A Very Simple Malay Wedding Plan

Malay wedding ;)

I got this feedback when I was searching for simple Malay wedding from Google.
The question: How much have your wedding cost? And what have the cost gone to?

The accepted reply is as below. I think the writer is the Singaporean & the year she post this in 2007. Dah lama tuuu. Anyway, as I think this is useful for me or maybe for some readers, so I post this entry.

Enjoy the reading ;)

Mine cost me about 4,500/- :D It's a one day wedding. Yippie.
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Invitation card:
I was gonna go far Irfanisa Card, she's such a nice person to talk to. But I had issues with a dinner wedding package with Samar which comes with a wedding invitation card. So, by the time I cancel with Samar restaurant (and lost my deposit) it was too late for her to print out the cards. So instead i had fun designing and making my own invitation cards. Since i only need about 100 cards. I bought at a bookshop in Bras basah think 2nd floor, right facing the escalator after got up to the 2nd floor. The shop sells interesting invitation cards, and some ribbons. It's not saga city or Art friend. It was newly open at the time i was looking around for materials to print my cards. So i fond this Hallmark special package kit, which comes with ribbons and translucent paper and a good quality paper to print you stuff on. It comes in 10 pieces each pack. So I got 2 different designs, 5 packs each. Then i got some special perfume paper form popular bookshop and use that for the inside instead. I made some personal changes to the card and wallah.... I got my personalize card. Everyone loved it. And i had fun making it with my mum and my husband.
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Catering:
Got nasi briyani and some other dishes form Masakan Shaik Sabri (Jaan) and decor form hrmm, can't remember think was from him as well. Not sure. Have to check again. http://www.mss3015.com/ We didn't do a buffet. We did a personal serving for each guest. The food is really really good. I can't highlight it more. Really good. !! And was no problem with the service, but we had a minor hiccup with the tent and gazebo guys. But was sorted out.
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Decor:
I had the white wedding kinda thing, with flowers on the table and a tent gazebo thing at the garden area of my house. Decor was ok overall but 2 things were quite disappointing. The 'pelamin' which I didn’t want to start with (my mum thinks that it was essential) anyways.. I had the kinda 'pelamin' which was cool I think. And I thought the decor people understood the design of it and the fresh flowers decor on the table was quite disappointing. I could have done it myself and got some fresh flowers at the market and would have turned out much better. And cost lesser. The flowers behind the tie back of the chair wasn’t even the one that I showed them on their catalogue. It came out as a ribbon kinda thingy, which they later console me that it the new type blah blah... And the pelamin, same as well....they say they can take it down and all, coz the 'type' that I want they couldn't make it. So be very careful with your decor guys. Make sure you have everything in writing and with pictures as well. So they can’t say they didn't know. Well, lucky the rest of the stuff they didn't stuff up.
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Music:
I got my laptop, played all the songs that i have already selected, and wired a few speakers around the garden and the inside of the house.
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Wedding dress:
Oh the clothes are very interesting, I got one tailored just 2 days before my wedding, at the Malay village at Geylang, there is this Chinese tailor which is facing the main road beside a beauty spa. It is a really good tailor and fits me perfectly. S$150 it's the type you find in the Malay wedding magazine. Lace type. Nicee.. And for my husband, I bought a simple Malay Baju Kurung, very nice material, and got a songket material to match with mine. My mum made the tanjak for him. Another one of my dress for nikah Idesigned it up myself for both my husband and for myself. And I got someone to tailor it in Melbourne. It was embroidered as well with some sequins. And the material looks like semi matt silky. Very nice. Another last one is an Indian dress which is bought in Melbourne as well. Gorgeous black. Got it altered to fit me. All of the clothes was less than S$500.
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Accessories:
I went around and got the broaches and shoes that I want. And the veil. I bought some books on how to tie up the hijab for special occasion and weddings, like how the mak andam does it. And practice it a few times by myself. It makes much more sense for me to purchase them than getting it form a bridal boutique, coz it's slightly cheaper, and i can actually own them and wear them again for other occasion.
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Make -up and hair cut:
I didn’t hire a mak andam. (like the make up artist and the person who will be there to make sure you look the best in your clothes, and does touch up through the wedding) I got my make-up done and my hubby got his hair cut at the same place. I recommend this place highly for Hair cut. It's call Tresses at 26 Bussorah street. (Arab street) The guy is called Omar. He also got me someone who can do my make up as well. Although i still didn't like my make-up looks at first. It was much better after a few hours when the make-up settle down. So don't do you make up thick. I actually took off most of the foundation after the nikah.
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Nikah & dinner venue:
I had my nikah at the mosque, Masjid Omar Kampung Melayu. It's the oldest mosque in Singapore, and I like how simple the place look, nothing glamorous about the mosque. We got some children from Darul Ihsan Orphanage. They came for our nikah and had dinner afterwords. As for the dinner...I actually wanted to do it in Samar Restaurant Street. After I put down the deposit...I didn't see how the manager was committed in the things she said she will do. At first I got them to do the invitation card, and it came out really bad. So I cancel it. There were other signs that suggest that they won't be able to carry out their promises. I lost my deposit as a result of cancelation (which I think I should get back since there wasn't any conformation or a contract conformation signed which was in the agreement.) I didn't bother to fight for my deposit. I was too busy to get a few hundred dollars back. So we held the dinner at my house instead. I was surprise to get a full attendance actually for my wedding.
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Photography:
I wanna add that some Malay wedding photographer treated me quite unprofessionally. Maybe they think that i was probably joking or wasting their time, and lastly. That I should have done this 1 year back. They didn’t wanna show me proper samples from the photographer who will be assigned to do my wedding. So I had enough of that and looking into non- Muslim/ Malay wedding photographer. I found this awesome guy. I'm a fussy one when it comes to photography. So I looked through all the photographers I can find and assess them through the kinda photography which I like. I didn't need the kinda photography packages which most photographers are offering, like the special graphic effect photoshoped edited kinda thing. (Coz that's just cheating in my opinion and layout weren't to my taste, being a designer myself) Anyways I want a photograph to capture the moment of the event, so i got this guy call Eu Lee. He's the best person I dealt with compared with everyone that i tried to hire. He was so professional, straight forward. And no sneaky tricky hidden cost. In total $S1000 for photography.
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Wedding favors, 'Berkat':
Oh and the wedding favors 'Berkat". That was awesome as well. I had 3 types, LOL. I'm a sucker for giving people stuff. One of my friends introduces me to this gal call Ayu who does these cute cupcakes.
E-mail : opera98@hotmail.com
I can't remember her website. :S

