With This Ring I Thee Wed..

Itz 17th jan 2008 now. 12.45am, and I'm in my hotel room in Seoul.

My first flight since I got married.

Itz 17th January 2008. my 2 weeks wedding anniversary.

I'm married.

I'm married.

I'm REALLY married.

I had been married for 2 weeks.

2 beautiful weeks.

Nothing is better at night than to kiss a gorgeous girl before u go to sleep.

And nothing is better in the morning then to wake up and see a beautiful face next to you.

We had spent 11 days being together for 24 hrs every day. and my first night being alone in my hotel room is not going on too well.

American Idol 7 on Star World now is making it worse. Last yr, we watched most of the episodes of AI6 together while singing the AI theme Ahh-Ahhhh whenever the commercial ends.. and rooting for Melinda Doolittle and watching The Dance Floor and rooting for Vas and Pris and the group of the funny Malay hip hop dancers (i cant remember the group name though)..

ok... I was singing the Ahh-Ahhhh and was rooting for Melinda.. she was rooting for whoever I was rooting for coz she loves me.

I'm alone now and I'm missing my wife badly.

2 weeks ago, on the 3rd of January 2008, marked the most important day of my life.

No matter how long u had to prepare for that day, no matter how much u psyched urself up, nothing can be more daunting yet exhilaratingly bipolar than the real thing..

Trust me. Its nothing short of being SCARY.

I had 12 and a half months to prepare myself mentally and it all boils down to a single date.

03rd Jan 2008..

And approximately 9.40pm, I became a married man. She became my wife.

Its the fear of the process. The process that takes a few seconds for me to utter the words..

And I made it!

Just once.. thatz all it took. If u screw it up, thatz it. Forever ppl will talk abt it when they talk abt ur wedding..

Do you remember Zul? The fella who had to repeat his vows twice?

ermz..

thatz *NOT* gonna happen..

Thank God they wont talk like that when they talk abt *MY* wedding vows..

And after that few seconds were over, and I said my oath for my husbandly responsibilities, I went into the room to meet my princess as my wife for the very first time..

The very first kiss



The moment that changed my entire life

We went thru some picture takings and congratulatory wishes from so many ppl.. and I went back to my cousin's place that night, while my wife stayed over at her place.. and we spent our first night being husband and wife being apart.

Itz just a tradition kinda thing that they asked from us whether could we just wait for a few more days before we live together..

On Friday afternoon, we spent our first day together as husband and wife walking around Jurong Point..

On Saturday night, we had a dinner reception at Lagun Sari Indonesian Restaurant.. we paid abt $11,000 for 300 pax and printed cards with RSVP requests..

ok.. here's how it goes.. abt Wedding Invitations..

Dinner for abt $35 per person.

My parents were given the priority for invitations.. I took the rest after inviting most of my friends for the Sunday's reception.. I didnt really have time to prepare the invitation listing too and ended up having to invite some of my friends thru sms and online coz I couldnt get their contact numbers on time.

Out of those invited, 1 RSVP-ed saying that he will come.

He didnt.

Out of those invited, abt 40% replied to my sms saying that they could not make it..

Thatz a day before the reception.

Abt 20% didnt reply.

And therefore, on the very day of the reception, I was left with almost 50 seats empty.

Thatz abt a pro-rated $1750 worth of empty seats..

I didnt really invite that much cabin crew and pilots coz of our work schedule.. but some made it..

And those who dont fly for a living told me a day before that they are not even in Singapore..

U'ld be surprise on how many of ur non-cabin crew friends are in England on the day that they tell u that they will attend ur wedding. Seriously, 4 ppl told me that.. and 1 in Petaling Jaya.

These are the ppl who asked to be invited.. and some of those whom I met during my reservist and when they found out that I was getting married.. they said.. jangan sombong eh.. kawin mesti invite..

So I put my arrogance aside and invited them..

Répondez s'il-vous-plaît

Thats what RSVP means..

It means.. Please Respond.

ok.. fine.. I know that my wedding is not really that much of a priority, but my advise to u, my dear friends.. when u receive an invitation, do RSVP.. so at least we know what to do with the remaining seats when we have time to do something abt it..

Especially when u asked to be invited..

My mom and brother became my miracle workers and filled up the entire hall within a short span of time.. so it was still a full wedding nevertheless.

ok.. the post-mortem of Lagun Sari's wedding receptions..

It is so simple in theory for these wedding planners.. u have the place and u have the manpower and contacts.. most of the stuffs are outsourced and u have everything all in place.. itz a matter of ordering fresh flowers and cakes and food..

So.. after hearing what was proposed and promised, we settled on a simple gold & white themed wedding, which is, with white table layouts with gold trimmings and individual bouquet of flowers for every table, a 6-tier cheesecake, a white and gold dais, a dance performance and a good MC.

These are what we got..

Gold and white dais and a good dance performance by malay dancers who probably does it every week, and a good video cameraman..

Those are the ONLY things that turned out proper.

The table ended up being white. and single stalks of roses with petals scattered. Cheaply done.

The table arrangements were so bad that some of the tables were hidden behinds walls.

The Mak Andam that was assigned to us was bad. The choice of gowns were so limited and we ended up renting another gown from the another Mak Andam..

Its a wonder how different ppl do things differently when both have the same options and priorities..

Our costume fittings which was done several weeks before were done badly.. And coz she didnt really get in details, we thought she knew what she was doing coz she seemed experienced..

And the end result? it was so screwed that my wife's sleeves were short and my jacket made me look like spongebob.

It was bad and atrociously horrendous.

We didnt really have a choice coz when the frustrations sets in coz it was within 2 hours of the event.

We were set to meet up at Lagun Sari at 5pm, and she called at 1pm to say that she wants us to be there at 4.

