Here's to Forever :
Mohammad Zulikram & Farah Farisya Syamin
It has already been a week and 5 days since I've gotten married and it has been colourfully great. A lot has changed. New life, brand new days, new responsibilities and I'm probably still in my honeymoon where everything looks and feels great and I'm praying hard to be this happy till the end, In shaa Allah.
I remember my last single gal week before the wedding. I was terrified yet excited. Truth be told, I was cold feet every time 'Forever' hit me. I needed a little more convincing and I was told that it is normal to feel that way. You see, being engaged was not all that fun for me. I understood what everyone was advising me that I did not understand then. Being engaged was hard, well at least for me. Orang kata 'darah manis' whatever that means. Syaitan will always want to pull you away from the initial niat. I've always thought that marriage was beautiful and all the other good things that marriage had to offer before I got engaged but going through the engagement sometimes led me astray from what I felt towards it before. Syaitan. It took a lot of doa, trust me A LOT. I remember I had a conversation with my cousin when we were driving around spending time. She asked me "Do you think Ikram is the one?" and I took a second to really think about it. Sometimes it takes the right questions to pop out some real thinking. I never was really madly in love, I never really was so sure. I was always convincing myself time after time but then again, with all the dugaan that came, I never wanted to bail out, I never wanted to reject and because of that, I knew Ikram was the one for me. I knew I was going to be okay, In shaa Allah. Days went by so quickly, till the big day came...
12/12/2014, No, we were not one of those couples who looks for pretty dates, it was all coincidental. Woke up that morning, still trying to digest everything and what was going to happen in a few hours. I was so thankful I had my cousin with me who was also my Maid of honour. She was there the whole time for me. I can't thank her enough. Trust me, if you are getting married, picking the right maid of honour or whoever you want to call her, your second hand, or whatever you call it is pretty crucial. Getting married is a huge deal. Tons of feelings rushing through you and you just need someone to just really be present with you and be there for you the whole way through and my cousin did just that, perfectly! My nikah was scheduled at 5pm at Masjid Al Ghufran, TTDI nearby my place. I remember right after my solat Asar, I went down, got into my car with my sister, Kak Jihan, my cousin, Kak Fazreen and Abang Iqmal who drove us to the Masjid. As we reached to the masjid, first thing I saw was Ikram's car and saw his sisters outside the masjid and I felt like I was about to lose myself. I couldn't feel myself. Things just got real then and there. 'This is it', I thought. My whole life is about to change in a few minutes. It was time to enter, I walked out of the car and as I wanted to step into the masjid, my nerves really kicked in. I needed a second before I made my next step. My sister held my hand and asked me to zikir all the way. We got in, I sat on the cushion that was placed for me. I sat down, I had my mum next to me, my sisters, my family, my friends all there with me. I held my cousin, Kak Fazreen's hand all the way through. And so it was time. I gotta say, I really like my qadhi, Ustaz Syahid, the Imam of the masjid. He was young so, he made it all easy. I love how he explained things before we started. My nikah was after Asar, and both me and Ikram knew there was no solat sunat after during waktu Asar. I was worried that my aunties were gonna bug me with questions like "Kenapa dia tak solat Asar" and all but Ustaz Syahid explained it through so Pheww! Nikah is super easy but sekarang, some of the qadhi makes it pretty complicated. Kena genggam tangan (pengantin lelaki & Wali) or the lafaz has to have this and that, tak boleh miss out some words but it isn't like that at all. Ustaz Syahid made it really easy and yes, breezy sampai my husband thought it was just a rehearsal when it was actually the real thing. Tak sempat nak rasa that extra nerves kicking! All I knew, it was over in minutes!
Dengan sekali lafaz, I was already his wife. A title 'Puan' was stamped on my forehead. It was pretty surreal.
He's probably the best, most realistic decision I have ever made in my life.
Here's one with the best Maid of Honour a bride could ever have!
