My 21st Birthday Party

Hola! Havent blogged in a while and figure I'd come back with a special one.

If you guys followed me on instagram (@karwei.goay) long enough,
you would know that I hosted a party 

for my 21st birthday and it was one of the best decision I have made in my life.

A little background story before I start spamming photos.

- Why host a party, when you could use the money to travel? - a lot have, or maybe are asking.

Before deciding on the party, I actually considered using the money to book a trip to Europe, most probably Paris (oh you know, the typical place for an Europe-virgin like me) With the money what the party had costed me, I could easily book return flights to Paris and probably together with one week accommodation if I look for the cheapest-priced hotel on airbnb. It was no small money  (definitely not to me) and having a Paris trip as 21st birthday present for myself does sound fancy it's where the social media freaks start going #lifegoals and shits

Still, at the end, I decided to go with the party after my mom and best friends' advises.

Hitting 21 is once in a lifetime and Europe can never runaway from world's map.

(I mean, how many more decades can you live?)

Plus I don't really have enough to sustain a week or two in Euro as well, a budgeted solo trip might be really difficult and I wouldn't want my first trip to Europe to be a miserable one. So, Europe only when I earn enough!

- Childhood dream fulfillment was another reason and if you don't mind, I'd like to share with you my personal stories: Let's start from when I was 5. As far as I remember, my upbringing was a tough one and as a child, I never got to celebrate my birthdays like the other kids did. My cousins would have cool parties where they invite their kindergarten friends, kids from next door, relatives and had everyone gathered to celebrate for them. Not big celebrations just a small ones where finger foods, fried bee-hon, red-dyed eggs were served and most most most importantly, they got cakes!
I never got a cake since young and when I mentioned it to my parents, they would always say that 'next year, we'll get you one next year' and it went on and on but never happened. In my memory, I too never whined, begged, or unreasonably asked for it. Guess that even as a kid, I understood and recognized my family's financial difficulties. It was so difficult to the point where even a cake is unaffordable, I'll leave you with the imaginations. Don't get me wrong, I have never blamed my parents for anything. I knew since I was little that they have, and will always give me the best they could. Instead, I learned, matured earlier, and I was taught since young that if you want something, go get it yourself and not just sit and wait around for things to happen. Anyhow, I'm glad that the tough  time is over and it surely had taught me so much growing up. And now that my family is doing much better and I'm even earning my own money now so why not!?

Being able to host this party was truly a dream come true and it almost felt like an accomplishment. 

It was me, my party, and I can never thanked my parents enough for making me who I am today and

always being so supportive for my acts and decisions, even the stupidest ones haha.

To appoint a party planner or not?

The initial plan was to plan the party by my own in order to save costs. From decorations, balloons, dessert bar, cake, door gifts etc. When I contacted all these supply shop myself, I was shocked to learn that the prices are so high they exceed my budget so much! The cake was about rm250-300 for a two-tier design, balloons not less then rm500 if I want two giant one with my name printed on it along with some plain ones that are just enough numbers to fill the room (wtf right?),
cupcakes would be rm200+ and do I have to continue?
These costs haven't even included the decoration props like cupcake stand, etc.

My plan was to host a party thats lower than a thousand (other than foods) 

I KNOW IT SOUNDS RIDICULOUS AND ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO HAPPEN

The worst thing of all was that my birthday fell right between my final exam..

So what if I wanted to do it on my own, I couldn't as well. 

That was when I miraculously came across What A Bash, a humble party/event planner in Penang who offers party package as low as rm950! Lehma how could I resist?!  All the other ones that I asked the lowest they offer is around rm1500.. *cues Galantis's NO MONEY*  So that was it! I handed over the project to What A Bash hoping they would not disappoint me I couldn't be worrying about the party and my final exams in between. Thats where people break down and go to mental hospital. 

They had everything settled and I didn't even ask how the arrangement, placement, dessert bar, decorations were gonna be because I JUST TRUSTED THEM SO MUCH. AND THANK GOD NEITHER DID THEY DISAPPOINT ME. Appointing them was the best decision ever I couldn't imagine the other way round, I would screw up my own party and having no one to blame for it ~.~

The very beautiful and almost-had-me-screaming cake was from @cake_by_r_n_s (instagram)

And boy, do they make delicious cake!??

My best friend's birthday cake was from them as well so I highly recommend this home-based shop to anyone. Even all my guests were raving about it and asked where was it from. 

Trust me when I say it's very hard to get amazing-looking two tier cake and taste good at the same time.

(I personally tried cake from other shop, it looked good but tasted like roadkill so..)

