Wedding Hurdle 3: Caterer Woes

If you missed my earlier Wedding Hurdle Series, click below.
Wedding Hurdle 1: Location, Overcame
Wedding Hurdle 2: Future Home, Overcame

To be honest, this hurdle has been going on since 24 March 2015 when I messaged our chosen caterer. This caterer is an underdog that has been around for many years. It is only introduced via Multiply (now long gone as of 31 May 2013) but mostly from the word of mouth.

I came across this caterer from my cousin's wedding on December 2014. The food was delicious and up to standard and everything was all good. They also gave away their name cards and price packages and since Jhon and I already had intentions of getting married at that point of time, we swiped them lah.

When I saw the prices, I went...

And when I showed to Jhon the prices, he went...

Yes, the prices were affordable and was the lowest even after we surveyed other caterers online and at the Mega Wedding Expo on January 2015.

So on 24 March 2015, I WhatApp messaged the caterer if she has the 2016 packages opened yet. She replied promptly and answered no. She said, ask again on June which was understandable.

On June, before Ramadhan, Jhon called because he started to get anxious. It took a couple of tries (the first one that she went Umrah) but she eventually came to say call again after Hari Raya but she did took note of Jhon's name and our wedding date.

You have to understand the anxiety of waiting 5 months to even set a appointment especially when we had already settled all the major vendors and the fact that catering is one of the most important vendor. We keep telling ourselves to be patient and let fate take its course. Stress okay!?

As soon as Hari Raya ended, Jhon called the caterer again for an appointment date. She said she will call back to confirm but didn't so Jhon called again the next day and Alhamdulillah, she said we can meet up but only 1.5 months after at a wedding.

That will be a total of 7 nail biting, nerve wrecking months of waiting.

Don't get us wrong, we completely understand the delay from the start. 2016 price list not out then it's Umrah, Ramadhan and Shawal. It's not that the is caterer was lazy or not showing dedication. They are all legit explanations which I think that's why we are more patient.

But the wait... and who knows after the discussion, we found out there are hidden costs ke pe... Allahu A'lam.

This decision will either mean our utter mindless patience or superb optimistic endurance.

We shall see.

Update:

Hurdle overcame! Read here.

   

Lanterns & Sparklers

A while ago, I bought mini lanterns for myself to play with. Then on election day, all my nephews happened to be at home for the night so I decided to ask them to join me. Plus, I am aware it's weird to have a grown woman playing with a lantern & sparklers by herself.

Yes, I always shamelessly use my nephews to buffer my creep factor of enjoying children's toys & games even as a 31 year old woman.

Usually, if I have to handle the kids by myself, I always declare rules before anything else. One of the main rules was no running with the lanterns and sparklers and that they have to walk slowly and carefully.

As soon as they got their lanterns and started to walk, it was so funny!
You will get what I mean when you see the video.

I was so happy Irfan get to join the fun, even for a while.

Syihab looks like he is whispering to the lantern.

Shibly wanted a lantern race.

Sparklers time! I had sparklers left over from years back so I figure, use them as much as possible.

Happy Syihab.

Forlorn Syihab.

I also took the opportunity to vlog the entire thing for fun. It was a short video but it's the memories that counts.



Jhon also did some random light painting for fun with the sparklers.
We didn't get to do much because the kids wanted to 'exercise' and run around the exercise area.

It was a fun night. I was grateful it was not hazy so we could play and it's nice to able to play with the kids outside.

   

The Singapore Haze Craze

Anyone who is affected by the Indonesian haze, please sit down. Not stand up because you are probably suffering from it and need to rest. Geddit? Geddit? sigh.

Every year, man and it seems to get worse too.

Indonesia, Y U do dis?

I stay indoors most of the time and I still get affected. Feeding the (feral) cats was 'interesting' too. I was glad we wore masks on the night this picture was taken because from 8pm, the PSI was at 223 and above!

Unfortunately, the mask didn't worked (I should've worn the N95 mask. I didn't because was not not that hazy at first) because as soon as I got home and after my shower, I got the sniffles. Speaking of which, have any of you used toner to clean your face? I only went out for 1-2 hours and my cotton pad was dirty!

The next whole day, I had constant runny nose and later, cough.

As I am typing this, my flu is gone but I got my whopping coughs again; back with a vengeance. Luckily, the constant heavy rains for the past few days helped tone down the haze.

Whether the rain was an act of God/ nature or act of Science (rumors of cloud seeding), I am still grateful. Now, I just need to get rid of my coughs.

   

Essential CC Oil & Night Care Milk Review

[sponsored review]

When it comes to hair, frizzy hair is my arch nemesis. There are many causes of frizzy hair such as dry/ damaged hair from heating tools, harsh combing of the hair, humidity, using the wrong hair products, using not enough of the hair product, dehydration, constant dyeing of hair and if you have curly/ wavy hair, you just have to accept fate that you and frizzy hair with be your forever companion.

