On Saturday, 9 January 2010, we didn’t have anything to do during the day. It was a very relaxed and lazy Saturday, for us. But for the team, they had to do a lot of touch-ups especially for the table settings, pelamin and so on. I just chilled with my ehemm, husband, and relatives whilst again, munching away. The food was just too awesome. I think I had my akad nikah’s leftovers twice. It’s a wonder how I managed to fit into all my dresses for all the events because I honestly unleashed the inner monster in me right before the wedding. Comfort food, baby.
Ok ok back to the preps. When we first thought of having malam berinai, I wasn’t so keen on changing one outfit after another all night long. I knew it was going to be tiring, as I’ve witnessed plenty of ‘berinai’s before. And after a while I knew that I will end up having a bunch of fidgety guests, screaming kids and hungry (and maybe even bored?) friends. I was very difficult on this one. I didn’t want to wear anything Bollywood, Korean, Japanese, Iban, Kadazan or the likes of it. In my very, very personal opinion, if I were to wear 10 different cultural outfits, it would have no sentimental value and is of no significance to me at all. To me. If it does to you then it does to you. Even for my akad nikah I had to have something ‘sentimental’ with me. Because it is, after all, a touching and defining moment. For my akad, I had my late grandmother’s earrings on.
So I thought long and hard on what I would LOVE to wear. Something I would have FUN wearing. Something that would actually MEAN something to me. That’s how I came up with the idea of a tea ceremony. As you probably know by now, my late maternal grandmother was Chinese. Pure Penang hokkien Chinese. And I grew up with my maternal grandparents in Penang for a long time. I was of course, very very attached to them and I love them with my heart and soul. It has been three years now since she left us, but I still miss her dearly. And I know, for a fact that if she were still alive today, she would have been very very very proud of our theme. She was always so proud of her grandchildren, always ‘showing off’ her grandchildren to everyone, and always introduced herself (much to my embarrassment when I was young) to all of my friends. To my friends who have met her, they would know how cute her enthusiasm was. She would have been very happy that I’ve decided to embrace and honour her culture on my big day. She would have been the happiest person that night. And so, a tea ceremony-themed Malam Berinai it was.
The event started around 8.30 pm. I told everyone not to wear any Malay traditional outfits. They could either wear according to the tea ceremony theme or casual. I was just so happy to see some of my friends in Cheongsam! Jaja of course lah wajib pakai cheongsam because she’s half Chinese. Hehe. We got ready around 5 pm. It took quite some time to get my hair done but I absolutely love my hair and make-up that night. Sue Cantik really did well. I had an old classic fringe with chopsticks and red roses in my hair. I felt very Chinese! The cheongsam was a typical, traditional long one in gold with black and pink beads around the collar and chest. My other accessory was a furry red fan that I bought from some little shop in KLCC for 10 bucks. I bought the cheongsam off the rack as well at Ang Eng KLCC and gave it to Cosry to put on the beads. Zaki wore a Chinese-collared light brown shirt with a dragon motif on it. Also from Ang Eng. The moment I was done with hair and makeup and saw my reflection in the mirror, I knew I’ve made the right decision to proceed with the tea ceremony. No, not because I thought I looked out of this world or anything like that but because I looked very Chinese with my super red lips. Again, I would have made my grandma very proud. J
As we made our way down the stairs, the emcee played a Chinese song. It was so funny, I was trying hard not to laugh. And then the fun began. For the first session of the tea ceremony, both our parents took turns to sit at the pelamin and the bride and groom served tea to them. In return, they gave us ang pows. In a tea ceremony, the young ones will have to give tea to the elderly. Usually, the person who receives the tea will have to give something in return either in the form of ang pows or gifts. After we’re done with both our parents, it was our turn to sit at the pelamin and our younger siblings and cousins took turns to serve tea to us and we gave them ang pows. It was so much fun!! Even Dani served me tea. Hehe, even though he didn’t understand a thing but he looked so cute in his kung fu warrior outfit and ‘tocang pokok kelapa’ on his head. Each time somebody served us tea, one of the co-emcees, a Chinese lady, said some messages in Chinese. Like for example, ‘this drink is for prosperity and health’ etc because we actually have to ‘wish’ something when we serve the tea. After we were done with the tea ceremony, we went up to change for our cake-cutting outfit.
