Updates and Rants

It’s been awhile since I last blogged. The last I blogged was selecting the flat. Now it’s time for wedding preparations part 1: Quotations and Surveys.

So. Mainly, we've decided on the date and venue. We both are going to do a separate 2 day event. 1^st day will be the solemnization day, 2^nd will be the wedding ceremony. Initially I wanted to do a combined event but he insist that we should separate.  I don’t even want to bother putting down the reasons. It has always been the typical oh-so-melayu reason. Sometimes I just don’t get it, yang kahwin ni siapa? Kita ke parents kita? Kan?

I’ve been searching for vendors and Farhana from KahwinKhronicles really give a good list of vendors in Singapore. From the bridal to catering to deco to kompang. Ala...Kirakan satu package ah dia kasi kau. She also provide the wedding budget templates. I'm thankful to have bloggers like this. 

I’m the kind of person who don’t like to chin chai chin chai decide on things, especially on my wedding. Budget pun budget lah, but if dah tak lawa, siapa nak kan? I've been asking for quotations here and there. Some of it are reasonable and right there, but some (especially the ones I really really like) mencekikkan orang aje.

I asked my colleague (BTB this Dec) what was her quotation last year for this particular vendor (deco) and she told me that last year was way cheaper. This year they really marked up the price. If ikutkan hati, I would signed up for it. But… I just can’t. Moving on I asked the other deco that I liked (for quite some time already, Elly Weddings). The price was within my budget but…. They NO LONGER TAKE VOID DECK BOOKINGS! Ahhhhh tidakkkkkk!!! I dah fall in love with the deco, but why? Why? Why you tak ambil void deck booking lagi? Sedih... Nak nangis… I've made my decision with void deck for my wedding coz 1: cheaper 2: easier to go up and change outfit.

(Speaking of which, I really need to do something about the room. Change bed, change wardrobe, all change. hahah... that shall be the later topic. This one confirm kena bising pasal nak tukar semua. hahaha...)

Haiss... cubaan cubaan. Now I gotta look for the ones that fit into my budget and taste. You see, I’m the kind of person that once I like something, I will ignore the other things. Now I gotta let go of this attitude and look further. Mana tau, ade lagi better offer that caters to what I like right?

The Dreamers Soiree, a wedding event that I’ve RSVP-ed to and it looks like I couldn’t make it. When it is opened for RSVP, aku punya semangat… cepat-cepat log in and send email. But now, since my other half is away to U.A.E. for work, we couldn't make it for the event. Sedih ok. Looks like Fluff is off my list for wedding cake.

Oh, oh! I have a backup plan for my wedding cake, MadBatterSG! Sungguh tak sabar ku nak order coz her cakes sedap gila nak mati! I still am remembering my engagement cake, the oh-so-moist blueberry cake with cream cheese and maple frosting. Mmhhhmmmm… sedapppppp…

my engagement cake! (photo : from MadBatter SG )

Note to Mr. Fiancé: 

1 - I want this cake for 1 year engagement.

2- You shall not take my baker for the wedding cake. You go and search for others okay. Hehehe…

xoxo,

Fiqah

Tiny little diamonds on my finger

yup, I'm ENGAGED!

It was a lovely ceremony and all went well, Alhamdullilah. I thank Allah for his blessings and for all that had happen. Insyallah, Mr. Fiancé and I will get married in 2 years time. Amin.

I have to admit there were some hiccups along the way. Especially on the night before and also on the morning itself. It was totally my fault. I have no else to blame but myself. Sometimes I get too caught up with whats happening and when I lose control, I freak and I start to find fault with whoever and whatever that just gets in my way. such a bitch right. 

The first hiccup was the cake. Initially it was dark choc glaze to coat the cake but dad insisted that I used white chocolate instead so that the fruits I was going to put on, shows and more visible. I agreed and it turns out to be a disaster. Firstly, the glaze was see through, that already pisses me off. Secondly, it just won't set! You bet I was super annoyed. I had to think of another way to cover up the sides as it was showing through the glaze. I walked around Sheng Siong to find something and I found the pocky sticks! I'm so glad that Sheng Siong is 24/7, if not I will be so dead. I don't have enough chocolate on hand either. Pocky sticks saves me. It turned out nice too!