And just in case you are new to my blog, I have PLENTY of curly/ wavy hair.
This is my hair out of the shower, towel and air dried.

Caution, not for the faint of heart.

If I don't keep my hair long, I can guarantee you it will be an Afro. I really don't know how to work with my natural hair so I would either tie/ bun/ braid them or do heatless curls. My natural hair needs a lot of 'sayang' to make it look decent.

I am still on my journey of learning what works for my natural hair. I had rebonded my hair since I was 14 years old for about 14 years and only try to embrace my curly/wavy hair since late 2012 and it was tough. Everyone knows that straight hair is WAY manageable than curly/wavy hair. I remembered when I had rebonded straight hair, I don't even need to comb when I wake up for the day.

 I have not mastered which techniques and products that work for my natural curls so it's still a learning process for me.

Meanwhile,

Thankfully, Essentials just sent me 2 hair products to tame & protect frizzy and dry hair to try out.

First product I tried out was the Essential's CC Oil.

(Retail price: S$11.90)

So what are the 5 main hair stresses Essential protects your hair from?
Introducing, Essential's Stress Brothers!

No worries, Essential CC Oil is here to protect you from them!

Protection from blow drying: 
Blow drying your hair (or even using any heat tools) removes moisture from the hair, both outside and inside the hair. It eventually will leave your hair dry, brittle and susceptible to further damage.

Protection from combing: 
Friction is an enemy to our hair cuticles; whether you come through wet or dry hair. Combing through wet hair causes great hair damage (unless you use wide teeth comb) because the hair follicle is at it's most fragile state. Do I need to also mention combing/ brushing your dry hair to remove hair knots leads to unnecessary breakage!

Protection from split ends: 
The ends of your hair are the oldest and driest and needs the most loving. When the protective hair cuticle is destroyed at the end of the hair, the hair splits into 2 or more parts.

Protection from hair breakage:
As you think daily heat styling, blow drying and brushing is damaging enough, think again! Even seemingly harmless actions like tying your hair into a tight ponytail or twirling your hair exert excessive stress on your hair, resulting in hair breakage.

Protection from dryness: 
Even if you truly take care of your hair in terms of preventing heat tools and such, your hair might still be dry. Why? It's because of exposure of the sun, wind or even air-conditioning can result in hair dryness. The hair cuticle that protects the hair is weakened and is unable to retain moisture within the cuticles of the hair. We can never win!

Well, enough talk, time for the test.

Since I have my hair just washed and towel/ air dried, it's perfect time to spread and apply the CC oil on my hair. I concentrated only on the hair from my nape until the ends; extra attention on my ends.

The consistency of the CC oil was light and non-greasy. The oil was instantly absorbed by my hair because of the hair supplement oil (Lanolin Acid - to repair, moisturize & protect) is similar to hair's natural oil. Due to it's light weight, I naturally want to put more and more because well, do I need to remind you the condition of my hair?

Here's my before and after!

Besides protecting my hair from the stress brothers, it also leaves my hair smooth and much tamer.
You got nothing on me stress brothers! I can juggle you around all day, err day!

(I know, my juggling clearly looks fake. Just deal with me and get my point okay? lol)

Next product is the Essential's Night Care Milk

(Retail price: S$11.90)

Essential night care milk focuses more on prevention of pillow friction. Just in case you don't know, when you toss and turn at night, there is friction between your hair and the pillow causing the cuticles to be misaligned. This causes frizz and that fabulous lion's mane that most of us have grown love to hate.

Sure, washing your hair the next morning helps to 'reset' the mane but as mentioned before, constantly blowing your hair is a bad routine. Plus, ain't nobody got time for that when you can spend more time on your sleep. Also, ladies with long, curly/ wavy and thick hair shouldn't wash their hair everyday because we need that natural oils as much as possible.

There are a few ways to reduce pillow friction and I do it every night. I sleep on a softer pillow case and always braid/ bun my hair so it won't go wild. Braids and buns also works as a heatless curl routine which would recreate a new set of curls.

Here's one of a few styles of my nightly hair routine.
Due to my curly mane, it's a must that I brush it to rid of all tangles. It's to prevent further tangles and to ensure whatever hair product I apply will be evenly distributed.

The leave-on treatment is rich yet non-greasy.Oh, did I mention that besides giving protection from pillow friction, it also repairs and moisturizes your hair? You can apply after hair is damp or dry but remember to concentrate only mid-length to tip.

The next day.

Different set of curls! wohoo! My hair was definitely moisturized and manageable. To think this is before applying Essential CC oil to kick start the day. Just finger comb and I am ready to go.

I would say the both Essential CC oil and night care milk did it's job pretty well for hair like mine. I would give 8/10 because for my hair, I need butt load of this product to fully moisturize it.

Do you know that Essential also have a Facebook game called Mane hero to combat the 5 evil Hair Stress Brothers and Pesky Pillow King? You can win attractive prizes every week by playing.

If there is such thing as a Mane Hero, I would need her everyday. haha

   

Sireh Dara Booked!

