Ok so I haven’t really blogged about only THE most important happening in my life – my wedding. So as you know, I finally got hitched with my favourite person in the world back in March. I guess I’ve blogged about some of the few things I did for the preparations. Nothing major haha.

We kept as much tradition as we could, but as I’m from Tutong, we didn’t really have a million functions or traditions to follow. So was able to keep it quite minimal.

(All photos taken from Wedding Party app)

ENGAGEMENT 13.1.13

Ok technically this is not an engagement ceremony per se. It’s basically his family came over to my house to ask formally for my hand in marriage and also so my family can communicate to them our “demands” (highly orchestrated – since we started planning the wedding since March 2012 haha).

But it’s nice to have a party at the house and see my cousins. Essentially this is my mum’s gig – she ran the show. We prepared food, doorgifts, and I dressed up too.

Doorgifts are my Mum’s homemade manisan made with love. Hehe.

Served food, catered by my sister’s sister in law’s friend. LOL. Information given to me was quite vague. But the food was excellent and they even covered our table. Haha.

While they were preparing downstairs, I was busy camwhoring upstairs. Wore a Cotton On Chiffon Blouse with some shoulder studs and a silver skirt I made during previous hari raya. Also wore my late grandmother’s silver belt and my hair up in a bun like how she used to do.

Also, wore a pair of Pearl Studs, which GD bought for me long time ago when we both started dating. ❤

Worth mentioning that my late grandmother was a very tiny woman so sometimes when I’m sitting down I cannot breathe haha.

Believe it or not this is my ONLY full length photo.

So his family came:

Discussed me for 5 minutes and the demands (permintaan). The rest of the time I think they were discussing stuff like how they know each other…… I’m not really sure.

So the permintaan are as below:

SO this is why I say it’s not really an engagement per se. Cause these demands haven’t been fulfilled. Haha. So they will be delivered on my Nikah. So I was engaged for like…20 minutes. Haha.

When it was all done, Waseem decides to be a baby.

NIKAH 1.3.13

The Nikah is what II would describe as as a flurry of activities. We did it at Masjid Al Ameerah Al Hajjah Maryam, Jerudong Park. This event is hosted by GD’s family.

Here is the to-do list.

1. I had to get ready at home, do my makeup and look pretty.
2. Guests go directly to the venue. Most of my family will be there as well, to welcome guests.
3. My sister who is in charge of the hantarans, have to be there early, so she can arrange and coordinate.
4. I’m supposed to follow my dad and wait in the car until such time I am summoned.
5. Will then wait in the small room where women pray.

Here we are camwhoring in the car. Ok maybe just me.

Obligatory hand bouquet shot. Made by yours truly. This is while waiting at the small prayer room.

In the mean time, the entourage outside discussed my hantarans.

Here they are:

Then when all is well, and accounted for, the men came in and asked Dad and me to sign documents.

Then they went out and I was summoned outside to the big hall to sit on the most uncomfortable cushion in the world.

After about 30 minutes, the wedding vows starts. Here is GD in his big shining moment. And there I was, cannot feel my legs. Or butt.

After akad nikah, yeayyyyy. We’re married! He can touch my forehead!!! Haha.

Also I can finally wear my BEAUTIFUL RINGS!!!!!!!

Then it was photo session time and then hurried home cause… I need to be scrubbed, again, by the Pengangun.

I really love the Masjid Jerudong venue plus lots of beautiful foliage outside to make beautiful photos. Plus they have chairs and tables for borrowing and no tents needed!

RECEPTION 3.3.13

Reception or my Bersanding is done at a non-conventional venue. Growing up in Danau, I was always surrounded by beaches and trees. So I am really crazy about beaches and the thought of doing a wedding in a big stuffy hall makes me feel suffocated. Furthermore it’s a March wedding, the monsoon rains are gone, and we have windy mornings (boy was it windy!). I wanted to incorporate a beach, the waves and beautiful sky into the most important day in my life.

To tell u the truth, it really wasn’t that hard. Everything remains the same as a normal wedding you generally experience in a hall, but just…on a beach. So the concept really is a Malay wedding concept, bringing us back to those days when remember how we used to have weddings outside?

Parking was plenty, as my wedding was at 8am in the morning!

