The one where freedom is half mine...

I am not blogging as often as I wanted to, but my PSLE kids have finally ended their last paper which means I can finally breathe. Those long hours are seriously satisfying and I am done. That's the last time I am doing such thing, especially when I am getting married next year because husband trumps money anytime. After all, I am feeling extremely guilty that our dating hours are weird but yet Baobei accommodates to them with zero complains but plenty of support and love.

It's true when they say it gets more challenging as the wedding date draws nearer, but it has also made us want to make this work more than anything. Then there's our best friends who keep pushing us forward. I think, the kind of friends you have does make a difference in your relationship and I am blessed, either ways. Planning for 2015 trips, ABst was like "Tell Baobei not to make you pregnant first!" Hahah.

Work is slowly going easy which means I need to pick up my pace with school. I have not been going school because I am too busy settling things on the other side, but with the breather, I am going to put my heart and soul. Each time I am doing my assignment, I ask myself what am I going to do this cert once I graduate. Then Baobei reminds me of our 5 year plan.

TBH, I am envious of some of my friends who are getting their own houses on top of having weddings. To me, wedding is only a one day thing whereas house is something is like forever. Sometimes I lose track of our 5 year plan, and succumb to "Let's apply for BTO" especially when good locations keeping coming up and my recent visit to a girlfriend's place in Yishun (5 room) was surprisingly huge. But Baobei is determined in our 5 year plan, and plus we have this ONE rule where we don't borrow money/take loans, ever. Like my rule about credit cards; If you don't have enough money to buy it, then don't buy it.

Moving on to some wedding updates:

• We have finally went to measure for our nikah outfits at our tailors in JB. We had a slight change because the samping and part baju for Baobei was wrong. Luckily, we managed to get it at Jackel that day. I'm pretty nervous how our outfits will look like, so we are going back sometime in November for our "second fitting" to see if we need to make any edits to our measurements etc. We spend close to $800 for cloth + tailoring which we could just take another pair with TWB, but this will be ours. And we will be reusing it for our first Hari Raya as husband and wife next year.
• Tomorrow is our first appointment with Fairy's Inc to finally sit down and design our wedding rings/ bands. Can't wait to mix match our ideas with the jewelers and see the final outcome. Heh.
• Finally, passing the kain to my bridesmaids so they can settle their outfits soon. I am looking forward to the outcome, because I must admit the different colours are just VAVOOM.

I have a couple of updates to do like our little visit to the Meomi Cat Cafe, Tristan Park & some other wedding topics (money lah, what else!) that is at the back of my head that I need to get it out. Sometimes it's weird that I get a lot of viewers on particular days from Facebook (TKKTKCseries), so hello. Other days, I get visits from unwanted people who are determined to be stuck in the past.

Either way, I don't really care.

Goodbye September, hello October.

Did you say THREE months to the wedding?

The one after September holidays...

Lately, I have been uninspired to blog. Maybe because I have been too busy which makes me insanely tired. One week holiday has passed and I only managed to sleep in the whole day of Sunday, partly due to a migraine. Too many other commitments and it is weighing me down. School has already started so assignments and studying have started for me. Not to mention something came up on Baobei side which is making all of this a little harder. But I am determined to not think about it until it comes along and do as much wedding prep as we can.

This weekend we are settling baju nikah that will be tailored in JB. Beginning of October, we will be settling the designs of our wedding rings/bands. I have been thinking a lot of how I want my wedding band/ring to be because I want it to be two rings, that can be worn together or apart. I am planning to keep the engagement ring at home and wear it out on special occasions once we are married. Then we have the wedding cards and favours to settle too because November guest list will be out where we need our guests to RSVP before sending out our invitations. We also have not settled our honeymoon fully because we discussed to only stay at one place and have our hotel by the beach. Kahwin by the beach, honeymoon also nak by the beach. Heh.

