and the countdown begins!

my wedding, my way.

forgive me, but i have always been headstrong, stubborn, loves the spotlight, spoilt and did i mention stubborn?

anyway, being a bride to be allows me to be all of the above, without a conscience hehe. i can throw bitch fits (ie be a bridezilla), make people do things my way or the highway and not have to feel guilty for the pleasure of knowing that on my big day, all the attention will be on me, me, me!

i know people say a wedding needs a bride & groom. banar plg.. but when u get down to it, do u ever actually bother checking out the groom's shoes? what you really look for is what the bride is wearing, her make up, her shoes, her accessories. so really, a bride has the license to go all out =D

anyhoo, i've had my share of bridezilla-ing tho i'm a bit complacent at the moment. all thats left to do is to get down with my designer at Lauren (i will make sure we come to a final design this sunday!!) and uruskan my honeymoon ie tickets and hotel.

just finished finalising my jemputan draft this evening, too. took me and parents 2 nites, over an hour each nite. believe me, my brothers are lucky i'm getting married before them. i doubt they'd want to sit down and go through each name and spelling and order of the wakil berharap names. at least now they can just nick the list off of me hehe.

cant believe its less than two months now! actually, i've picked up my baju nikah and baju berambil-ambilan on tuesday! i feel like putting it on whenever i open my closet and see the hanger bag! hee.

thats all for updates, to dearest kaka amal, hows renal?

much love,
Rabi'a xoxo

lotsa green and orange

remember how i said i have a colour coded list? its like a traffic light system, green means fully paid, orange (because yellow doesn't stand out against white) means deposit paid and red means "haven't paid but need to look into asap".

happy to say that at this point, just over 2 months to go, there are lots of green and orange on the list. more in orange but certain things i prefer not to pay full until i get the items.. like pelamin or flowers.

the greens are mostly clothing or hantaran. theres a few minor decisions that i haven't made up my mind yet.. like do i need a tiara for my nikah and the exact style for my baju bersanding. then theres the guest list. i havent even started printing names.. putting down names of colleagues does not count.

but alhamdulillah, i can count whats left to do on TWO hands! all the doorgifts for the events are being managed by my parents and they've more or less figured out what to give for each event. i have yet to finalise the draft for my invitation because we're a bit unsure as to who should and should not be included in the 'wakil berharap' list.. but colour scheme for invitations and gifts are finalised so that one worry off the list. also, dates for all the events have been confirmed and we've started wrapping the gifts for orang membadaki. whee~

actually, we haven't touched on catering. i mean, food for bersanding is more or less figured out 'cause it comes with the place w'ere renting, whats left is to figure out what food to serve, which means food tasting! but for berbedak and nikah.. its pretty much nothing. my mum keeps mentioning this one particular caterer and my dad just keeps saying what kind of tent he wants for the day.

but then, i'll worry about that once my parents decide on which caterer to use.

now the bridal room. i've bought the bedding which i'll be using, also have decided on what colour/material to be used for curtains. we're leaving for Tutong tonite and the ppl from Haska which be coming over to measure up the windows and also the walls for wallpaper. to be honest, i havent really decided on using wallpaper or whether i'd just paint over the pink, but mum mentioned that i can get my dad to pay for the wallpaper as a wedding gift so thats one idea =)

now, have i left out anything? can't really think of anything now. plus tomorrow will be my first day back to work after a long luxurious 2 weeks holiday and i'm a bit nervous because i havent been able to check my emails regularly.. i just hope i haven't missed out much.

oh one thing not wedding related but definitely a must is the honeymoon! you know what i realise? as someone who is getting married in 2 months time, i get people asking hows the preps etc etc. but i notice this stark difference between what the men and women ask.

the women ask have i got a make up artist. where will i be doing the invitations. where am i renting the pelamin.

the men ask where will we be having our honeymoon -.-

i mean, i don't know if thats the general consensus or it just so happens that the men friends in my life are bold enough to ask that question. bear in mind that these men are my fiance's friends. the question was posed to us 3 times in a day.

anyhoo, that aside, everything seems to be smooth sailing, alhamdulillah.

by next post, maybe i'd have wrapped all the berbedak gifts and have something done to my room.

much love,
rabi'a xoxo

gorgeous songket

i think i should blog more often. the more i say a certain thing needs to be done, voila esuknya ada tia hehe.

