Apologies about the poor quality of the pics. There were in hard-copies and I (not professional, obviously) simply took the shot of those using our then 3.2mp Olympus digital camera just to have the soft-copy of those before we left to Glasgow (we are keeping the albums of those pics in Malaysia). Well, at least something rather than nothing.
Okay, in chronological order - 20 - 01 - 2001 Akad Nikah, in my house, Buaran II, Duren Sawit Jakarta (early morning). The groom's side who arrived in Jakarta a few days before stayed in our other house, next lane. The iring-iringan (the groom's family, relatives and friends) came early morning. There was such a big crowd. As the bride, I was kept in my room (upstairs, just next to the Mushalla, where the Akad Nikah process took place) and was allowed to get out only after the Ijab Qabul was completed. My father gave the speech for about an hour and his speech, telling the audience the meaning of marriage, how much he loves me and how much I mean to him and how I was when I was a little girl made everybody cried. He himself was crying as he narrated those. I was not there then but thereafter everybody told me so. Even my father in law was crying too (hehehe) He said, the only person who did not cry was my husband (control macho, konon). Then only I was invited to join the crowd, to get the wedding ring placed on my ring finger, to take some pictures then quickly get back to my room - I had to change the dress to the blue one. We were having the reception at home that very day. I was so happy to see those dear to me came. My uncles, aunties, friends, and even my primary school teachers.
The next day, 21 January 2001, we had the wedding reception at the tower of one of the largest bank in Jakarta. It was cool that we received so many board flower arrangements, we even had big blocks of ice carved to our initials. I was not at all involved with the arrangement, thus, had no idea at all how the hall would look like, how the pelaminan would be, I did not even know what I would be wearing. Everything was arranged for me, I just returned to Jakarta, was told to be home for a few days and was not informed about anything during that period. So when my husband and I walked to the hall, we were so astonished. I did not expect a grand wedding at all; I was asking for a simple one and even for the Mahar, I was merely asking for one set of prayer attire and al Qur'an. AlhamdulilLah. (to all my friends from Darunnajah who had spared the time to come, thank you so very much!). Oh, Arkan was equally very happy that day because Ikang Fawzi told him "Wah ganteng kamu" huwahaha (we all said he simply said that because he was sorry that Mba' Icha, Marissa Haque, couldn't make it to the wedding).
A month later, we had the wedding ceremony in Perlis (my parents in law were then posted to Hospital Kangar, Perlis). We had to wait because of working commitment of ourselves and our parents. My parents and sister came from Jakarta. We stayed in the only five star hotel in Perlis. My father in law was thinking of hiring an elephant from Thailand so that I would come to the house from the hotel riding the elephant. Thank God they did not proceed with that plan. I couldn't imagine more than 1000 people who attended the wedding saw myself on the elephant.
We then went to Langkawi for our honeymoon (sorry no pictures are available in digital form and could not make the digitalised copy of those as the album is in Malaysia), had to get back to works thereafter but was quite lucky to have the opportunity to continue our honey moon in the USA, California to be exact.
Here are some available pics taken during that period.
