And the next chapter begins

*click*

Today!

Real quick&short update!

Tonight is our solemnization ceremony and I have millions of butterflies fluttering around in my stomach! Good ones though =)

Thanks everyone for the warm wishes - I'm really happy and tonight my fairytale is coming true =)

We'll be seeing you in a different chapter of our storybook love, on a different site soon!

Gosh I'm super nervous+excited!!!

my turn!!

I just said goodbye to Gruffy on skype :( he had to pack the rest of things he hadn't and make his way to the airport. He has like 3 hour transit in Atlanta, then about 2 hours in JFK before his flight leaves to KL via Doha.

We made sure his maxis simcard still works fine so we could talk to each other when he's in Doha - poor baby has like 7 hour transit in Doha but he will have access to their business lounge so that's great & I've been checking with him if he had everything charged and packed; dsi, rubik's cube,puzzles (Gruffy loves puzzles) so that he won't be bored during the long transit. If Qatar's business lounge is anything like MAS, I'm sure he'll be just fine and won't be bored :)

I'm just about done packing stuff I need to bring home as well as for our mini honeymoon :) and that includes dirty laundry for the week that I didn't get to do here - I love Mak's washing machine better anyway so I'll do it once I'm home tomorrow.

I'm going home straight after school finishes so apart from my netbook and some other little stuff, I'm all set :)

Like Gruffy said, we probably won't be updating much because there's just so many little things that we need to get done and the family reception will require us to help around lots with the preparation. In between that we also need to finish stuff for alicewedding so it'll be quite a busy week.

And we're also actually gonna be moving to a new site but we'll let you know once we're done with the move :)

Till then, do pray for us and for our wedding(s) to go smoothly!!

And heeeeere we go!

My flight leaves Tampa tomorrow at 12:30 or so. 7 hours hopping from one airport to another and I'll get to JFK in the evening. Then around midnight I take off for Doha, where I have a 7 hour layover, followed by another long stretch to KL. Whew! I'm packed, my apartment is ready to be uninhabited for a while, my coworkers are briefed on how to not break everything while I'm gone, and I'm off to get married!

I'm bringing two suitcases: one has my clothes and things and the other has wedding stuff that it made more sense to get over here than over there. So long as I and both my bags make it successfully to KL, I'll be happy.

You probably won't hear too much from Hani and me until the wedding as we'll be busy with preparations and all of the last minute details, but we'll try not to disappear completely! I'm sure you'll get plenty of updates afterwards so if you're not coming to the beach you'll just have to sit tight for the time being.



Luggage ready, and heeeeere we go!

lazy

I'm one lazy b2b - seriously. The nearer our big day is, the worse my laziness gets. We have like less than two weeks to a full weekend of akad nikah, family reception and our alicewedding. Thank goodness Gruffy's here this Saturday so he can help motivate me a little to get things done :)

especially since Babah already made it clear after I'm all done with spa and fun time with friends I should be at home to till wedding day, I'm sure we will finish everything on time.

This week is assessment week for year 1 to 5 (year six had theirs last weekend) so basically I don't have lots to do except some housekeeping stuff. I finished marking year six papers, which droove me crazy but that's done so at least I won't have to think about it once holiday starts - I honestly can't even think about other things right now! huhu

ok tak boleh pk dah. kthxbye

mini honeymoon VS honeymoon

by now everyone knows Gruffy and I will not be able to go for a honeymoon because of the time constraint. It's quite a bummer knowing that we have to wait till next summer to go to our chosen destination.

To comfort myself, I booked us one extra night at Avillion where we're having our AliceWedding. We already have 2 nights that are included in the package but I thought why not add another one and it could be a sort of mini honeymoon for us.

Then we planned to stay at a nice place in KL for the another 3 nights because we'd like the privacy to be on our own and do the things we don't get to do when we're 12000 miles apart like going on movie dates, dinner dates, out for drinks, you know...stuff that most ppl get to do on a daily basis.

But there were some issues...well I will not really call those issues but something had to be changed around with our quotation. It wasn't really a pleasant thing but it wasn't bad either. But the ever awesome Amir worked on it for us and now we get 2 additional night-stay at Avillion, in the premium water chalet =D so we have a total of 5 night stay!

Though the plan to stay in KL is now out of the window (we haven't booked anything btw) we actually end up with a real mini honeymoon!!

And to be honest, I think I'm loving this idea of shorter mini honeymoon thing rather than a long one at the same place.

