Wedding Update 3: Engagement Photoshoot.

I think planning a wedding is stressful. No wait. Who am I kidding? Planning a wedding is stressful. I don't think it is. It obviously is. We had the opportunity to plan our friend's wedding together recently and I felt that, that has given us a good platform to see things differently now. So yes, I do think that God works on a perfect timing :)

Despite the 'experience' that we had, there's nothing like planning own wedding. The stress level is brought up to 1,000 times more, and as much as people have already warned us about the 'confirm will argue phase', it didn't like make things easier also.

We still argue hard and loud. Heh. 

Two months into being engaged, we have so far confirmed the venues and got our dates blocked. DOUBLE YAY!

The other thing that is very important is getting the right people, the right team to be in charge of capturing all the lovely moments, both before and during the big day. Yes, I am obviously talking about photography. I hope we can afford to do videography but we will have to see about that later. Budget is the only subject I wish I don't have to talk about. Hah. 

Can you imagine my excitement when we have finally confirmed the team who will be doing on our pre-wedding photoshoot engagement?

THEY ARE THE BEST KIND.

They are called onemustardseed.

Some of my favorite shots from their FB page here.

They are based in OZ Land but guess what? No distance is too far for them to help you make your wedding the most meaningful day ever. 

I can't wait for the photoshoot already yeah. 

One less stress, yesssss!

When You Say Nothing At All - Arden Cho

I like this version, a lot. 

If not, it won't be here. Heh. 

That Coach Box.

There was this one day when my heart stopped for a mili-second. 

I had just came home, and after putting my bag on the dining chair, I walked straight to my room to remove the watch and ring, and to get ready for a warm shower. 

The first thing that caught my eye when I switched on the light was this.

Yes, at that moment, I straight terkejut gila. I have immediately jumped into the conclusion that both my parents had bought this and they decided to surprise me like that.

Okay, wait. I think many of you may not be able to see clearly of the box. Here's a closer look!

Since I know that they read my blog, where I mentioned about wanting to own this bag sometime ago but I definitely do not have the money to own one now. I HOPE THEY DO READ MY BLOG LA! THEY BETTER OKAY! Hah. 

Anyways, when I saw this, I literally just stopped breathing. My parents are always up with surprises when they buy something for us that we really want.

There was once when I wanted to own my own phone and I wanted one with like flip cover phone. So, I saved money but I could only afford a normal phone with no flip whatsoever. 

One morning I was still sleeping and all of them walked into my room and woke me up. When I opened my eyes, they passed me a box and when I had finally open it up, there it was. 

A BRAND NEW FLIP PHONE IN THE SOFTEST PINK EVER ALL THE WAY FROM OZ LAND.


So, I thought this was a similar experience and boy, I am not complaining at all! Heh. 

So when the perfect-not-dented-box was laid on my pile of clothes, I had my 'OH MY GOODNESS' moment. 

I even held the box up to make sure it's not an empty box and it was heavy. Not like super heavy or what but there's weight on it.

I stood there for a while, with my heart racing oh so fast punyalah F1 driving style.

Then.

I opened it up slowly.

GUESS WHAT WAS INSIDE.

Sorry no photos because I just totally forgot about taking photos after seeing its content.

Can you all just take a guess ah?

Come on. 

I give you all 1 try. 

I some more held my breath so long when I opened it. FUNNY LAH.

It was a box filled with mom's Christmas ornaments.

Yep. ORNAMENTS. WHAT COLOR ALSO GOT. ALL KINDS OF SHAPE PUN ADA.

I had the second longest 'WHATTTTTT' of my life in my room. 

Definition of putting hopes too high to only have it crushed to the floor. Heh. 

After that straight no mood for hot shower already. Quick shower got lah. Hah. Oh myyy. I guess that was the closest feeling I felt to owning this one. Heh. 

This is madness.

Anyways, yeah. I wonder how many of you actually experienced the same thing? Like the content is not what you want it to be and stuff. SO BAD RIGHT THE FEELING. 

When I think of it again, I confirm will laugh, like now. Oh myy. Dumb dumb me. 

Engagement Dinner For Two.

In the midst of all kinds of moments and seasons, one thing that helps me calm down (literally) is this: blogging.

It may be on random things like this one and this one and this one and this one. Just as long as I blog. So, it could be anything under the sun, moon and stars. 

