Now, I can finally make my announcement that we had finalized and made a proper decision both me and my fiance. No doubt, I am actually feeling better and feeling glad that we made the decision to switch our wedding vendor. I am proud to say that Kak Nyta & Abang Shaiful has done a great job and they are being so considerate to us. Mind you, the Vintage theme Decor is not that cheap. It is actually priced at S$6688! However, they have really helped us a lot by lowering the price and to meet our expectations! I couldn't ask for more.

As you scroll down the photos, the vintage wedding theme done by them was surprisingly pleasant looking to me. It is really what we had in mind. Simple. Not much props and clean cut! I'm loving it!

The dais is about 24 feet long and if it didn't fill up the stage, we had an idea in mind to put potted plants by the sides. I didn't thought of this until my fiance came out with this question last night when we were discussing with Abang Shaiful.







 I am also loving these hanging lanterns instead of having chandeliers or fresh flowers again! It is kind of modern to me! Unfortunately, since the ceilings of the CC is high, we are not able to hang on the lanterns all over the place. This one, we will have to figure out. But, Abang Shaiful actually convinced us that he will try to fix the lanterns as well by the sides or somewhere which we are actually quite pleased by his words at least he puts in effort for my fiance was a bit skeptical of not having the lanterns cause he expects the best in our wedding!

And the most that I am actually excited about is the Chiavari Chairs. These chairs are actually inclusive in the package as well and that is one of the main reasons why I signed up with them well, at least now I do not have nightmares anymore. Haha. And again, my fiance really does have a good tastes. I actually didn't thought of having GOLD chiavari chairs cause the one in the packages are all WHITE Chiavari chairs. So the moment when we came to their office, we were seated on the gold chiavari chairs and I asked a question to my fiance. What does he think of these GOLD Chiavari Chairs and he answered me with 'Of course I want gold chiavari chairs for the wedding!' Haha! See, my fiance knows what exactly he wants so I followed to what he says.  Look at how amazing these gold chiavari chairs looks on these photos? Awesome!

Lastly, we have picked a colour choice for our table skirtings. The colour is Taupe similar to the colour of the photo above. Something different and it matches the whole rustic vintage theme plus the gold chiavari chairs. I am more than excited to see the whole plan 6 months before our event day. Insyallah! We just have to add on pastel coloured flowers for the centerpiece to make the whole table setting stand out! For now, I can stop looking at these photos already! Haha

My fiance told me that his mum is worried over this if we are doing by ourselves again just like our engagement because she will need to do some research for ideas. However, after contemplating that ideas, I told myself why not, we let someone else who has better hands on this do the job? I also do not want our mums to go through all the hassle and then when the time comes, they will all be kelam kabut for last minute preparations and I also do not want them feeling tired on the event day cause it is a special day for them too.

I met with a deal months back in June with Bonito by Bob at a cheap package of $250 for 10 awesomely looking trays! But my luck was not with them because we delayed in all of our plans cause we are so caught up with our work schedules with so many things happened along the way until they are closed for 2014 bookings. Then we realized how crucial it is to find vendors for our gubahans. Again, my fiance will always be the one who keeps on reminding me to narrow down my over-the-moon ideas of having extravagant designs on my trays and stick with being average which to me, it is something to ponder. I mean, of course firstly, you have to look at your budget. Secondly, no one is gonna be so bothered to gaze at our trays for the whole day.

So we began our research for about a week comparing prices with different vendors. And we were exceptionally pleased by the work done by our vendor, Ribbons & Ties.


I especially like these trays because it really matches our wedding theme! Rustic Vintage! It was a relief for us to finally managed to strike off this from our wedding lists so we do not have to pening kepala and his mum also do not need to be worried over this. The package that we signed up for includes 6 designed trays and 2 empty trays/carts for bunga rampai. So all in all we've got 8 trays for each sides at a reasonable price. I am so excited!

I am pretty skeptical about having Decorama as my wedding vendor. At first, I was really pleased by their simple yet pretty dias and the price was reasonable for me. But now, I feel that I made the wrong decision. I know it was my fault for not making a wise decision at that point of time. And, also, my fiance was not there when I signed up with them. I was naive to think that the vendor will be able to deliver what I want as a dream wedding. No regrets cause I pretty much like my new wedding vendor now.

So, what made me did the decision to cancel Decorama?

