My Brother's Wedding

I know I have not even done any full length post on my own wedding and here I am trying to blog on my brother's wedding instead! Well, his wedding was just last week and before this entry expires like my wedding entry is, I'm going to blog about it.

Yes, I will still blog about my own wedding. I WILL! Besides, it's my blog so there shouldn't be any expiry date on my own wedding's entry right? Right! So back to the topic...

My brother Andy is now happily married to his girlfriend of 9 years, Farrah and their solemnization was on February 18 followed by a reception on February 19.

A family shot before we leave for the bride's house. We're all wearing green at the groom's side!

With my sister in law, Jesmine.

Alhamdulillah everything went well during the solemnization. Farrah was looking gorgeous and though my brother was very nervous and anxious at first, he managed to stay very collected. He said the lafaz and they're married! And now I have another sister in law!

Right before the Akad Nikah

With the new family :)

Their reception was the next day at The Magellan Sutera Harbour and this time, our family decided on wearing pink. The whole reception has a theme of pink, white and black so we opt for wearing shades of pink and the idea of getting the whole family in the same shades of colour is just awesome (we did the same for my wedding!). You can see pinks walking around the ballroom and when it's family picture time, everyone looks so coordinated.

Hubby and I was made in charged of seating placements for the groom's side and to be at the reception table to usher in the guests. Sad thing was, since I was placed at the reception table, I didn't get to see my brother's grand entrance from inside the ballroom and missed the bacaan doa :( We managed to run away from the reception table just in time for the Merenjis session. But after that, ALL IS GOOD! I can see our family enjoyed the night and the newlyweds looking like royalties at their reception :)

With my reception table crew!

Farrah requested for my brother to sing that night and with all the courage and perhaps all the romantic side of his humanity, he did! In front of 700 guest and our VIP (Sabah's state CM). He sang "Truly" originally by Lionel Richie.

Family picture! This was with our family from Sarawak.

With hubby and his sister.

Here's a Same Day Edit video of their solemnization made by XD visual (our videographers imported from Bintulu!) that was shown during the reception.

For their Solemnization, I was mostly in charged of the doorgifts on our side. We gave away Acar Buah in these jars where we tied it up with ribbons and stick on custom made stickers on the lids. Thanks to my cousin Nazia and sis in law Jesmine for helping out with filling in the Acar and tying up the ribbons!

I designed the stickers for the lids and sent it to a printing company (printing is so expensive in KK. Anyone has any contacts on good and reasonably priced printing companies - KK or KL - do let me know!). Their minimum printing order was 500 pieces but we used only 200+ pieces. So now I have TONS of extras that I'm not sure of it's fate yet.

Farrah did suggest making it as their wallpaper in the bedroom (kidding, of course).

Hmm... maybe it CAN be wallpapers on their bedroom wall.

I'm not serious.

My hubby and I also made their Slideshow for the reception and here it is!

Congratulations Abang Andy & Farrah! Semoga kekal bahagia sehingga ke akhir hayat. Amin!

P/S: Yes, I look different in my recent pictures :) That announcement deserves a posts on its own! So stay tuned ;)

It's no big deal

The issue has gone so out of hand that when you google "Amalina", you'll be directed to Nur Amalina Che Bakri with the first site found is a Wikipedia page made for her with her excellence in her education. But her write up had to be tainted with a one liner that goes "On January 2nd, 2012, controversial pictures, believed to be Nur Amalina Che Bakri. who is currently in her final year, leaked online. She later posted a video online explaining the situation.".

Seriously people? Grow up!

I wasn't aware of the issue at first but our media seemed to have the tendency of shoving things into our face. I thought, oh no what have this girl done? So I got curious and look it up on the internet thinking she might have lost her phone somewhere with naked pictures of herself and some random thief who got her phone has uploaded it on her twitter account (you know, ala Hayley of Paramore style).

Then I found it and I go, that's it?

She was accused of failing in her studies which was not true because she is doing well, still being sponsored, still making education excellence related stuff that she does. However, what concerns our fellow citizens is not her education performance (which made her famous and known in the first place), but how she looked like then when she got her SPM results 4 years ago and now. Biggest concern? She was wearing hijab with baju kurung then, now she has ash brown hair with tights and boots to suit her winter weather. It is so bizarre that the issue made it to the prime time news last night!

IMHO, if it's just because of her appearance, give it a rest and just stop the whole critic party. Stop judging her with all the cynical comments. There are sure more news-worthy material that should make its way to the prime time news.

I'm not her supporter nor am I a fan or agree of her doings but I'm not perfect either. Who are we to judge her faith in God. She might be wrong, but so are the media for blowing things up out of proportions and so are you for being so judgmental. She excelled in her studies then and still doing well now, that matters most right?

The beauty of Inai

Here in Malaysia, we have quite adapted the Indian/Arabic culture of having henna on the bride's hands and feet during weddings though theirs are usually very complicatedly designed. I on the other hand have almost opted for not having any henna done on me for my wedding. Even if I do, I wanted the simplest of it all, having it done only at the end of every fingers.

What? I'm simple like that!

One day, my cousin bbm me asking how's my henna design going to be and I told her of my plans. She thought I was insane for not getting any flowery details done! So she started to google up pictures and tag me on facebook in hope to change my mind. But what really did made me changed my mind wasn't the pictures she found, but that one statement she made...

