The Outfits

Someone once noted that it’s good to know somebody in the ‘andaman’ business personally.

I can agree with that.

My fiancé made a fuss over our wedding outfits even before we were formally engaged. Kept pestering me with questions such as what colour to wear, what exactly to wear, should we buy or rent, if we were to rent, where to rent, and so on and so forth. We ended up buying the materials for our wedding outfits two weeks before our engagement. Due to that, he was teased by some uncles – “kau ni tunang pun belum, baju kahwin dah beli…”

I’ve heard so many friends complained about how uncomfortable it is to wear songket on the big day that I’d decided not to rent any songket but to get my wedding dress personally tailored, made from other kinder-to-skin materials. There’s a clerk in my office who also has his own ‘andaman’ business, so I seeked his help when the time came for us to choose the materials. We also agreed on asking him to get all six pairs of our wedding attires tailored by his friend. That includes finding us all the accompanying 'necessaries' - songkok, kain samping, matching pairs of shoes, anak tudung, tudung, selendang, accessories, the works.

Since our skin colours are rather similar, choosing which colours to wear was not as complicated as deciding on what exactly to wear. At least on his side, it was okay – all three pairs to be turned into baju melayu cekak musang. No baju melayu johor, and at least one pair with five traditional butang baju melayu (the other two are with hidden butang behind exquisitely nicely decorated leher baju melayu).

As for me – he insisted on me wearing a jubah for the akad. For the kenduri, he’s okay with any style so long as they are ‘proper’ and cover my aurat accordingly.

“Can I wear baju kebaya then?”

“That’s fine with me.”

“Will it be okay with your family”

“Buatlah satu jubah...”

“Jubah tu kan untuk baju akad. Takkan tiga-tiga pasang pun jubah?”

“Okay, I’ll let you decide. I’ll support your decision so long as they are proper.”

Of course, him being an ustaz makes ‘proper’ a huge factor to be considered.

Thus, when I went to a friend’s place to borrow the dulang for the hantaran prior to my engagement day, I also borrowed a few copies of Malay women and bridal magazines. Mind you, for somebody who rarely flip through any kind of women (what more bridal) magazine, it was quite an amazing feat for me to studiously scrutinize all kind of bridal outfits featured in these magazines for a few days, trying to get some ideas on which style I should go for. Then, I seeked Mak’s views, seeked some friends’ opinions, listened to what the guy in the andaman business had to say and finally made my decision about it a week after the materials were bought.

So, insya Allah I’ll be wearing an off-white jubah for the akad, a lilac (or light purple for the uninitiated in colours who might claim that lilac is a flower, just like pumpkin is a fruit, not colour) pair of kebaya labuh for my kenduri and a pair of baby blue baju kurung moden for the sambut menantu kenduri.

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On another note, Ramadhan Karim to all my Muslim friends and readers. Let us make the most of this month of rahmah, mujahadah and barakah and may Allah bless us all always.

Selamat berpesta ibadah!