Hantarans are betrothal gifts and the exchange of gifts are performed on the day of the solemnization. In Malay tradition, betrothal gifts are to be discussed and confirmed during merisik. The betrothal gitfs are normally presented in beautifully decorated trays and have the usual suspects of creatively presented sirih junjung, tepak sirih, bunga rampai, mas kahwin, wang hantaran,and wedding rings. Other gifts that are included in the trays are the holy Quran or Tafsir, prayer mat and veil, perfumes, leatherware, apparels, handbags, gadgets, or other presents to the bride or groom's liking.

Traditionally, the bride will reciprocate the groom's gift with two additional trays. For example, if the groom's family decided to present the bride with 5 trays of betrothal gifts, the bride's family will reciprocate with 7 trays of gifts.

INSPIRATION AND TRANSLATION

Melting Bites was my appointed wedding and hantaran decorator.  To tie the hantaran theme to the wedding theme of "balls, balls, balls"--a constant reminder for Moe that his balls are now chained *just kidding*, Melting Bites proposed to  use disco balls and christmas balls and fresh flowers for the hantaran project.

Melting Bites proposed to use fresh pom pom flowers that has been dyed in blue as the primary flower for the hantaran. I was not sure whether my mother and my Chinese relatives would love the idea as those flowers are normally used for prayers, but the decoration were a hit among my family members and friends. Reason being, they have never seen a real flower that has been dyed blue.

Apart from the flowers and the balls, i wanted the gifts to represent a marriage of two culture. Therefore, Melting Bites have chinese gold nuggets mixed in a tray with ferrero roche to signify prosperity, topped with the malay's "bunga rampai" on top of the three-tiered tray.

 REVIEW

Melting Bites are one of the easiest wedding vendor to work with. Their creation is top notch and they are very affordable. The idea of marrying two cultures in the wedding hantaran, marrying the wedding theme of blue/white and balls are seemlessly translated in their work. I was, and am still very pleased with their creations.

If you are a Penang bride-to-be, do consider Melting Bites for your wedding cake, hantaran, and reception decoration.

Visit this blog every Saturday for my wedding reviews, for inspiration.

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In most countries, henna is seen as a way for women to beautify themselves (as jewels).

'Mehndi is the application of henna, the staining substance from the leave of caca tree that is native to our region, as a temporary form of skin decoration for a ceremonial use. In a Malay wedding, the bride will be adorned with intricate henna designs and it is typically applied the night before the wedding in a ceremony called "Majlis Berinai".

The Temporary Tattoo Road Taken

My hunt for the bridal henna artist started three weeks before my wedding. My best friend Atikah, who got married a week before me, hired Ash as her henna artist. We exchanged contacts and confirmed her as my henna artist for my wedding.

Easiest discovery :)

INSPIRATION AND TRANSLATION

The design is based on this google image i found. I like the pattern on the design, especially how the flow stops at the wedding ring.

Review

Wide selection of Bridal Henna Fashion: Armed with an iPad and a thick folio, Ash gave me a wide selection of bridal mehndi pattern to choose from. From floral prints to abstract desigs, you name it, she has it!

Flexibility: If you already have a design in mind after conducting your own research, fret not as Ash can also draw the design for you. You just need to give her the weblink to your design. She also travels to your house to adorn mehndi decoration on you.

Artwork: As a skilled mehndi artist, Ash is very precise in the application and can make the most complex of patterns at a very short time. Although the mehndi pattern on my hand is not as intricate, the fine-line work looks amazing. 

You can drop me a comment if you need Ash's handphone number.

 

H20.

The thirst-quencher that is often times blindsided by hosts. Elderlies and children might not fancy that iced mango juice served by the caterer. And what out-of-towners (OOTs) bag would be complete without a couple bottles of water?

The personalized mineral water project was the last DIY project i had on my wedding watch. It was November when i realized that we might need to have normal H20 for the guests, especially those who do not drink refreshment provided by the caterer.

It took me, Sinn Wee, and Emilia two days (two hours after work) to complete a hundred personalized water bottles. Look at us hard at work at the production line!

INSPIRATION AND TRANSLATION

My inspiration behind my personalized mineral water bottle is from the Wedding Bee. This personalized mineral water template also comes with a cute Marriage Facts in lieu of Nutrition Facts.

Having a readymade template saves me time. A little change of name and date here, a little change of fonts there, a little realignment of the labels in between and voila! Off to the printer my label goes. *home printed by the way*

For another personal touch, i made dove tags out of navy blue felt with the intention of printing "thank you" labels, but that did not come to fruition. Still, a nice touch.  