Firstly, I was spying on them on FB for quite sometime. Everything seems like a template to me. It is just the same dias everytime that I see on every other week on a different wedding occasion. And, I got bored of it. I waited for quite a while giving a chance to myself telling myself not to lose hope and I see no difference. They simply didn't come out with something new. I know that Decorama was one of the popular vendors back then but now, I feel that there are many more competitors out there. I will not reveal who is my new wedding vendor until next week when I meet up with them so stay tuned for the updates!

Apart from looking good and fab and having the nicest themed wedding decor on your big day,  of course the food and desserts served by your wedding caterer must be satisfying too! To me, I must say that this is really the most important above all the wedding vendors as the delicacies will be for your guests and we do not want people to come and comment on the food itself. For us, orang makan sampai perot kenyang tambah dua tiga kali, me and fiance pun happy! We do not want our guests, especially our close relatives leaving the place not feeling satisfied or comment on the quality of food. After all, it is a majlis and every guests are looking forward to eat nasi minyak. Bukan selalu kan dapat makan nasi minyak.

Anyway, anxious enough who is my wedding caterer? It will be none other than my makcik sedara from Zainab & Family Catering Services. I call her Cik Enab. Cik Enab has been cooking for weddings & events for over more than 10 years. So i trust she will do her best for me. It was not a difficult decision to make as this decision was made by myself on my engagement day itself. Super fast la! I already thought to myself when my cousin who is getting married next year in June came to for my engagement, she told me that she booked Cik Enab for her wedding and my mind terus keluar banyak bubbles already. I still remember that most of my cousins actually booked Cik Enab for their weddings and I still remember the Sambal Goreng is superb! Of course, before we booked, I have to ask my fiance's parents first.

His parents wanted to go for the other caterer which charges $8/pax. However, the makanan is just normal tasting. Charges is really cheap as Cik Enab's charges $9.50/pax. So after our short discussion with his parents, we decided to take Cik Enab as first, we can trust her cooking, we ever tasted her cooking yang power and being generous she will give us 10 different desserts instead of just 4 types which is in the package! I am so happy and thankful for that! Now that we settled for the caterer, we felt so much relief. We will be going for food tasting this 27th October. I promise I will upload some pics of the food to let you be the judge of the presentation.

Anyway, I am not fretful over this as for me, if the food tastes good, I am okay with it. It's not easy to get a trustful caterer that charges $9.50 per pax. Nowadays the charges will range from $12 to $15 or even as high as $17 per pax which is for me, way over our budget already just for good food. So Alhamdulillah, if anyone who is interested can drop me a mail!

Love, Hil.

Anyone who has bought a unit at Hougang Parkegde? Then, you will be our neighbour!
We applied online for a BTO at Hougang Parkegde in January. At first, we were a little confused on how to apply online because it seems that there are too many steps to follow and we are not sure which one to start of with. Kata first time applicant kan.. We wanted to go down to HDB to make the selection but, thanks to my fiance's friend who guided him.

Two days before our Engagement Day on 12th April 2013 we had our first appointment with HDB. Nasib baik i'm on leave that week maklumlah nak tunang...nak kena buat last minute preparation...haha. So, our appointment was lambat gila in the evening at 5:25pm. I know that they will leave me with not much choices. And I think we were one of the last few to make the selection. I prayed that Allah will give me a unit at 473A which is facing Punggol Park because that is one of the reasons why we wanted Parkedge.

As I sat with my fiance waiting for our turn, I quickly just looked through the availability of the units on my ipad. And I was stunned because most of the units are booked! BUT.... I feel so lucky to get a unit that we wanted and without hesitation we quickly signed. My fiance always wanted lower floors but I told him that to get a better view of Punggol Park, we will need to stay on higher floors so that the trees won't be blocking our view. I wanted a unit on the 5th Floor at first but, it was booked already hence, we were left with no options but to choose 2nd, 3rd or 4th floor of Block 473A. So, I recalled my mum saying do not take 4th Floor because it is difficult to sell as the no '4' means something bad in Chinese. So, we both decided on Block 473A, #03-319. Not so high and also not that low and we will still have a view of Punggol Park!


The Block on the right is Block 473A. Unit #317 which is at the right corner is what I wanted initially but again, it was booked on the third floor so Unit #319 is our choice which is right next to them!




As you can see on the above picture, the carpark is just located behind of our flat! And, looking at the site map, they will set up a childcare centre just below our void deck. So, there will be someone who can take care of our kids while we are at work!


