Last month, on 24th October to be exact, my family and I organized for my son's and nephew Majlis Akikah. It has been a long planning ever since they were born but due to time contraints and ehem budget, we keep postponing it. We are all have agreed to just combine the event since my son and nephew were born in the same year, with 2 months gap aje. Well, of course the cost going to be cheaper since we can share them all and the price for sheep/goat will reduce to since we're going to take 2 each (for a boy, we have to slaughter 2 goats for thanksgiving).
At the end of the day, we chose my grandparent's place at Lenggeng, Negeri Sembilan as it is spacious for a tent set up and could cater a lot of people at the same time. Oh man, I love planning event or ermm..rather spending money to plan event hahaha. I was in charged of goodie bag, desserts and photographer. Yup, we had a photographer on that day. Fret notttttt, I didn't hire a posh famous photographer cause I ain't Che Ta. I asked a favor from a friend and Alhamdulillah he agreed to it. My purpose is to reserve the memories and I am sure with baby to take care of and busy attending to guests, at the end of the day, there would be no photos :(
The event started from morning whereby a Marhaban men group sang Marhaban (songs complementing God) and reciting prayers of wishing the babies will grow to be a good man to parents and be pious to Islam. Then, the fathers of the child (read: my husband and brother-in-law) carried the children around the Marhaban team for their hair to be cut and to put some honey into their mouth. The purpose is for symbolic that the babies will grow to talk only good things. My son was so behaved on that day! Behaved to the level that he actually fell asleep throughout the ceremony! Hahaha. He had honey all over his mouth but still sleeping lol!
We had 4 lambs to roast altogether and believe it, they were a bomb! Cepat sangat habis!! Nasib baik I took some pieces when my friend Intan came or else, I'll be crying kempunan. Haha. For food, my mother ordered kampung dishes from their friends, a Nogori delicacies. We had rendang ayam kampung with pucuk ubi, tempoyak ikan bilis, ikan keli goreng berlado, gulai nangka, ayam goreng berempah, ulam and it wouldn't be complete without sambal belacan.
For that day, I asked my friend's favor (who is also a photographer on that day) to bake brownies for desserts. Tell ya, the brownies were such a hit! If you feel like hiring him for photographing or simply want to taste his delicious nutella brownies, you can contact him, Haziq aka Ajib at 018-2062903. Besides that, I also got Apam Balik stall, which was another hit of the day. Although the portion is 500 pieces to accommodate only 300 guests, they were finished! Sedap gila. I met this Pak Cik during my husband's friend wedding a while ago. You can contact him at 011-29499855. I think I want to hire him again during my sister's wedding soon. His Apam Balik is thin, crispy, sweet and just the right size for a you when you're not so hungry. I guarantee, one piece is nor enough! While for the kids' and ehemm adults too, I also got soft Ice-cream machine, just for fun. I ordered only about 250 of cones and I am responsible for messy kids with creams all over their shirts that day hahaha.
For goodie bags, we decided to just DIY instead of ordering the finished products to cut cost (kononnya lah). I bought a plain white paper bag and fill them up with bread, a candy sachet and a mini book. I ordered the bread from my friends, and they were delicious! You may want to contact her for bread orders, and apart from that, she also sells premix cake powder, bunga telur and bakery delicacies. Her contact is Artiqah, 019-2955572. Husband's friend, Firdaus also being so generous by giving us 50 tins contained chocolates as doorgift as well.
We had many guests that day, mostly relatives and friends. Alhamdulillah, all went well. Terima kasih di atas sumbangan dan hadiah. Yes, those two babies even get a gift that day! Blessed children they really are. Semoga semuanya murah rezeki & we shall meet at another event, InsyaAllah.