Recently however, I've noticed that I've been posting a lot on the recent-status-change. Don't blame me okay. It is really a big moment for me, for us. Okaylah, don't know much on the impact for him but at least for me, it seems like everything changed. 

I think the very moment when he posted that YES! SHE SAID photo on Facebook and Instagram, his friends immediately already knew what they were going to do for his bachelor party. More like, where they wanna have his bachelor party. Hangover Part 4. GGDOTCOM liau.

Anyways, for me it was breathtaking. Yeah, I literally forgot to breathe that few seconds and every now and then. The thought of becoming someone's wife in less than a year scares me actually. Not in a really bad way. I don't know. 

I take marriage very seriously and I know once I'm in it, there's no way out. It's really going to be till death-do-us-part and I strongly do not agree with divorce under any circumstances at all. 

I guess because of that, I tend to want to talk about it a lot because I am super excited for it. If you're not excited for me, then you no good friend lah okay. KIDDING!

Anyways, we wanted to celebrate our engagement and remember that day when it happened but because money is something that we cannot simply spend and something that we don't really have (at the moment), we decided that we will not do it with both sides of family. We wouldn't want to celebrate big and pay for a dinner with money that we do not have. Heh. 

So, we decided to have a candle-light dinner together. No candles obviously because candle-light dinner is way too serious and quiet. Hah. I tell you ah we're so not the fine-dine kind of people la. 

It didn't take long for us both to decide where to dine because this place is a place where we always looked past it and will never stop and go in eat. BECAUSE THEY ARE EXPENSIVE APPARENTLY.

And since this is an engagement dinner, we were like, "HOR EE LOK!"

Did you know that we actually postponed our dinner a few times already because both were not in the 'right mood'? WE TOTALLY DID. 

To know where we went for dinner, click sini pergi WhatTwoEatHere tengok. 

We decided to do it on a Monday because then the day started out to be exciting as we both will be thinking of the dinner so no blues. At least for me it wasn't blue. I don't think he ever has problems with Monday blues. He's too in love with the things he does. Hm. 

Anyway, we also made it a point to dress-up for this dinner because it's a big night okay. So, after work, changed into a dress and put on nice make-up and wore heels. Mood also was right so best giler ya. I think he saw that I wear so nice d then only he quickly change to another shirt in the car. Heh. 

He brought flowers before dinner. No, seriously he did. HOW ROMANTIC CAN.

He called for booking earlier and requested for a romantic corner and guess where they placed us? 

Right next to the window, which was perfect I guess except there was no view also. It basically sees the main road and carpark. Heh. But what other view do I need since I have my lover in front of me, right? HAH! GELI!

We dined and wined and talked about everything other than the wedding planning because that could end up in either two ways. 

One, we will end the topic realizing that there is a lot of work to do and bring to ourselves the extra stress that we don't want during dinner. 
Two, we will set the mood off because we will reach to yet another junction and both will 'argue' till we agree to disagree in the end, and boy you wouldn't want to be with us when we are at that junction because the debate is endless okay and loud. Hah.

So yes, no wedding talks. Just us and pointless topics. 

Then, after that we went to our potential-wedding-ceremony venue and walked around. It's so beautiful at night oh goodness. Too bad our wedding ceremony is going to be in the morning. Heh.

Oh right. At first, we didn't want to talk about the wedding right? So, we went to that place and still did not really talk about it. We just kinda stood there and looked at it and smiled. 

I think we both tried to imagine the whole ceremony in the back of our heads at that place. As much I want to reveal where that place is, Muthu suggested that we wait till we get confirmation on the venue then only reveal! Ahhh, the suspense I tell you. 

All I can say is the place is AMAZING, DREAMS-COME-TRUE-HERE, IT'S-OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD AND IT'S WHAT WE'VE IMAGINED OUR WEDDING TO BE AT.

Okay, I may have just increased all your expectations on this place and if it turns out not so great for some of you, the feelings sure horrible. Okay, you know what? JUST WAIT FOR THE REVEAL! COMING SOOOON! :)

After like 10 minutes there, it started drizzling and we decided to go home and rest. I took the longest shower while he plays with his Samsung (pfft, change to iPhone already please) and was in my most comfortable jammies. Oh my, nothing beats that. 

