It all started with a picture shared in a private WhatsApp message from my cousin. The picture said, "Side by side or miles apart, we are cousins connected at heart. Will you be my bridesmaid?" The caption asked if I would be the sole maid of honour/bridesmaid. I must say, it came as a surprise...but a very PLEASANT surprise.
My cousin was going to have her wedding ceremony in Penang having gotten registered last November, and I was to serve as the maid of honour. While I was excited at the thought of being a first time maid of honour, my plans of wearing pants for the ceremony were dashed.
While my cousin was sweet and generous enough to NOT have any pre-wedding duties nor colour theme for me, I began to worry as my mum and sis insisted that I have to wear a dress especially since I would be walking down the aisle as well!
A 3-day weekend was spent roaming through almost ALL the malls on Penang island, and finally, after trying on more than 10 dresses and making my mum and sis walk on almost every floor of those malls we visited, we finally found a dress that was not only REAL nice and fitted me well, it was cheap too! In fact, we had seen a similar dress in a different colour which cost RM600!!
Anyhow, once the dress was bought, I needed new shoes. Luckily, looking for the perfect pair did not take too long. The shoes however, were more expensive than the dress!
The wedding ceremony was on a Saturday; so the bridal party met up for the first time on a Wednesday for dinner to discuss the programme, duties etc. The couple are from the US hence the really late meet up.
Friday saw the ladies of the bridal party going for manicures and pedicures (my first!). That night, there was a party where cousins and friends hung out. I made new friends too i.e. My cousin's former school mates. Towards the end of the party, the couple decided to practice the surprise dance that they had planned for the end of the ceremony, much to the chagrin of the best man and me! But there we were, at 2am, learning and practicing dance steps to Shrek's "I'm a Believer".
Saturday - which was THE day - turned out to be quite relaxed much to everyone's surprise. I had my first make over i.e. professionally done make up and hair, wore my first dress in God knows how many years, walked down the aisle, danced in front of a crowd (although the wrong version of the song was played)...and I even got to sit at the main table! In addition to all that, I was part of the 'yam seng' group that went on stage!
The icing on the cake was the fact that the WHOLE family was present; and the cousins finally got to wear our customised tshirts!!
I must say, this year has been a year of many firsts and it is only the 7th month of 2017! I wonder what else is in store for me. *wink*
