My Engagement : The Preparation

Okay.. how do I even start?

I'm married now and I still haven't posted anything about my engagement preparation like I promised in my previous post. Not even gonna try to explain myself this time.

So here goes.... the long delayed post. 

My engagement preparation was simple and not that hectic. Everything was smooth sailing; from the dais to the hantaran, the catering to the dress... everything was how I imagined it to be. I didn't want an extravagant ceremony, just a small gathering for family and close friends. There are several important things to decide on before the engagement :

1. Venue 

I chose my house because it's the most convenient place for a small group of people.

2. Guests 

This links to the first item, which is the venue. I made sure the number of guests suits the area of my house so it won't be too crowded during the ceremony.

3. Catering 

I think food for the guests is one of the most important part of any event. I hired someone who my family trusts and they have done so many events for my whole family. So we know their food is amazing. If you want to try my catering, you can check out their Facebook : One Adnor Catering

4. Theme

Decide on what color theme you and your family can agree on so everyone can wear the same color. Some people prefer to have different colors for the bride to be and the family but as for me, I decided to have the same color as my family, which is grey. You can never go wrong with grey!

5. Door gifts

My door gift was a simple one. Just butter cookies that are shaped like an engagement ring. It was so pretty, so sayang to give out to people! Haha. My aunt is a baker so I hired her to make the cookies. I took inspiration from a picture that I found on Pinterest :

And I would say mine turned out pretty much the same with the inspiration picture. I have to credit my aunt for doing such a good job. It even tasted good!

6. Dress

I think this is most girls' favorite part. Not for me though. I am not the kind of person who likes to browse what design I should do and what not. So this is the hardest part I had to do. I decided to just rent a grey dress and everything will be settled. Who knew people don't wear GREY on their weddings or engagements??? Grey dress is so hard to find okay! 

So like it or not, I had to buy the grey material and made a custom made dress (something that I told Amin that I would never do for the engagement because I didn't want to spend so much for the engagement). When I told Amin that I need to buy the material, he kept quite but his face says it all. I was so close to punching his "I knew it" face. Pfffft.

7. Dais

I decided to not spend so much on dais but dais are so expensive. If you can find one that's below RM1k, you're lucky enough. I'm one of the lucky ones because I managed to find someone on Instagram who charges only RM180 - RM550. For an engagement, that range make sense to me.

 Mine is from @buaianberendoihzc on Instagram

8. Hantaran

Hantaran can be confusing. So I did so much research before deciding on the hantarans.  Based on my research, the number of dulang should be odd numbers and the girl should give additional 2 dulangs more than the amount of dulangs the guy gives. For example, Amin gave me 5 dulangs for our engagement, so I gave him 7. 

My hantaran to Amin

Amin's hantaran to me. I love the colors they used!

What you want to put on your dulangs is another story. As for me, it wasn't  that hard because both my parents are from Perak and our tradition is the dulangs for an engagement are only food, except for the material for our solemnization ceremony and sirih junjung. Everything else was food. I don't know about other states, but basically in Perak, that's how we do it. 

9. Make Up

Ahh, every girls' worry. As for me, I didn't have to worry because I never trust any other make up artists other than my good friend, Noor. Her touch blends in with my face so well that I couldn't deny how good I look every time she touches my face. Haha. If you are looking for a good make up artist and doesn't cost a bomb, you can check out her Instagram : @athirah3110

10. Hand Bouquet

This is something I had problems with. Initially, I didn't want to have hand bouquet because I simply don't like them. I don't like flowers generally (except for hydrangeas though), so to have flowers in my hands the whole ceremony just made me cringe. I told my Mom about it and she was okay at first. But on the day itself, I found out she went to the florist to pick up the hand bouquet that she ordered like a few days before the ceremony. Pfffttt Mom is so sneaky when it comes to having her way. I still thanked my Mom though because if I didn't have the baby breaths in my hands on that day, the pictures wouldn't turn out that great. Which brings us to the next and last item!

11. Photography/Videography

Honestly speaking, although I love posting my ootds on Instagram, I don't really know how to judge a picture when it comes to professional photography. Whether the lighting is good or whether this photographer knows how to edit or not. I have zero knowledge in this area and this is the reason why I don't really care about who takes the pictures on my engagement day. I know most people really think this is the most important thing, especially on one of the most important day of your life but I see it as just something I should have at my engagement but I'm not that fussy about how the pictures will turn out. However, my pictures turned out fine. My photographer on that day was Fydo. You can check his Instagram here : @fydography

These are some of the pictures Fydo took of us. I love these picture of Amin and I. You don't usually see us being this sweet. Haha.

