My Wedding Story - Preparation / Checklist (PartI) #najlaafir

السلام علىكم

Hello there!

By the time you read the title of this post, I have been married for 8 months already!! hahahaha. Why did it took me so long to get this post done? I just can't find the right time to really sit down and get it done. Even if I do at times, I need to finish all other sponsored post etc first huhu. 

It's always nice to get to tell a personal story in my blog because this blog is always the thing I get back to and reminisce and I really like to share my experiences with other people like my non-muslim or even my non-malaysian friends and acquaintances to learn or maybe to others who are about to hold a wedding to get inspired from this post :)

So yeah enough with that. Today's post going to be quite a lengthy one. embrace yourself hehe.

Hmm.. sooo.. I had 5months between my engagement day and my wedding day (oh! read here about my engagement if you haven't already hehe), so, it was quite a short time to really prepare considering I was full time working and I only have weekends to go back to Melaka and do preparation. 

Disclaimer: This post is mainly about the preparation of the wedding only, not about the wedding day.  Wedding day photos will be in separate entry. Also, I am not going to share 'figures' here since I've got no permission from anyone that are involved in this story. Any inquiries, you can private message me at social medias or I have included all links (mostly are instagram links) of all involved parties, so, you try contact the interested party for more details or maybe negotiations :D

sidenote: my wedding was in no way is a grandeur kind of wedding. it's just another typical malay wedding. 

Venue

This was the first thing I think of about the wedding. In fact, I have actually book the hall before the engagement, right after Afir officially ask me to marry him haha :P Home was the first choice I put aside. I really hate the idea that I need to clear my house for people to come over and having too many people in my house. Big no no. Even for my engagement, the small ceremony, it has been so hard for my family and I to clean the after math. haha.

So, in the end, I chose to hold my wedding at Rumah Melaka, Bukit Katil, Melaka. I would describe it as a mini Istana Melaka; the traditional malay castle. Not just the rent was affordable, the interior is very pretty with all the woods and everywhere at the building are also very beautiful! So, I can save time for the outdoor photography session considering the next ceremony is the next day, so, I can finish it real quick and have a nice rest! haha! 

Note that the hall was rented empty; no tables or chairs included so I needed a catering who can provide me with them.

p/s: just go to the office of Rumah Melaka (at the back of cafeteria) and look for Mr Saifuddin if you wish you rent it - because I got a lot of question on how to book it.

There are basically 3 ceremonies in a Malay wedding (at least mine has only these 3 haha) which are solemnization, reception at the bride side and reception at the groom side. So my family and I decided to hold the 2 ceremonies; solemnization and the bride side's reception here in Rumah Melaka. :)

Theme

Because of the venue, my theme options got narrowed down a bit since the place is very traditional looking. So, I went for a like almost-a-royalty traditional malay wedding theme. Other that than, I just went accordingly to the colour theme which is yellow and grey.

The key is to choose what colour you think you look best which in my case I only knew these 3 colours; soft pink, baby blue and yellow. So, yellow suits best.

As for my family and bridesmaids, I made them wear accordingly to my theme! grey for girls, balck for boys. hahaha! like literally forced them you know haha :P Thank you korangggg for putting up with me despite I know you guys hated yellow haha :P

Family + Bridesmaid's outfit

My Everything.. 💛 #homesick #hayatis

A photo posted by Najlaa ' Aqilah (@najlaa_aqilah) on Oct 31, 2016 at 7:32pm PDT

Kursus Kahwin, Documents, etc

Oh yes darling. The 2-days marriage course is compulsory or else I can't get married! haha. So, I needed my mama's help to register Afir and I for the course at since we have got no time to go ourselves. Thanks mama :') Fees was RM80 and to register, IC of the participant needed. 

Melaka Islamic Marriage Courses Must-Wear

Girl: white scarf

Boy: white shirt, black trousers and a songkok

From the course, you will know how you can register for your marriage, what forms you need to fill in etc. 

First, I had to schedule a meeting with my biological father because my parents separated since I was little. I needed his signature, personal information and documents as it's a compulsory requirement for the forms. that was also the first time I get to officially introduce Afir to him ^_^". Thank god he's willing to marry me off himself i.e he'll come to the wedding because if not I will need to go to the court for more complicated stuff. Phew..

