Wedding + Food Blog

As much as I love food, wedding planning is what takes most of my time these days. Negotiating is something I am absolutely horrible at but I've learnt a lot the last few weeks. Thanks to tips from a former bride, we managed to get the location we wanted but thought we could not afford. I hadn't bothered to bargain because the difference was HUGE- we are talking like RM60 000 worth of venue hire charges which now has reduced to just a few thousand (like really little, not even 3k!) so ladies, don't forget to bargain! Unfortunately, I didn't get the prices I wanted for the rest (ie. same as her) but I just didn't feel like bouncing emails back and forth just for a few hundred here and there. Plus, I think she had more to bargain with- my wedding is about 15% smaller so that makes it fair, right? :-)

Weddings in Malaysia are cut throat. You book your venue a year in advance (more if it's a popular date), your make-up artist, your photographer, florist, band (if any) immediately after and you pay through your nose- much more than I would pay in The Netherlands. Heck, an unknown make-up artist in KL actually dared to quote me RM3000+ flight+ 2 nights accomodation+ RM600 outstation fee. Er.. hello?! RM4200 (1000 euro) for 4 hours worth of work (incl. waiting) is just mad. If I'd known make-up artists could make that much, I would've gone to some kind of beauty school instead of going to uni. The famous one actually gave me a very reasonable quote- much better than the newbies and semi-famous. Weird, right...

Back to food: not much happening on this front although I will be entertaining a small after-dinner party tomorrow. Must try to remember to take photos. Haven't actually made pastry cream since 2006 or so, so I desperately hope my tart will not have to be binned.

Had An Awesome Holiday

There was a wedding, a centurion birthday and a massage-filled holiday in Bali. We ate- oh boy, did we eat! One thing about belonging to a food crazy family, you get dragged along to eat all the yummiest food within 100km from where you live. We had the most amazing non-halal Thai food, nasi lemak, Ipoh Sar Hor Fun and my beloved ikan bakar. In Bali, we had the infamous babi guling and overpriced seafood (280 euro for 4 people and it wasn't even good! Nor was it a fancy restaurant :( ).

 The good thing about Bali is the amount of villas they have available for rent. We paid just 200 euro a night for a gorgeous 1-bedroom villa with a small private pool in Seminyak. Food here was awful but I wish we could live here forever!

Tegalalang Rice Paddies. Somewhat touristy but still VERY pretty!


Wedding Stuff: I tell you...my entire family is wedding-mad. All they talk about is the wedding. They are incredibly excited about it. At that time, I didn't even know where we were going to get married but they already wanted to know the theme/colours/etc.  so that they can start making dresses or whatever! They've booked their flight tickets- even their accomodation (take note I'm only getting married in 11 months). I haven't even bought my own flight ticket to my own wedding LOL. Still, I am very happy they are excited - rather them be happy and excited than completely disinterested!

Oh and we changed our venue! Now, we're getting married in the venue of our dreams;-) I am so happy. Eek excited. Problem now is deciding on colours. Ugh I like everything.