So these are for the kids and orphan who came for the wedding. And for the adults I got a small bottle of perfume from a shop at Golden Landmark, 2nd floor. There this small shop facing the staircase entrance towards Masjid Sultan. He sells items from the Middle East. And he sells those kinda perfumes where he will mix it up for you. Can’t remember how many I got, but it's about S$2- S$2.50. It comes with the little bag and a ribbon. Later after I bought it, my brother told me that i could have check out another place at Bussorah street right at the corner where all the coffee shops are. There one perfume shop there. Another 'berkat' I bought was at Joo chat complex. Dunno which floor. Was one of the hidden tiny cramp shop which doesn't look like much and I went into the tiny. Cramp shop and saw this wooden like (actually clay) rounded 6cm X 6cm x 6cm vase/ container. With lovely design carving, 'ukiran' on it. Again can't remember how many I bought.
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Henna:
My friend introduces me to this lovely gal who did my henna. No fuss. Also straight forward in dealing with her. She came did her work paid her and it's done. I looked up a few design and i gave it to her before I confirmed that I was gonna take her as my henna artist. She said she can, and she did. An awesome job. S$120
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After all of these expenses I got some left over cash which I wanted to go to Bintan Island for 3 days 2 night stay at Banyan tree resort. But I didn't get to go there some problems with my husband's passport. Instead we invested our money on a stock market. It's doing really well. So, we had our small little honeymoon when we're back in Melbourne. Every few months, we'll get away somewhere. And this month we're going to India and Kashmir. Woohoo. So I hope this info helps for other people planning on their wedding. I took 2 months to plan and research while I was in Melbourne and I met up with people to really check them you and put deposits within 3 weeks when I was there in Singapore. I couldn't have done it without my Mum and Dad of course. I'm not that super woman. ;)

For me, my idea of simple wedding will be like this:

1-- By keep the guests list small - We limited the guest list to just the first cousins of our parents, and that was an accomplishment. We added just a few close friends, when we could have invited dozens and dozens more. So we ended up with a list of 300 instead of 600.

2-- Keep the menu simple - We didn’t choose a large amount of dishes and desserts either. We chose a few key dishes, all of them simple, and left it at that. While we would like people to enjoy the food, they are not coming there to have a fancy meal — they’ll be there simply to celebrate our marriage and enjoy our company. If that’s not enough for them, it’s not my problem

3-- Have it catered

4-- Get help, and delegate - We can ask for help from a few friends and family which are readily to help, delegate certain tasks, and when they do them, check them off your list. It makes life a lot easier.

5-- Go with the easiest attire -- I plan for a simple nikah attire that I can use after the wedding. Simple.

6-- Simple but creative invitation cards - In my own wedding, I'll let the number of invitation cards is just for the guests that will confirm attending the wedding. Some people might printed their invitations themselves. Much satisfaction!

7-- Don’t try to impress - This is key — if you try to impress people with your fancy wedding, you’ll go to a lot of trouble and expense. So I will do as simple as I can, and I rather stay out of debt, minimize my stress levels, and spend the extra money for life after marriage.

8-- Keep the decorations simple.

9-- Simple favors.

10-- Simple entertainment - Using your own laptop with selected wedding songs will be just nice ;)

11- Have a coordinator -- This doesn’t have to be a fancy wedding coordinator, but can simply be a family member who you trust to run things according to your plan.

12-- Hold it early in the day - My wedding will start as early as 9 am in the morning for the the enggagement & nikah ceremony also and the reception will start at 11:00 a.m., so it’s a lunch buffet. This minimizes costs, and allows us to finish early.



P/S; Starts to plan my own simple wedding. Eager.