The second hiccup was between me and him. I know it's going to sound ridiculous, but I was being super ridiculous at that moment. His parents don't allow him to come to my house when they finished the whole ceremony. I was super pissed. You know, I was hoping and wishing that he would come and see me and bring me some flowers and take an engagement photo. I really wanted that but it was crushed the moment he said he can't. I started arguing that it was our day and they should respect our decision. I even blasted my anger to my family unknowingly. They say that this is the ADAT and according to that he should not come. Like seriously, wth kan. This is like 2014 already, like hello?! But who am I to have a say in this, right? I had to just deal with it, like it or not. 

I dealed with it. It sucks though. I wanted one thing and just one thing only. A photo of us, engaged, so I could keep for memories sake. Well, just not my day. 

Besides the hiccups that mainly caused by me, the rest went well. The night before, my family, grandaunties & uncles, aunties & uncles helped out by gotong-royong-ing. We cooked our own food and gosh, it was tiring. I didn't do any of the work but by looking at it, I just can't take all the leceh-ness and the penat-ness. Hahah! It dragged on to the next morning coz they have to cook the lauk-lauk. The smell is just so sedap! which I get to eat in the evening after everyone went home. 

This should be it. I wanna head back to bed. but before that....

I want to thank Allah for his blessings in making this ceremony a smooth and a happy one. I want to thank my family (mak, atuk, ibu, ayah and siblings) for the endless efforts they contributed. I want to thank my aunties and uncles for helping out. Also my grandaunts and granduncles for their contribution of "energy" despited their old age. I want to thank Bernard for dolling me up like an Egyptian princess and my siblings and cousins in helping me to dress up. I want to thank my two girlfriends who helped out in taking photos and Polaroids. Thank you for the gifts I received from my two sisters, girlfriend and grandaunt. Not forgetting, I want to thank to everyone who came, be it my family or friends or relatives. Thank you to all. Alhamdullilah.

 

The gift trays from me to him. Nice right..... I took so much time in just decorating this. Black-Grey-Silver theme. I felt bad plucking the flowers out from the "stem" but I just had to. So sorry to the person who loaned this to me. Ooopppsssss..... heh. 3 from the trays are from my aunties. Lucky lucky Mr. Fiance. He gets the good stuffs. 

Outside, all so serious but us, in the room are goofing around! Hahaha! Nervous seh. Baru tunang, kalau kahwin macam mane? Hahahaha!!!

and....... she put the ring on it. It should have been him right? and speaking of which, I'm still upset and disappointed that he never propose to me. I will still hold on to it till forever ok Mr.!

his side.

our poly friends. 

my girlfriend, aunt & mum.

my poly girlfriends.

this is when my girlfriends forced me to pose. "eh pose sikit, pose mcm kau eksyen tgk tu cincin". HAHAHAHHAHA terpaksa lah aku pose eh. mcm fail pun ada. HAHAHA

gotta go. nights to whoever reads this. hahaha!



xoxo,
Fiqah

Food Adventure

Well, this is embarrassing. I should take a mental note not to blog when you're very sleepy. What was I thinking. "Drama going on over at high school"? I bet this is the part where Suburgatory is stuck in my head. Yeap. Definitely is. 

Moving on, this marks the second last day of being a girlfriend. Seriously, changing from a girlfriend to a fiancee is kinda big. It's like you have more responsibility that you already have. You even have another set of future family-in-laws. It is not that I wanna take a step back but this is different. Different from what I've used to for the last 1823 days. 

Let's take a break on that and see the photos that I've been meaning to post. Food. Food. Food.

I cannot tell you how much I LOVE I Am Cafe's cocktails. They're like AMAZING! Fish & Chips were my choice and those to-die-for rainbow crepes were his for our little tea time. The fish is light, crispy, not oily and fresh. A lil pet peeve though is that WHY NO LEMON in my fish & chips? It is the most basic essential in every fish and chips. 

Then it was my lil brother's 14th birthday. I'm in charge of baking his birthday cake and also an excuse to experiment something that I've been wanting to do for my engagement cake. and TADAAAAAA!! this is the end result! It was absolutely yums to the max. Who would ever say no to chocolate? Not me. Even dad & uncle says it taste like Secret Recipe's Chocolate Indulgence. 

