Halloween 2013

We get an invite from one friend for a Halloween party tonight. Last year we didn't celebrate any since we might be out of town. I don't really remember the reason why, or where are we. 

Two years ago, my first date with Nico was during Halloween night. Me and Nico was working in the same company and the project just started so everybody still trying to get to know each other. We spoke with each other few times but all are work related and i wasn't interested with him since he look so young. That halloween day we exchange number because he need me to check on something and inform him back in order for him to proceed on site. At the same day i also get another number from a female colleague since we plan to party together that night. 

That night, i was at salsa club joining my salsa friends and planned to join my colleague afterward. I send a text message but i get confused with the number since i didn't add her or Nico number in my phone. So....i send message to the wrong person. And this is the beginning of Mr & Mrs David. Halloween play a big part in our story. 

So, to remembered that night again tonight we will be Jack & Sally from the movie Nightmare Before Christmas because i was Sally two years ago and Nico was Nico. For the first time ever, he also decided to dress up and put on costume. 

(Thats me in 2011)

I bake cupcakes specially for tonight to bring over since it will be house party. It was funny because the recipe which i followed indicate that it will make 16 cupcakes but i end up having almost 30 cupcakes. Its a chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting which i will try to decorated as jack face. 

 (Chocolate Cupcakes)

 (Black icing to do eyes and mouth)

(and i dun have that decorating tip)

 (owh hell, i dun have patience for this)

 (ready for tonight)

(mummies included cos jack is pain in the ass)

 (Jack & his cupcakes)

 (With Anna & Clement)

(Happy Halloween from Jack & Sally)

Our Official Wedding Invitation Card

My idea of our wedding invitation card is just something simple, need, tidy but still look classy. I never like my card to look typical malay and since we also going into mix marriage we decide to do it mat salleh way with faint touch of malay style in it. Our first problem was when we need to choose what language for the cards. We going to have french, malaysian, singaporean, german and thai guest. We actually want to print it in english but some of my guest and nico guest which is our close relatives wont understand it. Finally we choose to print 50 pieces in french and 150 pieces in malay. For english speaking guest we might just give them a translation in order for them to understand. Most important is they understand when and where the reception going to be held. 

We then went to bridal fair at Wangsa Walk one weekend and we found our card vendor. Their display of card is quite impressive, wasn't typical and reasonable price. The staff told me that if i like any design on internet, i can just show it to them and they can do it for us. So my search for design start and finally i found this. 

(we want this design, embossed and similar font)

I showed it to Nico and he also like it and agreed that we going for this design. We then go all the way to pudu to discuss with their designer. I told them i want exactly like this with 2 cards tie together with ribbons, one for invitation and another one for reservation. She said she can do it and im so happy. When we discuss i told her that i want that embroidery design to be embossed and our name to be printed with gold color hot stamp. She said ok and spend her time texting and calling her boss because she apparently didn't know on the pricing. Design will be the same as the white card above and size and style to be as the one below. 

 (size same as this, big card for invitation and small card for reservation)

She then gave me her price which is RM2 for both card and additional charge for ribbons, which is super cheap. So Nico said since its going to be too simple why don't we do pocket for the card. What we mean by pocket is, you have some kind of envelope which look like file folder where you can put your card inside.  So she check again and finalize the price and it was RM3.80 for all. After 2 hours discussion we then come to our final summary, she repeat again and explain to us what we want in order to get better understanding and can proceed with design.

This is when we find out that our cards is actually not embossed and only normal background printing (no wonder so cheap). Pocket will be embossed and hot stamp, but invitation card will be only background print and hot stamp. I got so upset and make a noise right there and then. I really don't understand why she couldn't understand what i want when i already gave her sample of both picture. Since we already agreed to do the pocket we end up just do background printing in order not to have extra cost (Nico really want that pocket). I told her if she explain properly, we wont choose the pocket and can do embossed on the card. To rub salt to my wound she told us that they required 50% to start with design which only will be ready after one week and we have to pay extra RM30 if we want sample. So i go home with unhappy face and terrible mood. 

After one week we get our 1st view of our card to be and as expected its look like rubbish. she goes from revision 1 to 7 and we have to corrected her all the time. Its really make me angry because she didn't bother to check her spelling, didn't take initiative to make it look nice and all the mistake is minor which shouldn't happen at the first place. 

(Version 1, judge it yourself)

In all our emails, we told her that she missing back view for the reservation card which is suppose to be our address as we intend to make it like postcard. Apparently she didn't understand but didn't call us to clarify until we reach to version 7. 

Yesterday we go and collect our card and again i get very angry. Nico card are perfect but mine which is in malay are not printed in the same font size. Do i really have to go until the stage that i told them what size for the font and she can't even think to make it same? I get really disappointed and being a perfectionist i'm not fond with this kind of stupidity. But there's nothing i can do now and have to settle with other people low standard our work.  I am highly NOT recommend them to any of you.

