wedding day, as they say is a blur for most couples. being whisked off, being pushed and pulled for greetings, mingling and photo ops, brides and grooms are at everyone's disposal. mine was not so much of a blur, as i would recall.
the most chaotic of all the days leading up to the wedding day was the day before the actual day. all my family was at home, from both sides, labouring over tedious little details like making floral ribbon potpurri souvenirs, and bunga pahar and cleaning up the house till 5 am. kak liana arrived with the chocolates for hantaran 3 hours later than expected, but somehow, in the midst of all the chaos, we managed to send it over to aunty aini's place in time. since i can't do any labourious work for fear of getting sore back or pulling a muscle ... like the most important ring finger, for example, i was held in charge of decorating the bridal room.
mom decided to exchange rooms with me since their master bedroom is twice bigger than my room. so, we're gonna be using that room till we move out of the house. someday. mom made and hung all the curtains and backdrops, so i only had to enliven the room with rugs, picture frames and mirrors and other personal stuff, like my bottles of perfumes and teeth whitener. it may look all prim, clean and organised, but you wouldn't wanna know what kind of maelstrom that goes on in the drawers and cupboards, and also under the bed.
by 8 pm, the pelamin people arrived to put up the pelamin (which turned out so beautiful by the way) and i had to lead an Estima full of ladies to keramat ujung to get the hantaran. on my way out of the house, i was yelled at by one of the pelamin dudes "oi! pengantin tak elok keluar malam sebelum nikah!". ppfbt. whatever. sometimes you just have to do what you've gotta do. fuck tradition and superstitions. the hantaran wasn't really black and white, but thanks to aunty ainy and ili, it took on its own theme. i was thinking spain. no, flamenco.
by 12.30 am, i was supposed to be in bed, but then i remembered the most crucial detail. my fingertips are still henna-less. so, i called on one of my aunts to help me out with the inai. i didnt want the mendhi design, because it looked messy on my hands so i opted for a more simple, traditional malay approach.
oh btw, the pelamin at home was amazing!
by 2.00 am, i was already in bed while everyone was still slaving away taking care of the cleaning up and final details. i was still restless, not because i was nervous about becoming somebody's wife in 8 hours, but because i know that there's still some more things left to do and i cant put off till tomorrow. my dad's speech. so, at 2.15, i was glaring at my laptop, pouring words till it was 3 pages long. more than what's needed for a speech, but i was by then, too tired and sleepy to care about editing it.
at 3.00 am, i finally fell asleep.
only to have my alarm clock screeching at me at insanely early o'clock. took my shower, washed my hair, blow dried my hair, wipe my face with a cube of ice, went down and greeted my grandfather who was making coffee. thank god for his coffee. and then carefully greeted my mom whom just had one measly hour of sleep. by 7.30 am, the mak andam, kak dini, arrived and hence, the pengantin make-over begins.
the guests have all started to arrive and by 9.00, i was ready and my cousins arrived to keep my company till the groom comes. at 9.20, ayis called to tell me they're about to leave and will be there in 10 minutes. i saw my mom still running around, making sure things are ready, with a towel strewn across her shoulder. everything else was ready, except her. so i told ayis to stall as mama still haven't had her shower yet. while waiting, cousins and i occupy our time camwhoring. naturally.
at 10.20, the emcee announce, rather loudly, that the groom's entourage had arrived. i was so nervous at that fraction of a moment that i almost ran to the toilet to compose myself by pooping. but my cousins calmed me down, chanting "no pooping. no pooping. no pooping." good job, guys. thank you.
and then, after half and hour or so, somebody finally called us down. i calmly walked down the stairs, hoping i wont trip on my long kebaya dress or on anybody. the house was filled with family, neighbors and friends, and hantaran. somehow mom managed to fill more than a hundred people in.
on my way to the pelamin, i glanced at ayis. he looked nervous, so i gave him a big reassuring smile. only i don't think it came out as reassuring but more like 'i'm smiling because i just farted at the staircase'. he looked so dashing in his white baju melayu that i wanted to just push everyone aside to walk towards him and give him a big kiss, but i can't do it because the mak andam didn't leave me the lip gloss and i can't touch up after. so, i had to try really hard to restrain myself.
after a rather long sermon/advise from the imam, the moment came when he told ayis to repeat the akad after him. all 200 or so people, inside and outside the house shut up in unison as if there was a big audience cue telling them all to be quiet. to everyone's amazement, ayis pledged his akad in one breath, at just one take. as i sighed alhamdulillah in relieve, ayis received a loud cheer and ovation from the guests, including his uncles and my mom. yes, people actually clapped and said 'woohoo!'.
so, it's done. i became a wife. i officially became us.
the reception that night was kind of a blur for me. but i remember it to be even more magical than i expected. i got ready at around 5 pm and was all pimped out and pumped up by 7.30. my cousin jeff and uncle poksu came to extend their service to be our drivers and escorts for the night. we were scheduled to have our grand entrance at 8.30, but amazingly, the jalan ampang route was clear all the way, that we arrived earlier than expected. so we had to go around the kampung pengantin, wait it out for 30 minutes.
after 45 minutes or so waiting in the car, we were finally called in for the grand entrance. all my cousins and maid-of-honour, farrah and ayis' bestman, jomey, looking so classy and dashing in black were waiting for us. they switched off the main lights on all the tents as we walked down the candle-lit pathway, accompanied by a rather faint live saxophone background music and a constant nagging of "oi pengantin, jalan slow sikit!"
midway to the grand pelamin, we stopped to release the black and white balloons carried by each of my escorts (a great idea, brainchild of my brother. i wanted bubbles, but then again, what if i slipped nanti?) and continued on towards the pelamin. once at the pelamin, we made our fourth? fithth? eighteenth? blunder. i mixed up my left and right. i know that bride are supposed to be seated on the left of the groom, but i was like "what? my left or the pelamin left?" it took me about 10 seconds to figure it out. i'm not slow, okay, it's the big, heavy tiara on my head obstructing my otherwise exceptional navigational skills.
during the merenjis session, it was hard for me to control from tearing up when i saw tears on my dad's cheek. and harder still when my mom was bawling and me and kissed me like she never intended to let me go. and i just couldn't contain it any longer when my brothers revealed the video montage and all the pictures on the pillars.
after that, it was all a blur. all i remember was how happy i was.
again, thank you all for a beautiful wedding.
