Schengen Visa

I asked Indra to call Italian embassy and last time they told him that they will make a call when they are ready. The Italian embassy takes so long to process a tourist visa, 3 weeks!!! And they require massive documentations for tourist visa.
We didn't know whether we gonna have enough time to get the Italian and Switzerland visas before we go back to Indo.
We prayed to God to take care of this, because it's not under our control.

This morning, the Schengen visa was ready, done in 1 week!! How great is our God!! Now we need to process the Switzerland visa which is easier and faster especially after we got the Schengen Visa.

Yeay!!! Finally...we are going to Europe!!! Can't wait....

Grow Old With You....

I've known this song for a while, obviously from Adam Sandler's movie (The Wedding Singer). The song is not bad, but it's not my type of song.
I have always loved jazz, i cant play any jazz instrument or even sing a jazz song, but i grew up with jazz music all around me.

Before the wedding, i asked Indra whether we want to give a special presentation to the guest, i wasn't sure myself what it was. Indra said that he's going to sing a song for me. The night before the wedding, i asked him again whether he's going to sing tomorrow, he said no because he didn't have time to prepare it. So i said ok, but deep down i really wish he sing, it would be romantic and sweet.

During the reception, the maid of honour, indra's brother and the bestman did their speeches. I've asked Indra to prepare it the day before, the plan was to stand there together but im not gonna do the talk. And it was our turn. Indra held my hand, and we stood at the podium, in front of our guests, thanking them for making the day special. At the end of his speech, he said he has something for me and he asked Wayne our best friend to come up and bring his guitar.

He did prepare the song for me and i didn't know anything about it.
And he started to sing:

I wanna make you smile whenever youre sad
Carry you around when your arthritis is bad
All I wanna do is grow old with you

Ill get your medicine when your tummy aches
Build you a fire if the furnace breaks
Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you

Ill miss you
Ill kiss you
Give you my coat when you are cold

Ill need you
Ill feed you
Even let ya hold the remote control

So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink
Put you to bed if youve had too much to drink
I could be the man who grows old with you
I wanna grow old with you

When he finished the song, all i remember was everyone clapping their hands and Indra kissed and hugged me, he whispered 'I wanna grow old with you'.

Now this song has a special place in my heart, this is Indra's promises to me apart from our vows. The lyric is very simple, not poetic but realistic. This is what i want from our marriage, a simple and deep love between us, love doesnt always have to be extravagant, expensive, or out of this world. Love is love, accepting and loving ur partner for who they are, be a constant and faithfull companion for each other, and growing old together.

The Aftermath

God definitely played a BIG role in our wedding day.
We wouldn't have the perfect party with our budget, yet He kept His promise. He gave us the most beautiful wedding we could ask for. It wasn't glamorous and extravagant, but it was intimate, warm and beautiful.
With help from our friends, our dream came true. :)

Some of our friends said that the party was very enjoyable and smooth. Indra's colleagues told him many many times that they really enjoyed the ceremony. They said the ceremony was beautiful, simple and 'different'. They were also touched by Pastor D's message. These things matter a lot for us, how people enjoy our wedding.

At night, after the reception, before we go to bed, me and Indra prayed together. On our knees, we cried forever thankful to God for the perfect day that we had. Men can predict the weather but God own and creates the weather.
My colleague who attended the church ceremony said that the weather was weird that day. She lives in Mt.Hawthorn which is close to the city and she said she had a physio class that morning and it was raining heavily. She was driving 30km/ph and used the fastest wiper. She said for some reason, that morning, the rain was coming down around Perth city but not in city area. And, i just praised the Lord in my heart, THANK YOU GOD..THANK YOU!!!

Whenever we were outside that day, the rain seemed to stop. Before the ceremony, the rain stopped and we had no trouble getting out of the car. But it was raining once we started the ceremony. When we finished the ceremony, we gathered around outside the church and it was sunny, we took pictures with guests for about 1 hour.
When we had the photo session, the rain stopped all the way until we finished.
And the rain started again at night when we had the reception which made the atmosphere even better inside the function room, i think.

We found out that God gave us a bigger wedding present on top of the good weather. Remember in my previous post, God gave us a new challenge, a big one? Yup that's the one. Few months before the wedding, God opened an opportunity for us. We've been thinking of getting a new house for investment, we were not sure whether to build or to buy. In saying this, it doesnt mean that we have a lot of spare cash, but we thought we need to grow and expand. By God's grace we bought the current house at the perfect time, therefore we have enough equity on this house to grow our investment. If we see it from human's eyes, this step is ridiculous, there is no way that we can afford it.

