Life is fragile, handle with prayer

Today is The Ressurection Day aka Easter, the more commercial way of calling it. Today We, Christians everywhere, are celebrating God's victory over death, and yet today I see how real is the effect of death over human lives. One of my father's business partner's son involved in an accident early this morning and passed away not an hour later.

How fragile is our lives as humans. We each live our days without knowing when our last breath would be. Some of us are even already dead without realizing it. Bitterness, ignorance, independence from God, all numb our hearts to the point of sucking our lives dry of its most essential essence: the connection with our very Creator and Savior.

Life, tainted with original sins and our own commited sins, has its funny way of wrecking our ideal image of how life should be. But God, never giving up on us, always has His funny ways of drawing us near Him, whispering into our hearts that no matter how crazy life is, it is merely a blink of an eye compared to eternity in Heaven.

But maybe, thinking about it, each of our lives should rightly be fragile, as consequences of sins. That's why we should handle it with prayer. It's prayer with every breath that we take, that is piecing together shards of our broken lives, smoothing the jagged edges of our emotions, enveloping our hearts with humbleness and forgiveness, filtering and shaping our perceptions to understand what life should really be about...

Frictions with vendors ...

One of my vendor just told me to shut up! Huahahaha ....

Here's how it happened. I called her to ask her about some details. I said my name, she recognized it and said that she was decorating the same church with the one that I'm gonna use. I proceeded to ask her around, she proceeded to explain. While she was explaining, I admit to you that I was very eager talking to her and cut her off. She then said something like this, "Who among us is gonna talk first? If we both talk we won't be able to understand each other." That shut me up. Hahahhaa!

Yup, it's a no for her ...

Another vendor seemed very eager when talking via instant messenger and during our first meeting. He looked very excited and full of animation talking about his designs and ideas. Then towards the end of the meeting, he seemed cold and eager to finish the meeting asap. He didn't even see me to the door ... On subsequent phone calls, he gave me the impression that he had no interest talking on the phone for long. His answers was somewhat along the line of, "Yes of course! Alright...? Okay ....? Oh, yes, yes ... no problem at all ... Alright ... ?"

I ended up hiring him because he can do several jobs at once: reception decoration, church decoration and hand bouquet.

**** an update about this vendor ****

I knew I had this feeling but I just don't have the heart to write it down and accuse him: that his customer service skill is really bad and that he is largely after money only. This is what happened: Few days ago he contacted me saying that he already sent me the design draft. And if everything is okay, he'd like me to put down a down payment. I still had changes to the draft, so I held out on the down payment. He then sent me new drafts very quickly (I believe within 24 hours). And, as I still had questions, we communicated back and forth and throughout that communication he reminded me of the down payment twice or thrice.

I was a little fed up being reminded multiple times. I decided to go ahead and paid the down payment, even though I know that I still had changes to the draft. But I specifically asked him that I'd like to see a revised draft and he agreed. Two days went by, and where is that quick, within 24-hour turnaround draft that I saw before I paid the down payment? Poof. There it goes in the air. I try not to really get pissed out about it, as long as on the D-Day he delivers well, that's enough for me.

**** end of update ****

There is also the story of a bridal vendor who roughly cut me off and shooed me out for holding out the changing room for too long (about 15 minutes!) And what's more ridiculous is, once the representative felt that I wasn't interested in the dress because of the price, she cut the price in half. HALF! How professional is your business, when you can't even advertise your goods with the CORRECT, unjustly marked price at the beginning? Sheesh...

And oh, I made another trip to my cake vendor today, this time bringing along the FMIL who knows the owner well and even has some distant blood relation with her. So we got IDR 100.000 off by FMIL negotiating. Yay! :D The Mr. sarcastically said that it doesn't even worth the gasoline needed to make the trip, but I think money is still money.

Yay! :D

The never ending tasks of wedding planning ...

Ternyata, deciding which vendor to hire is just the beginning of the crazyness of wedding planning.

After you went through the trouble of paying visits to your candidate vendors, comparing and weighing the pros and cons of the different vendors and finally made your decision, your headache doesn't stop there.

You communicate with them, ask for any work contracts to sign, re-consider your decision before you sign that binding piece of paper (this is the hard part!) then hire them and pay the necessary down payment. Aftere that you would need to communicate intensely with them to make sure that the final deliverable fits your objectives. Then, it's a leap of faith. You just trust your wedding day fate into their hands.

Well, there are some progress as of today. Yesterday, I went to the invitation vendor and picked out a design that I like. It's IDR 1000 cheaper than my initial budget, and it fits the Mr.'s criteria (he wants an invitation that could double as notes) so I think it's a good choice.

Today, I officially booked my cake vendor (finally) and my decor vendor. I also received my sample souvenirs and as it turns out, I really love them!

Aren't they pretty?

I'm gonna need to follow up with this vendor to confirm that I'm gonna hire them, and interview my would-be vendor photography further.

Good Friday

It's Good Friday holiday today. Suddenly everyone's schedule frees up on my calender and I don't know what to do first, arghh!

