My best friend's wedding - Of Luqzan and Sarah

"Ansar, do you mind being my bestman for my wedding?"

Soalan cepumas itu meng'ambush' aku tatkala aku sedang sibuk menyiapkan my month-end accounts. BESTMAN? Berat tu. Kalau nak suruh jadi LASTMAN, boleh le. Hehe, melawak kejap.

"Sure mate, that would be my honour! Tapi aku rasa baik kau mintak Hafiz / Hasfuan / Fariq, sebab diorang lagi rapat ngan kau, so sure lagi meaningful for them", ujarku.

Luqzan mengSMS kembali, "Alah, aku mintak kau ada la alasan aku yang tersendiri....Hah, boleh tak?" Haih, loyar buruk pulak mamat ni. Sambil menoleh kiri-kanan takut kena rendered, I quickly replied yes and started reflecting the last 7 years about those two close friends of mine:

Luqzan Ariff bin Mustapha Kamal



First impression? Actually aku memang dah kenal mamat ni since Form 3. I enrolled in a British Council vacation course and had the pleasure of knowing this very nice individual.

In case anyone's wondering, dia memang dah tinggi + bersuara base sejak dulu lagi, and I found him to be a very easygoing person who rarely gets angry (from my knowledge) and very dependable.

Thrives on responsibility, can work with all kinds of people and has an enormous vocabulary of music, especially Indies. Despite us initially jibbing him for liking this genre, in time we did start to warm up to some of the songs (i.e HEY!!!). Probably one of my few good friends yang minat indie. Very interesting I must say.

Been a pleasure knowing you all this while, and you have definitely made an impact in my life. Hopefully you can use your project management skills to good use in PETRONAS.

Sarah binti Kamaruddin



First day sebelum dia sampai lagii, dah dengar macam2. Keywords included "Anak Mat Saleh" and orang Sarawak. Ai, maknanya aku nak guna bahasa apa? Melayu? English? Iban? Ibanez???? Doesn't matter because in the end, she turned to be a very sweet and wonderful human being.

Sarah always tries her best to treat everyone around her nicely, and I mean really really nicely. Initially we guys tend to tease her especially her inability to pronounce "saRang", "goReng", "gaRing", even "SaRah". Get it? Kalau tak, bukan rezeki korang la hahaha. However, after a while, I stopped doing those. Don't know why, probably because she never retaliated. Tuba dibalas susu sort of stuff, definitely worked.

Loves playing the piano, an expert actually. I had the chance to learn a few songs from her, which I still play till today because I loved the tunes. Can also play the guitar, created a few songs and had a few cameos with our band for one-off performances e.g "Time after Time". Sedap gilee....

An honour to know you, and I wish you the best with your career in Melaka.

Hari Kawin - 14th December

Aku pitam gila for the last 2 days. Tak tau apasal, pelik betul. Lembik satu badan. Tgh hari tu dah fikir nak call Luqzan nak cancel, but aku tanak. Menyusahkan orang je last2 minit chow ni. So berbekalkan peppermint aromatherapy, Fisherman's friend and some Strepsils, aku dengan slow and steadynya make my to Dewan Felda Perdana. I turned out okay in the end.

Raptai (Cewah, lama tak guna word ni) started around 12-2. Went through all the procedures. Ada kompang sikit, walk up the pelamin skit, kipas2 skit, pusing kiri kanan atas bawak skit and borak2 ngan family pengantin skit. Not bad, I can do that. Also noticed that while the bridesmaid (Yasmin, Sarah's sister) attends to 101 things and scenarios, my job was pretty much confined to following Luqzan around and tolong pakaikan bow-tienya. Guys do have it easy, hahahahah. Seronok jap.

That night, alhamdulillah everything went smoothly. It helped that an event manager was appointed to oversee the whole thing. At least parents have more time to attend to their friends and get emotional about the whole thing.

For the record (should've taken pics!!!), we started with walking up the pelamin. Luqzan and I started from the right side while Sarah and her sister started from the left. We met up the middle of the hallway and walked up. We took our places, made sure the pengantins are comfortable in their seats and started 'kipasing' them. Taktau apasal, Luqzan tiba2 suruh aku kipas dia kuat sikit. Walhal time raptai dia kata sejuk, ahahahah. Must be the crowd, mmg panas pun malam tu.

Kemudian, ia diikuti bunga rampai dan renjisan air mawar. Bukan diorang je kena, in fact aku2 sekali pun kena 2-3 das bunga rampai itu. "Hah, kamu cepat2 le kawin ye?" Tanya salah seorang perenjis, probably one of Luqzan / Sarah's bosses. Heh, aku pulak kena. Thanks lah tapi. Both families from their sides came up to bless the couple, and it was good to see them giving valuable advice for the future.

Diikuti dengan makan. Time tu la aku lepak semeja ngan semua budak2 Brissie and member2 lama PETRONAS aku. Caught up on a lot of things, was really happy to see them all in good health. Heheh, miss the old days sometimes but hey, we do move on I guess. And then naik ke pelamin balik for the cake-cutting ceremony, a few more formalities after that and it's all over!!!!!

An awesome day for me, and a very very special day for them. Congratulations guys. Aku doakan agar perkahwinan korang kekal hingga akhir hayat, dan diberkati Allah. Funny that, my first bestman assignment was such that aku bukan saja kenal pihak lelaki, malah kenal pihak perempuan. In fact, bukan saja kenal biasa malah kenal rapat. Definitely went a long way in making everything easier.

Final picture from the wedding, hope you enjoy it!