We found a block of land with a good price and it's not far from where we live now. We were so excited about it. But we didn't want to make a stupid decision. So we prayed to God, we decided to try and let God do the rest. We surrendered averything to God, if we are not capable of taking this opportunity, we ask God to just close the doors and we will be happy to wait for the next challenge.

I forgot to mention that our hobby is visiting display homes hehehe..we loves beautiful houses and i spent my money on house magazines instead of clothing :P. There is one house that we really love, it's not too big, it has open living plan, with less walls and very very homey. I dont know how many times we've gone to that display house, until i remember every details of that house hahaha...

Weeks after weeks, God opened the doors one by one. Sometimes we still couldn't believe it. Until, few days after the wedding, the broker told us that the mortgage was granted without any problem and no mortgage insurance needed. He also enabled us to build the house that we love, the display home that we visited so many times!!!
I couldn't contain my excitement and happiness. I know this is not gonna be easy, but God has opened the way, He will provide what we need.

Now we are in the process of getting our Schengen Visa to go to Italy. It takes 2-3 weeks, and we are not sure whether we can get it on time, because im going back to Indo on the 12th. Even if the visa is ready before that, we wouldn't have enough time to get the Switzerland visa. Not sure what's gonna happen, but we keep praying.
Me and Indra have been staying in Australia for quite sometime, but we've never been anywhere. We saved all our money for the wedding, now that the wedding is over, we would like to have a proper honeymoon. We want to go to Europe. This would be our first trip overseas besides Indo, Singapore and Australia. Hope the visa will be ready soon.

*God...a BIG thanks from us, we love You*

.: THE DAY :. (Part 2)

Around 9.45, everyone's ready to go. My family went to the church first, Meli and Seng2 need to set up the music and all, my parents need to greet the guest. We were on track in term of time. We finished early and just sat down and relax at home until around 10am. At 10.00am, the bridal party went off to the church and we tried to relax, we chatted in the car, turned the music loud and joked around. I did not feel that nervous, maybe because of Tasia and Defy, they were crazy enough to keep me calm.

We passed the church and we saw guests coming in, but we decided to make another round in city, just to wait for other guests to come. Around 10.40, Medy called and it's show time. Thank God it wasn't raining that time. I saw my dad waiting for me at the door. I walked into the church and grab my dad's hand. I heard Craig start singing "Isn't She Lovely", and Defy walked into the aisle first, then followed by Tasia. Soon..it was my turn....

My feeling at that time?? Can't described it..i wasn't afraid, but i could hear my own heartbeat hahaha...my hands were so cold.

Then, it was my turn. When we took our first step, my dad whispered into my ear. He said "Today, i feel so proud of you. You looked very beautiful". And i just smiled back at him. Couldn't think anything else. Didn't expect my dad would say that.

As i entered the church, all guests were standing. I felt very nervous, i couldn't smile properly. I looked down several times to avoid akward moments. I saw Indra at the altar with our pastors and the bridal party. I saw him starring at me deeply. Then my hearbeat started to slow down. All i could remembered was Indra's eyes at me and Craig's voice singing:

" Isn't she lovely...
isn't she wonderfull.......
I cant believe what God has done......
Through us he's given life to one....
But isnt she lovely made from love"

I clearly remembered, when he took my hand the first time, he whispered to me "You look amazing!!"

The rest of the ceremony went very well, until the part where we supposed to present tea to our parents as a token of appreciation. First, we gave the tea to Indra's parents. As i suspected, Indra's mom had tears in her eyes. When Indra hugged his dad, his dad actually cried, literally sobbing (this i didn't expect!). To my surprise, Indra didn't cry at all, his mom cried even more and i didn't know what to do. Well, i couldn't put my sad face, the photographer was behind us. When the photographer showed us the pictures, i looked horrible, why?? because in that picture Indra hugged his dad, his dad cried, his mom cried as well, and there i was, standing and smiling!! yes!!! smiling!! i didn't realize that!! The photographer said "How could you smile when everyone's crying???".