At the wedding itself, the personalized water bottle was distributed at the main table and VIP tables. We had a crate left after the Upacara Makan Beradap, enough to go around for friends, yay! 

Oh and we stole a bottle ourselves too *smiles*.

The personalized mineral water bottles just cost RM0.50 to RM0.60 a bottle (mineral water bottle, ribbon, label, and dove tag), since the label is printed at home using normal A4 paper. An A4 paper can fit three labels. If you worry about condensation and would like to serve your mineral water chilled, you can laminate the labels using clear scotch tape.

Or you can send it to a proper label maker to save time but it might cost more. But trust me when i say it is a fun project to do with your friends and bridesmaids.

Alternatively, you can order your personalized mineral water from Wedding Cottage.

The reason why photobooths are fun and a highlight of any wedding is the fact that the hosts give a chance to the wedding guests to be in the spotlight as well. Guests would feel appreciated and will have a lot of fun posing for the camera.

There are many zany ways to have a photo booth at your wedding. You can have crazy props and cool backdrop. However, those may take more planning and more money. With a little creativity, having a photo booth-guest book idea will not break your budget.

INSPIRATION AND TRANSLATION

Take a leaf from my DIY wedding project, The Photo Booth-Guest Book idea. This couple from Wedding Bee was the inspiration behind my Photo Booth-Guest Book Project.

This couple's photobooth was set up indoor in one of the rooms provided by the hotel. Props like feather boas, moustache, crazy shades, and colorful wigs were used to help create cool photos and help guests to loosen up. The mini whiteboard was a last-minute addition but proved to be a hit among the guests. The white backdrop was a blanksheet of white seamless background paper purchased from a photo supply store.

My translation for my wedding for this Photo Booth-Guest Book idea was two whiteboards, markers, whiteboard eraser, a photographer, a laptop, wifi, and guests.

The tropical flowers at the hotel's garden acted as a perfect garden-beach wedding backdrop. Two whiteboards were used instead of one to shorten the message-writing time--while one whiteboard is being used to be photographed, another whiteboard can be used by the subsequent guests to pen a message.

Sinn Wee was the photographer at the photo booth. One thing that is cool about this idea is Sinn Wee instantly uploaded these photos on Facebook and tagged the guests on the Facebook album. That way, your guests will have a photo of themselves specially taken at your wedding and this serves as a keepsake your guests will keep for a very long time.

This Photo Booth-Guest Book idea also gets a cool point for the crazy poses and out-of-the-box messages from your guest. There were countless timeless candor captured and i love browsing these photos on my leisure time.

Another added advantage that this idea has over the traditional guestbook is you can put a name to the face of the guests. This is especially useful if you struggle to remember who Uncle Kassim and family is.

The cost breakdown for the wedding was only RM40 for two whiteboard markers that comes with whiteboard pens and erasers.

A good photo is a photo that tells a story by its composition, evokes emotion by its exposure and gives meaning by its subject...

I am a silent reader to Detik Indah blog, and equally a silent stalker on their Fanpage. So when we decided to tie the knot, Detik Indah is the ONLY wedding photographer that came to mind. I remember these were their images that made me really eager to have them as my Official Photographer:

THE SCENIC ROAD TAKEN

Detik Indah was fated to be my official photographer. No really, fate dealt a big black spade for us.

When we inquired for the quotation in June, Diwant, the principal photographer of Detik Indah Photography told me that they were unavailable on the 10.12.2011. We were so crestfallen. Think about it, we could have actually inquired for any Penang-based photographers, but we really wanted Detik Indah Photography. Our hearts and minds were really set on Detik Indah Photography, we did not even bother to look up for other photographers, KL or Penang-based.

Two months before the wedding, the spot became available again, and now at a special lowered price! Without any hesitation, we said yes!

Since Detik Indah Photography is a KL-based wedding photographer, we provided Diwant with his own personal room, not to mention a personalized Official Photographer sign to boot.

The Review

Photos: The dress. The moments. The environment. The small details that make a huge impact. Those decorations. Were all captured beautifully and beyond expectations. Kudos!

Customer Service: We are very happy with Diwant's fast turnaround time. In less than a week after our Penang reception, more than 70 of our official photos were timely uploaded on their facebook album This made it possible for us to share our special moments captured by our Official Photographers with our guests and those who could not attend our wedding. By the time of our wedding reception in KL, every family members and friends have already seen the professionally captured photos of our Penang reception, making us happily retelling every fresh moments vividly with everyone.