Here's the thing I want to share. Probably a few weeks before I got married, I prayed during my sujud that as my husband made that lafaz nikah, I prayed Allah will fill my heart with 'mawaddah' that strong love from Him towards my husband and Alhamdulillah as my husband made that lafaz, that instant love I had for him was probably indescribable. I felt so happy only Allah knew. It felt different something I cannot describe. After lafaz taklik and etc, he came to me for the 'batal air sembahyang' ritual. I still remember vividly, he came over to me and I had this huge smile and I said "Assalamualaikum" and we both giggled because on his whatsapp status he wrote "You had me at Assalamualaikum" since 287 days and 20 hours ago (pardon me, I just checked my whatsapp for that!) and the rest was history...
I love him so much in a way I never thought I could ever love somebody and I consider myself so lucky everyday when I wake up every morning. I am so thankful to Allah that He led me to this wonderful man who has been doing such a great job in taking care of me. I'm not going to lie, it isn't as easy as I thought it would be. Marriage is beautiful but it's so much to it. It's a huge responsibility and it is a lot of sacrifice. I have never been away from my family. As you all may know, I am the youngest out of 4 siblings. I never liked being away from my Mum. Though sometimes home gets tough and rough, it's still home. Now that I'm married, I moved in with my husband and it is just us for now. I miss home everyday, but I wouldn't trade anywhere else to be than here with my husband. I've never left my home for 20 years of my life till now. I never left TTDI, ever and now I'm an hour away. Every day is a new experience. To know I've got someone to take care of and best part is, I love taking care and being taken care of. I now have someone to lean on. I love how someone waits for me to pray with him (come on, dream come true!) I learn new responsibilities that before maybe I couldn't even care less. To clean, to cook. My first day of cooking for my husband and it turned out to be a little salty and yet my husband said it was good and still says thank you and he appreciates it. He gives me kisses and hugs whenever he sees the little things I do that keeps me going. It's great to have someone appreciate things that you do and I am grateful to have him.
This experience have been wonderful so far and I really hope no matter how crazy and tough it is going to be, Allah will make it easy to go through rainy days and that Allah will jaga my marriage for me. My friends semua tanya "Best tak kahwin?" and here I am going to answer everyone "Best gilaaaaa!"
About my reception,
We held it at Duchess Place, Jalan Ampang. A lovely place! I wouldn't have it anywhere else. The place was so me! The reception was shared with my brother who got married earlier in October so to celebrate the last 2 of the family who got married, my mum celebrated both of us sekali. My wedding pictures got pretty viral on Instagram as I was told. Guess it was my photographers that took amazing photos that made us look great! I'm so glad I picked the team to make the wedding happen. My photographer was Raihan Talib and gosh Abang Rai did such a great job on the photos alongside Abang Azizi as his partner. Pictures turned out AMAZING that we couldn't resist not hiring him for Ikram's side of the wedding soon!
I love my dreamy dress. Vivien from Emma Weddings made it come true for me. Here's some tips for those who are getting married soon. Know what you want. Planning your wedding is going to be crazily hectic. A lot of people are going to give you a lot of suggestions but at the end of the day, its YOUR day. You should know how you to want to look and feel. If it doesn't make it feel you, you have the right to say something. Make sure by the end of the day, you feel satisfied cause lets face it, everything is money so spend it wisely and spend it on something that is worth it and its once in a lifetime experience. I love how my tailor makes me feel 'Me' and she is probably the best, honestly. She tailor makes to perfection. (PS: Use time to decide on who to hire, where to have your wedding at wisely. Budget is seriously important. You can always find something nice that wont cost fortunes, trust me)
So there you go, a little something to share of my 'Happily Ever After'. Thank you for all the overwhelming doas. Thank you for leaving such sweet comments on Instagram, on Facebook. I'm glad if this story of ours inspires some of you. Thank you for sending emails too! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and sharing how happy you are for us. Please doakan for the best for both my husband and I and we pray the same for everyone. May Allah shower us all with Love, Rahmat&Barakah, In shaa Allah, Ameen.
salam alaik. mind asking? how much cost do you spend for yr marriage with your husband? i just want to know the budget 😊 tq farisya.... sorry kalau i mcm mnyebuk je nk taw. so sorry.