When it was my parents turn, i hugged my mom and it was ok. Because i knew that my mom is a very strong woman, she won't cry over those things. She could watch the saddest movie ever without even a drop of tear in her eyes. But when i hugged my dad, somehow there was an overwhelming feeling that i couldnt hold. Me and my dad have a similar charateristic, stubborn and strongheaded, that's why i argued a lot with him. I spent the days fighting with my dad during my earlier year. That time, i felt a BIG guilty feeling towards my dad and regret why i did those things to him, and i cried. People must be thinking that im weird, because usually bride cries in "Mom & Daughter" time.

We walked out from the church with "Love is in the air". Thank you so much to the musician of that day, you've done a great job!!
After the ceremony was over, we took picture with everyone and we headed to city, king st, supreme court for our crazy photo session. Man!! that was awesome!!! we had SO MUCH FUN that day, we took crazy poses everywhere and people starring at us all the time.

Around 4.00 pm we went back home to get ready for the reception. During those coupled hours, we looked at the photos instead of taking a rest, and we all laughed like crazy. Around 6.30, the bridal party took off to Old Swan Brewery, we were there on time and the formal entrance went well except the part when the video man stepped on my skirt and i had to stop walking hahaha..but it was fine.:).
The food was good, the music and lighting were perfect. The slideshow didn't work properly that time because something wrong with the cable. The photos were there but we couldn't hear the song. I could see Tasia's sad face over the slideshow thingy, i understand she didnt sleep at all to create the slideshow, but it's ok Taz, we were so happy that day, those things were not that important to us :)

Towards the night, Daniel Bahk as our MC has prepared some games for us, crazy games!
It was fun, the best part was when Indra had to lift me several times and that determined how many times he can do "it" that night. Hahaha.. he lifted up 13 times, and his face was awfull, he had too much drink and he said to me he feels like throwing up!! Thank God he didn't.


When the reception was over, we drove to Burswood hotel. As i enter the room, i saw condoms all over the place..yuucckkkss...hahhaha. Rose petals in heart shape on our bed, with a really weird shape of undies and furry2 thing (like mini kemoceng hahaha). I spent nearly an hour to undo my hair, OMG tante Lanny surely used A LOT of harispray on my hair!!! and i forgot to bring my hairbrush. The only thing i used was a really small comb from the hotel, i felt like someone pulling out my hair the whole night.

And after we finished...
He.....me.....the.....I.....kiss.....hug.....then.....him....we.....
Hahaha...nah..... i wont share this one.....:P

Again, BIG thanks to all of you:
Tasia, Defy, Eel, Rey, Meli, Seng2, Artur, Wayne, Bon2, Frick, Zef, Medy, Ka Ira, San2, Liza, Chris, Yussi, Ivana, Jasper, Daniel Bahk, Adel, Mas Yaya, Craig, Kikis, Lia, Irene, Mikel......you know who you are....

.: THE DAY :. (Part.1)

Early morning, around 4am my alarm went off.
"God, this is the day..no more counting down.."
I still felt tired, but i couldn't close my eyes any longer, i was too nervous and excited.
The door bell rang, Tante Lany the make up artist came around 4.30am, i asked my mom to get ready first. While T.Lanny doing my mom's make up, i tried to practice the vows for the ceremony.

Yup i decided not to memorize it, just in case i got very nervous and blank in front of the church (knowing that im really bad with public speaking). At first, i asked Indra whether we want to use the standard vow, and he confidently said "No". He said it's not romantic and not personal. So i said "Ok..yeah yeah...whatever". I know in the end, he would be so busy and forget about the vow, and ask me to get the standard vow :P. And....i was right!!! Hahaha...

I asked him few days before we printed out the liturgy.
"Have you created the vow yet?"
"I dont think i have time for that, maybe we should use the standard one"
Knowing that this would happen, i actually have prepared the vow. So, we used the same vow for each other but customized. And just to avoid blank-ness hahaha, i asked Pastor Iwan to read that for us.

Around 6am, it was my turn.


It was really bright, no cloud, no rain!!! i felt relieve. God heard my prayer!!!!
But then, 30 mins later, rain started coming down quite heavy, and the cloud was dark.*Sigh*
Then, it was bright again 15 mins later...arggghhhh. It happened few times that morning. And somehow inside my heart, i didn't feel worry about the weather. I knew that my day is in God's hand, whatever happen that day will be according to His plan, and His plan is perfect.

