#JMDay post 9: 提亲/过大礼

Last entry was about how we prepared for our 提亲 or 过大礼。Everything are so new to all of us. Both parent also not really sure how to go about it and what to do so we decided we will do it our way (#JM's WAY) :) Mayb even until now, I also still mong cha cha about the real process of it. But who cares! Because it turns out to b an amazing and full of surprises' trip! I must say I have got the best Future-in-law as well as the best parent & of course the superb best Fiance in this whole wide world.

We booked our tickets fairy long time ago.. mean we have been planning for this trip ages ago. Mostly I am the one who made all the decisions while Joel will follow and said YES to almost everything. Since we wanted it to b simple, so we skipped the part of 按床，回礼... Our main purpose of 提亲/过大礼 is to have both the parent sit down and have some time together as we are all in different place to talk about our wedding details too. This is our goal and we achieved it pretty well I must said!


We prepared a basket of goodie to bring back for my parent. It included:
燕窝，冬菇，红枣，鲍鱼，蚝干，当归，人参，2 bottle of wines...
It looks kind of modern compared w/ 

But I would love to have this 喜饼

Too bad, I can't find it :( Otherwise, it will be completed!


The very loving and the most friendly FMIL

Off we go ;) A short trip back to Tawau!

When we were doing our wedding budget, it came across on 礼金 this 2 words. I have to explain to the typical English man, Joel who don't have any idea bout this. After he understood it, he said to me, I will come out w/ the amount of money that need to prepare by myself. We don't how much do we need to prepare. But he confidently said he will do it no matter how much which touched me. It seems like a strong assurance from him that he is so ready to take up this commitment and responsibility!


The man who work so hard to save up to provide me a good life!

The night when all us gather together & FMIL said a prayer before we start :) And Papa was exceptional receive it well which I am so glad about it.
 
I was the one who ordered all the food! Everything was so so yuuummmyy and so satisfied w/ it! I guess the FPIL enjoyed themselves very much ;)

We managed to discuss the wedding details and catch up w/ one another. The 1 thing that strikes me the most was when Papa said to Joel, please take good care of my daughter which literally melted my heart! Word can't describe how grateful I am to have him and I never thought this will come out from him (typical Chinese man who seldom express himself). We covered almost every important details and guest list is on his way......
The night ended w/ so much laughter! So blessed and content to have them*
Ps: Same color tone that all of us wore that night (w/o planning) 
We gotta said it is the most amazing, full of emotion and wonderful trip! Unexpectedly smooth and full of surprises* 

Next: I think I have to slim down to made my wedding dress! Superb fun moment is coming... 

#JMDay post 8: Preparation for 提亲 or 过大礼

Joel and I are not typical Chinese minded people especially Joel when it comes to Chinese culture, he completely no clue about it. His parent as well plus we are Christian so we can sort of excluded loads of the very Chinese wedding culture. So we won't be having the typical 提亲 or 过大礼 during the whole wedding preparation. But of course, there's still some minor "Chinese-blood" in me that I would love to have both the parent to sit down, have some bounding time together (mainly both parent are not from the same town) and talked about the wedding details. So we will b having a modern kind of  提亲 next week back in Tawau. Before that, Michelle being Michelle- I have done some research on 提亲 or 过大礼 and we decided to head over to some wedding shops to ask around and see look see look. 

Entering to the shop, it is all RED! Superb festive feeling. Joel was amazed w/ all the thing inside. We did ask the shop-keeper to explain to us what we need to get. She is helpful enough to brief us and show us around.

and I managed to snap some photos. Would love to have a set of this tea-pot and lil mug for the tea-ceremony session.

The very RED blanket which I don't think we really need it.

I personally love this but it seems like kinda hard to carry back to Tawau tho. I have to give up on this.

