Salam!
Okay, reception part 2! Gosh, it was such a busy yet exciting weekend! I had not yet digested the fact that we were finally married! I had so much prayers and gratitude to Allah for bringing us together after all these years. 10 years were not a short time and we’ve had so many ups and downs and curves and waves that we overcame together. Those close to us would know that.
This was the day that Ahmad’s family and relatives officially knew me. I’ve always had a rule that we do not attend each other’s family gatherings and whatnots. My reason being to protect my family’s pride (and also just in case we didn’t get this far, at least our family’s hearts don’t get involved). So, I salam-ed alot of people that day hahahaha.
We walked in with GSM’s accompaniment, Baleganjur, which was really, really awesome. It’s one thing to listen to the composition digitally, but nothing beats that awesome feeling/goosebumps when the music is played live. We walked in like that, damn cool, man. It was such a great moment for us, having the gamelan family present (and literally too, because most of our GNK batchmates attended the reception).
Well, when it comes to Malay weddings, obviously we have silat. We had Muadzah, who was part of the Baleganjur ensemble, and the twins, Wirda and Widya. Because apparently, for silat, it has to be odd numbers or something. I had goosebumps watching Wirda “silat-ing” for us cause I’ve watched her fight in competitions before and it’s different, obviously. I think it’s also especially because she’s one of Ahmad’s closest friends, like literally from the first day we started dating. And after that, we did the usual salam the parents thing and lots, lots, lots of photo-taking.
During our time for lunch, the Gadon javanese ensemble played music for us, which was really awesome. We had lots of people coming up to us to take photos, congratulate us and even chit chat for a bit. The food was really good, by the way, considering the amount Ahmad had to spend on this reception alone. *inserts laughing emoji here* I didn’t get to try the 20++ types of desserts, which was such a shame because that was a last minute add on.
My huge family. I teared up a little when we received the wedding photos from Helloluhv, especially for this one. My family grew and grew and I didn’t realize how my aunts, uncles and parents look so much older now. :’)
So, after lunch, we went upstairs to the hotel room to change into the second outfit. To be honest, this red one was kinda a gamble for me. When I chose this one on selection day, obviously being the clueless not-girly-enough girl I am, I went for the “go big or go home” without even considering whether I would survive on HEELS in this dress. Which, I didn’t, in the end HAHAHAHA. But whatever right, it’s my wedding day and the dress was gorgeous like omg wow. Anyway, in the hotel room, when we were done taking pictures for this outfit, I was gonna put on the heels but realized that the dress was really long and I wasn’t that confident walking on heels with all the underskirts and ruffles. So I decided to wear my sneakers instead. I mean, under all those folds, no one will notice right. BUT! The height difference did. So yes, Faz, BIG mistake. As we walked in on Nyaman by Andmesh, I soon realized that I was looking down at my feet almost the whole time because I was STILL tripping on the skirts in my SNEAKERS. See, not girly enough. Bodoh. What made it all even more comical was as we ascended the stairs to the pelamin, Ahmad was nagging at me about not wearing heels. We were arguing about it AS WE WENT UP. It was so funny!
The entire photoshoot was awkward and comfortable at the same time.
The Helloluhv team was so awesome!
It turned out that Ahmad had a surprise for me. For starters, we had a whole crowd on the floor just cheering and wolf whistling us and shouting random stuff aka B, Kak Rose and Mak Long were the loudest. It was so funny and embarrassing at the same time, gosh. So, after cutting the pulut and giving the wedding speech (it was a big mistake not to draft out an outline or something cause I sounded so stupid just winging it. I feel la) Ahmad sang a song! And not just any song. The one and only song that I cry to when he sings it to me. Andmesh’s Cinta Luar Biasa.
Now, Ahmad has sung songs to me for years but I have never felt any connection to the songs he sang. But on my birthday in 2019, when he surprised me with a treat to Carousel, this song came on in the van on the way there and for some reason, I understood every single word. He was also singing along. So I asked him to play it again. So when he sang along the second time, I teared up. This song made me feel things, man. The lyrics were so deep and meaningful, especially in terms of our relationship. To make things worse, ever since then, Ahmad enjoyed playing the song in the van and singing it to me just to make me cry.
So, that’s the story behind why I cry when this song comes on. It’s not because it’s sad but it’s just how true every word is of the what we went through to get to where we are today, plus the part about flowers. I’ve been asking him for years when he’ll give me flowers (for whatever reason, I don’t care, cause I love flowers). There’s a lyric that goes: Aku tak punya bunga, aku tak punya harta, yang ku punya hanyalah hati yang setia, tulus padamu (I don’t have flowers, I don’t have wealth, what I have is a faithful heart, loyal to you). And THAT’S why I cry each time he sings this.
So when he sang this on our wedding day, of course the waterfall is a lot worse plus I had make up on. Genius, right, this guy. Yes, I get that he wants to be sweet and all (man, the cheers he got for singing and then it got super quiet when I cried so bad HAHAHA) but like, he knew how I felt about this song. I still don’t watch that part of the wedding video because of my ugly crying. Ugh. I still appreciate it though. But at that moment, I couldn’t control my tears because of how much we went through to finally be married. From my anxiety attack, my [crazy] mom, my sudden surgeries, my unfair termination, Ahmad changing his job all the way to that very day standing there in our wedding outfits. Of course the feelings would be overwhelming. But anyway, too late for that cause everyone saw it hahahaha.
My precious girls and maid turned older sis hahaha
She took care of us since I was 12 and now watched me get married :’)
I guess that was the highlights. It’s the 3rd of November today, over a year since we were officially married. I’d just like to take a moment to be thankful for this partner that Allah blessed me with. It’s been a year, and he has really been the best to me. Nothing changed since we got married except that we loved more and harder, and protected each other. He’s been my strength this entire year that we’ve been married and I’m so, so, so thankful to have him. If I ever have to do it over, I’d always choose him. A thousand times over. I pray Allah blesses this marriage till Jannah, Amin!
The next post will be on.... the honeymoon! Haih, belom habis lagi? Hahahahaha!