Around 7.30, i finished the make-up. Time to put on my 'kebaya'. I've been waiting to wear it for a year!!! i love my kebaya!!!. My kebaya was ready, my mom ironed it the day before.The kebaya looked fine at first, but then my mom noticed that the skirt was too big!!! I lost weight eventually!!! and i should've tried it the day before!!
I always checked my weight on the scale, and i was sure that i maintained a constant weight. But apparently i tried the kebaya the first time in Indo, and i was weigh more at that time. Then my mom just put a pin at the back of my skirt, thank God, it didn't lose during the ceremony.

At around 8.00am, Wayne and my brother came from the florist to pick up our bouquets and corsages. I used a florist in Subiaco market and she is not that wellknown, me and Indra looked around for florist, not based on how wellknown their business are, but more to the person and the way they handle flowers. I found her in Subiaco market, her price range is cheap compare to others, the normal wedding bouquet will cost you around 160-200 dollars. She only charge 100 dollars for the bride bouquet and 50 dollars each for the bridemaids bouquets. She doesn't have sample photos of bouquet or floral arrangement that she created before, so i couldn't really see or choose which one i want. But somehow, i had this confidence that the bouquet will turn out great.

At first, i wanted to have Calla Lilies, because it's simple and beautiful. But then, Calla Lilies only bloom during winter if im not wrong, the point is she can try to get Calla Lilies in October but will cost me a lot more and she can't guarantee she'll get it. So, i browsed in the internet for my bouquet, i prefer to have the sample picture of what i want, so there will be no mistake. But after browsing and browsing for so long, i still couldn't decide what flowers i wanted. Rose is beautiful and easy to get but very common. Finally, i decided to go with white Lilies and white Orchid. I have little knowledge about flowers, i've never seen them together, but i need to decide very soon, so i go with them. For bridemaids bouquets, i chose pink Lilies and white Orchid. I had no idea or picture in my mind, how the bouquets will turn out.

That morning, when i saw my bouquet, i was surprised and relieved!!! They are beautiful and gorgeous!!! I wouldn't ask for any other bouquet than that. Here they are:

Wow, recaping the moments is not easy, i tried to note down all the little details so when im old, this blog can remind me every details, feeling and emotion that i had on my wedding day.
I will continue the story in Part.2

D -1

On Thursday we picked up the suits for Rey and Eel, and they were too tight for them *sigh*. We called Tony Barlow and asked for the right size, so on Friday early morning, me, Tash, Indra, and Kis went to city to get them exchanged.

I remember on that day, i felt even worse. I wasn't happy for the whole day. Tasia asked me what's wrong and i said " I dont think im making the right decision here". She was like "Huhhhh???? dont tell me you got cold feet!!!". I felt that i wasnt prepared to let the go the current status, in relationship but not married. I was afraid that the marriage life is not going to be beautiful and nice as i expected and i have to face it for the rest of my life!!!.
I've seen some married couples who excluded themselves once they are married, they rarely go out with friends anymore, they think that they are in a completely different level now and act like one. Tasia said to me "It's going to be ok!!!, I know you guys are not like that. Im sure we will still hanging out together. You are not gonna lose your friends".(Ooohh...what a good MOH you are!!).

We drove around on Friday to pick up this and that. In the afternoon, we pick up the rental cars and after that me and Indra went to Tante Noni's house to pick up the snacks for the ceremony. On they way there, i asked Indra "Are you afraid?". He said "I am nervous but not scared. A little bit worry about the weather, the schedule, the timeline but not the marriage". I said honestly to Indra "I am afraid". Being insensitive guy, he started asking me " So you still unsure about the whole thing? do you want to cancel the wedding?? why didn't you say it before??". He didn't make me feel any better, so i just kept quiet.

When we reached home around 7.30pm, some of our friends were already there to help us. They started to put the snacks into the boxes and some of them came to pick up the pictures and flowers that we gonna use on Saturday, we also have finished the liturgy (Indra designed the layout and i absolutely love it!!!). Tasia was doing the slideshow for us, she didn't sleep that night just to finish the slideshow (Thanks a lot Tas!!). My mom started to take out the wedding dress and iron it. And i didn't want to do anything that night, washed my hair, and just sat there doing my nails.

The weather forecast for Saturday was few showers and 19 degrees. That night i slept around 12.oo and i prayed hard to God so that He will make the weather good and the wedding runs smoothly, I prayed that God will lift up the uneasy feeling and burden from my heart so that i can enjoy the Day. Being a very fussy person, i asked God to give me a humble heart that accept everything that will happen on that day. Amen!!!

*Girls, the last point is very very important!!! this point played a major role during our wedding*