Let's see ...

I'm going to take some building material to my new house but that gotta wait til another half an hour since my employees haven't shown up.

The Mr. is also free, and we plan to go taking care the cake, the invitation, and probably the decor too.

So much things to do ... !

I gotta remember though that this is Good Friday. I should remind myself to stop and think about the meaning of the day.

1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given



Thank you Jesus!

Hiring a wedding MC

You know what I just did? I booked a Master of Ceremony for my wedding without ever seeing the guy, ever! He is one of the vendors recommended by my Wedding Planner, and recommended by the manager of the hotel where we'll get married.

Actually it was the manager who arrange our deal with Farhan, the MC. The manager said that Farhan has received another offer for that day, so if we don't book him soon, he'll go with the other couple who wants to book him. I gave the matter a rest for about 5 hours and then I finally called him to say yes to the MC.

I never saw the guy, I never saw him perform, I never heard his voice ... I only have blind faith. 

All in all, the progress for today is not bad.

1. We dropped by our church to take the application forms needed for our matrimonial blessing.
2. We bought a wallpaper for our new home.
3. We hired the MC for our wedding.

And all the while, the Mr. managed to escort me doing these chores. (Although the aftereffect is him passing out and taking naps.)


I want to get some more things done today. But seeing that the main driver (the Mr.) passed out and my own driver is out doing business elsewhere (not sure about FMIL's driver) I don't know how much I can get done today.

Anyway, things to do/decide today or this week:
1. Deal with the cake vendor
2. Deal with the invitation vendor
3. Interview the photographer
4. Interview the videographer

But first, I think I'm going to follow the Mr.'s step and take some naps...

Hiring a wedding photographer .... Sigh.

The economic law that I'm following now is "getting the most service for the smallest amount of money possible". LOL. This is especially has to be strictly applied when hiring wedding vendors. You know, we all know, anything with the label "wedding" attached to it has a premium price. You go to a salon for a regular make up and they charge you Rp. 200.000. But if it's a wedding make up, suddenly the price tag is Rp 2.000.000. Go figure.

So, it is extremely important, at least for me, to do my research and due diligence. One of the most ridiculously priced wedding item is documentary (photography and videography). This is how I approach hiring vendor for this item. First, it's browsing through internet forum and using Google search and Facebook to scour vendor recommendation and samples. Then, I filter out the ones that I like (for photography and videography, I have collected at least 70 vendor names, lol). Second, contacting them one by one to get their price list. Third, crossing out those with sky high, unreasonable price (100 million rupiah for a one-day wedding photography coverage? Umm, even if I am the president's daughter, I think it will be beyond my personality to blow that much money on one day.) And I'm left with a handful of vendors that match my criteria: giving the most service for the smallest amount of money possible.

I have my eyes on certain vendors now but I won't reveal any names before I make the deals with them. But this is what I will need to remember:

1. Discuss style, editing and poses which I absolutely would want done on the day.
2. Discuss delivery date.
3. Introduce them to my family to make sure they receive the needed coverage on the day.

Also, how important is it to have a good chemistry with your vendors? My slowly but surely developed bridezilla personality is not helping me in making an objective judgment toward my vendors. There are always something: they didn't reply my emails fast enough; they seem cold and unfriendly; they didn't answer all my questions; etc etc! Even when I found a good vendor, my mind seems to think, "hmm, this is too good to be true. They are too nice and too accommodating. Are they even professional?? What if they only do lip service?"

Gawat... My mind simply won't stop churning and turning, thinking and tinkering about various things wedding-related. And as I make my decisions hiring various vendors, it slowly dawns on me that "this is it, I'm gonna get married in just 15 short weeks!" May God have His abundant mercy on me ...

To do list for tomorrow

I sometimes think that writing blog is in some ways similar to shouting out loud in an empty beach, hehehe. You get to release whatever's inside of you and feel better afterwards. The internet and universe is very kind in that way. Spill out what you want to spill out and they gladly accept it.

Thus, hereby I am shouting out my to do list for tomorrow.....!!!!!

I meant to arrange the transportation of some materials to my new home but alas, my driver won't be available to do the task. So that's gotta wait.

Instead I'm going to the church tomorrow at 8. We gotta fill up some applications to get approved for the holy matrimony. (That means tonight I have to gather up all the pasfoto required for the applications and maybe I can get ahead of myself and start filling up the civil applications as well). Then after that it's off to the mall to exchange something while the Mr. is going off to the meeting nearby. It'd be fabulous if I could go home straight from the mall. Instead I will have to wait til the Mr. is done with his meeting. Having no ability to drive car in this city is driving me insane. I couldn't go all the places I wanna go! I should resolve to gather all my courage to drive a car soon!!!

In any way, I promised FMIL to drop by the cake vendor and invitation vendor with her. But I'm not sure these can be done tomorrow due to no driver (note to self: speak with FMIL tomorrow to see if their driver is available). The Mr. is as usual will be busy working and won't be able to drive us around. How nice would it be to have one of these things crossed off my list ....