My hair all tied up, I have bedak on my face and we shared a bottle of Somersby, while watching Masterchef Australia. Well, I watched the Masterchef. He? He was watchin Youtube with his phone on funny videos or something. But still best kind of night. 

Four years ago, I would not have seen myself here to be with this weirdo. I do see both of us as best friends for life kind of thing but who would ever thought that we both would fall for each other. Yes, you obviously liked me first as much as you want to deny that, Koay. Heh. 

Now, I have about ten months before everyone starts calling me Mrs Koay, which by the way is so weird! I may correct them and ask to call me Sarah instead. Muahaha.

That's it on our engagement dinner that we had, and may we both continue to be as true/real to each other as we are now (except for digging nose in the car :P) with each other.

*raise wine glass* TO MAY MORE YEARS AHEAD OF US!

Wedding Update 2.

Wedding Update 1 focuses more on a general sense of the dream wedding we want to have because we just didn't have time to sit down and focus on one item at a time, so ma talked about everything. 

Now, we're panicking.

Okay, not really also. 

Anyways, today I just want to pen down some thoughts on venues.

It is so difficult to get the best of both worlds because some hotels have really nice set-up and food and all but only offer a very limited number of tables. Then, the ones that can cater to more people is really expensive. So how?

So, we decided not to have any wedding dinner at all!

KIDDING!

Actually, that has always been my plan even before I thought of getting married. I feel, wedding dinner takes up a whole lot sum of money that we don't have and in just a night, all that will be spent and then have to sacrifice honeymoon because no money already so just go Langkawi. 

Nope, Langkawi is not happening, my dear fiance. NOT AT ALL.

WE ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE IN MALAYSIA. NOPE. END OF DISCUSSION.

Back to the headache. 

The first thing we did when we sort of have a date in mind was blasting out emails to hotels and hotels only. I am picky because I do not want to have it in a restaurant. TAK SUKA.

Some hotels replied in 24 hours and some just don't. Till now, some of the hotels didn't even bother replying. Pfffft. Business must be too good for them already. 

Okay, so actions in order will be like:

PICK A DATE

No, don't pick a date. PICK AT LEAST THREE DATES. I was so confident that no one else was going to have the same-date-wedding with me since it's hundred of days ahead of time. WRONG! It seems like everyone else got their hotels booked already, on our date some more. SAD MAX OKAY. 

So yes, please choose at least 3 dates in case your first choice cannot then you won't panic like me on the phone with the hotel people. We're still on the wait-list on the date we originally wanted with two more couples in front of us. Goodness me.

NUMBER OF TABLES OR NICE PLACE?

This was one of the toughest decision that we both had to agree on. My only agreement on having a wedding dinner is to have it at a nice place. The place has to be really amazing kind. The only problem is money. 

For sure there are so many hotels here that are so amazing but their price list is even more amazing leh and they cannot cater to the minimum number of tables that we want. 

For Mut, his priority was the number of tables. He has a lot of people in his invite list (yes, he already started listing them down) and it's going to be super hard to cut down right. 

After many nights of discussion, we have finally decided to put a fix number of tables and work around that number. Happy to say that we have finally able to narrow down on the possible venues. 

GET PRICE PROPOSAL

This is actually together with the first step, when you send emails to hotels. Obviously everyone knows the main purpose of this kind of email is to get the price quotation and proposal on all that's inclusive with the price offered.

NEGOTIATE THE PROPOSAL

Once we knew what we wanted, we went straight to the hotel and asked for discounts. I feel there isn't much we could do to lower down the price except to list down the items that we are willing to let go that's part of the proposal.

That, and maybe a really good relationship with the hotel people. If you know someone from the inside then that's even better. Maybe they could get you a really good deal. 

I thought we got quite a good deal with this hotel.

Fun fact: it's a hotel we both loved. FAVORITE HOTEL! YAY!

We are not revealing what hotel yet because saja suka hati. Hah. Actually, because it's not confirmed yet!

I tell you why okay!

BECAUSE THERE'S TWO MORE COUPLES IN FRONT OF US ON THE SAME DATE! I know I said this earlier but let me be lah okay. So, we are praying hard that they don't take it so we both can have it on the date that we wanted. If not, have to go to second date choice but I don't want how. 

See how lah.

