Anyway, we just came back from our 10 days vacation; honeymoon in Bali and shopping in KL from May 4th to May 13th. The trip was planned since August last year when there was BIG SALE from the budget airline and I quickly jumped in the crowd to hunt cheap tickets for us.

Post-honeymoon we feel oh so refresh and recharge. Ready to boost ourselves in work side. But everyone is like giving us pressure and asking if we have got the result from the ‘hard work’ during honeymoon. Ok, can’t run away from it, we are still living in the society where newlyweds are expected to have baby ASAP! Regardless how old you are when getting married.

But whatever. It’s our life, we know it well and gonna plan it well ourselves. Not gonna let the pressure from society to ruin it.

So, we took the midnight bus, departed on 1am due to 30 minutes delay and arrived around 7am the next day. My father-in-law fetched us from the bus station and sent us to Indonesia embassy after breakfast.

I was so confident that I have ALL the necessary documents in hand and will surely get the Surat Keterangan on that day itself. Turns up we still lacked of: the photocopy of my parent-in-law’s IC – which is not a big deal at all, and one more stamp & signature from Medan subdistrict/kecamatan which is very jialat. Hello, just lack of one more stamp! *frustration mode on*

On another side, the lady staff insisted that she did give the check-list (of what documents that we need to bring in order to obtain that Surat Keterangan from her) to us. Not only that, she also claimed that she remembered my boy’s face and not me. Wtf? I can have a very different face in 3 months time without plastic surgery? -__-”

Me: No, you never gave the list to us. Cause last few months when we came here, I was a Buddhist and he was a Christian. You said that different religion cannot obtain the letter and we have to go back Indonesia to make the marriage certificate. I went back but same thing, they don’t allow different religion hence I changed.
She: Ohhh, I’m sorry. no wonder I didn’t give the list to you guys because you were having different religion.

Oh my, can bang head to the wall. After the tiring 6 hours journey by bus, we ended up with NOTHING! Ok, see the bright side at least now we know what document we are lacking of. I just need to wait for my parent to get that necessary stamping and send via DHL to me. Another waiting. At least 4 to 5 days or more than that thanks to Xmas for falling on Friday.

On a gloomy side, I forgot to leave my IC’s photocopy for my parent while they need it right now, so that they can get the stamp ASAP. To make thing worse, my bro is still at school. Need to wait until he is back at 3pm to print out my attachment via email. Can’t help but to waste one day. Regret why I never spare my time to teach my parent on how to use computer and email, while my Dad has been nagging me to teach him for quite some time. Sigh.

My tourist visa is about to expired in 12 days time. It doesn’t help that Christmas and New Year falls on Friday which means we only have 4 working day for this 2 weeks. How to settle stuff like this? I definitely need someone to help me extend the visa until we can get the marriage certificate and obtain the spouse visa. Good thing, we bumped into my boy’s old friend who can help me to extend, while we were waiting for bus that night. What a coincidence eh?

Taking a deep breath, hopefully we can get the certificate before Chinese New Year, cause I need to file it at Indonesia marriage department when I go back around CNY. After that only both of us can breath well and say that we have settled down.

At some point, I just can’t understand why do we need to write relatives’ names in mandarin when most of the people here doesn’t really know Mandarin well. I mean, why force? But well, in the name of respect, I’m gonna follow the tradition.

I bought this premade nails extension at Sunway Pyramid, KL. Not in a beauty or nail shop but inQbox. Before this, I did look online, from lelong to lowyat forum, to see if I can find a beautiful one at cheaper price but no. So I came back to the store and bought this set at RM39. Consider the price, the nail art, and the number of nails (24 pieces), it’s worthy than do it at nail store. Bottom line, getting premade stuff is one of the way to save your pocket and time.

This time, the process of choosing the perfect gown is so much easier than choosing for the photoshoot’s gowns. It took us around 1 hour only to choose 3 gowns. Details: 1 creamy wedding gown and 1 color evening gown for the actual day in Sibu – Malaysia, 1 color evening gown for reception in Medan – Indonesia.

Since I took the package during promotion time, I have one of my evening gown upgraded to exclusive type. According to the marketing’s explanation, exclusive means: after someone wears the new gown for the very first time, I will be the 2nd person to wear it before another hundred thousand brides wear the gown and it becomes second hand type. Alright, whatever, cause there isn’t much choice when it comes to the so-called-exclusive gown which is kept at the 2nd floor together with the fresh-new-expensive-gowns.