And thinking that few days ago I had a dream that I had a killing spree in a mall's parking lot with a machine gun... Scary, but I guess that's what this stressful feeling looks like if you look deep inside my psyche. I can only remind myself to enjoy these days because I am soon to embrace a new chapter of life where I couldn't ever look back anymore :)

My wedding vendors thus far ...

15 weeks and 2 days to go. 

So far I have reserved the venue, which comes with food catering, guests accomodations, wedding car and driver, entertainment, and 2 nights of honeymoon accomodations. Other than that, I have named my cake vendor as well as my wedding organizer company. But everything else is still on the works now!

Oh, and I have yet to go to the church where I would be getting my marriage blessing from. I have to register for marriage course prior to being able to book the day for our matrimony. And thinking about it, so silly of me for wanting to print our invitations asap. I don't even know if the church would allow us to get married on the day that we want! Sigh. 

(And btw, guwe stress bantuin si Mister with his work!! Well, dia ngga minta dibantuin sih, aku aja yang kepo2 pingin bantuin dia, tapi aduh, kok end up nya jadi stress sendiri... Arrgghhh....)

Well, the battle plan for tomorrow is to book our cake vendor and go to the church to complete the marriage requirements. Semangat!

So far here are the list of my wedding vendors:

Organizer: my friend Sinta

She's a busy housewife who has a home-laundry business and very active at church. Overall, she's a very sweet lady who has a smart business sense, but I do really hope that she will deliver well on the D-day ...

Venue, Catering, Car, Entertainment and Accomodations: Sunan Hotel Solo

The F&B manager of the venue is the Mister's friend and client. We get lots of complimentary services, which makes me real giddy. Hiii..... One thing that worries me, the venue can only cater to acoustic music. Sooo... I'm not sure how all the effects are gonna get carried on. For example, during wedding kiss or during toast there would be sound effect to build up the moment. But with acoustic music, I don't know how that's gonna get the event going...


Here are the tentative (alias belum dp) vendors but which I'm already 80% sure about:

Cake: Winna

You have to know (for those of you who don't) that Indonesian wedding cake is often just an inedible, dummy cake consisting of 5 to 8 tiers or more (depending on the bride's or the family's request). The dummy then gets slathered with icing and flowers and what not's. I find the idea a little ridiculous. In my case, the bakery suggests a 6-tiers dummy wedding cake with icing and flowers for around $100. With that price, I'm getting the dummy cake along with three big squares of undecorated real cakes (around 30 cm x 30 cm) for the family and 75 pieces of small cakes for the guests. Why only 75? Because not all of the guests are getting the cakes. Usually only the youngsters will get a piece of that cake. In any ways, I find the whole paying-for-a-dummy-cake idea a little ridiculous... But it's a tradition that my mom won't do without, so that settles it, sadly.

Decoration: Irene's Bridal

This is a talented vendor whom I also consider hiring to do my hand bouquet. My gut feeling says that the owner is a little unpredictable. Some event that he handles turns out well but some turns out just okay. But, he is willing to handle my church decoration, and plus he also does hand bouquet. I like to minimize my list of vendors to minimize headache, sooo I think I'm going to hire him.

That's what I have so far. I have lots of things to do, I know!

Aside from vendor lists, what I've been working on is the list of songs that I want to be played on my matrimony and reception hihi.. Tell me, did I get my priorities wrong?? I know I should have concentrated more on picking out the vendors and only THEN worry about the details of the reception such as songs, etc. Sigh.. And oh of course, I've also already booked the flight, accomodations, car arrangements and activities for our honeymoon hahahaha.. Yep, talks about having your priorities right!

PS: I'm also very very tempted to pack my honeymoon clothes now...

15 weeks and 2 days til I become a Mrs.!

I am inspired to create this blog because I want to document my crazy hectic beautiful life, especially 15 weeks + 2 days leading to me becoming a Mrs. Not that my life has something that makes it more special than others, but I feel that I have the right to feel that my own life is kinda special to meself, hahaha!

And I want to savor and document and record my thoughts and feelings ushering the opening of a new chapter in my life (the day I become a Mrs.), followed by what I hope would be the best vacation eveeer!! (Gili Trawangan, here I come!) LOL. I am just so excited thinking about the honeymoon because it takes my mind away from the crazy hectic (yet I'm sure is somewhat beautiful,) day to day activities that I am living now. But within a blink of an eye, I know that these moments will be over too soon!

  This is Gili T. It's beautiful, right? *sigh*

As of right now, every day is constant crazyness. There is a house renovation going on for me and the soon-to-be Mr. Right. We pour and pour and pour out our money into this project for four months already but so far the house is still far from completion. 

Our future house

The Mr. himself is sooo busy with his career, which is a good thing, but sometimes drives me nuts because it means that I get too see him less.  And there is the dreadful task called "wedding planning" that seems to turn me into a bridezilla overnight. Sigh.
  Image taken from www.tippyandfriends.com

Rawwwrr!