Detik Indah even wrote a personal post about the wedding in their blog, and uploaded our slideshow in DetikIndahTV. We are very happy and truly honored to have such treatment given by Detik Indah Photography.

Integrity: I'm happy to report that Detik Indah Photography are very easy to work with. Everytime i have a question, my SMSes to Diwant were replied as fast as I could typed. Diwant is also very helpful in dispensing advice. He is also one of the most frank and honest photographer--he doesn't overpromise and under delivers. There were moments of of my divaness and his frank photography advice and opinion brings me down to ground. Having integrity is important, Detik Indah did not give me last minute stress.

For more information about Detik Indah and their beautiful work, visit their Facebook page.

Trivia: Do you know that the bigger the piece of cake the bride and groom fed to each other, the larger the number of children they will have in the future?

One of the highlights for our wedding is our wedding cake. 

A wedding is never complete without a wedding cake. It seems that the grander the wedding, the bigger the cake gets. The significant of the wedding cake is the cake-cutting ceremony. The bride gets to cut the cake aided by the groom. They would feed each other a piece of the cake from that first slice of the wedding cake. This symbolizes their commitment to one another and also the promise that they would provide for each other.    

Judging by the cake slice we cut and fed each other, we will have a small number of children. Preferably two.

Back to the cake.

The Icing Road Taken

 

The selection of baker was the easiest. Melting Bites is my choice selection because i simply love their cakes. Every occasions we celebrate, it is their cakes we ordered from. The road to selecting our wedding cake began in November 2011. Our wedding cake was a three-tiered wedding cake, but purposely designed by Melting Bites to look like a five-tiered wedding cake. Rainbow cake is a popular butter cake and it has always been a praise-winner among guests. Since the wedding theme is blue and white, Melting Bites came up with the idea of an ombre blue cake, a spin off from rainbow cake.

The design of the cake was proposed by Melting Bites. Tired of the same wedding cake designs she was requested to make, Mimi, the owner of Melting Bites, proposed several new designs she deemed suitable for the occasions. Out of the three designs she proposed, we chose this sexy wedding cake design.

Doesn't it look like a woman's sexy lingerie?

The Review

The wedding cake tasted as marvelous as it looked. The butter cream was not as sugary sweet as most wedding cake i have tasted. A lot of the guests asked for seconds. My sister-in-law actually commented on Facebook that this is by far the best wedding cake she has ever tasted.

If you are in Penang and is looking for an affordable baker who does not compensate on the quality of your wedding cake, look no further. Melting Bites should be your prefered choice.

 Melting BitesAddress:

	3838, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah (hadapan balai polis), 19600 Penang, Malaysia. Bayan Lepas, Malaysia

Contact Number: +60174759676

Email Address: meltingbites@yahoo.com

Blog: http://www.meltingbites.blogspot.com

Our wedding invitation card was a DIY project. The color is blue and white, the same as our theme color. The floral design is based on the hydrangaes, which is our favourite flower. Therefore, there is no need to look further for a design.

We downloaded our invitation card from Download and Print website. The online editing software embedded in the website is easy to use, making the turnaround designing time for the invitation card in mere few hours.

The second stage of the invitation card DIY project was the printing stage. Our printer, Hot Print, sized the artwork of the invitation card and RSVP card to A4 size. Hot Print also helped to design the back part of the card, in which they placed the location map on the back of the invitation card, and my address on the back of the RSVP card (for those who which to RSVP via mail).

The printing stage took three days. The invitation and RSVP card are nicely tied with a navy blue ribbon as a finishing touch.

The invitation card project was completed by the end of September, in time for the Operasi Memanggil.

The cost breakdown for the invitation card as as follows:

1. Design: Nil

2. Printing: RM170 for 100 cards, A4, colored, front and back.

3. 18cm-thick ribbons: RM32 for 10 spools. Each spool can make 10-12 ribbons.

4. Stamps: RM18. Each postage cost RM0.60.

 

 

Here is the final part of the best wedding moments captured by my former colleague and bridesmaid, Joyce's fiance, Adrian.

Adrian is my bridesmaid's (Joyce) fiance. He helped to snap pictures at the wedding and stayed for the entire reception. What touched me was the fact that he came wearing the theme color and even wore a sampin, a malay traditional kilt to keep with the Chinese-Malay theme.

Thanks Adrian for sharing these great photos you took of the wedding.