Fayra's Reveries: Introduction and Our Engagement: 190114

Salam! I have been contemplating on starting a wedding blog for two sole reason.

To help future couples in deciding what vendors they want as I know, that sourcing and finding the right vendors can be mentally exhausting and stressful. To this, I want to thank all the wedding bloggers out there because I got a lot of helpful information from their blogs. And in return, I have created this blog dedicated to future couples who wants to tie their knot. Congratulations and may Allah ease and guide you with your plans :D

I want to be able to look back at the process we went through years down the road. I am not doing this for monetary means or to brag at all.

This first post will be dedicated to our engagement, which fall on 19 January 2014. A little background story, we already knew that we are going to get engaged and married eventually. We had already applied for our BTO two years earlier (will talk about this in the next post). So one day, randomly, we brought up the topic of engagement and a few weeks later, he brought his parents, an uncle and his wife to my house, while my parents got my grandmother, aunt and uncle, to discuss about our engagement.

A Ring
I have always been attracted to Love & Co. They always have these whimsical displays and interior of their shop. Prior to that, I was researching about diamond rings because I do not want to appear like a total noob in the shop. I swear I do not know anything about the 4Cs (click this to learn). You should firstly have a budget, then work on a rough idea about the carat, colour, clarity and cut. Do not worry though! We realised that you just have to state your budget and they will give you their best deal.

I was eyeing the first two designs. The first one is from Soo Kee. Really love the two tiny diamonds at the side. The second style is from Love & Co. The third design is a more popular design I saw in instagram, etc, but it was not really to my liking. We went to Orchard ION where they have a gallery of many jewelry shop right next to each other and surveyed all the shops there. The saleswoman at both Love & Co. and Soo Kee adviced us not to take the second design because it would cost a lot more to change the size of the band when you're pregnant. I mean, if you really want it, you have to sacrifice not wearing your ring during pregnancy or wait till your swollen fingers ease away.

We have the most pleasant experience at Love And Co. Our saleswoman gave us the best deal they have for a 0.4 carat. We fall in love with this simple, timeless, dainty design and got it there and then.

Tray Gifts

We had agreed on a small, modest engagement and had agreed to give each other four to three gifts.

From Hairi to me:

Engagement ring
Framed dowry money
Pandora charm
Engagement cupcake
Snack basket

From me to Hairi:

Fossil Watch
Engagement cake
Fruit tart and macaroons
Candy cake made by beloved cousins

But little did we know that our family contributed somemore gifts so alhamdulillah, Hairi have 7 gifts for me while I have 5 trays for him. For future couples, I advice you to ask your family members kindly if they want to contribute anything if you have a certain theme for your engagement because the gifts from our family members are different theme from the gifts that we originally have for each other! In the end, all haywire but it is alright, hahaha

Our DIY Tray
This was the most fun thing that we did together. We got these thick frames from IKEA for about $9.90 each, went to Tanjong Katong Complex to buy these fake flowers, 3 stalks for $10. We bought 9 stalks so it was $30 with $10 for the styrofoam and cream coloured ribbon. The styrofoam was the hardest to work with as all the bits were all over. But the end result was so pretty!!

My Outfit, Hair and Make-up
I bought my dress at a shop in Tanjong Katong. It's a full-laced chiffon dress with a lace top. My hair and make-up was from two of my lovely cousin; Aisyah and Kak Mas. They are like my fairy godmothers <3

I wore my engagement dress and the same shoes on the third day of Eid!

Venue and Food

Our engagement was held at my brother and sis-in-law's HDB mansionette house because my parents house is really small and cramp. They were so gracious to allow their house to be used. I could not be thankful to them enough until this day. My parents and brother were the ones in charge of the food. They got Nasi Mandi from Simpang Bedok and so many other finger food and desserts. It was soooo delish.