-timers, and we were very pleased with ourselves. I love how the textured paper enhanced the look of the rustic feel of the design.

Here’s a picture of us writing out the names of all our guests to be sent out!

 

3 Days to go: Updates

#NadsWanTrueLove in three. Updates!

​​
Pengantin sakit Gigi:

Ridzwan had been suffering sleepless nights due to a toothache (OF ALL TIMES) so we were on a mad scramble to find a dentist who could accommodate him sans appointment. They found out it was an impacted wisdom tooth so they had to drill the stubborn bugger (his tooth, not him). 

So now my groom has to remove stitches the day before wedding. In all his 30 years, his tooth decided to make an appearance the week before his wedding. Best timing ever. 

Booked minimoon:

We’re only returning back to work on the 16th of January and I’ve been pestering Ridzwan to choose a place quickly. I didn’t want to go to Bali or Phuket since I’d been there before yet I wanted a beach holiday where we could just veg and snorkel and veg. 

Also it had to be far enough for me to justify to myself taking one week leave for since it’s really hard to get leave where I work. It’s ridiculous that we are only booking our minimoon 3 days before our wedding but there you have it.

So we finally chose… Boracay! We’ve booked the flights but still have no idea where we are staying or what we are doing, please God halp.

For somebody who goes to holidays prepared with a comprehensive itinerary, this is bizarre and out of behaviour. Will do some more research where I can squeeze it in. 

Replacement of Tok Kadi:
When we had to choose our Tok Kadi, Ridzwan chose Ustaz Sy.akir. He chose the younger  looking kadis while I favoured the older ones because I Guess he wanted to feel more at ease whereas I wanted someone who looked like he’d reflect the solemnity of the event HAHAHA. However, we were told a couple of days ago that he’d be unable to make it on our date and was sending us another kadi as his replacement. 

http://malayweddingservices.com/kadi-nor-razak-bin-bakar/

So I Guess the bride got her solemn looking kadi after all. I Guess this has also spurred Ridzwan into actually rehearsing the akad nikah – like sometimes when we are waiting for the traffic light he’ll suddenly boom “Aku terima nikahnya Nadiah Binte Othman dengan maskawin…”. Gives me a fright but okay, as Long as you are practicing la okay.

Final fittings: 

Had my final fittings at Lulu Alhadad and Ishq. 

I had to try on my dress next to a very thin pengantin with the same date as me and I was feeling a little lousy abt myself. I dont have the easiest body type to work with but I am SO grateful to the team who quickly unstitched all the dresses and put them back together so that I could fit into them – Cik Ati is a national treasure and I wanted to take her home with me. 

Sneak peek of my Favourite dress – the sanding songket. I’ll be the first bride to wear it and I am in love. 

How they managed to make that dress slip over my fat ass and still make me look curvy is beyond me. Thank you Ishq team!!! 

Also just received an update that my MUA is very sick and may be replaced at the last minute. I am worried abt her and my makeup but at this late stage, I think things are already out of my hands. I really hope she does feel better soon. 

These are just the highlights of an overwhelming amount of things that are happening everywhere at once and this pengantin is on the verge of going slightly bonkers. 

Please Ya Allah, let our majlis run smoothly. Insyallah Amin. 

Dinner Wedding Berkat: Second Hand Books

One of the book-inspired wedding ideas we adored was giving out books as favors.

My Mother loved the idea “I think it’s cute!” but I could also hear the voice of some shrill Makcik asking “Ni berkat apa ni?” so we decided to only give it out during our dinner reception which would have our friends. 

While we were in Penang, we found a second hand bookstore on the second level of Pasar Chowrasta. Never in my life would I have guessed that I would one day be sitting cross-legged in a wet market sifting through hundreds of books picking out my wedding favors. It was really fun actually! 

Das me looking overwhelmed at all our choices! 

One of my choices for the books we selected -hopefully it sheds some insight for my single girlfriends. 

Ridzwan’s choices were terrible! He chose all the books that had war-sounding titles and looked like absolute snoozefests, zzzzz. 

Feeling accomplished after we spent two hours carefully curating the books. We had so much fun and really hope our guests will get to bring a book home that they’ll read and enjoy. 😍

Sanding wedding berkat: Rose Syrup

So Ridzwan and I couldn’t seem to agree on berkat for the longest time. He had initially surfaced the idea of asking one of his relatives to make jam and then we’d individually scoop them into jars that we’d get from AliExpress while he made the tags and I’d get the jam jar covers and jute string. 

But I was very resistant to the idea because the thought of having to wash and sanitize jars individually and then scooping jam and then tying up each jar – sibei leceh you know? 

We’d also asked around and floated ideas of cookies in jars, honey jars etc. For the longest time, I did think we might go ahead with honey but our Budget would have only allowed a 30ml jar (w covers, design etc) and I wanted to give my guests something a little more substantial.

Until my Mother, on one of her trips to the Pasar messaged me excitedly. “Nad! What about this for your berkat?!”

Can you see it? 

Hehehe, that’s right. It’s the little nondescript bottle of rose syrup in the corner. And it was way more substantial at 300ml for roughly the same price (each bottle at $1.90).

Ridzwan and I were sold on the vintage packaging but we still had to pitch it to his Mother. Fortunately, she approved! 

And so to get the tags ready! 

In the lead up to the wedding, we wanted to save money so we decided we’d do the tags ourselves – design, printing and even individually hand-cutting the tags (yes all 600 of them). In line with our book theme, our tag says “Thank you for being a part of our story”. 

This meant a lot of late nights and honestly we were so exhausted la. Also having shaky hands and a designer fiancé meant that if I cut things too thin (as I was wont to), Ridzwan would glower disapprovingly and make me throw away the tag and do another one. 

But when we saw the result, we were so sold. 

Ridzwan even printed instructions on how to best enjoy the rose syrup on the back. Cute!

Even our decorator squealed when she saw our sample berkat and asked to bring it back so they could see how they could work it into their gift hampers.

Also, I think the supplier was a little puzzled when we first asked them for a quote: 

But communication was seamless and they confirmed our order very quickly. We also requested for the newer bottles to prevent the slightly torn label in the first few pics. 

They’ll be delivering the bottles to us the day before the wedding and this will be one of the things that our orang kuat will have to help us with on rewang night. Which is coming up really soon!!!

20 Days to go!

​​

I have so many entries in my drafts but I keep getting delayed even during weekends because is everyone having weddings in December or what?!

20 days to go! Tick Tock Tick. 

Don’t push the envelope

Wow guys, we’re a little over 20 days to the wedding and I am going a little bit bonkers.

Our beautiful invites are ready (I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! Also, entry out soon), and the people invited have been notified via Facebook and input their addresses on Google forms. But we still haven’t sent out our invites!

Why?

Because our envelopes are stuck in Shanghai’s immigration. Yes, the unreliability of ordering things from China is common knowledge. But we had tested with a sample order and it took barely 3 days to arrive. When it arrived, we were impressed, 20 cents for a hardy 250g pearlescent envelope in copper brown.

Nubbad what. So we placed an order and waited. And waited. And waited.

3 weeks later tak sampai sampai. Our friends were even beginning to question if they weren’t invited, hahahahaha.

So we’re now 20 days away from the wedding and we still hadn’t sent out our cards! Furious, we got Ridzwan’s friend to cancel the order and demand a refund and my mum (who has been incredibly helpful) dropped down to Evergreen at Parkway to find us our envelopes. After it met our requirements, we placed an order for 400 envelopes (20 envelopes in each packet, totaling about $43) and now we’re off!

Coming soon to post offices everywhere!