103~ Our Engagement Party

: One of Our Grand Moments in Life :

HarmonyUs Sovereigns Engagement Party at The Palm, By Saffron

Thank God it was possible for us to have our Engagement Party on the weekend of our Engagement week thus allowing Us to have all our Celebrations bundled into one week. We just loved the idea of celebrating Our Anniversary prolonged to a week and the having it differently just couldn’t be minded. For our Engagement Party, we also had the requisite list of things we did; i.e. bookings, shopping for deco and accessories, etc. all of which were well prepared even before our Engagement Day. Hence it was only up to the actual day to set everything up.

That Saturday afternoon, once NorMala had come home from work, she met up with Syazwan; who was already at her house busy preparing the banner for the night. Then we packed all that was needed for the occasion and loaded it into our cars and planned to meet up at the location at 2pm with our relevant crew. We had booked ‘The Palm, by Saffron’ as the location for our Engagement Party. It is a perfect place for the reception, just enough space, charm and seclusion for a private HarmonyUs Sovereign Engagement Party for sixty and bands. NorMala was the first to reach there and upon her arrival, the bands and Syazwan’s BFFs were already there to offer their lending hands. We unloaded our things and the girls started with the decorations while the guys checked in to the rooms. We thought it would be great to have small sleepover amongst our group at the Hotel and besides this it would be of so much convenience to our preparations towards the event.

It was wonderful to have the restaurant close up half of its area to us in order for us to prepare everything before hand and also be helpful with setting them up. They were great service. We set up the table decorations and blew out the balloons while the band equipment was prepared. It was a sexy pink and black theme. At every black covered table sat a center piece of either pink flowers with a strawberry scented tealight or crystal runners with pink hearts confetti. And with every seat came a favor; a black covered square box tied with pink ribbon and thank you label. We also left some pink and black message notes for the guests to leave a note for the Newly Engaged couple if they had felt like it. Other decorations included the alternate pink and black balloons that were stuck on every wall. And as the main attraction; we had the pink and black banner placed at the feature wall which was later festooned with heart shaped red, silver, black and pink normal balloons. We must admit there’s no denying that we did a fine job at it, the place looked spectacular!

During the preparations, when all the table deco was set up, the girls started to progress to their saloons to get ready for the event. NorMala went to the near by Kathy Chai Saloon situated just beside the restaurant and hotel. She had her hair washed and curled ready for the big night. Syazwan was the first to finish getting ready and was the first on the welcoming scene. In his smart black suit, collared shirt and shoes and sleek pink tie; he handsomely welcomed everyone with his charm and good looks. A combination of NorMala falls weak in her knees for hehe. And as a celebrating surprise for the men, Syazwan handed out chocolate flavoured cigars from his jacket, just like a mafia god father he might add :)

A few minutes after eight, NorMala came down from her hotel room ready to join her fiancé. As a perfect king and queen who reigned the night; his lovely bride-to-be was of course perfectly matched with him. NorMala wore a black strapped pretty pink silky knee length dress that had black velvet tiny dots and patterned designs at the end. And to glamour up, she added matching black accessories and shoes. She absolutely felt like a star that night, a fame shared with her fiancé later on when camera shots started flashing as soon as they were reunited. Syazwan welcomed his beautiful fiancé and whispered how wonderful she looked; she held on to him and returned the praise. With their sincere greets and mega smiles; they escorted their guests to their placements. During this, the first band ‘Devine Intervention’, strummed their tunes and the waiters and waitresses started serving the drinks from the bar. After a while; Syazwan and NorMala took to the seats at the featured wall and enjoyed the melodious sounds played by the bands. The songs played were mixed Malay and English Love songs and both local and abroad. After the first, ‘A Band Once’ took on the performances second followed by the 'Three Act Tragedies' a rock band known to be champions of the Bruneian Battle of the Bands. The rock band was especially suited for the rockers at our party that didn’t mind waiting` til later. All the bands that played that night were brilliant, truly talented and very much appreciated for their wonderful performances.

In between the entertainment, the Newly Engaged formally greeted their guests, thanked them for coming and then invited them to start the buffet dinner. The feast included a main course of roasted chicken, fried rice, veges and noodles, then fresh fruits and orange peach punch for refreshments. They were all splendidly delicious. After everyone had finished their dinner; Syazwan and NorMala then welcomed the cake cutting ceremony. The cake was sent to their table by Syazwan’s Uncle; where some people had naughtily sung a birthday song as a joke for the couple as they cut the cake together. The smiley couple then fed each other tiny portions of the cake and sent it off to be cut for everyone to have a taste. The performances then continued throughout the night with additional surprise performances from the Newly Engaged couple.

