Hi Everyone! Long time no post. As you may have known, I just got married a little over a month ago, and things have been pretty hectic. I was in my hometown for quite sometime, so I was out of my usual set up. I have to say, being away for home with my family and friends have changed the way I am within the past 3 months. I value the time I have more with my parents and sister, and I also got to reconnect with old friends, which have been awesome.
Our wedding might not be exactly the way we had hoped, but God had blessed us in so many ways. The ceremony and reception went as smoothly as possible, and all thanks to our family and friends and wedding team for the fabulous cooperation! If you don't know already, an Indonesian wedding, typically in Jakarta, is usually bigger and much more complicated compared to the simple and intimate weddings in the US, which I and Ocep both love. It was a grand experience for both of us, with around 700 guests came to our reception.
My day started at around 3 AM. My makeup artist and hair dresser came to my hotel room a little bit after 3.30, and started the process right away. Then the photographer came at around 5.30 am. We hired different makeup artists for my bridesmaids, mom, sister, mom-in-law and sister-in-law. All to be more efficient and save time. We had our ceremony scheduled at 10 AM at the church where I came to know Christ. It meant a lot for me to have our ceremony there. After the ceremony, we then had the Chinese tradition, tea ceremony, or what we call tea-pay. It's where we respect our elders from both sides of the family by serving them tea and usually the elders give red envelopes or jewelries as the wedding gifts.
I'm so glad I had my two besties that kept me laughing throughout the day!
One of the traditions what we followed was the veiling of the bride by the parents. I had on my hands Yosef's corsage which later I would give to Yosef in exchange for my bouquet.
I have to say there are a lot of things in life they don't teach at school - being a bride is one of them. I've heard different stories, but when I finally get to experience it first hand, I feel super unprepared. Nevertheless, I'm trying to enjoy this phase of my life as much as I could. It's not as hard as I make it sound to be. It really isn't.
First of all, let me just sing praise for my very own wedding coordinator, my beloved mom. I do hire a wedding planner, but no one can replace my mom's position in this wedding. She's the most supportive mom, and she's super resourceful. She's the one who went vendor hunting when I was still away. She, with the help of my dear dad of course, went all around Jakarta to plan for my wedding. She could get a bit carried away sometimes when she thinks of every single detail. It may seem like she cares more about the wedding than I do, which is not entirely untrue. This is her first ever wedding to plan, but she's not new in event organizing. Working at humanitarian organization for 32 years, she'd been the go-to person when it comes to organizing and executing events. She should consider this a new career.
Planning a wedding is hard as it is let alone planning when you're on a different continent. I just got back home a little less than 2 months before the wedding. We decided to have the wedding in Jakarta instead of in the US because most of our families are in Indo. It just makes more sense (even though the more details I have to think about the more I question our decision). The US wedding culture, at least for most weddings I've attended to, is simpler and intimate. It's not the case for Indonesian wedding. I used to grunt with mockery at the fact of inviting a "friend of a relative who's the second cousin of" which is what Indonesian weddings do. Some of my perspectives have changed since then.
What changes:
While I had my own expectation about my own wedding, I had stopped to try fulfilling every single one of them and started seeing the bigger picture.
Despite of our decision to have our wedding in Indonesia, there was a gap in my heart knowing that I didn't get to celebrate with my loved ones here in the US and to not have a garden-theme wedding like I had always wanted (outdoor wedding is tricky during September to December when it's rainy season in Indonesia). On the back of my mind, I thought of throwing a little party for ourselves with our close friends, making it simple and intimate. Yet, with Ocep's new job, our new home, and the wedding prep in Indo, the thought was shoved right where it started, on the back of my mind.
One day, one of my dear friend, Cecyl, texted me asking me and Ocep to go to dinner with here this past Saturday. She said the location was a surprise, and it was to send me off to Indonesia since I am going to go back to Indo real soon. She didn't tell us anything else other than to dress up for it was a fancy dinner.
Saturday came, and we got ready in time when Cecyl said she would pick us up. I had Ocep to put on a black bow tie to match his black suit, making it real fancy. I decided to go with my favorite floral dress that I wore to a wedding not too long ago. You may have seen it from this post. When Cecyl arrived, and as we were going out of our door, she told us that our other friends, Fenny and Marlene, wanted to join us at the last minute so we had pick them up also. When we got to their place, Cecyl told us to stay in the car since she was just going to knock at their door and let them know that we were there. She then came back to the car telling us to wait inside since they were still getting ready. I kinda knew where the dinner was going to be at that point =).
The Surprise
I rang the door bell, Ocep was behind me. The door was opened, and all of our close friends were there shouting, "SURPRISE!" The night just got better and better from then on. I was smiling all night until my jaw hurt. They turned Fenny & Marlene's backyard to a fancy garden party, complete with the pretty lights and center pieces. There was even a two-layer Indonesian cheesecake as the wedding cake made by our dearest friend.
I've started experimenting with makeup about 5 years ago. I've tried, discovered and also been disappointed with so many things from drugstore makeup. When I just started, I didn't really know where to start. I just started grabbing products that caught my attention from the counter.
Despite of the affordable prices, when I started on trying a bunch of products that didn't work, it added up and it wasn't affordable anymore. Nevertheless, my fondness of makeup drove me to continue trying out new things, and I enjoyed the process.