 (Pocket Cover)

 (Malay Version)

 (RSVP)

 (Map & Address)

 (French Version)

Our Official Pre-Wedding Picture

We plan to DIY our pre-wedding picture since we going for vacation in France and Italy. Photographer in Europe are very expensive and the cheapest we can get is around RM400 or EU100 for an hour. My friend suggest that we take a look at Groupon France, in case we might find something cheap since Groupon Malaysia wasn't so bad. We also plan to print out this pre-wedding picture as a display at reception area later. I bought cheap voucher from Groupon malaysia before for 12 pieces of poster picture. 

So i have a look and alhamdulillah i found one photographer. Nico immediately check with him on a available date, price and location. The price was EU40 per pax so we paid EU80 to him to have 2 hours outdoor shoot. For studio shooting the price including costumes and make up but for outdoor he wont provide anything. Since we already in Paris, there's no point to do it in the studio since we also can do it here in KL.

We told him that we are ok to bring our own costumes and i can do my own make up since i so want to do it in Paris. We are allowed to choose 2 location and we decided to choose Eiffel Tower and Louvre. Initially, we booked him on 7th of May but then he couldn't make it so we have to change it to 30th April before our road trip to Italy.

It was one cold and windy spring afternoon. The weather wasn't so good and i was so scared that its going to be raining knowing unpredictable weather in France. We start at Eiffel Tower and we try to showed our differences in our picture by wearing clothes that really represent our country. So i dress up in my bright orange kebaya while nico in strips shirt and a hat. I should have ask him to hold baguette isnt it? :)

Our photographer is a french man who just move to Paris from south. Unfortunately he is more experienced with portrait photography and pre-wedding picture is still something new to him. Its really frustrating since we didn't know how to pose and he didn't advise neither.

I wasn't so happy with the result but there's nothing we can do. At least its still in Paris and not everybody get this opportunity. Well, better luck next time. So this is few of our pre-wedding picture and unedited.

Pre-Honeymoon #1 : Karma Kandara Bali, Indonesia

2 Days after our wedding reception, we flew to Bali with 20 others guest which is Nico's family and friends. We didn't plan to go for honeymoon since i wanted to go to Greece and the best time to visit is starting in June during summer and Nico wanted to go to either Bora-Bora or Seychelles. Since both of his option are expensive we agreed to put it on hold. 

When we arrived in Bali we went directly to the beach. Me & Nico desperately need to be on the beach after 7 months of hard work, we deserve to relax. With 22 of us in a bus, we took a ride from Denpasar airport to Ungasan, south of Bali. Everybody was tired, early morning flight, an hour bus ride but everything paid off when we arrived at Nammos Kandara Beach Club.

Nammos kandara beach club is part of karma kandara resort. Entrance fee to this beach club will be IDR250,000 (RM70). IDR150, 000 for fee and you can use IDR100,000 to order food at the beach club. Its a bit expensive but when you see the view you know why you have to pay that much. (PLEASE CHECK MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL FOR VIDEO)

 (Cliff Resort)

 (Need to take tram to go down to the beach)

 (Simply Beautiful)

(Mr & Mrs David)

(Nammos Beach Club)

Nammos Kandara open until 11pm, you can swim, sunbathing, snorkel, play beach volley ball and watch movie at night from their big screen which they set up on the beach. Sadly, they didn't have so much choice of food. Only salad, sushi (which is not available when we were there) and also pizza. Service wast so good also especially when they have to face 21 hungry french and 1 almost dying Malaysian. They really took long time to prepare and most of the time the waiter or waitress wasn't aware that the food is ready. But, we finally had our lunch around 4pm and real fun begin when everybody have full stomach.

This recent Bali trip was actually the third trip for me, 2nd to Nico but first time for everybody else. Everything in the itinerary we already done before except karma kandara. So this is something special for me this time.

We ended our day around 6 or 7pm and went to Jimbaran bay for seafood dinner. After dinner, me and Nico went back to Karma Kandara resort for check in while the rest went to our villa in canggu which we going to join the next day. We arrived around 10pm and we are exhausted. We didn't check in earlier because they said entrance from Karma kandara and nammos beach club is different and quite far from each other.  I was actually plan to be alone with Nico for one day and one night since we just got married. This is also the first luxury resort i have ever been to. The 2 bedroom villa cost me RM2200 for one night.

When we first arrived at our villa, all light already turn on to welcome us. The staff took us to see around the villa. We have big living room which is separated from our room. In front of living room there's a 2m deep swimming pool which both of me and nico cannot resist to jump in to. We choose bedroom on the ground floor because its easy excess to the pool and its also because they provide outdoor shower. First floor bedroom which is the master bedroom equipped with bathtub but we still think downstairs bedroom are better.

So, its almost midnight, Cinderella didn't go out this time and stay in with her husband which she married 2 days before. :)

(2 Bedroom Villa)

 (upstairs Bedroom)

(Downstairs Bedroom)

 (Upstairs bathroom with bathtub)

(Downstairs bathroom with outdoor shower, LOVE IT)

(Our own 2m pool)

(awwwww)

(And our own living room complete with kitchen)