It took us about 20 minutes to change. While we were upstairs changing, the guests were entertained by our two funny emcees. We had quizzes complete with prizes while the guests were waiting. That way, hopefully, at least they had something to do instead of waiting around listlessly for me to make my way down the stairs again. My mom came up with this idea and I’ve gotta give her credit for going into the details. We came up with the questions together. Questions such as “What is Nadira’s favourite food?”, “What is the name of Zaki’s father in law?” and we even had teka teki. Itu memang kelakar. I could hear them all shouting and laughing from my room. I think they had fun. J In fact, I was afraid that they didn’t want me to come down as the teka teki questions were getting more interesting!
For our second outfit, I had no question about going English. I just had to have pictures in a dress and him in a suit and since we decided not to change outfits during my reception, malam berinai it was. After all, we had to change into a more comfortable attire for the malam berinai’s ‘after party’. I couldn’t be dancing away in a tight cheongsam right? There’s a story behind my dress. My usual, Chinese tailor in Subang made the dress for me. However, about a week before my wedding, I went to alter my cheongsam at an alteration shop in Subang Parade…and guess what I saw, an array of wedding gowns at 70% off! The final price for all the gowns was less than RM300! And some of the gowns were really extravagant, really puffy and long and kembang and all. It would have been a total waste if I didn’t get one right? So I bought one. I ended up with two dresses to wear for my second outfit.
I was adamant not to change into more than two outfits. Especially so if the third outfit was also an English gown. Pointless right? We all had a hard time choosing which dress to wear. Both beautiful in its own way, both with pros and cons, but basically, both were more or less of the same design. Haha. Up until the last hour as I was being made up for my Chinese outfit, I was still asking people which one should I wear. In the end, I wore the tailor-made one because my heart was tilting slightly more towards that dress as it was custom-made for me. Don’t get me wrong the one from the alteration shop also fitted me perfectly with no alterations needed (ha-ha pun intended) but somehow I kinda like the tailor-made one slightly better. I say slightly because it was a very tough decision to make. For my second outfit, my hair which was inititally pulled up into a bun, was let loose and tied to the side. Just the way I like it. I also put on a less striking lipstick colour for a different look. Zaki wore a velvet black suit with a shirt and black vest and gold scarf.
For our second session, there was a bersanding and merenjis ceremony for all our family members and friends. This is because they wouldn’t get the chance to merenjis during my reception due to time constraint. So we gave them all a chance to merenjis. After that, came the much anticipated part of the night – dinner! That night, we had an English dinner with roast lamb, beef, chicken, finger food and the likes of it. While we were having dinner, we were entertained by a super talented live band called Blink 2. We first saw their performance at SACC Mall and my father was impressed. We took their contact number immediately and booked them. During dessert, we had a cake-cutting ceremony at the same dome as the pulut kuning session during akad nikah. My wedding cake was a stack of bags! It was made out of real cake and we had a really hard time distributing (and trying to finish off!) the cakes. Somebody in KL did it for us so don’t ask me about the details because I don’t know who did it. The bags came with a luggage tag and our ‘logo’ was on it as well. It was really pretty. Love it.
A photography session followed suit and then came the dancing part courtesy of the live band. We danced the night away! Konon. Hehe. By that time, only family members, relatives and close friends were around so all my aunties and uncles really enjoyed themselves. We danced to joget numbers, chacha, bhangra songs and so many more. And of course ada terselit jugak poco-poco for a while. We really had fun that night. The band was so good and sedap. But Kiki (Zaki) oh Kiki…hehe…he’s not a natural dancer so him dancing with my mom was a really cute sight. *sigh* It was just so so so much fun. Berapa kali nak ulang. I’m glad we came up with the ‘dance floor’ idea. As you can see from my wedding video (if you’ve seen it), the family had fun and that’s what’s important. It’s not always about the bride and groom kan?
After everyone was too tired to dance another song, we went upstairs to continue with our photography session with Ikram Ismail. Once he was satisfied with his shots, we said goodnight and that was the end of our malam berinai. We had a long day waiting for us on Sunday. Thank God I packed our bags earlier. All in all, if my akad nikah was the most beautiful event, my malam berinai was the most fun. I’ve never experienced such an adrenaline rush as what I experienced when we were dancing, as husband and wife, for the first time that night. It was super entertaining, fun, funny and full of laughter. I felt so good and of course, happy.