Of course, Red-packet and Red-cloth is a #must

To my understanding this is what 过大礼 mean:

男方礼品

以下就是男女家只方的礼品：

1) 礼金： 价钱丰俭由人。
2) 礼饼： 一担。
3)海味： 分四式、六式或八式，款式与数量丰俭由人，通常每款分作两包，不论斤数。除发菜(谐音：发财)不可缺外，其他可选的物品包括：鲍鱼、蚝豉、元贝、冬菇、海蔘、鱿鱼、虾米、鱼翅及鱼肚等。
4)三牲： 鸡两对，两雄两雌﹝如父母不全，一对便足够﹞，另猪肉三至五斤， 起双飞﹝即一片相连开二﹞。
5) 鱼： 大鱼或鲮鱼，取其有腥﹝声﹞气。
6) 椰子： 两对﹝若父母不全，用一对便可﹞，意谓有爷有子。
7) 酒： 洋酒或米酒共四支。
8) 四京果： 荔枝乾、龙眼乾、合桃乾及连壳花生。
9) 生果： 取其生生猛猛之意。
10) 茶叶、芝麻： 必须用种子来种植茶叶，有祝愿种植不移之子，亦暗喻女子一经缔结婚约，绝无反悔，亦即喻为「油麻茶礼」。
11) 帖盒： 内有莲子、百合、青缕、扁柏、槟榔两对、芝麻、红豆、绿豆、红枣、合桃乾、龙眼乾，另还有红豆绳、利是、聘金、饰金，以及龙凤烛一双及对联一幅。

女家礼品

男家礼物的一半或若干
茶叶生果莲藕、芋头和石榴 (各一对)贺维巾长裤：
意即长命富贵鞋 (一对)：意即同偕 (鞋) 到老扁柏、姜、茶煎堆、松糕回聘金槟椰 (受一个，余数则全回给男家)：意即一郎到尾
credit to #googleBut it is too tradition for us instead we came up with our own and it was so fun during our buy :)
That 2 boxes of Bird-Nest chosen by him
The rest was chosen by me ;) I think I have done a good job on choosing it and it is only cost us around RM500!
This is what we came out w/ ;) So proud of ourselves! I chose something that mama and papa will like de instead of like what I have mentioned above!
Last night, the future-mother-in-law helps us to stick the "喜喜" on each of the items. 

and she will also helps us to wrap it up! I can feel the whole wedding atmosphere now ;) WOWW...... Getting so excited!!

Stay tune for more update once we r done w/ it xx

#JMDay post: 7. Counting down 10 months till we are Mr & Mrs!

Ya, as you can see #JMDay is counting down 10 months time now!!!
Barely can believe that but time is definitely ticking real fast and this month onward, we will focus prior on our wedding preparation since our new house is almost done. Will do a lil update on that!

So, according to our calendar- we are suppose to have our 提亲 session back in Tawau together w/ the Future-in-law. We are flying back within 2 weeks time. Getting kinda nervous on this when we come to think of it because we all really NEW in this area. Both the parent are giving their first time. What should we talk? We have totally no idea at all! So, keep us in ur prayer or mayb u can give us some idea on how to start, what to talk perhaps. That's the main event for this month!

Can't believe that we are engaged for a week now. It seems like yesterday Joel just got down his knee and proposed to me. We thoroughly enjoyed every single moment of it and overwhelmed w/ the wishes & respond that u guys gave to us from Fb, text & phone calls. Still pretty amazed w/ the no of ppl who "liked" #JMProposal's pichaaaa. Nearly 500 likes. Man... I know it is not many for some of you but it is more than enough for us ;) We are not any close to celebrity blogger nor artist, I also never seen our fren got that much of "like'' even our artist fren. But all this, we sincerely want to thank all of you who given ur love and support through it! Guess this is also the power of Joel who posted up the photo too LOL

With all these, we are finally gonna start our engine for our wedding preparation! Superb excited about it ;D
Pray for us if you happen to think of us xx 

WE ARE ENGAGED!

 Every girl dream to have a perfect and amazing proposal. Yes, I myself too. I often imagine

 myself that everything should happen according to how I want (nah... too much of YouTube & movie), I think I always sent him some proposal link so that he roughly got an idea how to go about it, and I think I also always tell him- Must b a total surprise a ok? I must wear very nice and got make up one a (the most important part is that I got my eye-brown on ;p) I wan a gold diamond ring.. blablablaaah all kind of demand instructions from me. I guess I have been stressing Joel out loads on this issue & he knows me so well that he shouldn't prepare so much on this because of my high suspect-ion (typical sensitive Mich ;p). Thing doesn't go like how I wanted and in fact he has his way to plan all thing out. To b frank, I wasn't prepare for his proposal at all and this is the main reason that I was overwhelming w/ joy and felt extremely loved by him. 