ReplyDeleteWaalaikumussalam, sorry if this reply came late. Been busy with hectic class schedules.
DeleteTak langsung menyibuk, no worries at all.
Sorry if this reply will be a long one but hope it'll be helpful to u! hehe
For nikah, I did not spend so much because I had it at a Masjid, nearby my place in TTDI, Masjid Al Ghufran. We had a really simple one. Masjid dekat situ provides pelamin and etc but I just wanted a plain&simple. My nikah was after asar so it was just a tea session (main reason why i had it during Asar because memang nak cut cost on food since its tea; makanan ringan2 je) I think we paid less than RM 1,500 for everything including kerusi meja dekat dewan and a simple set up (alas meja and etc) and of course food sekali.
During bersanding, I shared it with my brother so memang cut cost for my parents as well since they were paying for one wedding but for two people.
I chose Duchess Place, Jln Ampang. This place memang i suka sgt the concept. It was very english. Florals and whites, basically an indoor garden wedding. I got my dream garden wedding skipping the panas and berpeluh! ;p
Duchess Place was a good deal. It was RM 55 per head which included almost everything ; pelamin that you could choose (they have different types of decorations and they we were all very tasteful and cantik), including the wedding cake, wedding bouquet and of course food. Food memang semua sedap2 and they had 3 food tasting sessions which was a lot compared to other places or caterers that provided food tasting and though memang in the package tak include a grand piano, grass carpet, and a gazebo spot for cake cutting but they gave me all that as complimentary (itu atas perbincangan u and duchess place)
ALSO they gave complimentary chocolates/cupcakes for u to give ur guests as door gifts but it was too simple so my mum had to make boxes and also tambah sikit for the door gifts. We also had about 800-900 guests. The RM 55 tu was last year not too sure if they changed the prices already this year due to GST and etc.
Door gifts, we made boxes with our initials 'F&Z', coincidentally my brother's name is Faisal and sister in law's name is Zatty and mine is Farisya and my husband's Zulikram so it was easier that way to have boxes with initials daripada having a simple box and those stick tags which will cost more money individually and a lot of work to tape satu satu. we did ours dekat Medan Marra, a shop yang i pun dah tak ingat apa nama. We also did our invitations there.
Deleteour wedding card was about RM 1.20 mcm tu each. vaguely that i can remember, it might not be exact but around there. we printed out 300 cards.
for my dresses, i buat semua dekat Emma Weddings, in Uptown. U can look her up on instagram by the name emma_wf. she's really good. I spent less than RM 1,500 for both dresses but materials were mine.
my bersanding for my side, i beli dekat Jakel and nikah, my aunty tolong belikan dekat Jakarta which costs only RM 250 tak silap but it was really cantik. so if u have extra money and nak travel, Jakarta is the best place to buy laces. Memang murah sangat daripada sini sebab my beaded lace for bersanding that I bought in Jakel cost me RM 1k something. I dont regret buying sebab memang cantik but to think of it, i dapat pakai baju tu sekali je and if i went to Jakarta myself maybe i could've gotten something cheaper but oh well! once in a lifetime! haha but baju nikah i reused it for my husband's side of the wedding so it was a save.
for photographer, i spent RM 1,500 for an album and stuff and for photography yang sangat cantik. I searched high and low for photographers but semua sangatlah mahal kalau nak a quality one but fortunately i found Raihan Talib Photography, its considered cheap for the quality.
So roughly u kira lah how much. I could have spent less but of course i had my parents' wedding expectations and im sure they wanted to best especially this was the last wedding for the family but i know we did save a lot because it was a shared wedding. And my husband helped a lot, sebab duit hantaran ada yang i guna to pay certain things like my tailor and some dewan stuffs and photography as well.
Anyway, that was a long one! hahah but i do hope u get any inspiration, ideas or a rough figure of budget. Do take care and Selamat menyambut bulan Ramadhan <3