By the end of the day, I was happy and content with everything on that day. Except the fact that I have a site visit at 7am to 7pm the day after. I was basically a zombie the whole day at the site visit, even when I had 3 cups of coffee. Zzzz.

Getting Engaged to the Love of My Life

I'm pretty sure most of you know this but to those who don't, I'm officially engaged to Amin. Remember him in this post?

I got engaged in April, so that's like 5 months ago but I left my blog for so long that I always procrastinate writing a post because truth be told, I think I've lost the ability to write. Everyone can write but a few can write an interesting post. And I think I've done a pretty good job in the past (self praise is no praise, I'm aware haha but I'm just saying I can at least get some of you to read my blog in the past, so that must mean something...) but then I don't know what happened. When I logged in my blogger account and clicked on the "new post" tab, I blanked. I couldn't write a single sentence!

However, I think I'm slowly getting back on track now. Hence why I'm updating you guys on my engagement! My blog readers have been here since the first day, so you guys definitely deserve an update. This post will be solely about the man I agreed to and how it all started. The preparation and the day itself on the other hand will be in separate posts because they all deserve their own posts. 

Amin was a friend whom I always see as friendly, funny, talkative, very helpful and can be friends with everyone (which brings out the jealous side of me multiple times. Hehe). Never have I expected that he'd be this important to me, that he'll be the love of my life and my future husband. Alhamdulillah, I am so grateful that Allah blessed me with a guy like him because he can guide me and complements me like no one ever could. I've been in love before but not even one person has made me feel the way Amin does. It just feels easy with him, like everything is smooth and there's just no dramas with him. I also find myself respecting him and that means a lot if you know me. It's not like I don't respect people, but I tend to overrule my partner in my past relationship. I know it's not good but I still did it anyway and I realized that I was such a bad girlfriend. I don't know why and how to explain, but with other guys, I don't feel like they can guide me.

It all started so sudden with Amin. We were just a couple of friends, only saw each other when our group decided to hang out. We never really had time alone, always surrounded by our group of friends. So I don't really know why or how this friendship was triggered into something more than just friends. But what I remembered is that Amin asked me out casually one day but I turned him down. Wasn't proud of it but I used to be this career oriented girl, where I only think about my work and nothing else. I guess that was how I got over my previous relationship; by working my head off. I wake up at 4am every weekday, drove to office by 6am and work until like 8pm or 9pm. That was my daily routine. On weekends on the other hand, I had exhibitions most of the weekends so that means I work from morning till night on weekends too. My dad told me once that I had no life, no friends. I also had this principle which I still hold on to, never go out alone with a guy if you are not interested in the guy. Well, I didn't even give my mind or heart to think about how I feel about this guy and I turned him down because my priority was my job, job and job.

After that "rejection", Amin kept on texting me telling me things about his interests, his daily life and his family. At first I wasn't interested, to be honest. I was not thinking too much about it and only reply when I had the time to actually sit down and go through my messages on my phone, which was usually close to midnight when I was about to go to sleep.

And then, one day. he asked me out again. I already tendered my resignation to my MD by that time and was feeling carefree. So I decided to consider it. By "consider" I mean asking people whether or not I should say yes to this date. There was just something about the way he asked this time that made me feel like I needed to say yes. He actually asked properly instead of his first "Where are you now? I'm at The Curve. Let's hang out". This time, he was way more proper and direct with "Are you free next week? I wanna bring you out on a proper date". I did NOT melt with his words, mind you. I was taken aback with how direct he was. So I asked some of my close friends whether I should say yes and most said yes with the reason "You work all the freaking time. We hardly see you have fun and be happy anymore after your ex. Doesn't hurt to try." By this time, I was 80% sure I would say yes.

I knew my Mom would be the answer to all this doubt. So I asked my Mom. She said I should just try to  go on this date to see if he's really genuine about wanting to know me better. I always believe mothers know best. And I was damn right about trusting my mom's instinct.

It's been almost two years and Amin never fails to make me laugh. Every single time. Even when I am upset about him or something else, he always managed to make me laugh. And that is what matters to me. A guy who completes me, who can guide me, keeps me grounded, keeps reminding me about the real world and brings out the best in me. I am so grateful that Allah has crossed our paths.

Now we are engaged and getting married in less than two months.

I'm so nervous, excited, anxious and everything else I cannot even put in words.

May Allah ease this journey for us, InsyaAllah.

This is such a sappy post but I couldn't help myself. My engagement preparations will be in the next engagement post and I promise you that post will be more cheerful than this one. Stay tuned!