Wedding: In a Nutshell part 2

2 days after my berbedak i had the most important event of the wedding; my akad nikah! hehe afterall, there is no wedding without an akad nikah.

i am still madly in love with my nikah dress. i've said it before and i will say it again. that dress was simply divine, luscious, beautiful amazing and just to die for!! =) im am ever grateful to Aaliah Asmara for designing the dress and equally grateful to my aunt who sponsored the vintage lace for the dress =D i cant count how many compliments i got for the dress! not counting the complaints from a few elders who thought the dress was too tight/see-thru/too long. well, you can't make everyone happy.

the most important person at the event (besides the bride, of course) loved the dress which was the whole point of driving up and down to KB to make the dress. if you can't guess, i mean my husband. i'll be honest, sometimes what i think is lawa on a baju isn't what he likes so i was really glad he liked what i was wearing that day.

that friday morning 22nd april 2011 was the first and only time i was dressed in proper pengantin gear at home ie in a while baju kurung and gold bangles on my ankles (previous i was just dressed in any old t shirt/stretch pants like i normally do). ppl were coming over early to help out and altho everyone was busy, i didn't feel any nerves at all up until i knew the groom had arrived hehe.

anyhow, just before lunch my aunt, who did the tenunan for my sanding, came over with a few sinjangs and told me to choose one so that i can add in to my balasan hantaran. i was torn between 2 and in the end she simplye told me to take both of them! i mean, these songkets do not come cheap so alhamdulillah for my rezeki that day.

things started to get hectic for me when it was time to get dressed. a few things happened at once; i needed to arrange the singjangs on a gangsa to make it part of the original 8 set of my balasan, the train on my dress needed ironing and my tudong was a bit see thru under the sun which required an extra underscarf.

again, my bridesmaids stepped in to save the day, all in the span it took for my make up to be done. somehow the 3 of them managed to organize themselves and by the time my face was done (which didnt take long because my MUA is talented like that hehe), my train was ironed, the sinjang was arranged on a gangsa and looked like it was part of the original set (which was done professionally i might add, so kudos to whichever bridesmaid did it) and pins were found for my tudong. can you believe i overlooked pins? pins! for my tudong! always the little little things..

anyway, once i was in the dress, pulled, tugged and buttoned on by the bridesmaids, tudong on, tiara pinned, veil on.. i was a picture perfect bride, all dressed in white. seriously, it was such a surreal feeling, on my berbedak, i felt very princess-y but during the nikah, it was all so grown up and so real! it was also when i started feeling the nerves! my cousin who was on skype was saying things like 'omgd rabz lawaaaa! inda kau nervous??' and things like that that i made her put on mute =s my bad.. but she wasnt helping my nerves then hee.

since my train was long and my shoes weren't tall enough, i had difficulty managing the stairs but my bridesmaids were so well trained that nobody slipped or fell. and may i also add that one bridesmiad was holding a laptop so that my cousin (on skype) could see the whole event? how awesome is that?

so i got seated on the huge square cushion made out of red jongsarat. let me tell u (and most of u prolly know/agree) that i am not one to sit still for a length of time. i tend to jingle my feet, tap my fingers or shift my body whenever i do have to stay in one place for a period of time. this case, however, i did not have that option.. unless i wanted to be known as an iski bride.. or something rude along those lines. then there was the corset of the dress, which made me sit up straight but in essence gave me limited movement.. so while i was sitting there and my dad read the khutbah and my then-fiance read his vows (yess my dad gave me away, no passing me to another wali to do the job! hehe), having to breathe in and out because i was nervous.. my left foot fell asleep.

it was really the worst case of pins and needles. i could hardly stand up and when i tried to walk (after we were pronounced husband and wife), i almost fell and had to grab hold of my brother's arm for support. due to that, i unfortunately didnt make the rounds to salam everyone and one genius bridemaid made me just stand on one spot so that guests could come and see me instead.

alhamdulillah the whole nikah thing came and went without a hitch. there were minor things like how my husband was made to wear a dastar by his family when we specifically wanted a songkok, but then it wasnt too bad and he did have his songkok in the car so during the photo session he just changed hats hee.