like how in the last last post i said i cudnt find a matching tudong, found it the next day. the last post, how i said the songket for my skirt wasnt ready and just the very next day my mum told me she's already picked it up. ran downstairs to see it and it is as gorgeous as can be.

hee now all thats left to do about the bersanding outfit is to make it into wearable pieces! i've texted Trudie (of Lauren boutique in kiulap) who's currently in Singapore. she said she'll be back by the 26th(which is a saturday) so i made an appointment with her the very next day. can't dilly dally anymore.

cant wait to see the final product! also, i made another top at Aaliah Asmara just because. hehe. theres tons of weddings to go to this year so i need to to look my best. gotta represent the husband. hehe.

much love,
rabi'a xoxo

i spoke too soon.

only yesterday i complained about the difficulties of finding the right shade of [the colour i'm wearing for bersanding] and today alhamdulillah i found the right colour!

yayyyy much! yesterday i went to hokko kiarong to look for the shade so today i thought i'd give a try at the kiulap branch. not only do they have the most perfect colour in kain kasa rubia, they also had a gorgeous net material in the utmost perfect matching gorgeous shade, with sparkles!

hello long-enough-for-3-bridesmaids-to-carry veil!

hehe. essentially my outfit for bersanding is about 90% percent ready, the 10% being tailoring and also the songket for my skirt, which is still on the handloom (i believe).

so in terms of timeframe, its looking good.

an issue i need to worry about tho, is my room. still no curtains, no new cadar, no new paint/wallpaper. i changed my mind again abt the colour scheme because my floor is a peachy/pink shade.. so that leaves me with all pastel colours of the rainbow.

i believe if i didnt do art for A levels, i'd just have the basic primary colours to look to but as it is, when i say i want 'cream', there light gold, latte, taupe, rose, blush, ivory.

other than 'the room', i'm happy to say i'm pretty much done with the checklist. of course theres still deciding on a pelamin design and the colour scheme for my invites, but i can leave that until march =D

much love,
be'ah xoxo

colour coding

i spent over 2 months agonizing over what colour to wear for my bersanding. my mum had cream in mind. i rollercoastered between turquoise, purple, pink, red and white.

after finally deciding on a colour; another dilemma ensues. picking out the colours for my songket. so i was told i could choose up to 4 colours, sans background. i already decided on a main colour, now i gotta choose the colours for the songket design?

oh, not to mention that i had to first deside on which design i wanted to use. then, i had to decide on the pakan colour, which is the underlying thread in the background. typical, the colours are either gold or silver. its what gives the songket its sheen. but i was told that i didnt have to limit myself to gold or silver, i can choose any colour of the rainbow just as long as its metallic.

now if you're still with me, this would mean i'd have to choose up to 5 colours. thank god the main colour was decided.

there was a lot of nitpicking. see, once a songket is made, thats that. sure they give you strips of samples, but u cant really see how gorgeous a colour combo is when its just on a 4 inch strip. all i knew was that i definitely didnt want gold in my songket. i have this aversion to gold that is quite unsensible, in my mum's words. she would tell me to have a bit of amas untuk naikkan seri songket. but noo.. wasnt having any gold touch the songket. not letting any gold watsover touch my jewelry, tiara or pelamin.

the irony of it all is that i'll be getting married in the royal bershire hall, the one place which is simply decked in gold. haish!

back to the songket story. so no gold.. that left me with.. a million other choices. the fiance (then boyfriend) was quite sweet as he didnt mind any colour. but then that kind of didnt help because it didnt narrow down any colours.. but in the end i settled for soft pastel springy colours. which i actually chose coincidentally, ie not because the wedding was going to be in spring. brunei doesnt have the four seasons anyhow.

so there. i though abt the colour combos for abt 4 weeks, actually went researching for springy colour combinations, what looks good on asian skin, etc etc. i definitely did my homework.

2 months later, the 6 metres for my top, his trousers and top (my skirt and his sinjang were done separately) finally was ready for pick up. i wanted to wait for the songket for my skirt before sending it off but mum said i shud send what i have now because it may be too late if i wait.

happy to say i found a tailor i like. modern chic design, nothing too fancy or overbearing on my small frame and definitely nothing too modern for the conservative grown ups hehe. but now im faced with another dilemma.

after months and months of choosing a colour, now i find it difficult to find the matching colour for the tudong!

so much for being different.. however, i still have a bit over 2 months to find the tudong. wish me muchos luck!

much love,
be'ah xoxo