My favorite parts of our wedding were:

- Seeing NYBoy in traditional Malay dress.

- Seeing all our friends and family in attendance!

- The FOOD. NYBoy loved the slow-roasted lamb, I was fine with the chicken! And the baklava was yummy!

- Finally getting married.

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Definitely one of the happiest days of my life! I say one of because our reception was held on a separate day, and that was just as perfect.

Sorry for the lack of pictures! The majority of our photos had other people in them, and I’m not sure everyone would want their photo on the open internet.

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Life as an unemployed graduate is completely void of surprises, I’m focusing all my energy on wedding scrapbooking, while NYBoy is concentrating on sorting out all our contracts for the move to Dallas.

It’s amazing what you can do online! So far we’ve set up the moving service, our gas and electricity accounts, cable & internet, and phone plans – all while sitting thousands of miles away from Dallas at a computer.

Photos from the month before the wedding!

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We went to the wedding of one of my oldest childhood friends, and when all our guests had arrived in Brunei, we had a whole afternoon of watersports and extreme sunburn!

I am working my way very slowly through all the photos people took at the wedding. We didn’t hire a professional photographer, and from the photo’s that people have shown me so far, we were right in thinking we wouldn’t need to. Photos taken by family and friends show a lot more character IMO.

The next set of photos I upload will be the nikah ceremony photos, followed by the wedding reception photos and then photos from our honeymoon in Thailand!

Very delayed!

I just finished packing up four years worth of junk into boxes to be shipped to New York, which ended up weighing 150kg (both Andrew and I’s stuff combined). We went to our last ever ball last night, and have said goodbye to so many friends!

Getting on a plane tomorrow, leaving St Andrews for good, and starting a whole new adventure!

Until I next update, enjoy the pictures from our Dallas/New York trip earlier this month! We went to the Fort Worth Zoo, the Dallas Arboretum, Brooklyn Flea Market etc. etc.

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It was a really long ride,
and I can never sit still for very long.

No holiday this Easter break for us, so we got on a train and went to Glasgow for a day – for a day of girly fun and a friend’s birthday.

My little sister decided to come up and stay with us in St. Andrews last minute, so she came to Glasgow too.

I LOVE to shop.

These are (in my opinion) the best finds of the day:

- The dress I’m thinking of wearing to my bridal shower, which was supposed to be a surprise, but since they had to make sure I was actually free – I know the date. But I don’t know what they have planned!

- I think this is the most versatile piece of clothing I got, I had a US$6 pencil skirt from F21 that I used and abused all of last summer, and for most Management Society events this year, but because it was so cheap, it’s starting to lose its shape.

I think black pencil skirts look good with everything.

- I think this was THE BEST thing I found all day. I tried on all three pieces just for fun, not really expecting much.

But I think the three together are the cutest things I found all day.

Then we had dinner at Sapporo, a teppanyaki joint at Merchant City.

The chef made us a rice heart. Cute.

Then did an impressive fire trick.

I thought it was funny that even though three of us tried to capture the flames on film, in the 2 seconds that they were actually there, my shitty iPhone camera captured it best… because it has no concept of brightness, flash, focus etc etc.

It just took it.

The birthday girl!

And the birthday song performers! Instruments and all.

I was so tired when the night was over, I think that’s the earliest time I’ve gone to bed at for a while.

Since we’re graduating just a month before our wedding, our budget is really limited.

But I have a string of real pearls from when we went to a gem and minerals show in Freeport to keep NYBoy’s mom company at her booth, and I also have earring hooks from when I went on a DIY material shopping spree at Michael’s over Christmas, and some invisible elastic from when I made matching pearl bracelets for my sisters and I…

SO…..

I made my own pearl earrings for the wedding.

I’m going to wear them with my pearl bracelet, and the Tiffany’s necklace that NYBoy got me the first month we started going out, that I never take off.

