Hi everyone. I finally have the time to write about my engagement ceremony that happened last month. I’ve been engaged for about 4 weeks and honestly, there’s not much of a difference except for the fact that;
- I always mispronounced my fiancé as my boyfriend like I would talk about him to my friends and I’d be like “eh, my boyfriend blabla” it really takes some time to adjust.
- I’m wedding planning! It feels weird and all too stressful for me because I didn’t expect to be planning my wedding THAT soon but oh well. The planning is taking a year so I’m not getting married anytime soon, don’t worry. Haha.
- I’ve moved on from Harry Styles. Not completely but eventually I will be. Nobody told me it would be this hard to forget your one true love but I guess our love is just not meant to be, eh?
Breaking the news
I talked about getting engaged to my parents quite a few times in the span of 2 years and my mom would completely shut me off whenever I brought the topic out because my fiancé, then boyfriend, hasn’t had a full-time job yet though he did part-time (he finally got a job in his field now, thank God!). On December 4th, I didn’t know what give me the courage to ask my mom about getting engaged, she picked me up from work, we went to Tesco for grocery shopping and dinner, and upon reaching home, whilst still in the car, I gathered the courage and asked her,
“Ma, kakak nak tunang hujung bulan ni boleh tak?”
She was like, “nanti dulu lah kakak” but I insisted on getting engaged because it’s the only time we can do it since his mom came back to Malaysia for the holiday and wouldn’t be coming back until the second half of 2019. So my mom told me to ask my dad. Frankly speaking, asking my dad was quite easy because he usually says yes to my request no matter how absurd. My dad said ok. Both of my parents said ok! Boom yeah! Although I did promise to use my money for everything so that they would say yes…
The date
We planned for the 23rd of December but due to unforeseen circumstances (really it was just his sister having final exam on the 27th and can only come back to Malaysia after her finals), we chose the 29th as the engagement date! So the countdown began. I was super super excited! I had a very good mood for a week! Why only a week, you must ask, well, I had to plan everything in just 3 weeks. What I initially planned for my engagement ceremony didn’t happen.
What I initially planned
Being the millennials that we are (my fiancé and I), we wanted a very simple ceremony. No dais. No hantaran. Just both of the families, me in a nice attire, and my shiny new merisik and engagement rings.
But God is a better Planner than all of us. Both of moms met without us and his mom was planning to bring quite a number of people to our ceremony so after much thoughts, I booked a dais and 7 hantaran and ordered food for 70 pax. Just like that, my budget just quadrupled.
The planning!
The first thing that I wanted to do was to buy a dress and go for ring hunting. I bought my dress after work with my parents. I didn’t want to pressure myself with going through hundreds of shop so when my mom told me that Radiusite has some nice ones, we immediately went there and I found one that I loved. A really simple one, totally nice for a simple ceremony. As for the rings, I got them with my fiancé. The usual Malay custom is gold rings for merisik and engagement but I’m a rebel. I got ones that I really liked and had been eyeing for a few days online.
The 7 hantaran
Sirih junjung. I made it with my aunt. Flowers freshly bought from the market. I love. Fruits. Tesco. Cake. Chocolate Indulgence cake from Secret Recipe. Chocolates. Ferrero Rocher. Kain pelikat. Found new ones at home still in a box and decided best not to buy a new one. Prayer mat. Jakel. It’s velvet, very soft to touch. Kain pasang. For our solemnization attire (so! bloody! exciting!)
The E-day
My closest cousin slept at my house the night before my engagement. It was fun getting to do that with her because when we were little, we did sleepover so many times at each other’s house and we promised that we’d be each other’s pengapit. I can’t believe that I was getting engaged, it seemed like it was just yesterday that we’d talk about getting married when we were just little ones.
I woke up very early that day, feeling so nervous that I was about to be someone’s fiancée. I didn’t feel happy at first because I was nervous. It felt like my insides were full of butterflies and I can’t breathe. I was the last one to get ready as everyone had already arrived (my side of family).
Right after I was done with my makeup (yes I did my makeup myself), I saw a group of people walking towards my house and I literally screamed “MAMAAAAAAAAAAAA” and ran downstairs and told everyone they have arrived. I quickly ran back upstairs, wore my outfit and my cousin helped me with my scarf. A minute after, my aunt called asking me to go downstairs. It literally took them 15 minutes to discuss between families. Ah-mazing. I thought it was going to take longer than that. His mom put on the merisik and bertunang rings for me and just like that you guysssss, I was engaged! I felt like a movie start because for the next hour everyone wanted to take pics with me LOL.
4 weeks have passed and I’m missing my engagement day so dearly. If I could repeat one day again, I would repeat my engagement day because on that day I felt so, so happy. So content with my life. I pray that everyone will get to experience what I have experienced, in shaa Allah.
Next step: planning my dream wedding. When I say dream wedding, I really mean what I have dreamed of how my wedding would be since I was in high school. I’m so excited! But for now, I will have to go through my internship first..