My 10.01.10 fairy tale is next. I need 50 paragraphs for that one.
Ok ok back to the preps. When we first thought of having malam berinai, I wasn’t so keen on changing one outfit after another all night long. I knew it was going to be tiring, as I’ve witnessed plenty of ‘berinai’s before. And after a while I knew that I will end up having a bunch of fidgety guests, screaming kids and hungry (and maybe even bored?) friends. I was very difficult on this one. I didn’t want to wear anything Bollywood, Korean, Japanese, Iban, Kadazan or the likes of it. In my very, very personal opinion, if I were to wear 10 different cultural outfits, it would have no sentimental value and is of no significance to me at all. To me. If it does to you then it does to you. Even for my akad nikah I had to have something ‘sentimental’ with me. Because it is, after all, a touching and defining moment. For my akad, I had my late grandmother’s earrings on.
So I thought long and hard on what I would LOVE to wear. Something I would have FUN wearing. Something that would actually MEAN something to me. That’s how I came up with the idea of a tea ceremony. As you probably know by now, my late maternal grandmother was Chinese. Pure Penang hokkien Chinese. And I grew up with my maternal grandparents in Penang for a long time. I was of course, very very attached to them and I love them with my heart and soul. It has been three years now since she left us, but I still miss her dearly. And I know, for a fact that if she were still alive today, she would have been very very very proud of our theme. She was always so proud of her grandchildren, always ‘showing off’ her grandchildren to everyone, and always introduced herself (much to my embarrassment when I was young) to all of my friends. To my friends who have met her, they would know how cute her enthusiasm was. She would have been very happy that I’ve decided to embrace and honour her culture on my big day. She would have been the happiest person that night. And so, a tea ceremony-themed Malam Berinai it was.
The event started around 8.30 pm. I told everyone not to wear any Malay traditional outfits. They could either wear according to the tea ceremony theme or casual. I was just so happy to see some of my friends in Cheongsam! Jaja of course lah wajib pakai cheongsam because she’s half Chinese. Hehe. We got ready around 5 pm. It took quite some time to get my hair done but I absolutely love my hair and make-up that night. Sue Cantik really did well. I had an old classic fringe with chopsticks and red roses in my hair. I felt very Chinese! The cheongsam was a typical, traditional long one in gold with black and pink beads around the collar and chest. My other accessory was a furry red fan that I bought from some little shop in KLCC for 10 bucks. I bought the cheongsam off the rack as well at Ang Eng KLCC and gave it to Cosry to put on the beads. Zaki wore a Chinese-collared light brown shirt with a dragon motif on it. Also from Ang Eng. The moment I was done with hair and makeup and saw my reflection in the mirror, I knew I’ve made the right decision to proceed with the tea ceremony. No, not because I thought I looked out of this world or anything like that but because I looked very Chinese with my super red lips. Again, I would have made my grandma very proud. J
As we made our way down the stairs, the emcee played a Chinese song. It was so funny, I was trying hard not to laugh. And then the fun began. For the first session of the tea ceremony, both our parents took turns to sit at the pelamin and the bride and groom served tea to them. In return, they gave us ang pows. In a tea ceremony, the young ones will have to give tea to the elderly. Usually, the person who receives the tea will have to give something in return either in the form of ang pows or gifts. After we’re done with both our parents, it was our turn to sit at the pelamin and our younger siblings and cousins took turns to serve tea to us and we gave them ang pows. It was so much fun!! Even Dani served me tea. Hehe, even though he didn’t understand a thing but he looked so cute in his kung fu warrior outfit and ‘tocang pokok kelapa’ on his head. Each time somebody served us tea, one of the co-emcees, a Chinese lady, said some messages in Chinese. Like for example, ‘this drink is for prosperity and health’ etc because we actually have to ‘wish’ something when we serve the tea. After we were done with the tea ceremony, we went up to change for our cake-cutting outfit.
It took us about 20 minutes to change. While we were upstairs changing, the guests were entertained by our two funny emcees. We had quizzes complete with prizes while the guests were waiting. That way, hopefully, at least they had something to do instead of waiting around listlessly for me to make my way down the stairs again. My mom came up with this idea and I’ve gotta give her credit for going into the details. We came up with the questions together. Questions such as “What is Nadira’s favourite food?”, “What is the name of Zaki’s father in law?” and we even had teka teki. Itu memang kelakar. I could hear them all shouting and laughing from my room. I think they had fun. J In fact, I was afraid that they didn’t want me to come down as the teka teki questions were getting more interesting!