the photo session took forever.. i was tired but i didnt wanna stop because a) the photographers were pricey and b) i didnt knw when else i was gonna wear the dress so i wanted to get as many pictures as possible of me in the dress! in the end, the photogs finished just after maghrib and also new husband stayed until abt 8 plus! hee

he also came over the day after. no pantangs or pengangun can stop us! afterall, we were already husband and wife, nda kan d larang be jumpa, rite? i will never understand why some penganguns and even some parents dont allow the bride and groom to see eachother before their bersanding.

anyhoo, tis all for part 2 =)

much love,
rabi'a xoxo

The Wedding: In a Nutshell part 1

i know i've been MIA for quite some time and i privatised this blog for a while but now that my husband's out to work, i need an outlet to vent and basically share anything that i forget telling him (because i am super forgetful).

so the last post says it was 4 more days to my wedding.. and today i've been married for 22 days! just over a week and then i'll be a 1 month old newly-wed.

so in order than i dont forget the crucials of my wedding, im going to lay it all out here, in brief (i hope! tho knowing me.. i tend to go on and on and on..)

this will be done in parts because there's a whole load that i wanna cover, even tho i say im being brief. so bear with me cause i wanna be able to read this post 20 years from now.

my first event was my berbedak which was held on the 22nd april 2011, on a week night no less. needless to say, what with the long commute to tutong and early working hrs the next day, non of my colleagues or friends could make it =(

however, i had my posse of bridesmaids. i know i've mentioned in previous posts how lucky i am to have them and how awesome and helpful they are, but my berbedak really pushed them in bridesmaid duties. how? read on..

my berbedak gear was on loan from a grandaunt, so it was proper authentic gold. however, my grandaunt did not have the 'bunga kertas' as part of her set so when my MUA was setting me up, she had to modify the headgear a bit so that my hair was cover. i had only one garland of fresh white orchids.. but being a very talented MUA, she pulled off the challenge effortlessly. i remember almost wanting to cry since my berbedak things were incomplete. 2 bridesmaids had to go off to Hua Ho to find some special paper just to make last minute flowers but i called tehm to come back (just as they reach hua ho, too!) when i thought i can get away without the full set.

then in walked my grandaunt, the one who owned the berbedak gear. now as an intro, this particular grandaunt is know as bossy, laser and pemarah in the family albeit we all know she is a very kind and sincere loving woman. she saw how the berbedak things were on me, and was immediately in a flurry of words and instructions and my poor make up artist was left speechless. she took off ALL the berbedak gear on my head and redid the whole thing in a matter of minutes in the proper old fashioned way.

now if you've noticed, the new way of putting on the berbedak gear is in such a way so that the bride won't be in so much pain the whole night. how my grandaunt put in on was the old original way, which hurt like h*ll. oh and my fresh garland of orchids? ruined!

my grandaunt made all 3 of my bridesmaids make the 'bunga kertas' from scratch using tissue paper, scissors, a thread and a needle. they made 2 garlands of the 'bunga kertas' and my grandaunt finished making me up, all in less than 40 minutes. there was so much activity in the room that my cousin, who was in australia and on skype, had to be cut off abruptly. my bridesmaids were flustered from cutting tissue paper and threading but i am grateful that they carried out they bridesmaid duties diligently.. i swear without them, that night would have been a disaster.

in the end, all the fuss and reconstruction of my headgear was worth it. the bunga kertas looked amazing, none of youse wudve guessed it was tissue paper if i didnt tell you. the groom's family came late as well, so the delay in redoing my head for the 2nd time didn't really make much difference.

the berbedak night was amazing despite the constant pain on my head. also, despite none of my friends being able to come, it was only then that i truly felt proud of being Bruneian, dressed in a vintage red kebaya jongsarat (my mum's which she wore for her bersanding!) and all the gold on my arms, feet and head, macam.. princess!! it was the event that i felt the most 'princess-y' and regal despite not having a groom around yet hee.

i have to say that the pain on the head is so worth it. i'd do it all over again, if i could. my berbedak, being my first official event as bride and getting all dressed up in the most regal outfit was just amazing, especially for someone like me whose been planning her wedding since eons ago! =)

anyhoo, i'll leave it there. sorry no pictures =) its all up on facebook already anyway.

much love,
rabi'a xoxo