Day 1: Brunch

The Rings

It has been a week since the last post. Keeping up with blogging is harder than I thought. 

The ring mission accomplished!

First stop we went to Ole-ole seksyen 18. There were not many options and no size for me since they also do not take order for re-sizing. Then we headed towards seksyen 7 and also, the same thing. Finally went to PKNS jugak and found one that suits me. It was worth the price and the design was unique. Gold 916 coated with white gold. After 10% discount (or no?) and a bit of bargaining we managed to secure the price at RM330 only! 

Unique design that butterflies my heart when wearing

Thank you sweet heart :)

As I mentioned, there should be only one ring for my merinang day.. However Allah destined me a lovely surprise. Suddenly all the weight I bear on my shoulders for the past 1 week feels like it has been lifted off. 

"And whosoever is conscious of Allah, He will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty). And He will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine. And whoever puts his trust in Allah, then He will suffice him. Verily, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Indeed Allah has sent a measure for all things." (Quran: 65/2-3)

My beloved grandmother has a thing for jewelry. The jewelry that she wears is a symbol of her honest earning for living, a memoir to her past memories with my late grandfather and a feeling of appreciation for herself. So she had this piece of beautiful Rantai Tangan. Unfortunately it was big by a few cm. So then she decided to cut off a piece of it and make it into a ring. Rather then just keeping it away. She did try it on for sizing however, despite having her finger measured, she could not fit the ring in her fingers. I tried it on and suddenly fell in love with the ring. We went back home from the jewelry shop and met my mother. We discussed whether it is possible to make the ring as my Bertunang ring. So the first ring that I've bought earlier would be the Merisik ring. And so it be.  Thank you to my fiance -hikhik- for supporting the idea. 

Sapphire 

Beautiful

Pre-engagement & Engagement preparation

A custom tradition of Malay wedding involves various structural components and steps before the actual wedding takes place. A proposal does not involve with taking down one knees or making a statement. When both bride and groom have verbal acknowledgment towards marriage, the wedding plans takes off from then onward starting with the man proposing a date to meet his girlfriend's family. An important event will take place between the man and the woman's families. Getting to meet the future bride's family is a step to letting know that he intends to take his girlfriend's hand into marriage. For this reason, woman will be presented with a special ring which when one wears, indicates that she has been taken and not available for other guys. This event is called Pre-engagement, also known to us as 'Merisik' (mur-ree-seyk). It takes only half a day. Usually only the immediate families of the man who will go accompany the man. They are usually his parents, siblings, and grandfather and grandmother. Sometimes he also brings along his uncles and aunts just to make the crowd bigger. Next, the woman's father welcomes the man's family and do a bit of speech to the whole members of the floor. After that, the man's father (father or uncle) will tell the woman's family of their intention and propose a date for the engagement day. After both party is satisfied with the date arrangement and accepts the man's intention the man's mother will put the mentioned ring on the woman's finger. Then both families will have meals together prepared by the woman's family. This Merisik event often does not include the groom-to-be. They can be absent or present on the Merisik day. 

While engagement event is another process, sometime after the Merisik has taken place. Then comes the engagement day. Usually the Malays like to celebrate this day with beautiful dress, photos, food that sometimes can be misunderstood as the real wedding due to the elaborate decorations and make-ups. The idea of engagement is not that much difference with that of Merisik. The only difference is that more relatives are involved and the news of engagement is spread throughout the entire nation, facebook, twitter, instagram and other types of social media in existence. Unlike Merisik which only known to the immediate family members of both woman and man. 

Because these two processes are tedious and takes a lot of effort, money and time, alternative has been made.

Instead of having the pre-engagement and engagement as two separates occasions, some of us combined them both into one day. However, it has no special name for this. But I just called it the ' Merinang' (Mur-ree-nung) day. This, if Allah allows, will happen to me on my birthday. 

Hence tomorrow, me and husband-to-be will go for a ring hunt. 

The 'Ring Hunt'.