HEEELOOOOOOO? I live in Tampines. my wife was in Jurong. my brother Azman who was driving us lives in Toa Payoh and I have a best man and a bridesmaid to fetch. And u tell us 3 hours before that I had to drop every other preparations coz u took up another appointment just before my reception?

She left us within half an hour and another woman who we had never met before became the Mak Andam and having to take all my frustrations and shoutings and became the target of my anger on my wedding day.

The dinner was ok.. the food was good.. or thatz what we were told coz we didnt get to eat anything coz we were rushed for time..

Then we went up to change for the cake cutting ceremony..

The 6-tier cheesecake turned out to be a 2-piece fruit cake, and 3 pieces dummy cakes.

Ang mohs have champagne. so they wanted to simulate that.. but the least they could do was to give us a fruit punch or something.. and what did they really give us to drink?

Plain water in wine glasses.

What the $%#&^@?

A few weeks before the wedding, we heard really bad stories abt Lagun Sari and the wedding planner, Mr Sonato. Stories abt him not fulfilling what he promised..

There were even some stories from ppl who had been outsourced before about him not paying them on time or not even being paid at all.

When we confronted him before the wedding abt the complaints against him and Lagun Sari on the web, he assured us that the complaints were anonymously made and therefore itz not fair to penalise him and we decided that we are gonna give him a chance when he assured us that he will do his best.

So whatz the result of his best?

CRAP.

So, my advise to those who wants to hold their wedding at Lagun Sari is DONT.

And unlike what was claimed by him previously, I dont make the complains anonymously. Feel free to email me and we will give u our contact number, IC number and whatever identification to make a non-anonymous review by a couple who just had their wedding dinner at Lagun Sari.

And from what we gathered from the guests, the service crew did a terrible job too.

Lagun Sari is a bad choice for ur wedding reception. If any of u had planned to have it there, please please please change it.

On Sunday, we had the wedding lunch at my wife's side.. and this time, the mak andam is this girl called Yatee from Lyanaz.. itz her own business and itz obvious from how she works that she has the passion for it.. she pays attention to details.. REALLY CLOSE ATTENTION. and she works so precisely and everything just works.

Her selection of clothings are like tenfold of what the other mak andam has, and she is pleasant and does a very good job despite being young. so, if u are looking for a Mak Andam for ur wedding, call Yatee. Feel free to email me to get her contacts.

We got the bridal gown for the Lagun Sari dinner from her as well..

Another example of how she works..

We requested for a white lenggha and kurta for our nikah day.

She dont have any.

She said that she might be able to borrow from someone.

She didnt.

She bought a totally new pair just to give us what we ask for.. and it was beautiful.

Sunday was a nice day for the wedding, besides the fact that the leader of the kompang group died suddenly a few days after our wedding due to a massive heart attack.

I swear I didnt have anything to do with it.

I spent the next 3 days staying over at my in-laws, despite the initial plan of a week coz my sis-in-law had to sleep in the living room to accomodate me sleeping over.. so after 3 days, we left and on the 12th Jan, we had another wedding reception in Johore for our Malaysian relatives who are unable to attend the Singapore wedding receptions.

As what was done by my wife.. I hereby thank the following ppl..
(if its too long, scroll down quickly)

My Parents, Mr Mohamed & Mdm Zaiton

My Parents In Law, Mr Syed Hamid & Mdm Wahida

My Sister In Law, Sayidatun Nur who doubled up as the Mak Andam for our Johore reception..

My Brothers In Law, Syed Najib, Syed Mohd Syafiq and Mohd Firdaus

Azman & Wife who diligently drove me to anywhere I wanted and belanja me makan..

Azlan & Wife who made some beautiful gifts for my wife..

My sister, Suryati and my niece Ameerah.

My Best Man, Firdaus..

Zahirah's Bridesmaid, my niece Aisha

My Cousin Mr Nordin and wife, Mdm Zaiton and their family..

My Cousin Mr Samsudin and wife, Mdm Jamaliah..

My Cousin Mdm Fadhilla and husband, Mr Kamuri and their family..

My Aunt who flew in from Canada, Mdm Asmah..

My wife's Aunt, Mdm Esah, and husband, Mr Hussein who's cooking I would not recommend to anyone.. coz once u eat her cooking, u'll be so addicted and u wont settle for anything less.. Mami Esah cooked for our nikah and lunch..

My wife's grandfather, Mr Sani..

My wife's other uncles and aunts and cousins..

My relatives.

My wife's relatives.

Mistaken Pirates.. I'm so glad u guys could make it.. my true friends..

My groomsmen.. who had been my buddies for ages.. namely, Meraj, Alfan, Yazid who couldnt make it for the ceremonies but spent the night helping me calm my nerves, Manazil, yang sampai kena hang dengan budak kecik, Maizie & cat, Yazeid from Psychedelic 4 who came down to wish me the night before my nikah..

Erwin

Ili Rozana

My wife's schoolmates from Boon Lay Sec

Yatee, our Mak Andam from Lyanaz

Nizam, our perfectionist photographer from Theme Photography who guided us thru the things we should do

Kamal, our videographer from Lagun Sari, who helped us through our dinner reception

My Pageboys



My flowergirl with her secret dress and noisy shoes



All our guests who turned up that night



And in the day



And in Johore

My brother, Zulfikar and sister in law, Shireen who spent all the time, money and lots of risks to be with me.. and got us a cheesecake in Johore for us to cut coz they knew how disappointed we were with the Lagun Sari wedding cake

And to our distinguished guests..

Chief Minister of Sarawak & Wife

Dato' Dr Ngoi and Wife

Governor of Medan & Wife and their family..

4 tiring events..

But I got the girl in the end and that makes it all worth it.

This girl