This lacey pink pastel gown is the only exclusive gown that we like. Choose this one for the reception in Sibu.

Initially we picked blue as the color scheme for our wedding. But thing changed and we are more into cream color now. Still, we tried for this turquoise color gown. It looks nice actually and I think will go well with underwater theme. But don’t really like the skirt part.

Here’s another gown in lighter blue. The skirt design is what we are looking for, but the design at the chest part is kinda weird.

Left pic: We see exactly the same design in blue color, but too bad someone already booked it. Then we find it in red color, try it and like it. Although boyfriend said that red color is too bright and striking, but I manage to convince him that it will work well. So, we choose this one for the reception in Medan.

Right pic:
Took this picture when we just started to look for the suitable gowns. Hey, who can resist huge mirror especially when you have a camera on hand? Not me for sure.

Choosing for the wedding gown is a pain in the *ss, cause I’ll be taking it to Sibu for one week time before returning it. The staffs keep on cross-checking with the schedule and give disappointment answer like someone-already-booked-this-gown-on-this-date-blablabla. -__-”

This is the first wedding gown that I tried on and both of us like it. Love the tiers design, the creamy color, the simple and elegant feel. It brings a totally different look and feeling from the wedding gowns that I wore for photoshooting, which had so many layered.

Here’s another creamy gown. The upper part has a thicker fabric which enhances my figure and makes me doesn’t look that skinny. But we dislike the design of how it is separated into 2 part (top and bottom) and the huge flower at my buttock. -__-”

This white color gown looks quite nice too due to the layerish design. But it is in white color and both wedding gowns in my pre-wed photoshoot were in white too. So, it’s a no to this gown.

Can’t wait for the BIG dayS to come! Yeap, dayS: 28th Nov for church wedding, 29th Nov for reception in Medan and 6th Dec for actual day in Sibu.

Obstacles:
1. Different nationality. I am Indonesian and boyfriend is Malaysian.
2. Different religion. I was a Buddhist and boyfriend is a Christian. It was stated clearly in the documents, my IC, etc, we cannot lie to the officer.
3. Malaysia allows marriage between Buddhist-Christian, but Indonesian doesn’t allow that.

Process of getting marriage certificate:
1. Through the process, we found out that inter-religion marriage is not allowed in Indonesia. We did try to register in Malaysia first, but Indonesia Consulate insisted of not giving me the necessary statement letter hence we couldn’t move on to the next step.

2. Either one of us has to convert religion legally. Since I grow up with the mindset that a woman should follow her husband, I decided to change my religion on the paper, from my IC (Identity Card) to other documents.

3. But that is not as easy as telling the officer that I already a Christian and voila, they make changes on my IC. I have to show a proof or statement from the church. To get that statement, I have to go through the baptist path.

4. Baptist to me, is a very important thing. I could be a Buddhist who practice KongHuCu at the same time, but I never been ‘baptized in the temple’ (I don’t know what is the correct word in Buddhism) cause I’m not ready yet. After much consideration, I go for baptist path since it is the only way out. *appreciate if you not judging me and my decision*

5. Now, I am basically waiting for the baptism paper so that I can have my IC and other necessary documents changed.

6. Problem doesn’t stop here. Yesterday, I went to civil office (read: catatan sipil) only to find out that : to file the marriage in Indonesia, we need to have a marriage certificate from church or temple – depends on one’s religion. On another side, Malaysia doesn’t have that requirement – you can register your marriage in the civil office without the need to marry in church/temple first.

7. Next problem: to have our wedding done in a church, we need to have our baptist paper and need to be a member of the church. So, I am waiting for my baptist paper but boyfriend doesn’t have one. He, who has been staying in KL for more than 6 years, is not a member of any churches in his hometown too.

8. We have thought of the solution and will have an extremely simple kind of wedding church in Medan. But everything is yet to be confirmed. Hopefully it will go well.

9. Through the process in boyfriend’s hometown few weeks ago, we found someone who claimed to be capable of obtaining the marriage certificate in both countries – Malaysia and Indonesia, at the fee of RM10,000. Boyfriend and I were so frustrated and tired with the process already, it did come across our mind to just throw that sum of money and have everything settle by that person, so that we can focus on our work. But, our parents woke us up that it is better to settle it ourselves, although it takes time. Oh well, it’s RM10,000 and not RM1,000. Forget it.

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