There's a layer of crunchy nutella feuilletine with a soft chocolate sponge which is topped with luscious dark and milk chocolate mousse. And all is enclosed with rich dark chocolate glaze. Do I need to say more?

Then a dinner date with Mr. F @ Fish n Co. The food was good and the only thing I would rave about is the pasta and also the fries. Such a sucker when it comes to potatoes. Love love anything that has potatoes. Anw, the pasta, sauce is so creamy and sinful and the prawns are well seasoned.

An impromptu belated mother's day dinner at Ah Poh Kitchen which is located at Clementi Ave 2. The food here is definitely better than the ones at West Coast Plaza. It is the same company only that they have different name. Don't ask why coz I don't know. I think the cook here is more power thus the food is nice. Have to admit though, the service here is slow. So next time you're in Clementi, head over to Ah Poh Kitchen for good halal zi char. Oh, almost forgot, there is no GST or Service Charge which is definitely a PLUS!

Then there was the time when we (my family and Mr. F) had early dinner at Koh Nangkram, the Halal Thai food at Bugis. The pandan chicken and tom yam is the best! The chicken is tender, juicy and packed with flavor. No one like hard rubbery chicken right. Also, the tom yam is packed with spices. You can taste the sour, sweet and spicy. I live the heat it gives when you sip a little bit of that soup. Perfection. The only complain is that the service is slow, super slow. They had quite a number of staffs compared to the previous location they're at. Just tell your workers to chop chop go! fast fast go! Why can't we dine with excellent food and fast service but affordable? Hmm... 

And there was me just being greedy during lunch. Regular pizza all for myself. My colleagues was surprised as I am to finish all that at once. HAHAH... oh, don't you worry, I had a filling dinner too. :)

Can't remember what we did on that day but Churros was for tea time. SO GOOOOD. SOOOO SOOO GOOOD!

Oh, I remembered. It was a bagedil making session at home. HAHAHA. a bucket full of mashed potatoes waiting to be shaped and freezed. Intesive labour of peeling, cutting and frying those yellow goodness. Thanks to the handy dandy mini ice cream scoop, we had all the mashed potatoes the same size and it definitely makes the job so much faster. And I had to, just had to make it a lil heart shape. 

Leftover candies were lying around at home, and those wedding gifts from my cousin cousin's wedding. They had like cartons of sweets and gave some to us. So we packed them into individual little goodies bags to distribute to the little kids who will be coming over to the engagement. yup.

And lastly, the last feast for now. Hajjah Maimunah. Nothing to rave about. The food are just normal. A good thing that it was not my money, coz it doesn't worth spending so much on just average food. 

Finally all the photo of food are out of my phone and there are some space! I guess the next post will be about the engagement itself. 

xoxo,

Fiqah

Countdown

Seven. The number of days left to the engagement.

I couldn't consider everything is done, but it is almost there. Well, the major stuffs are almost completed. The items for the gift trays are bought, well except for the bread and fresh fruits for the basket I'm planning to do. I'm more excited for the bread basket and I've never seen anyone done it before (well, to me). I just love the idea of bread basket. having a slice of thick cut freshly baked bread with the luscious spread of jam or honey. oh, nothing beats the smooth spread of brie cheese on a warm toasted slice of bread. mmmmhhhhmmmm..... just thinking of it makes my mouth waters. -.- I do sympathize myself for being weird all the time.

The biggest fuss might be the gift trays coz there is just too much ideas streaming through my brain. One idea after another and I couldn't decide what I wanted. I've come to the extend of thinking to ditch the trays I got from my cousin and buy a new set. At that time I wanted a wooden-fresh flower-chic-kinda tray. Like garden inspired or something. But as expected, I;m not allowed to purchase a ridiculous new set of trays. Firstly, it's obviously such a waste of money. And secondly, I don't fancy a constant nagging on how i shouldn't waste my money on such stuffs when I already have right in front of me. My mum helped in decorating the trays, well mostly I did most of the work while she thinks on whether to use foam as the base of the trays or not. In the end, we settled for newspaper. Eh, surathkhabar lah siaaaaaa..... HAHAHA. It turned out to what I kinda imagined. It had this simple yet messy but elegant kind of look. It's hard to describe it here though. I did the next best part, which is, the flowers. I played around with what I had and of course I made it look super elegant. Well to me it is. I suddenly fell in love with arranging the flowers and told my mum I should be a florist instead. Hahaha. Oh, speaking of which, should I have a flower bouquet on my engagement? Should I? or I must have it? 