SEAL THE DEAL

Yes, if your date is available and you know in your guts heart that this is the venue for the dream wedding, then quickly pay the deposit and seal it, so no one can steal your date from you. Heh. This part hasn't happen yet for us so we shall wait. Oh and we have two venues to confirm some more. One for wedding ceremony and another one for wedding dinner. 

G!

So, this is pretty much it on getting the basic thing set. No venue, no wedding. Heh. Planning own wedding can be quite stressful. Planning for any wedding is stressful. Getting married should not be this stressful okay.

I am very blessed to have a hands-on fiance to do this together with me. If not, I sure pecah.

Hah.

ACTUALLY RIGHT!

We started on this planning very rocky because he was really relaxed and at the same time, he was busy with his work. So, most of the decisions and questions I have to answer and that got me on my nerves because I needed someone to do this with. 

We argued once on this and since then, we both knew clearly that in order for both of us to enjoy every process of getting ourselves married to each other, both have to put both hands in together. 

Since then, the stress is not so much :)

So yes, this is what we've learnt so far being engaged for more than two months. 

Will You Marry Me : His Side (Part II)

Adrian Koay signing in..

Before you continue with this post, please read my Part I first boleh? Her part also you can go read first if you want..

The wait for this backpack trip felt really long. Our 12 days trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand needed a lot of planning in advance just in case you didn't know. 

The funny thing was, Ryan Yeoh and Naomi Mair both asked me if I was going to propose to Sarah during the trip. Terkejut for a moment.  

Then recently, I asked both Ryan and Naomi what made them thought like that. 

He said, "Because you rarely go on a holiday, usually Sarah go only one!"

Then, when I asked Naomi, she just said, “I got a feeling laa…”

So, Andrew and I tried to find ideas on how to propose during the trip. Then Andrew found in google saying things like Angkor Wat is one of the most romantic places in the world to do a proposal. At first, I doubted it because I didn't want Sarah and I to be both sweaty and dirty during the proposal. 

But after that, I thought why not? We are rugged like that. 

Hot sun, sweat and rough adventures are all bits and pieces of our relationship. 

The plan in the end was to go with the flow. When the timing and setting is chun, just hor ee lok! Bend down and pop the question!

Few days before Sarah, Carmen, Jack and I left for Ho Chi Minh, I met up with Andrew secretly to pass the ring work-place. Also, at the same time, to pass him the Thai Baht and USD that we change for him and Beverly. Both of them will meet us few days later in Ho Chi Minh because they have got to work. 

After passing the proposal ring to him, on my way back, I felt that something felt missing from the whole thing. So chun right, there was florist shop in front of me, so I stopped and got some roses that will last for a lifetime a.k.a. fake/plastic roses so that the rose can complement the ring. 

Oh ya, the only reason I chose to pass the ring to Andrew was to make sure Sarah doesn’t suspect anything of course. Since she likes to put things and take things from my bag, I cannot carry the ring with me, at all. Teehee.

Holidays started in Vietnam. Banh mi, pho, raincoat, coffee. Andrew and Beverly joined us two days later and he has this tukao pouch over his shoulder the whole entire time, even when he sleeps. 

Inside, the 2R. 

Ring and Roses. 

Throughout the trip, Andrew and I made a lot of those “jeng jeng jeng, you know, I know, she doesn’t know” eye contact. 

Then we stopped for few nights at Phnom Penh before heading to Siem Reap! 

The night before the proposal, Jack and Andrew kept asking me. 

“Are you ready to be a man tomorrow?” 

My answer every-time was always G!

G here, G there. GG everywhere.

We woke up really early that morning as we wanted to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. When we got there, there were like thousands of people standing beside the lake already. I was thinking, there must be a nicer place than that. 

To propose in front of so many people would be awkward! We walked around there but it didn't look like there was going to be another place that we could see the sunrise perfectly. 

Then, I decided that we have to do it there, by the lake. To make it not so obvious, I asked Sarah to take picture of us laughing at those people waiting for the sunrise beside the lake!

Then we headed towards the lake where the crowds were.

Not long after that, we heard people around us started saying “Woahhhh!"

Then I was like, this is it! All I need now is chun timing? So CHUN! 

When the sun came up, what everyone did was take picture right? You know la, Sarah Khoo surely wouldn’t want to miss her instagram-worthy pictures one! So, she decided to join everyone else and went ahead by the lake to snap all the shots she could.