"Mun dah umor 50 baruk nak polah, lak orang madah gila!" (If you only plan to do it when you're 50, then you'd look like some kinda old hagged woman trying to relive her youth cos she missed out on it on her wedding day!)

Come to think of it, why not? So I did it! It went way out of simplicity cos the person who made it and my Mak Andam wanted to try something different and bling it up. It looked weird at first and definitely soooo not me, but a few compliments that morning and I just gave it a go (it's either it really looked good or they just wanted to make me FEEL like it looked good).

Anyways, it does look good in pictures I think?

Taken while waiting for him to get the other hand done

Hubby waiting for his turn

Almost done! This was the night before the Akad Nikah.

On my Akad Nikah day

Beautiful and I was satisfied indeed. Now 3 months later, this is all that is left. Yup, only the thumb! Sooooo sad :(

It's been too long

*vacuums away dust, mops every corner of the screen, sweeps away spam comments*

Firstly of course, I'M MARRIED!

Well, hello! I know that it's been THAT long since I've last posted anything. I knew I had the whole wedding countdown thing going on with details on the event and such. Everything has been quite overwhelming the month prior to the wedding, and even the month after. Not to mention on the day itself!

Just two weeks before the wedding, the whole family was in shocked when Zech's Mom collapsed and had to be hospitalized for a minor stroke. It saddens everyone, including myself. This is the main reason why and when I lost the vibe in updating. I just didn't know what to update anymore and at most times, I'm lost for words. We were at the point of contemplating whether to go on with the wedding.

The family discussed, and we did. Though we had minus out a few events that seemed inappropriate. The next two weeks after that, I focused on the wedding while Zech took care of his Mom.

Fast forward to the wedding day, Alhamdulillah it went well and Zech did well during the akad nikah with only sekali lafaz :) It was a joyful day though there were times we would shed tears wishing Zech's Mom was there with us.

We had to cancel our honeymoon plans. 3 days after the wedding, Zech and I went to KL and spent a week there visiting and taking care of his Mom.

She is now recovering well, and have started to speak as of yesterday. Lets all pray for her speedy recovery.

I'll post up a different entry on the wedding day itself with tons of gorgeous pictures to share.

Til then, wishing everyone a belated Hari Raya Aidiladha!

Hari Raya 2011 + First week at work

SELAMAT HARI RAYA!

Oh I'm two weeks late but like they always say, better late than never! It's still Syawal anyways.

It's not a Raya wishing post with no Raya pictures so here's a vain me with my last ever Raya packets from my uncles and aunts - they insist that I don't get anymore packets from now onwards cos I'm no longer single next Raya (hmmmph!) - and a picture with the Fiancé (I have to use this awesome word as often as I possibly can for the next 3 weeks before it expires - THREE WEEKS TO GO!).

I also started work at the new place this week! So far so good, the first week has been treating me well. Meet my new colleague, Mel!

Since my CPU has been sent away for some computer-life saving procedures, I had to bring my laptop to work everyday. I normally would have my laptop in a zipped bag enough just for the laptop, the charger and other junks would go into my handbag. Once or twice, no problem. But everyday? It gets troublesome and my shoulders ache because my handbag got too heavy. So I had to use the original bag (yes you know the free ugly black one that comes with your laptop when you bought it and yes it's very ugly) cos it fits in the charger as well.

I knew I just had to get myself a better looking laptop bag if I need to carry that junk to the office everyday. I found this and bought it today!

Got it from Gin & Jacqie. Sooooo cute! (Wait, it's for WORK. Why is my laptop bag CUTE? -_-) But look at it! It's too adorable to say no to and it fits my laptop perfectly. Whenever I feel stressed out, I'll just look at it and all the bubblegum colors will make me feel better and bring me to bubblegum land where I'll eat chocolate and desserts all day long... *slaps self*

I finally get to say TGIF because I don't work on Saturdays anymore :) So,

TGIF!!

TGIF!!
TGIF!!

Have a great weekend!

BlackBerry Bold 9900

I WANT!!!

Set to be out on 15 September but I've been seeing a store announces in FB they're having their stocks coming in today. Also saw on twitter some are already using it. Definitely going into my Wish List. Will save up and get it after the wedding! Or maybe when my current BB contract ends, whichever comes first.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the first Bold to feature a touchscreen interface and it is quite possibly the best Bold ever. At 10.5mm thin, it’s definitely the thinnest Bold ever. In fact, the 9900 is the thinnest and most powerful smartphone BlackBerry has ever produced with a much improved BlackBerry 7 OS, a 1GHz processor, 8GB of on-board memory, NFC support and a 5MP camera with 720p video recording capability that’s the best we’ve seen on a BlackBerry device. (http://www.soyacincau.com)

The happy Van

Not so happy but still definitely is a VAN! We made a trip to Miri from KK on Monday using this van to bring over all my boxes of wedding stuff we've bought. We couldn't use flights to carry them over all at once. Actually we can, but the overweight charges would be good enough to buy myself a new plane. We can't really use a forwarding company because most of the things are fragile, everything might arrived shattered in pieces.

The van was surprising comfortable (or I'm just too Sakai). Came back on Tuesday. The trip was really short because we had to rent this Van and rental is quite pricey. Plus, my brother had to work and we'd be in Miri again this Sunday anyway for Hari Raya.

The journey was about 8 hours per trip so the past two days, 16 hours of my life was spent on the road! Glad I had my pillows with me.