fiesta for falie

so i totally underestimated my brother faiz for getting the photos done soon so i can blog and post pictures soon, but he actually did. so, sorry iz.

anyway, here's my account to how the sortta last minute party happened. Falie, had initially wanted to throw a huge party for friends and family for his birthday this year, which fell on 20.10.2010. and mom & faiz had planned to get him an iPad for his birthday present and i wanted to pitch in too to share the load. but somehow, falie managed to get, i mean extort his best friend into selling his left ear to get him an iPad, so that planned basically bummed. when we asked him what he wanted instead, he said "A Party!".

that was one week or so before the actual date, so we had to quickly think of how and where to organize the party. Faiz came up with Las Carretas and i immediately said "COOL!" coz i've been to the branch in Ampang last year so i know the food's great. we got our cousin Mona in because she's great at event planning, especially last minute ones.

i got some invite designs done even before we got the venue down, thinking it would save me time. wrong move. i had to redo the whole thing because now, apparently, we have a theme and it's mexican. so i came up with this one and once we got the bookings confirmed, we quickly passed the e-vites around.



on sunday, we went to have dinner at Las Carretas Damansara to get inspirations about what we can do with the decor and to plan the details with the restaurant manager and stuff. got an idea to give cactus as gifts for the games we got planned and in the end, that became the door gift.

All through Monday and Tuesday, i was busy printing and die-cutting the garlands as part of the decor, and at night, i'd be DIYing the tissue paper pompoms. Mom was helping me cut the numbers and tying ribbons for the lucky draw/door gifts and she stayed up till 2.30 am doing all those things. trooper! and Wednesday morning, she was busy running around with Faiz getting more gifts for the games and getting the cake all the way in shah alam. the cake that we had done for Fadz was actually Faiz' brainchild. pun totally intended. we had a brain cake done because that what Fadz does for a living, he cuts into people's heads and mess with their brains.

The plan was for mom, Faiz, Ili and Mona to reach the venue by 6.30pm so that they could hang up the pompoms and banners and place the door gifts. And Ayis and I would have to bring Arwen and the Birthday Boy to the venue and reach there just around 8.00pm so he can blow his candles at exactly 20:10. the time had to be just right. so i finished up my part in the office and left at precisely 6.00pm so i can get home, get ready and get going. yeah, so we reached the venue an hour before planned so Falie had to wait in the car until we say it's ready.

By 8.08pm, Falie entered the restaurant and we put him in a poncho and a sombrero and walked him towards his brain cake, backed by a mariachi band that's made up of the restaurant manager, Christian and his staff. we sang the birthday song and he blew the candles just in time. around 8.15, the buffet table was opened and we had Mexican Chili Chicken Soup for starters, which in retrospect now tastes like minestrone soup, Buttered Rice and Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Buttered Baked Fish, Lamb Vindaloo and Pollo Loco (Black Pepper Boneless Chicken) as the Entree, and Bread Pudding as dessert. and bottomless drinks and salsa music throughout the night. AWESOME!

in between that, we got Falie to pick some draws and quizzed people to answer a few questions about him. We got the birthday boy to judge the best dressed man and woman. Of course, nobody came dressed according to theme, except for maybe Faiz, who Ayis said looked like an illegal immigrant who's crossing the border. And then it was time for Falie to whack the pinata. Luckily, Arwen was already asleep around this time, but Falie had managed to traumatize his friend's 2 year old when he decapitated the cardboard donkey. The poor kid kept on saying "Oh-oh!" everytime Falie went Sammy Sosa shit on the pinata.

The night ended with Falie singing I'm Yours. rather impromptu. ok fine, maybe not. The Sunday before the party, Faiz told Christian that maybe we can get our brother to sing if he plays the guitar and when Christian asked us what kind of music does he listens to, somehow, in my jaded Mraz-in-my-mind state, i said Mraz and Christian jumped in and said "Yes! Cun! I can totally play I'm Yours!". After that Falie gave a short speech, and we thanked everyone for coming and joining in the fiesta. And I think we ate the leftovers from the party for the next 3 days.

here are the awesome photos from the party. yay for in-house talents!