After I have prepared all the documents needed as stated in the checklist by the pejabat agama, submit it and about a week later, the official approval for the wedding received - all done by mama. T_T. That was when I really missed my late step dad, wished he was still with us because he would definitely help us and we wouldn't need to worry a thing. 

Next was to get my neighborhood's imam who would conduct the solemnization ceremony. Afir and I went to the imam's house ourselves to 'book' him. Unfortunately because the Rumah Melaka was not inside his 'area' (every imam was assigned accordingly to mosque area he's at), the imam was unwilling to go there, unpersuadeable. T_T In the end, the imam of Rumah Melaka area willing to help. 

Stationeries

This part includes below:-

Wedding Invitation Card

Thank You Card

Banner

Bunting

Guest Book

The above list are the very basic things.

I used my sister's boyfriend's service to design my wedding invitation card; RBKreatif.

I chose a package that includes invitation card, thank you card, 2 buntings and a banner with quite a good deal (Y)

Mine was a school's exercise book's cover look-alike card. hehe. It wasn't really my idea, I mean, before this I kind of saw somewhere that some people had this kind of card, so, just why not. We've been sweethearts since highschool time hehe. :P It's the double sided one piece of card. 

As for the envelop, my mum ordered for me a rubber stamp with me and afir's name on it to stamp on the envelop. We also stamped the wedding date like below; at the corners. Easy way to remind people hehehe. but at some point it was quite a hard labour ahhaha. needed all my siblings help to finish stamping :P

I also edited a photo of as an unofficial invite because before the card was ready, we made a trip back to Perak, my mama's village and we need to invite some relatives over to the wedding. So, while we were there, whenever we need, we just went to photo studio to print the photo on a photo paper. hehe.

Edited using picmonkey.com , FYI.

And this was what my thank you card looked like. Why was it in turquoise? haha. At the very beginning of the preparation, when I wasn't sure yet what colour I want to go for, mama said turquoise's nice and I just agreed. Doesn't match the final decision but I just couldn't care any lesser haha

Guest book didn't exist in my initial plan. coincidentally when my family and I went to popular bookstore, I saw this guests book and I just bought it straight away hehe.

Photos for banner and bunting

As I mentioned, the invitation cards package came with a banner and bunting too. So for that I chose photos from my and afir's 2-in-1 graduation slash pre wedding photoshoot by my photographer friend, Mie Habib. hehe.

Actually I've used some photos as my engagement invitation which I edited using picmonkey.com too. hehe. 

So these are the buntings and banner. Also in turquoise haha. 

Bridal Boutique 

After much contemplations, I finally give the responsibility to Jasayang / Jasamoureconcept bridal boutique. I knew this boutique from my sister's godmother. The MUA's Dyana Jasni. She does a lot of makeover that doesn't look too much which I like. 

Bridal boutique is what determines how you look like on the wedding day. Actually a lot of bridal boutique nowadays offers everything that a wedding needs. It's all depends on your budget. But basically what you can cover from a bridal boutique are as below:- 

Attire for the bride and groom

Main Dais

Make-up

Hand Bouquet sweetnessbyhm

I took the common package for the hall which includes all the above basic list plus hall's basic deco like red carpet and walkway deco and also the solemnization set up.

As for the attire, I was only thinking about the reception's attire because for solemnization, I already sent the fabric I got from the engagement to tailor but according to my family it didn't make me look very much like a bride or in other words, not as pretty -_-" so I ended up getting the same colour dress (in nude) for my solemnization.

While for the reception, as following the theme, they were in yellow.

There were not so much of choices available for bride's attire but for the groom there were several choices. 

Look what our fitting session looked like and for more details of the attire, stay tune on the 2nd post! hehehe

As for the main dais, I just told them my theme colour, what's the colour of flowers that I'd like. I've also been looking at their instagram profile a lot to get inspiration and also to know what kind of stuff they have like for example the background set up and also the couch. I just choose accordingly to my preference and voila; a day before, all set up. these guys (yes, they were literally only guys doing the set up) really knows how do their job well. (Y)

the lighting didn't do justice to how pretty it turned out. hall's lightings were off, fyi.