Yes 8am!!! I had to wake up at 430am that day to do lulur, mandi bunga and all that, and then do makeup at home, and by 7am was already at the venue, where my hairdresser was waiting to do my hair.

My eyes was so watery and very difficult to draw on my eyeliner and put on fake lashes. Haha!

Here are some early morning shots of the beautiful venue! Imagine it with some Bebel Gilberto Samba playing in the background. Put the playlist myself so if you were there that was all my FAVOURITE love songs ever.

It was such a beautiful day!

Meanwhile I was in the main building getting ready and having laughs with friends who came to visit and have breakfast!

Here’s my konon Elie Saab lookalike.

Back at the venue, guests were already starting to trickle in. (I know cause I get to see all these photos on the Wedding Party app)

The Reception Table:

Here is where you “sign in”

And receive doorgifts:

Then it was time for me to walk down the aisle! With Yuna’s Terukir di Bintang playing in the background.

Then I walked first and GD did Pusing Naga, Memecah Buluh and did the forehead thing again. Haha.

Then it was Majlis Berbasuh Kaki

Then people eat and then we sat and took photos?

And finally personally said goodbye to everyone who took the time to come. ❤

So from the bottom of my heart thank you so much for coming to my wedding and most importantly thank you so much for uploading all these beautiful photos to the Wedding Party app so I write this blog post!

When I was in Manila last June, we went to an awesome honeybee farm in Silang, just outside Manila, on the way to Tagaytay: Ilog Maria.

It’s a quaint little place, it’s a honeybee farm! Hehe. But upon closer inspection, we found that it is more than just quaint, it strives to be eco-friendly and sustainable.

We saw solar panels installed.

According to these posters, they also make their own biodiesel for their trucks, and they have a windmill water pump.

And indeed their story of conservation and energy saving can be found on their website.

We produce our own water and distribute/irrigate without using electricity and without depleting our aquifer. We produce our own electricity from the sun and wind, eliminating about 80% of our Meralco bill.

 

We are already sufficient in biodiesel. Our gasoline fed cars emit a lot less pollutants from LPG. We have harnessed the sun and wood from our mini-forest to heat our water.

Cool right? Definitely something to inspire our local farmers.

Their bees are everywhere!

And for some reason, the also have turkey lurkeys happilly running around the farm haha.

And by happy I mean HAPPY!!!!

Must be mating season. -_____-”

But my favourite part of the bee farm is the shop! It’s so awesome!

Selling soaps, and products made from honey such as soap, shampoos, and all that! We wanted to buy the Ilog Maria honey but apparently that was sold out and backordered for the next 6 months. Wah! So laku!

Massage oils.

I bought a whole bunch of soaps.

I’ve been using them for the past few weeks. I’ve just finished Lavender Honey, so I’m now using Kalamansi Ginger.

It’s very mild and not drying at all. ❤ Best of all, it smells AMAZING! Love love!

Back in Brunei, I wish we have places here like Ilog Maria that uses simple local ingredients to produce amazing things! It’s like Lush, but much less expensive!

I’ve discovered that though we don’t have a honeybee farm, we do however have an awesome Virgin Coconut Oil producer in Tanjong Maya. They produce the coconut oil through cold pressing, and the product is pure and undiluted. I’ve been using it on my hair and well, I always get compliments hehe.

But so far, they only produce the oil. I wonder if they will be making oil products such as soap, cosmetics, body butters in the future?

I love companies that are ethically responsible, whether it be from their environmentally sustainable practices such as Lush (no packaging, natural ingredients), or anti cruelty policies such as The Body Shop (no animal testing). I’d rather spend a few more dollars (even from back then when I don’t have many dollars to spend) as I feel I get my money’s worth when what I use is not so harmful to other things on the planet.

As much as possible I try to eat and use organic products, and as much as possible I eat and use local produce. I always think that since I travel more than an “average jane” I need to offset my carbon footprint by doing all this. Also I find organic produce are fresher (without chemicals/pesticide, the don’t stay fresh very long) and results in better food!

I’m also quite lucky that my family are avid farmers, so we also get to eat our own produce once in a while, and I was raised knowing the value of cooking everything from scratch so I know where every single ingredient in my food is from.

So yes, lets all try to live responsibly, while we are still here. And, stay away from straws!