The next fuss was the food. My mum decided to cook ourselves and gotong royong with my aunts and relatives. She said that we could save cost and it is more worth it. I couldn't agree more but it is tiring though. But the gotong royong spirit beats it, I believe. We started some of the preparations earlier this week and freeze it. This means a thing or two lesser to think of. First was par boil the beef lungs for one of the dishes. Second was making of bagedil (potato cakes).  Patah pinggang dibuatnya. Sakit benar sih. (I personally blame the toilet for being dirty and had me to scrub it off) 

I've been meaning to insert photos here but my eyes tell me to shut itself. 

So, I will upload once finished all this drama going on over at high school. -.-

Night night.


xoxo,
Fiqah

Tick Tock

Can you hear the clock ticking? tick tock tick tock. Left with another 18 more days to engagement. 

People say that it is not a big deal. I kinda agree to that, but somehow now I feel like it means something. Something special. A special memory that Mr. F and I would treasure in our hearts.

I think I finally accept the fact that he will never ever propose to me. But somehow I'm secretly hoping that he will. But in reality he won't. HAHAHA. I asked him to why he never wants to propose. His answer was simple. Shy. Like seriously? Pegang, pimpin tangan aku depan semua orang tak malu lah pulak eh. 

Well...we can't force anyone right? Propose or not, tetap tunang jugak nanti. hehehehe... 

kk. update soon. my head is spinning and spinning around right now. like that song. yeap. k bye.

xoxo,

Fiqah

One Month

One month. The moment I've been waiting for. I've always complained (to myself) why is the date so far away. Well, now I'm the one who's nervous about the day. Am I ready for this? Am I prepared to go through all the challenges? I know it is just engagement but it holds a totally different title to us. Well, for what I think, at least. To be engaged means you're about to spend the rest of your life with that person for the rest of your life, Insya'allah. I'm not saying I'm regretting this, oh hell no. It's just overwhelming. Very. 

I hope I'm strong enough to face the situations. I was told that you will face to challenges. One is before your engagement, the other before your marriage. It's always a month or so before the date. Truthfully, me & him have been having arguments these few days. Mainly me, coz I'm the one who find fault with whatever he's doing. It's like I want his attention and when I don't get it, I'm pissed. My grandfather told me that situation like this usually happens to "test" you and your partner. To see whether you are ready, fully ready for the next step. I thought over and over about it and find that it's quite true. Like if you can't stand being with that person coz of some bad situations, how are you going to "survive" your marriage like the same thing that is going to happen? Right?

Hopefully with His blessings, we can go through this. Amin.

// on a side note, my friend got admitted to the ICU again. He's in a serious condition. :( Let's take a moment to pray for him and his health. May Allah be with him always. Amin. //

Di-risik

Yup! Saya dirisik.

so what is merisik?  .

Merisik is basically the first step towards marriage. When a man is attracted to a woman and intends to marry her, he will send his family as representatives to meet the woman’s family in order to seek whether the lady is still single or otherwise. If she’s single, the representative of the man will ask for the woman’s hand in marriage. - like now in the modern days, the man is the boyfriend. 

Together with them, they will present a gold ring known as cincin belah rotan to the woman as it is required in the adat (culture). Besides the ring, they will also bring a few gifts to be given to the lady. If the lady accepts the man’s proposal, she will accept the ring and both families will discuss about the engagement date and other matters important on the future engagement day. - this here does not really apply nowadays. I believe only a handful of them that practice this. We don't do this, so troublesome. But they will still discuss on the engagement date which is usually decided by the couple. So they just meet to know and confirm again. 

As mentioned before, different people have different perceptions towards the tradition and some don’t even practise them anymore and only rely on the needs that are obligatory in Islam. Some people also think that merisik is a waste of time and money. 

Truthfullly, I don't think it is a necessary. But boyfriend being the person he is and parents being parents, they want to so that they can know each other better. And indeed there were some connections between us families. Weird right? Who would've thought?

