by Helmi Hakim | Dec 3, 2013 | Miscellaneous, Motivation
Alhamdulillah. Time is ticking fast, and in a few days time, I am a married man. 🙂
I created a blog post on the costs of Malay wedding in Singapore last year, and it has garnered a lot of attention from fellow social media enthusiastics. Some lamented that my wedding costs are too high, and there are also many who argued that my figures are too conservative. Nevertheless, that is the exact wedding costs, on my side, after doing barrage of research/food tasting/interviews etc2. 🙂
After settling other big commitments like buying our BTO HDB flat, booking our wedding venue (I can only book 150 days in advance), registering and meeting the naib kadi at ROMM and at the same time reserving our Kadi for our akad nikah, we finally bought our air tickets to our lovely honeymoon destination which is Marrakech, Morroco.
My fiance and I will like to have all the time for ourselves thus we opt for free and easy option to relax and enjoy. 🙂
As we choose to book air tickets without itinerary, we did our own background research by using online platforms like skyscanner.com.sg, expedia.com.sg, zuji.com.sg, to make comparison of the prices of the air tickets. Unfortunately, there is no direct flight from Singapore to Marrakech, thus using such platforms aid us, in planning our journey, at the same time, plan our finance well.
After planning the route and ensuring the available connecting flights are from the same airline, we then liaised with the airline directly, to book our air tickets. It costs us SGD$1998.60 each for the airline tickets from Singapore to Marrakech via Zurich and then return back home safely, 10 days later.
Next, we plan for our hotel/riyad. I have a personal preference to have our hotel to be as close as possible to the shopping area, Djemaa el Fna which is the centre of the medina and the heart of Marrakech. What I did, is that I go to google map on my ipad, and key in “Djemaa el Fna”. It brings me here automatically.
From the map above, you can see, that there are a lot of hotels/riyads located nearby. We want value for money hotels with good services. We have some fun choosing the hotels, narrowing it down to a few good ones and then read the reviews of the hotels at tripadvisor.com. We are spoilt for choice! 🙂
Tripadvisor.com has both good and bad reviews from people who have stayed in the hotel, that you will like to enquire.
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We planned our itineraries first, and as most of our activities are of driving distance from Marrakech, we decided to just book the hotel in Marrakech for 10 nights. We booked through Booking.com and email the hotel again, to confirm that our booking went through. We arranged for airport transfers from the airport to the hotel too. The hotel stay costs $2484 for 10 nights. Of course, there are cheaper options, but we chose the best! 🙂
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At first, we plan to spend some days in Marrakech and some days in Spain, but we then reach to a consensus to just spend our honeymoon days in Marrakech, as there are plenty of activities that we can do, like….
Cooking Class at Faim d’Epices
Hot Air Balloon, and watch the sun rise over the Atlas mountains
Camel Ride the palmeraie of Marrakesh
Quad Biking At The Dessert
There are really many, exciting activities to be done in Morrocco. Attached are our customized, yet detailed itineraries and indicative costs involved. (Right click and save target as)
PDF Format
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Below, are the costs at a glance…
The costs might be steep, but in my opinion, it is money well spend! Really looking forward for our honeymoon. If you find, this post beneficial, do share it with your friends. If you have more ideas, on how to make this trip more fun and interesting, do hit the comment post below! Thank you! 🙂
by Helmi Hakim | Oct 8, 2012 | Insurance, Investment, Miscellaneous
My friend always tell me, “You all Malay, very lucky one….. We, Chinese ar, our wedding can cost $50,000 – $60,000…… Our life savings all gone….”
I used to agree with them, until I plan for my own one…. but now, I have a come back line, ” Ya lah….But you all can cover back your costs wat….”
lolz….. I have been procrastinating to post my rough calculation on the cost of Malay wedding in Singapore. But for the benefit of all, below is the extract from my own financial plan, just for my side of the wedding held under my HDB blk, not inclusive my future wife’s side……. 🙂
If you are planning to get married in a few years time, going to get married, just gotten married, already few years in marriage, do call me for a FREE financial planning advice. I will be very happy to assist you! 🙂
****UPDATES on 8th August 2013****: The post that I created was a year ago, on 8th October 2012. Alhamdulillah, most of the costs, remained intact, as I have made my downpayment, reservation fees at that point of time. However, certain expenses can only be confirmed closer to my wedding date, thus I update them in the costs allocation table above using the red fonts.
