Angah's Akad Nikah ceremony @ Taman Permata (Saturday, 12th April 2008)

A pretty purple flower outside Aunty Lin's house

Salam,

My cousin Angah, was supposed to have his wedding ceremony in August (you just cannot believe how many newlyweds want to have the date 8th August 2008 as their date to remember). However since Angah accepted a job offer which requires him to move to Dubai, UAE (I-SERIOUSLY-ENVY-YOU-ANGAH) in May, the whole family had to bring all the plans forward in order to have have all the ceremonies in April.

The greenery patch of Aunty Lin's neighbour, she must have green hands to takes care of this

Fortunately for us, Angah and her wife-to-be were two simple human beings. They are so simple, they left almost everything to the wise judgment of my aunt, Aunty Lin who is Angah's mother. Simplicity is not necessarily easy for the wedding planner to plan, since when you tend to be too simple you will just say "I leave everything to you," and "Anything will do." Actually those sentences are too general, so the choices could not be narrowed down. Of course my aunt complained "Tak tau la Angah tu! Dia buat tak tau je bila orang tanya nak macam mana!" (I don't know what to do with him! He acts like he could not care less when we ask his opinions!) Haha, so please for those you simple about to get married couples, it's good the two of you are simple a.k.a not fussy, but being a little opinionated helps too, really.

Angah & Kak Shikin's simple but pretty wedding cards

Above is the photo of their wedding card, yes of course when you have time constraint, your budget goes a little haywire as well. So you have to minimize the budget. Supposedly they were having their wedding reception at a hall, but since everything has to be brought forward, all is to be done at home. My aunt, she is the wife of an ex-army, so she used to be very active with BAKAT (a women's society for the wives of armies, where you learn all sorts of lady-like skils be it from cooking, arts and crafts, sewing etc, believe me they could be handy when you need them really). So as for the wedding cards, originally it was so blah! But Aunty Lin creatively bought some transluscent paper, and pretty purple ribbons in different types, attached them with the cards making them look much nicer. Besides that, she made the decoration flowers for the gifts' trays. Actually come to think about it, the family members of my mother's side are always very creative when it comes to handicrafts especially Aunty Lin and my eldest aunt, Mak Long. Even my cousins could draw and paint well. As for me, maybe make-up is my thing :)

On the eve of Angah's akad nikah (solemnization) ceremony, most of us family members hung out at Aunty Lin's house to help around (most of us watched TV and just made the whole situation lively since we could not help much with the hantaran (gifts)). Not to worry, there was always free entertainment for us, of course provided by the youngest generation in the family. That night, there were Ariq & Alya from Penang (Alya as the youngest was always too moody too be touched) and Naema from Shah Alam (she is always moody too but we just could not stop laughing at the stunts she pulled). Ariq is going to be 2 and a half, Naema going to be 2, while Alya is going to be 1 and a half. Ariq and Alya are siblings, while Naema is their cousin. They have 6 months gap between their birthdates.

Ariq all dressed up for KLIA, Naema comfortably in her PJs

Ariq and Alya live in Penang, so we always call him and his siblings budak-budak Penang (Penang kids). Ariq is always so sweet and softspoken it's painful to see him getting hurt, especially since he lost a lot of weight due to his recent high fever. We always love his slightly long hair covering his ears, and he's always all smiles and has tanned skin for a guy we think that he is just handsome. Also who could resist his hairstyle which covers his forehead, so adorable :) On that night, Ariq was supposed to fetch his eldest sister, Nellysha from the airport since his family was already in Shah Alam since Wednesday, but since the sister is schooling because she's 9, the mother insisted that she shouldn't miss school, so she left Penang by herself on Friday after school. Hehe.. yes studies are to be taken seriously in this family.

A Giant and 2 Elves

Adorable Ariq, love this boy's hair, smile, eyes, ok everything

Nana looks like a wicked witch capturing this innocent boy

Naema on the other hand, she is adorable like crazzyy. Her cuteness (she inherited the big wide eyes gene of my mother's side) and man this girl is smart! I mean really! She knows how to pull the kid-politics. What do I mean by that? Well since currently she is the only kid in her family (her baby bro is soon to greet us in May insya Allah) she will be all smiley and lovey-dovey with you if she's at home alone without other kids. However if she meets her cousins, you will be regarded as a nobody to you. Unless if you can provide her with food, then she'll be your friend again. It's hillarious how she always say she hasn't eaten anything when she had eaten her porridge. Hopefully her coming brother will be just as lovely.

I asked Naema to show her teeth as in to smile, but she understood me literally instead.

That's more like it Naema


The Day of the Akad Nikah (Solemnization Ceremony)

Aunty Lin in orange, so obvious that she is the mother of the Groom by being in control :)

Since on this particular Saturday, I had jobs to do I did not manage to attend the ceremony. However my sister Deena managed to snap photos of it. Nana said it was an extremely hot hot day in Taman Permata, where the ceremony took place at the woman's side. A little briefing about this couple, Angah is an avid fan of motorbikes, he likes all those big boys' toys as you call it, he watches the GP races on TV and his favourite racer is the hot Valentino Rossi. And he said that his wife Kak Shikin is the right girl because she shares the same birthdate with Rossi. Talk about over obsession.
There is not much to talk about the ceremony, except that the theme colour was Cream and Alhamdulillah the ceremony went smoothly. Ummi also told me that all of them enjoyed the everyday Kampung cooking served for the guests instead of the traditional Malay wedding food. Since pictures said louder than words, I need not say much, enjoy.

One of the gifts for the Bride, yes this are the flower and ribbons which Aunty Lin handmade them

The cheque of the duit hantaran (monetary gift) for the Bride

A wedding bracelet in replacement of a ring, as wished by Kak Shikin

A Cake

The wedding gifts from both sides, Angah gave 7 trays and Kak Shikin returned with 9 trays. It's the Malay culture for the hantaran to be given in odd numbers, and the Bride should return more than the Groom. By the way, even the flowers in the pic were arranged by Aunty Lin.

Kak Shikin, all calm waiting for that very moment

Angah, The Groom, always jovial (that's typical for the Groom)

Now he's serious, the moment of truth

Alhamdulillah, now they are married. Kak Shikin, reading the oath; this part is always emotional.

Angah too, solemnly listens to the advice of the Qadi

Nana & Nellysha

Angah puts on the bracelet on his wife

Yes the newlywed couple looking all bashful, ecey!

I love this pic, the wife kissing the hand of her husband. To Angah and Kak Shikin, may your marriage lasts dunya wal akhirah. And yes please produce us cute babies for us to play with!