A normal relationship should start w/ 

Meeting each other - Falling in love - Sparkling up the feeling - Typical question of "Can you b my girlfriend?" - In relationship - Inform parent (either way round) - After some time, propose - Discuss wedding details - Wedding Day - Marriage - Baby - ... so on and so fort!

But ours are always different w/ other. Along this 8 years of being in this relationship, our procedure always seem to be "terbalik".Ours are like:

Meeting one another - Hi/Bye - Met again - Extraordinary feeling toward each other - Falling in love - In relationship only Joel asked "Can you b my girlfriend? We even choose our own anniversary date which is 13 Dec (but hey we met & falling in love during that particular season too) - After 2years, I told my parent about it where they were not support & accept my decision because Joel was much younger than me. - 3years later, w/o prepare, Joel's parent found that we were in a relationship which literally make this journey UP & DOWN, w/ so much tears. I want to explain this part- Joel's parent were standing firm on BGR. He gotta finish up his study only can date or court someone. Thing din't work out to how they planned but instead we started this relationship w/o their consent. They were very furious and took some action on this. - Another 3years later, they finally gave their blessing to us and my parent also sort of having their faith on Joel after how they witness us being so long in this relationship - During 2010 (the 6th year), Joel and I started to talk about our wedding. We planned, stress, discussed & (sometime we forgotten about it) and talk again... Until last year, we finally sat down w/ his parent and officially talk about it - While planning, his parent also see the need of us having a new house after we got married, therefore we got a new house w/ full support from his parent. In case you not know, we were having renovation work on going & now entering to the final stage of all - Enough to say, we are all ready for our new house & wedding & marriage (we even had our Pre-marriage Preparation Course early of this year) but still I felt that there is something missing. Family members, relatives & friends often asked me "Have he propose?" and I often answered, NO! But now I can loudly said, YES, he proposed like seriously finally ;p It is so complete now!! 

I know right, you must be wondering how was it and where all sort of question after my long-winded introduction. No worries, I will b sharing here.. So fasten your seat belt, get ready a cup of tea or some snack on hand and let's goooooo.......

But before that, let me do this important shout-out-

WE ARE OFFICIALLY ENGAGED! 

It was all happened on last Friday night (If you have followed me on Twitter, you must have know that I had the most busier & craziest days. Workload increasing mainly because the Bulletin hasn't done yet & big boss is back.) I have been stressing out and not even have time to breath once I entered into office. Sat in front of my computer the whole day, work until 8pm and got shoulder cramp. Despite of working, renovation matter in our new house also another reason to keep me so headache & busy. 

Joel was acting kinda weird in fact for the past weeks. Just that I don't have the time to ask him my favorite "WHY" and this also make his planning easier.

Okay, go back to last Friday night. I was at the monthly prayer meeting not knowing what exactly will b happen to me. After the prayer meeting, this massive headache attacked me. I have never experience this kind of pain before. It was migraine, only the left side of my head until my gum, tooth & shoulder aching extremely pain. In my heart, I was thinking- No tooth-ache please on a Public Holiday & Sunday which don't have dentist available ;( I literally can't bear the pain and ask for Panadol from Joel. W/o hesitation which he normally won't, he allowed me to have 2 to reduce the pain but YAY, it doesn't seem to go away & I literally pull a loooooong face and no mood to enjoy what he had planned. His original planning was to bring me to watch the parade and fire-work (it was the eve of Independence day).

Before we head out, I managed to change to the superb casual look, t-shirt&short&slipper. It was superb jam that night and he can't even find a single parking. Round and round for mayb more than 10 times until he suggested to go up to the Observatory Hill to just wait for the fire-work. I have no choice but to follow. I just closed my eye and try to rest as much as I can & hoping the pain will go away. At this point, Joel was driving up hill and the car seem to have some funny sound. He then told me that actually there is a small part falling out from the engine when he was driving to futsal earlier on. David who was with us in the same car which was Joel's partner-in-crime aka the videographer also try to exaggerated a bit so I will fall into their trap. I totally buy their story. No suspect at all!