Chocolate bar, table mats, even the menus are specially printed! 

Ben lai I thought the menu is not included in the party-plan and did my own menu which is just a plain white paper with words I simply typed on Microsoft word HAHAHHA! When I showed it to What A Bash's team they be like NO NO NO NO NO, we'll take care of it! 

As you can tell they are such perfectionist and put pride into things that they do.

Seeing these photos months later, still feel that the setup is so incredibly beautiful 💓

Feels so surreal. Was it really my party!?

Highlight of the night was definitely the appearance of this kid! 

Lied to me about not coming back from Hong Kong during her summer break but ended up showing up!

To perfect the lie, she some more took a video of her in HK for me :3 

Lehma. I totally screamed when I saw her! Lei hou yeh ah.

Never a cheesy relationship with my parents.

So you can tell my dad is very reluctant to kiss me I bet he felt disgust with all his heart HAHAH

But love love love them ♥

Only one of my younger brother was there, while the other one was in Bali, enjoying life.

Yep I grew up with 2 younger brothers, that explains why I behave like a boy!

Big family. Glad that everyone took time to attend my cute little party.

(lol I wonder why the photographer never told us that some of the faces are being blocked, 

now all the group photos are not complete, its always someone being blocked)

Some of my friends felt weird and asked me how come I invited relatives as well.

The reason was that they had helped me and my family so much growing up..

Always appreciate and show gratitudes, especially to those who had lend u helping hands!

Lucky to have a cousin sister who went through ups and downs with me. 💓

Anyways,  I have like 500 photos wtf.

I can't afford to go through them all it's gonna be very lag lah.

So I'm just gonna post some of the top picks! 

College babess! Thank y'all for coming even thought its in the midst of final exam :3

And also guiding me about everything at college, very much appreciated!

Brendon & Marilyn!

Hottest couple I know! Both so hot I'm stressed to stand between them.. 

Still remember how we "clicked" so fast and became instant bestfriend-ish. 

They're the amazing kind of people where you can just truly be yourself around them 😇

VIPs in my life! 💗💗💗   Main babes.

Diploma buddies!

Would it be cheesy for me to say that I miss you guys every single day and our time together? ://

The only people that whenever I am with them, everything is laughable and fun.. 

With the way we are looking, I'm sure we are already screwing each other. 

And Kai Wen is.. wondering how I got so fat after diploma!?

Can't remember what we were laughing about exactly! 

I think it's because I asked him to pose like a "kiss me" pose and he swears at me HAHAHA 

I CAN'T REMEMBER!! Anyways, this photo is a good illustration of what I'm like with them.

Always laughing. ALWAYS LAUGHING. No matter big or small jokes, the joke is on them or on me.

But usually on me lah, I am the biggest joke to them. 

Girls that bring happiness to my life! Always ♥♥

And why we keep broke down laughing wtf.

Maybe they found out how many weights I put on. 

My best friend in the world. 💓

LOL so kesians of my friends keep kena me forcing them to pose as they kiss me. 

I have no bad intention lah I just thought it's really cute. 

Please do not misunderstand and stuffs because with how long we have known each other, 

if we were to have a thing, we would already have a thing. 

Cake-cutting session!

LOL my double chins are so serious there are no way to hide it. 

What makes me glad was that my parents looked really happy the whole night, 

it was like seeing me get married like that, but without the me-moving-away-from-them part HAHAH

May I just say that the dress is a complete mistake?

In some angles I look okay, but in some I look like fucking harambe. 虎背熊腰你知道吗

Love every single one of you girlssss 💓

The night ended perfectly. I couldn't have asked for anything else ♡
I sincerely thank my party planner - What A Bash for making everything more than what I dreamt of!
Harvest Times cafe for providing the venue despite the fact that it was public holiday on the day,
yet they let me use the entire second floor.
I too wanna thank my parents for making who I am today.
And last but not least, every single one of you who took time to attend and celebrate my big day with me.
It meant so much to me you have no idea.



Before I sign off, a little appreciation note to my boyfriend:
Thank you for everything.
For giving me everything I ever wanted(if you can),
 always putting effort to make sure I'm happy,
listening to my complaints & rants all day which sound really lame to you. 
And most importantly, for loving me as who I am. 
Though I might be the most fussy, cranky, & annoying bitch at times,
but you still stayed, after so long. I wonder why. Are you outta your mind.
Words can't describe how much you mean to me and how grateful I am.
Love love love love you very much. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡


And to my friend who are not seeing our photo together, 
theres 95% chance I look like a complete retard in the photo.
Don't force me to upload pics that I look like shit in.
It was my birthday!!