Now, if you are like me, you may enjoy all the experience of trying out new and shiny makeup. I hope you get to try any of the products below or if you've tried them, let me know what you think! If you just want to know what works, at least for me, then keep on reading!
Face Primer: Rimmel Stay Matte primer
I've featured this several times in my blog posts. I used this on my friend when I did her makeup for her engagement photo shoot. She told me that her makeup didn't budge all day. It stayed through out the day, even after being all out under the sun. I love this primer, I no longer have this just because I've had so many others I need to use up, but I totally recommend this again and again.
Foundation: Rimmel Lasting Finish foundation
I looked at my foundation drawer (yes, I've hoarded so much that I have a drawer dedicated just for foundation) long and hard. This is not an easy decision, but I decided to go with my old time favorite that I know it works and is loved by so many people. The coverage is amazing, and it gives naturally foundation. (The one I have on the picture is the old packaging).
I never really had a problem with my under-eyes until I tried under eye concealers. Haha. Isn't it ironic? It's like the saying " You never knew what you have until it's gone", but in reverse! I tried on under eye concealers, and I just like the way it looks on my so I never put on my makeup without it anymore! If you've been following my blog, you may have known this already, but I still want to sum up all the ones that work for me. These are all tested and approved by yours truly.
Amazing Concealer Corrector
I've talked about this time and again. I first saw it on Tati's video, and I couldn't wait to try it out myself. It comes in two different shades, one is pinky salmon aka the corrector, and the other is yellow aka the brightener. When I first put on the corrector, it looks kinda cray. The consistency is so thick, it cancels out any darkness or discoloration. The brightener does what exactly it's supposed to do, it brightens under the eyes. One thing that I want to point out is that since it's so thick, it can get cakey pretty easily. Make sure to smooth out under the eyes and blend blend blend!
I still remember the very first time when I saw the Golden Gate Bridge for the very first time. It was almost 8 years ago. Time surely does fly. We live about an hour away from the city, and we like to come up and visit new places every time we go there. I can't say the same about food, though. We always end up sticking with the food we have tried and loved, just like the wings and diced chicken from San Tung Restaurant. You'll find more recommendations below. Ocep is very good in finding out new places for us to explore. Even though we feel like we have visited all the spot there is, there's always more and there's always new things to go to, like the annual Cherry Blossom Festival at Japantown in April. I recently posted a video of some of the places mentioned below!
If you're visiting SF for the very first time, you should go to all the places mentioned in any SF travel guide because they are the landmarks, but I'm trying to steer away from the typical tourists attraction like Pier 39, Lombard Street or the Golden Gate Park in this post. Below, you will find my recommendation on all of all the places I've been to and all the food I've had!
Things to Do
- If you want to see a lot of things at once, you can try riding the SF signature Cable Car. I believe it has 3 different route, but the one I've been on is from Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf. You can pay one all-day ticket and hop on/off anytime you'd like. There's also an option of 3-day,7-day and 1-way ticket.
-Visit the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market for a bite to eat, or more! This place is perfect especially for my foodie friends. Just like typical farmers market you may find at your local area, but bigger. It has different kind of food, from the kinds you find at the grocery store (aka fresh and organic produce) to ready-to-eat food like porchetta sandwich from Roli Roti. The area is located by the pier, so it's always nice to walk around and enjoy the view.
-If you're not afraid of putting out some sweat, go to Muir Woods National Monument. It's located just less than an hour away up north of San Francisco. I've been there a couple of times, and I love it! The national park gives you great view of beautiful redwood trees. Since it's surrounded by tall redwood trees, the hiking will be pleasantly protected from the sun. The trees form natural shade to the visitors. The parking is quite tight, so be sure to get there earlier. The two times I've been there, we always get there around noon, and even though we got parking space at the end, it was not fun finding one during that hour.
Muir Woods
- Another option of exploring and exercising at the same time is to go to Lands End. We started from the top with this amazing view of the ocean and the remains of what used to be an indoor public pool aka Sutro Baths. We then worked our way down and find ourselves a giant cave where you can go inside and hear the sound of the ocean water against the rock cave. Then, along the hike, we finally got to the Labyrinth which I just found out was destroyed last year due to vandalism (ARGH!). Fortunately it was already rebuilt as we speak. Let's hope it doesn't get destroyed again!
If you follow me on Instagram, you might already know that we decided to paint some of the rooms at our new place ourselves. I documented the process through Instagram stories. The first room's up is my space/office. I had been conflicted between painting the wall white or grey-ish shade, and I finally decided to go with a shade called 'Bay Waves' from Valspar. It was a last minute decision. I really wanted to paint my room last Saturday, so we went to Lowe's to get the paint. I literally just grabbed one of the brochure with paint samples picked one. For the painting equipment, I went with the good Amazon reviews and bought this kit. We have no complain about the kit nor the paint itself.
I watched many YT videos before d-day. I wanted to make sure that being first-time painters, we were at least prepared with what we'd put ourselves into. I didn't realize that paint nowadays are so much better quality. The paint I chose no longer blends quite easily and it doesn't have that overwhelming odor. We went with the eggshell finish because I thought for filming it would reduce the glare from the light. The sun is always up and coming from my window, which I'm not complaining.