It’s baby planning steps towards the actual wedding, there’s still so much to sort out, but considering I’m doing it almost entirely myself – I think I’ve made very good progress!

We’ve got the dress (and sent it to a tailor for altering), I have my mom’s traditional outfit for the traditional ceremony, we have favors sorted (I just have to order the packaging for it), venue has been booked, menu has been tested… it’s only a few months away and I am excited!

You were in charge of the barbecuing at the Management Society annual BBQ.

And I promise I wasn’t just interested in the food, I really liked talking to you.

And afterwards we cleaned up the grills, and I really wanted to take a photo with you.

And then we started going to all the balls together as friends…

Then almost a year after the BBQ we started going out…

And two years later, we’re engaged…

We still go to balls together…

And you are still my bestfriend in the whole world.

Happy two years NYBoy, I ♥ you.

Today’s February 15th, it always feels so normal compared to the day before it.

I had the best Valentine’s day ever this year, and most of it was spent at home!

We have a wedding to save up for, so we decided to skip going out for dinner this year – because on top of the cost of food, going out involves getting a new dress, cab fares, tip etc etc. We chilled out at home instead.

In the morning I woke up and reached out for my laptop to check my emails (as I always do) except this time there was a post-it note on my keyboard.

I spent the next hour running around the house following post-it clues to presents under the bed, in the broom closet, in the dryer, oven etc. It was really fun!!!

I gave him a box of bite-sized brownie pieces – it took me much longer to put that together than you would think.

We went out for lunch with friends, and came home to prep dinner. The best part about cooking dinner at home over Valentine’s day is we get to hang out together the whole time.

ON THE MENU:

Spicy oven fried chicken
Potato salad
Buttermilk biscuits
Italian salad
White Chocolate Pecan Pie
Homemade raspberry lemonade

We got dressed down for our dinner date (that’s a first on Valentine’s day!!!!) and lit candles all around the room, it was actually more romantic than the Old Course Hotel restaurant we went to last year.

We ate dinner and watched NCIS (his favorite TV show) on his laptop, then went back down to have dessert with our housemates and friends who had come over for dinner.

I was so stuffed at the end of the night.

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- We went into the city a lot.

- We had the cutest (and yummiest) mini burgers at Pop Burger!

- I finally got my ring resized at Tiffany’s and they did it in a day, good service!

- We got stuck in the snow for over an hour in NYBoy’s mustang.

- We decorated the best Christmas tree ever – and ditched the traditional angel topper with Bebek, Mr. Rabbit and the blue doll (childhood toys, guess which belongs to each person).

My favorite presents this year?
My Juicy Couture iphone cover, and my limited edition Barbie T3 hairdryer!

- Went to the beach after the snow!

- Made a trip down to Washington, DC to show Mumu the sights and museums. It was SO cold there, my favorite part was getting astronaut icecream at the Smithsonian Air & Space museum.

- Did a loooottt of shopping.

My favorite purchases?
True Religion skinnies, a new Dooney & Bourke purse (I was thinking of getting a Longchamp, until I found this, it’s the same material but with a cross-body strap, which I loovvve) and my wedding dress.

I have an Arabic final to sit next week and then on the 21st we’re getting on another plane and flying back home (MY home this time, not his!).

I’m really looking forward to spending time on the beach, eating very yummy food and seeing my friends who I haven’t seen since I was back in Summer 2008. Until then, it’s study, study, study.

Happy New Year everyone!

Life has been so busy! In good and bad ways, since coming back from Manchester I’ve had a packed schedule of work & friends visiting.

A bunch of friends came up from Manchester to come to our engagement party, thrown by one of Andrew’s groomsmen – our bestfriend and housemate M!

Our other housemate, the very talented photog Mr. FC took photos all night and my favorite of all of them is this one:

I will upload the rest soon, but for now I have an Arabic presentation, assignment, management essay, a Management Society event AND Thanksgiving dinner prep to worry about!!