As most of you are aware, there is this thing called inflation. Which means, costs of wedding rise year by year. I will advice you to go down to the wedding expo, and confirm with the pertinent vendors, on the specific prices involved. The wedding costs, that I computed above is the exact costs, that I incurred for my wedding. You have the autonomy and flexibility to adjust accordingly. Enjoy the process, like the way, I do. 🙂
by Helmi Hakim | Dec 7, 2008 | Miscellaneous, Motivation
Yesterday, I went for the copywriting seminar conducted by Fadzuli, and boyyy…. it’s enlightening and very refreshing…. 🙂
Get to network with common minded Melayus like Suryadi, Syah, Badawi, Nawaz, Fahim, Melindah and many, more others… Its sooooo….gerek… hahahhhh…
It’s some kind like “law of attraction” these days that, generous people who shares the same passion, keep attracting to me, all the time….
Bro Hafihz, who is a genius in marketing, helped me in the restructuring of my whole blog and change my deep rooted concept and understanding on using the internet to better market and position myself, as a financial associate in Singapore.
Bro Samson, who is a Certified NLP trainer, helped me to reignite my passion and reinforce my belief that all things are possible.
Not forgetting, Abang Abu, with his never ending quest to help the Malay community transform into an exemplary ummah that many will be proud of.
Of course, there are many whom I love to meet in the future like Saiful, Diana Sabrain and many, many more successful entrepreneurs out there 🙂
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Alhamdulillah….
The seminar just comes at the right timing, as I am drafting my first book, “33 Common Questions, People Asked Me As A Financial Associate”. heheh…can steal some ideas to make my book interesting
In this very post that you are reading now, I will share with you the gist of wisdom, I manage to uncover while attending the mini workshop.
Actually, there’s a lot to be shared, but I prefer to concentrate on one…as the post might get very lengthy. 😛
First and foremost, Fadzuli shared that copywriting is the art of WRITING that enables reader’s mind to think and TRIGGER responses.
Different people have different TRIGGER points.
You have different TRIGGER points.
I have different TRIGGER points.
Everyone has different TRIGGER points.
The 8 Most COMMON TRIGGER POINTS are
1) Specificity
When you are specific, you increase believability.
Specifics carry more weight with your prospects.
Things like “I am a financial associate.”
“I am 23 years old.”
“I live in Singapore.”
All these, are specifics, that increase believability.
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2) Curiosity
Curiosity kills the cat but makes the marketer, a lot of money.
I love to create suspense and make people curious of my no hold bar frank opinion of life, when I post in this blog.
That is why you still continue to read and revisit my blog again and again. even though some detest with my opinions
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3) Reason WHY
Telling people the reason WHY YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING is one of the most powerful
influencers of human behavior.
Robert Cialdini, Ph.D. in his book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” talks
about an experiment by Harvard social psychologist, Ellen Langer, that concluded
people like to have a reason for what they do.
My manager is a very good motivator.
She loves to say, “Helmi, you must do this because….
because….”
A lot of reasons created, that will propelled me to strive to achieve my goals.
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4) Scarcity
When you don’t have many of it, people tend to want it.
So when you want to offer something to readers of your blog, make it scarce. 🙂
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5) Fear
This is my own interpretation. When people fear of something, they will act IMMEDIATELY.
Example, one who is diagnose with heart problem, will IMMEDIATELY quit smoking, or maintain a healthy lifestyle, because they FEAR of the worst.
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6) Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm is contagious.
I guess, some people just act on what you propose, if they see you, so enthusiastic in what you propose.
Yup2… Enthusiasm plays a role. 🙂
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7) TELLING THE TRUTH
I find this relevant.
When I asked the top 1% of financial advisers in Singapore, on what makes them so successful.
They just told me, be truthful. Just tell you clients, the truth.
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8) Relations
When you mention names, it triggers the related party minds..hahahhh…I did mentioned names in this post right? 😛
Sometimes,my blog post remits unwanted responses, even i don’t mention names. who eat chili, they will feel the heat
I will like to thank Bro Fadzuli again for his sharing and hope, you, readers learn a thing or 2 in this post. :)