In the first instant; when ‘A Band Once’ was playing Eric Clapton’s; ‘Wonderful Tonight’, Syazwan surprised NorMala by taking her hand for a dance. With not much option, NorMala took to the front with Syazwan and slow danced as much as she knew how hehe. She felt incredibly shy but at the same time was completely taken by Syazwan’s sweet gallantry move that tears of joy were formed. Syazwan whispered in her ear the words ‘I love you’ and strengthened his clutch holding her hand. It absolutely was Our Romantic Moment that we surely will cherish forever. After we returned to our seats and enjoyed the performances again, it wasn’t a while after that we took to the front again to perform our songs. We introduced our duet song and with many nerves kept at bay; NorMala started singing then Syazwan. Though stage stiff, we were determined to rock the song to our liking which we did do with fun, especially since it was Our Song. The song is called, ‘Shy That Way’ and was created by Fav musician couple Tristan Prettyman and Jason Mraz. We are both big fans of them. This song was introduced by Syazwan when we first got together and mostly depicts how we both love to keep things shy between Us as it leaves much to the mystery and drives us crazy in love for each other. It’s a beautiful sexy tune too. After that, Syazwan sang another song, but this time solo and most especially for his bride-to-be. It was called ‘Love Song’ made famous by 311. Having done our part there, we checked up on how our guests were doing and rotated around the floor. Then stricken eleven, everyone started to leave. Each guest, thanked Us for the invitation, dropped Us some comments to how they enjoyed the night and bid us many congratulations. With much gratitude for coming, we said goodbye. Alongside everything, we had our handy and keen, well talented photographers, C Bui (who was our Photographer for our Engagement Day) and his colleagues from CPS Photography taking our pictures, making sure we didn’t miss any memory. We took several pictures with our guests and by ourselves, inside and outdoors (including a photo of a reenactment of the HarmonyUs Sovereign Proposal. It was much like a whole photo shoot session and thus very glamourous! Hehe.

When everyone left, We and some friends stayed back to remove the decorations that we wanted to keep while Syazwan dealt with the payment. We took more pictures to end the day and returned to our Hotel Rooms for an extended party of our own which actually didn’t last too long as we were already in much exhaust.

Our HarmonyUs Sovereign Engagement Party was a success and we are very happy it turned out well. Now that all that we have wished and hoped for so far has now come true, we will wait patiently until the next time our other prayers are granted again and the already accomplished greatly treasured as Our Grand Moments Together forever.

103~ Our Eleventh Monthsary

: He Proposed! :

Let’s have it at the Palm! We both broke into the same suggestion at the same time and since then it was official that we were going to have our 11th Monthsary at the Palm Café and Restaurant. We had gone to the Palm’s for a couple of meetings already before this with its manager; Robert, to discuss our Engagement Party plans. Being Malay, all our major events are made through a whole manner of disciplined mutual agreements hence likely missing the greatness of moments like getting proposed- like in the movies. As usual, before deciding anything, everything must be in line with every elder. Thus, since everything about Our Engagement was all settled already, NorMala had no idea what she was in for this Monthsary, except her mention that it was one of her dreams to have a proper proposal for her engagement.

On that afternoon, Syazwan picked NorMala up all suited up smart and handsome. NorMala found it a bit strange at first but let it go by reassuring her suspicion by thinking perhaps he had just wanted to make the extra effort. We made our way to The Palm’s and ordered our lunch meals as soon as we were comfortable. We decided to have our Monthsary there mostly because we wanted to have a try at its food and service. So far, it was all good and up to our standards. The place is compartmentalized into two dining areas; one hemmed with wide clear glass windows and doors, there is a bar in the middle and just outside sits a charming pool. The pool is mostly used for the fitness facility above the restaurant but private function hosts are allowed to use it to their advantage too. We had never been to the pool area and NorMala suggested that perhaps it would be a good idea to check it out after Our lunch. At first, Syazwan rejected the idea, afraid that we didn’t have time since we had a previous engagement to attend after. But, as soon as he started to notice that there were a quite a number of people coming in, he abruptly changed his mind and took NorMala up on her offer. Then she had begun to realize that something was really up; judging by how her finace- to- be was acting so differently. She asked him why the weirdness? He replied nonchalantly that he merely wanted to see the pool and take some pictures there. NorMala just played along with his plans. We got up from the table and walked outside to the pool, it was empty. We watched the ripples on the water and stared through it looking at the patterned mosaic tiles. We noticed a seating area with umbrellas on a leveled veranda and Syawan requested we take Our pictures there. After we were done, we sat there for a bit just enjoying the noon breeze and that’s when it all happened.

Syazwan called out NorMala for her attention as he took out a small red box and got down on one knee beside her chair. NorMala just smiled and covered her mouth with surprise, realizing what it was all about now. She laughed shyly and Syazwan took her hand and uttered the words, “Siti Normala Binti Haji Awang Damit, will you be my wife?” gleaming a wide smile while holding out a ring. It was her old ring that he had given to her from the beginning of their relationship. NorMala had given it back to Syazwan for safe keeping to bare her fingers from any rings which was just another self preparation for their coming engagement rings. She smiled excitedly looking at him and replied “Yes! I will”- followed with a giggle. It was really all quite funny how everything was played into the whole proposal especially being in broad daylight, this didn’t help in making the moment more romantic than it should’ve been she thought. She had always pictured a romantic scene to be at night view rather than day light. Syazwan did think the same too and actually did plan for Us to have the celebration that night but since unavoidable circumstances forced us to move it up to lunch time, it was inevitable. Furthermore, since it is never in our hands that things take a change in plans sometimes, it is nevertheless considered to be the norm. Syazwan carefully took the ring out and slipped it on NorMala’s finger. After that, he led her down the steps of the veranda and we left for home to prepare to go to the football field. Syazwan had a family game to participate in. We all then went out for dinner for some good local ‘soto’ soup noodles after and as soon as we were washed up from the days’ events, we cribbed in for a dvd the rest of the night just resting ourselves or perhaps preparing energy for the next months big day! Oh Boy, we can’t wait! :D

With special thanks to Syazwan for wanting to make his fiancé-to-be, NorMala’s dream come true~ and know that it did, just because it was you at the end of that ring :) Also for making the 11th Monthsary mean so much more than just another Monthsary to Us.