I took my time ordering Sireh Dara because entah eh.. I don't feel like it. lol perangai. Plus, Jhon and I was contemplating if we should DIY our trays or just buy them. Let's say if we decided to scrap the DIY idea, we could just order with the Sireh Dara vendor so it's important we like their wedding trays too.

In the end, we engaged...


[facebook][Instagram]

I really like their sireh dara & sireh junjung, especially the traditional ones. Price ranges are from $140 to $180 depending on design and excluding delivery.

But if you like modern versions, they have it too.

They also have a simple but lovely collection of wedding trays which are more to our taste. So let's say if we decided to just have our wedding trays ready-made, we can just request. hehe

There are also bunga rampai but I won't be getting them because I intend to DIY but I just put pictures here for 'you all punya' reference.

Gubahan Cinta also do other miscellaneous works too such as flower bouquets, corsages, guestbooks and money box upon request.

Contacting Kak Wannie was easy and quite fast. I deposited that night we liaised with each other. For some of the prices, you can check out her Facebook.

Four more vendors to book you all!

   

Breaking News: My Bestie's First Newborn!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

As of yesterday, 09.09.2015, my best buddy, Fizah gave birth to a cute baby boy! I am so happy for her and her new bundle of joy!

Introducing, Muhammad Matin Mikail Bin Muhammad Muhaimin aka MMMMM. haha

It was about 5 hour natural labour starting about 5am in the morning. Fizah SMS me at 7am that she was in labour and I don't know why but I started to fidget. Excited and nervous for her, I guess. By 10am, I saw her husband had posted a picture of Matin on Facebook.

3.305 kg! Matin is so fair and clean!
No 'tahi palat', you know, the whitish thingy that sometimes is all over a newborn baby. Remember ladies, drink plenty of coconut juice!

Luckily, it was the school holidays and my nephews were not around. Mak and I met Jhon after work and zoomed to KKH in a cab.

It was funny when we reached her ward because at half of the beds (6-bed ward) had their curtains drawn. Outside the ward, there were Malays standing around which I assumed was Min's friends but I didn't know them so I didn't acknowledge them much. We thought perhaps Fizah was tending to something in private so we waiting perhaps a good 5 minutes.

Mak actually jokingly-not-jokingly wanted to 'barge' in and I was strongly against it. I then WhatsApp messaged Fizah asking her what was she doing with the curtains drawn as a joke (I didn't tell her I was coming). In a few seconds, she replied "hehe come in"

LERR....! Can you imagine, we could've been waiting for God knows how long? lol

We walked to the bed and I peeked in. The new family was just resting and needed some personal space from the neighbors. Of course, I peeked outside to the hallway and hinted to the others that it's okay to come in.

Matin looks so cute, small and fragile and Fizah looked good and happy. She managed to 'tahan' the labour pains with just gas even though it made her vomit. No epidural. I always known she is a strong woman.

Oh, Matin has the smoothest baby newborn skin ever. His skin was not peeling and no milia. His skin was soft and fuzzy and so nice to kiss. He also has long fingers, toes and feet which means he is going to be tall.

I am grateful that Fizah and Matin is healthy. Fizah, you are officially a mom now! hehe
I can't wait to see little Matin again, perhaps do a small photo shoot too? hehe

   

Pizza, Chicken Wrap, Errand Travel and stuffs

Hello! This is just a random post for fun. What have you guys been doing lately?
I have been busy in a good way with blogging, wedding planning and doing fun stuff in between to balance it all.

Jhon has pampering me with all kinds of food lately. I told him he just bought a ticket of taking the blame of my weight gain. I really need to start exercising because my fitness is down the drain since I stopped since fasting month.

Jhon recently booked a flight to go back to Philippines for wedding errands purposes. The 2 main purposes are for him to get his proof of single status document and buy a barong tagalog. I wish I could follow especially to choose his barong tagalog but budget!

I just have to trust his fashion taste and keep sharing photos of barong tagalog styles I like and dislike to him.

Before I end, I just want to share our homemade chicken wrap. It was all Mak's idea but she bought some of the ingredients and expected us to conjure something delicious. Luckily. we had enough ingredients to make it yummy.

It was all tortilla wrap, lettuce, sliced jumbo chicken hotdogs, shredded grilled chicken, tomatoes with mayonnaise and chili sauce. I attempted a video style making the wrap but it was somewhat crappy. booo...

 Before it was wrapped.

I had to wrap it with a tissue like a baby so it won't unravel.
Sedap gila! *angkat bakul sendiri*

I recently bought some samples for fun from the Sample Store. It was just a face mask, Cure aqua gel and sunblock but because I checked out $5.99 they gave a box filled of other stuff. hehe I think got to do with their SG50 promotion.

What I ordered,

What I got.

What I am really looking forward to try is Argon oil from Essentials. I have been using coconut oil to moisturize my hair and always wanted to try Argon oil but there are too expensive. Let's see if it's really worth the money.