I have more or less envisioned our wedding itinerary and how it will be on the actual day. As in, the nikah and the walk-in. I finally managed to settle the bridesmaids and groomsmen walk down. We are still sticking to one baju with TWB (which I am pretty sure you all social media addicts saw the wedding TWB did. So glad I picked them before they made a name out of themselves. Makes me think back about the time when they said our date was taken up already). The more weddings I attend, I find myself liking the 'sanggung lingtang'. Baobei sugguested to wear that for nikah. HAHAH.

Okay, on a side note from the wedding update vomit you all just read:

Congratulations darling on your SCDF parade. You did so well.

I, on the other hand, can't get over the hat. I kind of forced Hisham (Baobei's groomsman) to take the hat for me and in return, I had to wear it for the whole event. No problem bruhhh.

My number one in his number one.

Yes, we are always making faces. Please expect A LOT of this when you are invited to our wedding because there will be plenty of that. HAHAH. I have caught this "no serious" thing from him and I kind of like it. 

Look at my arms! HAHA, this my dear friends are arms of people who have not gone yoga since forever. Will be making it up October onwards. Anyway, Baobei has contemplating to wear his number one or tux for our wedding reception. Methinks he will look good in both, but we have about a month to decide what we really want. 

What else have I not update here?

Pretty much nothing since there's a lot of things we are skipping. I have another entry that is on draft because it is messy but it is about wedding and money. We will save that for another time. Now, it's back to being busy. Hopefully I find some time and inspiration to blog. I have also been meaning to introduce the lady behind the recent birthday cakes and our soon to be wedding cake.

Meanwhile, stay sane xo

The one where I have to forgo SyraSkins...

I am sure most BTBs or even non-BTBs have heard about SyraSkins opening their very own studio. From a Muslim to another, I am very happy that their business is booming. Alhamdulilah. So I wanted to clarify a couple of things with them like if they still go to bride's places or not, etc. So I what'sapp S' sister in which she called me up and  followed up with an email.

However big this step SyraSkins has taken, they need to understand a few constrains like

• Pantang (since we only do henna a day or two before the nikah dat itself). Okay so my parents are not so on this except for the travelling out of Singapore before your wedding *sulks*.
• Comfort of the bride aka ME. I have not done mine yet but I have seen my sister, SIL and cousin, and to be honest where it is done is very important. Especially when it gets tiring or when you need to pee.
• Travelling. What happens when the I try to transport myself back home after the session? I am pretty sure that I will like the henna on for very long (especially after putting minyak kapak to darken the stain) so I am wondering if Baobei has to fire lift me to the car and back home.

I did like the fact they revised the cost after adding transportation fee in the initial amount I was quoted. But nothing more actually. So with such a heavy heart, I emailed to ask them for a refund of my deposit since this was not the arrangement that we agreed to. Furthermore, my bridesmaids may want to have this malam berinai/hen night at this particular hotel's suite. (Note: I have not received a reply about my refund in which I will give them 2 weeks.)

Oh S' sister said that if we still insist on having the henna done at our place, it can still be done. But S will not be travelling out. What's the point if the main artist is not around? And I am still paying full price for it.

From what I read from the online buzz, S has the studio so that she doesn't have to leave her new born babygirl when she goes out for assignment. That, I will only understand clearly when I am a mother myself. For now, it is a huge sacrifice on her part knowing quite a number of BTBs are asking for their refund back.

So what now? Since the wedding is 4 months-ish away, I need to secure my replacement. Who?

Nadya is an art teacher who does henna as a freelance. When I first saw her henna work back in early Syawal, I actually commented saying something like, "I didn't know you did henna, I would have asked you instead." And look at us now! She is really going to do my henna for me and my bridesmaids. I will be her second bride! I wanted to be her first but second seems to be my thing (read: wedding cake). I told her I will settle for second HAHA. But if you're a 2014 BTB and you want to engage her, please do although I won't be her second bride anymore *cries*. 

@ndydns

So yes, henna (inserts a tick here).

On a side note, the nearer the wedding, the more hiccups keeps on coming up. For a small, intimate wedding, I honestly think this is not possible. But oh wells, I need to keep calm and let the small things slide.

//Edited (13/9/14): I have gotten back my $50 deposit from SyraSkins.