Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Wedding, December 11th '04 - Thailand (Part 1)

Noon and I had our second wedding ceremony on the 11th of December 2004. This time it was held in Noon's hometown of Udonthani in Thailand.

Many of Noon's family and relatives did not manage to travel to our wedding in Australia previously because of distance and cost. This time, we wanted to bring the occasion to them so they could celebrate along with us. Noon's side of the family made up the bulk of the 500-guest list, with only 10 of my family members and friends in attendance from Malaysia and Australia.

Before we go any further, let me state for the record that I cannot speak Thai. And Noon's family, with the exception of her eldest brother and younger sister, do not speak English. So you can imagine the interesting time we had. I basically tried to smile and gesture my way through the entire ceremony (very clumsily, I might add) while Noon did her best to translate.

Basically, the events of the day were split into two parts.

First the morning ceremony. Ours consisted of the customary groom's procession to the bride's residence, followed by a passage through 3 symbolic gates, and a blessing ceremony by a group of monks chanting for a happy and prosperous future for the two of us. Pictures and comments as follows, enjoy!


My procession began a few doors down from where Noon was waiting. I came bearing gifts, so to speak :) I can't recall exactly what was carried along, but I know for sure that that big bundle was a whole stack of cash. Imagine if you will $30,000 in $10 bills. And all in cash too! That was my dowry payment to the bride's family for their consent to our wedding. Other assorted gifts included jewelry, gold and fruits.


At the end of the procession, I came to the 3 symbolic gates. In order to pass through these, I had to negotiate the price of passage - a bribe in essence :)
Each successive gate cost more than the one before and by the time I got the last gate I was dealing in Australian dollars!


Once past the gates, I handed over the dowry. Noon's Mum was obviously happy with the money :)




Now that I had access to Noon, we could begin the traditional blessing ceremony. A group of Buddhist monks were invited from the local temple to chant blessings upon our marriage. I was told I would have to sit kneeling for the duration of the ceremony, about 2 hours or so, but they were kind to me and allowed me to sit normally because I was a foreigner.


During the course of the chanting session, Noon and I were tasked with preparing the food offerings for the monks. Again a symbolic gesture, we placed food items into the offering bowls together.


At the conclusion of the blessing ceremony and following the departure of the monks, we had a photography session with various friends and family. Seen on the photo on the left are Noon's mum and dad, and her brothers and sister. The photo on the right are of us and our parents.


Photo on the left are Noon's extended family, and the one on the right is her grandmother who is about 90 years old and still manages a tobacco stall at the local market every morning. Hats off to the grand matriarch!


And this photo of my Mum and Dad that I really like.


Finally, with everything finished and done with in the morning, we could sit down and get a bite to eat from the catered buffet. It was already lunch time by then.


Me and my new sister-in-law on the left, and me and my wife on the right.


The traditional form of greeting in Thailand. And the same for saying a big Thank You for sharing the experience with us!

Well, that was the morning in a nutshell. I had fun reliving the memories, and I hope you enjoyed reading and looking at the photos. Part 2 to follow tomorrow, covering the evening events with another lot of pictures.

3 comments:

chase said...

Wonderful post. Do you get tired of me being your only commenter?

here's a tip, one day when you have bothing to do, use the "next blog" feature at the top of your blog, and leave comments on other peoples blogs, thats the best way to get more people to come to your site. I added you as a link on my page, didnt help much though (smile)

Of course if your just happy with me thats cool too :::smile:::

Noon is absolutetly beautiful, but I'm sure you know that already, hey you married her.

congrats you guys, and I look forward to seeing the rest of the pics.

Min said...

Thanks Chase, always nice to hear from you. And we're not tired of having comments from you either, not at all.

I'd thought about doing what you suggested, leaving comments on other blogs, but have never had enough time to go around quite so much. I'll give it a try soon, I think... at least make the effort to!

Thanks for linking to this blog from yours, doesn't matter even if it hasn't increased our visitor count, it's the thought that counts.

I'll try and have the next post up soon.

Anonymous said...

hey min and fitima,
congratulations!! i love the wedding photos and the thai ceremony was certainly very different.

khob khun krup