So again, I am talking about convenience. It is not only about the wind facing punggol park view or the childcare. We have other options like punggol, yishun and some other places but we settled for Hougang Parkedge because it is near to our parent's homes and we do not want to be deserted at one end. We are already familiar with Hougang and insyAllah if we have children, we can ask our parents to take care of the kids instead of wasting money to put our kids in school when they are still young. We also wanted Hougang cause it is more Centralized compared to Punggol so that we can get to our workplace without a hassle. KPE is just 5 mins drive from my home and 15 mins ride to his workplace.

The completion date will be in May 2016! I'm hoping that we will get our home very very soon!

Assalamualaikum to all!

The most important that we were planning about is the venue for our combined wedding. Oh yes, my wedding will be combined! Why combined? Holding one wedding itself is about almost 23k. Imagine if we have separate wedding venues? 23,000 x 2 = 46k? I can pengsan. Or maybe budget ones will be 30k for both but food not nice, decor also not nice and not satisfying. But then of course, to some couples, they don't mind as this is only once in a lifetime event they can splurge all they want. Honestly, it depends on your capabilities and whether you want your wedding to be grand or simple.

I am not the type of cerewet girl who wants every thing to go my way. Yes, girls and our fantasy of having our dream wedding. It's so true that we girls love it but, for me this is reality! I would love to have my wedding by the beach but i don't think it is necessary for just a one day event! I always told my fiance, that I'd rather spend all those money to go on a honeymoon at a romantic place! right right right?
So, since we will be holding a one day event. Nikah + sanding. And we are expecting a large number of guests coming from both sides. We decided to hold our event at the Serangoon CC.


I love how colorful it is from the outside! Why we chose The Serangoon CC?
Convenience. It is located in the middle of my fiance's and my house. The only thing is that we are not able to do cooking in CC. So, we will need to rent one of the void decks nearby the CC. Otherwise, my fiance's void deck the cooking has to be done cause his house is nearer. But, I really hope that we can do it under the void deck nearby cause it saves a lot of money for transportation.

We surveyed the place, the stage and the backstage last month and I feel that the hall is quite spacious. We felt that the hall is big enough for our guests and the facilities looked brand new! That means, the air con will still feel cold for the comfort of our guests.

So this is what it looks like outside the hall. Everything will be covered except the side doors. And during the time when me and my fiance will come in with kompang the middle door will be lifted up. I guess, that how it usually works.

Anyway, we are still deciding where should we nikah? Since, Al-Istiqamah Mosque is beside the CC. We were also thinking if we should nikah in the CC since we booked that place from 930am -930pm might as well we make use of the whole place for a full day right? Still deciding not confirmed. Even if we do not nikah at Al-Istiqamah, the convenience of our guests who wants to do sholat can always walk over to the mosque.

All in all we were actually pleased with the decision made! And, my fiance booked it immediately when we got the approval from the management and I believe, this is the only CC that I know can make booking way in advance!  If i'm not wrong the rest of the CC can only book 6 months in advance. Now, I feel relief!

Why?
Because I love him so much and he loves me too. Well, is the answer good enough? lol
The fact that we were so used to each other, we have known each other in and out and we have learned from our mistakes these 7 years. We are not a perfect couple. Even until now, I must admit that we still fight, argue over the simplest things. But we know deep down inside, that we belong and need each other to make things workout between us. I have also learned to solve things maturely from the past instead of making a decision without weighing what is the problem and called off the relationship. That is the most stupid decision to make without even thinking of the risk you're taking. The obstacles that we have gone through made us realise how important he is to me and I am to him and how we can't replace our partner with someone else. The fights that we had, solved the problem. If not because of the fights, we wouldn't realise what our partner needs in a relationship. From there, you learn to become a better person. It is not only your partner will change but you yourself will change to understand about him or herself.  Love is really like a fairytale but this is a real fairytale.

Secondly, it is because we are both getting old. Lol. It is partly because of that and it is largely because we wanted to take a step forward because we believe we will be happier being together and we want to make babies and thirdly, our parents keep on asking over and over again 'bile korang nak kawin?'

So yes, I promised that I will link up my new blog here! So here goes, my new blog about my love story, Kahwin In Action! You may view my updates about my wedding on this blog http://kahwininaction.wordpress.com/ !

Hil