Yes, 6 day 5 nights isn't exactly a short stay but in my head, the minimum duration for honeymoon is 2 weeks. And when I'm with Gruffy, that 6 day feels so short!

yep, saya gila haha

but now that I think about it, I prefer the short/mini trips. Because we get to go to more places hehe

Apprently, Gruffy's co-worker rents out this nice 2/3 bedroom cabin complete with hot tub, fully stocked kitchen a little way up north from Tampa. She told Gruffy that she thought Gruffy's "wife" would love it, it's very romantic and it's also a good place to be making babies haha

hrmm, what do you think :P

Well we're not planning for kids that soon but Gruffy said he'll take me there for a weekend or something when I'm there - it could be another of our mini honeymoon(s) ;)

I've also asked Gruffy if we could go to Disneyworld again this year as well as Universal Studios and he said if there isn't any problem, of course :) - there's another of our mini honeymoon(s)!


so maybe by next summer, I'll change my mind about going on a big honeymoon since it will cost a lot of money and by then I'm very sure I'll have lots of this mini getaway/honeymoon thing with Gruffy.

I think I'm lucky enough to have gone to lots of places/countries that I don't really have a specific desire to go anywhere that much, well except disneyworld, I wanna go everyday! - I do wanna go see places with Gruffy though cos when I traveled before, I went alone. Couple times I had company but going with Gruffy is different :)

Like I do wanna try to get to platform 9 and 3/4 with him cos his buffy self would be able to help me push the cart

or let him see the place I dreamed of going to when I was a kid and appreciate the history of it like I do (ok maybe not so much of the second one haha)

also say hi to two of our fav people in the world

Maybe one day :) Plus London isn't really a place I wanna go to for honeymoon. My idea of a honeymoon is something beach related, swimming with dolphins, island hopping :)

Regardless, I'm also lucky that Gruffy lives in the states and when the time comes, I will live in the states so some of the places I wanna go to will be a lot closer and it will be cheaper to get there.

and we live in Florida - though Miami is like 4-5 hours away from where we live it's more doable and cheaper to go there and stay for a weekend or something than going to where we plan to go for our honeymoon.

But we'll see hehe truth of the matter is, I really don't care where we go so long I'm with Gruffy. Right now it's like imperative for me to go on a long holiday with him cos of our situation - at least an hour in each day of our visiting trip is spent thinking of how it will be over soon :( so the longer it is, the better though in reality, whatever the duration is, it will never be enough.

But I'm moving to be with him soon and I think the reason I'm beginning to like the idea of mini honeymoon(s) more than a one time big honeymoon isn't just because we get to go to more places, but the fact that I feel every little trip we take is going to be a honeymoon :) in fact, I think everyday will be a honeymoon - cos we're just lovey dovey like that and yes, we are corny haha

so what's your take? few mini ones, or one big one? :)

violinist

so the initial plan was to have a violinist playing my chosen song as I walk down the aisle to my groom. I told Amir about it, he thought it'd be nice and James, my florist, knows someone who could play well but would not charge me a bomb. According to Amir, it could be as expensive as 4k for the event - they'll still charge me one event though I only want them to play one piece wtf huhu

the only problem is that the sheet for violin for that particular song I want isn't available - though the violinist could play by ear, I only have like 2 weeks+ left and I don't want to risk it...it is one of the most special moment in my life, I don't get to walk down the aisle everyday.

Talked to Gruffy and after much consideration, mainly on my part cos it was what I have wanted ever since wedding first got in the picture, I decided to not hire one and use the instrumental version and play it using the PA system the resort provides us with.

But I am lucky that I'll be having another western style wedding in the states next year and Mom and Dad are friends with a whole group of people who could start their own string quartet so we will definitely have live music playing when I walk down the aisle then :)

oh btw, we will only have 50 chairs for guests during the exchanging of vows ceremony - it'll be a really quick one so I apologize for the shortage and for making some of you stand but that's the max number of chairs the resort gives us for the exchanging of vows. If it exceeds 50, it would look so crowded - it is a small beach, so hopefully you guys will be ok with that, it'll be quick a one :)

now I need to finalize the list of songs to be played and finalize first dance's one too. Gruffy and I are gonna make ourselves so stupid haha we don't have time to go for first dance classes, so what you see will be totally unrehearsed :P

hopefully he doesn't step on my toes with his big feet!! hehe