For our second outfit, I had no question about going English. I just had to have pictures in a dress and him in a suit and since we decided not to change outfits during my reception, malam berinai it was. After all, we had to change into a more comfortable attire for the malam berinai’s ‘after party’. I couldn’t be dancing away in a tight cheongsam right? There’s a story behind my dress. My usual, Chinese tailor in Subang made the dress for me. However, about a week before my wedding, I went to alter my cheongsam at an alteration shop in Subang Parade…and guess what I saw, an array of wedding gowns at 70% off! The final price for all the gowns was less than RM300! And some of the gowns were really extravagant, really puffy and long and kembang and all. It would have been a total waste if I didn’t get one right? So I bought one. I ended up with two dresses to wear for my second outfit.
I was adamant not to change into more than two outfits. Especially so if the third outfit was also an English gown. Pointless right? We all had a hard time choosing which dress to wear. Both beautiful in its own way, both with pros and cons, but basically, both were more or less of the same design. Haha. Up until the last hour as I was being made up for my Chinese outfit, I was still asking people which one should I wear. In the end, I wore the tailor-made one because my heart was tilting slightly more towards that dress as it was custom-made for me. Don’t get me wrong the one from the alteration shop also fitted me perfectly with no alterations needed (ha-ha pun intended) but somehow I kinda like the tailor-made one slightly better. I say slightly because it was a very tough decision to make. For my second outfit, my hair which was inititally pulled up into a bun, was let loose and tied to the side. Just the way I like it. I also put on a less striking lipstick colour for a different look. Zaki wore a velvet black suit with a shirt and black vest and gold scarf.
For our second session, there was a bersanding and merenjis ceremony for all our family members and friends. This is because they wouldn’t get the chance to merenjis during my reception due to time constraint. So we gave them all a chance to merenjis. After that, came the much anticipated part of the night – dinner! That night, we had an English dinner with roast lamb, beef, chicken, finger food and the likes of it. While we were having dinner, we were entertained by a super talented live band called Blink 2. We first saw their performance at SACC Mall and my father was impressed. We took their contact number immediately and booked them. During dessert, we had a cake-cutting ceremony at the same dome as the pulut kuning session during akad nikah. My wedding cake was a stack of bags! It was made out of real cake and we had a really hard time distributing (and trying to finish off!) the cakes. Somebody in KL did it for us so don’t ask me about the details because I don’t know who did it. The bags came with a luggage tag and our ‘logo’ was on it as well. It was really pretty. Love it.
A photography session followed suit and then came the dancing part courtesy of the live band. We danced the night away! Konon. Hehe. By that time, only family members, relatives and close friends were around so all my aunties and uncles really enjoyed themselves. We danced to joget numbers, chacha, bhangra songs and so many more. And of course ada terselit jugak poco-poco for a while. We really had fun that night. The band was so good and sedap. But Kiki (Zaki) oh Kiki…hehe…he’s not a natural dancer so him dancing with my mom was a really cute sight. *sigh* It was just so so so much fun. Berapa kali nak ulang. I’m glad we came up with the ‘dance floor’ idea. As you can see from my wedding video (if you’ve seen it), the family had fun and that’s what’s important. It’s not always about the bride and groom kan?
After everyone was too tired to dance another song, we went upstairs to continue with our photography session with Ikram Ismail. Once he was satisfied with his shots, we said goodnight and that was the end of our malam berinai. We had a long day waiting for us on Sunday. Thank God I packed our bags earlier. All in all, if my akad nikah was the most beautiful event, my malam berinai was the most fun. I’ve never experienced such an adrenaline rush as what I experienced when we were dancing, as husband and wife, for the first time that night. It was super entertaining, fun, funny and full of laughter. I felt so good and of course, happy.
My 10.01.10 fairy tale is next. I need 50 paragraphs for that one.
2 comments:
ok esok pagi i bukak mata, i hope the fairy tale lengkap with how come anuar zain performed at your wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and I havent seen real pictures.....selang sehari masuk fb cari dah ada ke tak...hahahha kesian tau kawan u
omg. now i feel REALLY bad for missing out on your malam berinai. i gave up on lamb and poco-poco for imaginarium of dr parnassus??? *sigh*
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