Then Andrew signaled me. 

HOR EE LOK! 

And I did!

Knelt down on one knee on the muddy side of the lake, looking upwards for the big monster in front of me to turn her head over. No ,she did not turn back despite me calling her a few times. She was too into getting that perfect sunrise photo. So, I (actually it was Beverly's voice that she heard) called her name again and again, of course with the shiny thing on my hand. 

Tiok cheh kia terui dia!

So, I asked her the QUESTION! 

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

And I heard nothing from her.. 

She just kept closing her face or mouth nya. Then she nodded.  So I put on the ring on her second finger from the left of her left hand which was shivering pretty badly. That's when I realized that my hands were shivering too. The rest is… 

GGDOTCOM

Adrian Koay signing out..

3D2N Estadia Hotel, Melaka.

If there is one thing that I really cannot get bored of doing on a daily basis, that would most definitely be staying in good hotels. What made it even better is of course having my whole entire family come with me :)

It was quite some time ago already and I suddenly just remembered that I have missed this hotel out. HOW COULD I?

Estadia Hotel is worth my time and energy and I will tell you why.

Over the weekends, we decided to drive down to Malacca for a really quick getaway. Grandma came along this trip and she had just mentioned about it days before we decide to go. All the cencaluks and Malacca brown sugar she could get her hands on. Hah.

It took us many many hours to reach this city. Boy was I happy when we finally saw red buildings here and there. No need o introduce Malacca because if till now Malacca remains a mystery to you then you should just hide yourself in your room and don't come out. 

Seriously, make some time and plan a trip to Malacca. I've been to Malacca countless of times and every time also very fun. If you want to go, go over the weekends. Yes, there will be more people but the Jonker Street will be open and they are only open during weekends. So, don't blame me ah if you go on weekdays and there's nothing to do at night. Heh.

We booked this hotel online, via Agoda if not mistaken. It was onlt about RM160 per room per night. Quite okay considering that it's such a new hotel. When I first heard of the hotel, I was like, "Since when Malacca got this hotel eh?"

I assumed that I would know of the new big hotels in Malacca since I go there so often don't know for what. Hah. Wrong. Estadia Hotel is super new and boutique hotel some more and I love staying in new-boutique-ish-hotels like The Signature! Okay, The Signature is not boutique style but it was new when I went. 

Okay, it's not only new. It's actually under the budget unit but also under the luxury category, so it's not really budget also. So, it's like budgetly luxury. Hmm..yeah. 

Apparently, the price is so cheap that time because it was still pretty new so in order to attract more people, they've got to do that. GO TRY NOW BEFORE THEY INCREASE THE PRICE! Heh.

This is one of the unique hotel experience for me because it's themed is Peranakan style kind. So, if you know anyone who grows up during that era or they may love anything that's to do with Peranakan, you need to recommend this hotel. 

I think my grandmother loves it a lot. 

It has a hint of modern style to it also actually. 

Another thing about this hotel is it is very strategically located at the city centre. I don't know if that's the city place but it's connected to the famous Dataran Pahlawan. Imagine how convenient that could be.

My mom and sister walked over to Dataran Pahlawan from Estadia Hotel on their own while the rest of us rested in the room for a while. No need to drive out and find place to park. Seriously best kind of location. 

One thing about the room though is that it's awfully small. It is really small. 

It may seemed like it're quite spacious in my panorama photo (must be my great photo-taking skill lah) but it's really not. 

As much as I love this hotel, I would not recommend it if you plan to sleep 3 adults in here. If it's just 2 people then it's perfect. 

Next time when I travel with Mut to Malacca, this hotel will be in the list of hotel-must-stay. 

There were 7 adults, 1 child and 1 infant with us in two rooms with a connecting door. 

I had to sleep on the floor between the two super-single beds. How sad. 

Ehh then again ah, their super-single beds can sleep 2 adults. Serious I kid you not. Especially you all lovey-dovey kind of couple, even better right? You can share the room with your another couple-friends.

If you want comfort, just opt for 2 people in a room. That's the best already!

So, here's my little 2 cents on Estadia Hotel, Peranakan home-style luxury hotel, only in Malacca. TRY IT GUYS :)

It's November already? Siau meh.