So apparently, his grandparents (paternal) lived at Telok Blangah before so does my great-grandfather and granduncles & grand-aunties. And this person know this person, and that person and that person related to this person..yada yada yada. yuppppp.... like that. you know what I mean right?

In conclusion, our engagement date is still 25th May and it's 2 months away. 2 months is really a short period of time. and yes, I still have not decided on the design of the trays. #wishmeluck

Oh, oh, this is how my house looks like on that day. so clean lah! plus, we repainted the wall coz I was sick and tired of the orange wall.

xoxo,

Fiqah

Her 20th

So..... like I said, I made a super tall rainbow cake for Sis's birthday celebration. 

I don't know whats with me but my crazy side popped up so i decided to make that tall cake. It consists of 6 layers of vanilla cake with lemon curd & vanilla buttercream filling, then covered with thin layer of vanilla buttercream and topped with Yoshi fondant figurine.

so how? nice or not? hehehe... anw just fyi, I have a baking instagram @fleurdefarine . All cakes baked freshly at a halal kitchen and most importantly made by loveeeeeee. Heeeeeeee :D 

Ciao. 

xoxo,
Fiqah

57th

Today marks our 57th month as a couple which means i'm left with 3 more months to engagement. *squeals* Can't believe it that we actually made this far... I love you dear. 

so....

I think most of the stuffs are 30% done? Hahaha! I'm always procrastinating and when nearing I will stressed out myself. I am so damn ridiculous lah.  

Kitchen is done, rearranged the place and finally i managed to put my baking stuffs at a proper place. I have so many things, utensils especially, not including the sugar, flour, etc yet! 

My bedroom is also done with rearranging. Left with grandparents room which will be used for the engagement later on. Thinking about that, they have so many things in the room. I have NO IDEA why they like to keep unnecessary stuffs. Also, they hate it when I clean it, coz I will just throw away almost everything that I see unless it is important lah, you know what I mean right? And I Like to say, "Ni benda nak simpan lama-lama buat ape? buat dodol?" Hahahah.... no link with dodol but I just like to say it. Maybe next time I must say, "nak buat jeruk ke?" Hahahah! Biadap sungguh eh.

kk....

So here are the list that need to be done :

1. Clean grandparents room 

2. Find deco (ribbons, foam, clear boxes, etc) for the wedding trays ( fyi, i managed to borrow it from my aunt's brother-in-law, so I save on that!) 

3. Boyfriend's wallet - I thought of an idea but not saying it here coz he might read this. 

4. Buy Shawl

5. Buy & paint the house (sick & tired of the orange colour, NEED to change!)

6. Food - menu settled, only to purchase the ingredients and utensils. (decided to cook on our own, gotong royong lah kirekan.)

7. Cake - flavour & deco settled, only to purchase the ingredients and bake and decorate. (yup, I'm baking & decorating it on my own!)

8. Purchase chocolates / candies / fruit for the candy & fruit basket

9. Purchase Sejadah & Kain Pelikat. (I think we settled on this idea...hmmm...)

10. Purchase storage boxes & table (for desktop) from IKEA

wahhhhhhhh.... clearly there is alot of things to be done. all completed in 2 months? Definitely can if I stop procrastinating. Hehehehe.... 

Not forgetting, HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY SYASYA!!! welcome to the 20's club sista!

oh, oh, I made a super tall rainbow cake and a small yoshi fondant figurine topper for her. will post up the photos later.... ^^

Timecheck : 5.17pm.

less than half hour to end of work! :D

Ciao.

xoxo,

Fiqah

Should i or should i not?

Should I or should I not engage a MUA (Make-up Artist) for that day? I can't decide if I should do my own makeup, but then again, if I were to do myself it will super light. hahahaha! I just can't let myself to put on such thick makeup. 

hmmmmm... maybe I should eh? and the person I asked also available on that day. 

What do you think? Is it necessary to have a MUA? 

When I think back, I should do it if I want to look nice right? This is my problem here, I need opinions. But when I'm stuck at my office desk with limited network service (Singtel, you better do your job. Rebate ain't enough), I can't do much but wait till the end of the day to ask for opinions. Tapi ada masa eh nak blog segala. HAHAHA. Shhhhh...... 