He drove till inside of a condominium and stopped his car then he went down to check the engine while David and I were in the car.

David who sat beside moved to the middle seat and asked me, Are you sick? (I have been extremely QUIET w/o no word throughout the whole journey of finding parking and up to the Observatory Hill).

 I answered him, YES. My head is going to explore soon!!!

Right after I answered him, he went straight and said, WHY NOT WE INCREASE THE VOLUME OF THE SONG? (In my heart was WT, have I not told you that I'm having headache and you still want to listen and INCREASE volume somemore. APALAHH!!!)

I w/o any hesitation and replied him, NO. I DON'T WANT!

David was too panic until he said, OHHH OK..... 

I looked at him through the car mirror and he was holding Joel's phone up high which I felt something wrong but I don't have the energy to ask him instead I just shut my eye.

Suddenly, I heard a loud knock on the window and when I opened my eye, I saw Joel standing in front of me & looking at me like clueless. He bend down and took out something which I also clueless about it. 

Here comes the climax:

Me: What o? Hi what?

Joel was smiling all the way. Only

 at this point, I realized that he is going to propose and my heart was beating freaking fast lo... I just stay calm inside the car and enjoy what Joel has prepared for me.

He looked at me and I know this is the Right Man that I am going to marry w/!

He came beside me and asked me to go down from his car. 

When I saw this...

He has already 1 knee down, pull out the ring and said:

"Will you marry me, my Princess Michie?"

I know right at this point should b very emotional and teary. But surprisingly we both did not. I was too surprise until I don't know what to respond to him instead I said, is it a Diamond Gold Ring? (OMGGGG, what kind of respond is that)

He said, Of course la.. but can you answer me first?

W/o reluctant, I said YES! He gave me a big bear hug and a kiss on my forehead.

Yes, as you can see- w/ no make up and proper dressing, but I still got the most magical & amazing proposal in my life! Even after 2 days of his proposal, I still can feel the goose bump on me when I think of it- "Hi Mich"

I can't believe that Joel proposed and he did it!!

A load of you might have already know it through our post in FB. But some of you might missed out our BIGGEST NEWS in town!

All these end w/ the beautiful fire-work on 310813. A date that we will remember the rest of our life!

The more I look at the ring, the more I fall in love w/ it. It contains all the requirement of how my 

engagement ring should b from the Fiance <3 br="">

oh and the thing that I have noted & not:

1. Joel was on his phone secretly and he even walked outside of the house to answer phone-calls

2. He normally will just left his phone w/ me if we r having our meal outside but strange enough, he took it w/ his whenever he goes.

3. He gave me all kind of excuses of going to play futsal and he came home so fast. Not a normal routine that he will do because he normally took 2-3 hours.

4. Forgot to text me!

5. Asked me to stand right where I was and not go near to his car because he has decorated it.

6. Often checking on my 1st ring that he bought so check out the size of my finger. Observing it so that he won't get the same design.

7. Size 13 is still big for me but we won't re-size it because when I get pregnant, I will still able to wear it ;)

8. David who hold Joel's phone up high actually wanted to record everything & when he asked me R u sick and increase the volume next is to give signal to Joel to start. The song that should be playing exactly is Marry You. But all in all, I dint realize at all and ruin it by saying, NO, I DON'T WANT! LOL

9. Not sure how Joel get the papers out from car.

10. I loved Joel's proposal. I asked him how come only 3 sheet of papers and he answered, because if it is too many, the climax will go done and you won't feel the kick part. I sort of understanding it after few days. In reality, this may not b the perfect & dream proposal but deep down in my heart, I am so blessed to have a man who loves me so much and did all these to me. I couldn't ask for more!
Another 10 months to go until we are Mr & Mrs #JMDay

To Joel,
Thank you for putting all these together. You are amazing as always! Thanks to David, he is the only one who know everything & planned w/ Joel.

Up most, I truly thank God for what He has prepared in my life!!

I love You God & I love you too, Joel xx