Photographer

 I was introduced to this photographer Pak Sam from SoksPictures by Dyana of Jasayang. She told me that Pak Sam was having a real great offer which was literally a good one! It's half the usual price I have ever seen for that package. Without thinking much, I just agreed to him! haha. who wouldn't want to save money from all the unnecessary charges; suited a low budget wedding like mine hehe. 

I made all the booking and payment virtually - never had the chance to meet him before the wedding day. I only get to see his work portfolio from instagram. 

So, fyi, the package I took was the basic one which was the unlimited photshoot for 2 events (solemnization and reception), outdoor photoshoot, a photo album (I forgot what's the exact size of it ^_^") and a pendrive for all the photos taken.

Catering

My mum received a wedding invitation from her ex-student at Rumah Melaka like 3 months before my wedding day. So we went there to like for food tasting too hehe because we were told that that particular caterer, Mustaqim always do catering there.

We seal the deal without so much of a hesitation because Mustaqim was also having a great deal at that time. His package for 1000pax included: 

- Food, obviously haha in buffet style for guests and serve style for the vips

- Tables and chairs for the hall

- Additional 2 tents for outside the hall + the tables and chairs

- DJ

- PA system

- Kompang

- Wedding cake

- and Attendants

It was like covering all I need and that meant that my job to find everything else was pretty much done hehe (Y)

Door gifts

I also got to know about Persada Popcorn from the mum's ex-student's wedding that we attended. Easy, right? haha. That's why I would highly recommend people who are to hold a wedding to attend as many weddings as you can haha! Not just you can get inspired by others' wedding, you can also easily get more information about things you need like the catering and goodies provider, right?? hehehe. Good things are often hard to find, you know! :P

At the very beginning of my preparation, I had like so much ideas of what I wanted to give the guests, but when it came to budget and the man's power to actually prepare all of that, for 1000pax, my family and I just can't do it. *shakes head*

So, all we need was something that's easy and don't require as much work.. which meant that these popcorns are the best choice!! Everything was prepared by them.

To back up that, my mak long sponsored sweets so we packed them in pouches and containers for kids and that was it :)

Hantaran / Gift Trays

Unlike for my engagement, I diy-ed them myself (Click here to read about it), but for my wedding, I was seriously got no time for that T_T. Time was running outtttt!! So bye bye money. my mum just sent them to the wedding stuff shop (shop's name is PSB in Kota Fesyen, MITC near Mydin Mall) and hire them to decorate to trays. Used the same tray that we bought for engagement, just decorations were by them. Chose flowers, ribbons that they have in the shop, sent the gifts to them and voila after less than a week, all done. Still quite pricey though considering my budget, but..no choice.. Thanks mama :'D

These are only some of the gifts, fyi. I couldn't find all other photos =_=

As for the gifts, since Afir and I knew they're all not so cheap, we bought wayyy earlier; like very right after engagement day (because of the the year-end sale for things like perfume and the Dr Marten's boot). Always make use of the sales time best okay! hehe.

Photobooth

I've always known that Afir has friends who has business of pallet wood and they can do photobooth. They were called RonoRene. So, all deal was made by Afir :D

Tentative, MC

Last but not least is the tentative of wedding day which in my opinion is a very important one to at least keep things in order. It didn't have to be super protocol-y but as for mine, at least for the reception ceremony which starts at noon, after the bride and the groom entered the hall until before photo session with the guests, an MC could help to ensure the flow is all smooth. 

For example, like mine, I had the salam2 with the family members for their blessings, the cake cutting, a small singing performance by yours truly haha :P and also by my singer friends hehe andddd brief speeches from family and friends. So, imagine how and who can handle all those things without an MC? It would turn into chaos, definitely. 

So.. mama asked her friend's help for that. We call him cikgu Chan and he's really perfect for that! He always does mc-ing especially for weddings and he even have his own like script of it which all he needed was names to fill in so he can call them haha. 

..and DONE!!

I think that basically covers EVERYTHING  of my checklist (at least those are all that I can remember la hehe) and any other so-called wedding planner's checklist, I think. I wouldn't get to do all of these all by myself, of course. So, for that, I would like to really, sincerely thank mama, adik, arab and baby for literally being so helpful and always be with me, accompany me, give opinions every step of the way. What would I do without you guys, I'm just so blessed :').

Thanks for reading this oh-so-long post haha.

Untill my next entry!! hee

XOXO