How How How

Oh, on another happy note. I get to use my cousin's cousin's dulangs. Hehehe. not sure about the charge though. Aside from that, at least i need not worry so much in finding the dulangs. For the deco, I'm sure we can think of something to bedazzle the dulangs. 

And and on another happy note! I FINALLY FOUND THE ENGAGEMENT DRESS! HEHEHE. So this makes two things less to worry. Bought it last Sunday with mum, aunt, sis & cuz at geylang. Walked around and around and around looking at so many designs and me being so cerewet, i don't like most of it. Some caught my eye, but no stock, no size, not appropriate for the event until I found something that caught my eye that fits me!

But not so fast! It was my size and the last piece and it was SINGKAT! triple haisss lah. I was definitely upset coz it looks so nice on me and also the design, LAWA SEH. lucky for me, I have a backup piece. Tried that on instead & I love it! I love Red colour, like really lawa but they say that I need something that gives it more menyerlah. Leceh jugak tau ajak makcik & cuz aku ni, but they are super good at it! So we changed the colour but have the same design, BARU LAH MENYERLAH! HAHAHAH!!! & to my surprise I loved it too! 

kk enufff. hehe. gotta go back to work. I'm "snaking" right now. OOPPPSSS! byeeee~~~

xoxo,

Fiqah

Dinner over exciting news

I’ve been planning and waiting for the day to come to break the news and it’s finally here. It was an unexpected mini shopping at Philosophy followed by dinner at Fika. Actually I don’t even know why I must say that but it all happened in that little cute café.

I’ve expected that she would be shocked and excited but mot on the overly excited part. HAHAHA!! She was squealing and I was too but manage to keep our volume down so that the whole café don’t know what was happening. Even when we're eating we were still so excited. HAHA Initially I don’t even know how to break it to her. We were talking about applying BTO and she asked if I did apply, I said yes and it starts from there….

TBH, she was the very first person I thought when engagement was confirmed and I’m so glad that I did tell her.

Left with two more girl friends and that’s all. And surprisingly, I don’t have many girl friends. Tell the story another time later.

Now to the more serious part of the whole planning, I have so many things to do and I don’t even know where to start! Seriously…oh goshhhhhh... I was thinking of cleaning up the whole house first so it will be easier for me to paint the entire house and also start looking at engagement dress/shawl.

Hmm... I guess I should start from there right?

Alright GTG, meeting is gonna start soon.

p.s. I’m at work & I’m blogging coz boss is not around. HEHEHE..

p.p.s  Have to start bugging the bf to look for engagement ring

xoxo,

Fiqah

first step of a different journey.

And so... it is official. I will be engaged this coming May, Insyaallah. I really can't believe that it is happening. To be honest, I never expect any of these to happen especially when recently, I told my boyfriend that I am tired of waiting and I will stop talking about any of our "future plans". But Alhamdullilah, it is happening.  

Now I've realised that there are so many things to do/ prepare/ plan for the engagement. I guess I have finally join the kakak kakak kahwin network....well..... not yet really but you know. Hahahaha. 

Had a rough discussion with the bf on the plans for the engagement and wrote it all down on the Starbucks napkin. Classic. hahah. 

here it goes...(roughly & not in sequence & referring to it while i type)

1- clean the rooms / house

2 - paint the room with new colour 

3- buy new bedsheets / curtains

4- buy engagement dress that can double up as 2nd or 3rd day raya outfit

5- find dulangs and decide on colour theme / deco

6- buy engagement stuffs for dulangs

7- plan the food for that day (deciding to order or cook ourselves)

8- engagement cake (baking it myself coz my mum insists & bf took the advantage of choosing his fav flavour -.-)

Guess that should be it unless some other things popped up. I feel so excited and nervous at the same time. It's like I can't believe it is finally happening and definitely a change when I am someone's fiancée. For starters, I have to follow him to his relatives during hari raya (i will be engaged by then) which will be sooooo awkward! I don't know how I will survive coz from what I know they are shy shy kind of people. That is the biggest problem for me coz when they are shy, I will be double shy. really.... Plus I hate being in an awkward moment. hahahaha! Looks like I just have to wait and see what will happen when the day finally comes. 

xoxo,
Fiqah