Classic Wedding (Part 1)

The uniqueness of Malay weddings lies in the very culture-specific celebrations. Let's see - we'd first have the akad (solemnization ceremony), usually organised by the bride's side, and is usually done either at the mosque, or the bride's house. Then there's the reception on the bride's side, and another reception thrown by the groom's family. The reception guest would vary from 400-500 people up till 1000 + guests since we'd usually invite everyone that we know of, instead of having a small ceremony between close friends and family. Yes, wedding is always a huge family event in Malaysia.

So when another in the family got married, I got another excuse to keep myself busy with the preparation. The last preparation of my sister's wedding was way more hectic, since we had to prepare for 2 occassions - the solemnization ceremony and the wedding reception. However, since now it's my brother's turn, we don't have to worry much about the solemnization ceremony apart from preparing the hantarans (wedding gifts) to be brought to the bride's house.

For the akad, my brother decided to give dinar as dowry for the bride, so I prepared the (paper) frame for the dinar on a small canvas board. The paper was hand-painted to give that rustic look, and cut into strips of paper before moulding them into the geometrical shape.

The writing on the board says "The Solemnization Ceremony of Wan Ahmad Asyraf & Siti Fatimah)

I still love the use of pantun like the ones that we did for my sister's wedding, so we decided to preserve the use of pantun for the hantarans.

 

It's quite difficult to translate what's written on the pantun (a traditional poem of 4 verse that rhymed) since the first 2 lines of the verse didn't really have any connection with the latter ,apart from they rhymed. The last 2 verse were the real intended message, and since my dad created different pantun each for the hantaran, each pantun carries different message.

For example, the above pantun carries the message that "you shall befriend aplenty, but you shall be in love with one and only." Or something like that. I might mistranslate that a little since I want the lines to rhyme hehe but you get the point :P. And the below pantun gives the message that you should ask from those who are willing to give, and long for those who are willing to love.
 

We also decided to use rehal (book rest normally used during Quran recitation) as the hantaran base.

We bought the rehal at Mydin Hypermart Kuala Terengganu at RM25 each, which I'd consider quite affordable (and the cheapest I can find), and the rehal won't go to waste, and can always be re-used. The flowers were from Floristika, Bangsar, KL - a wholesale-like emporium specifically meant for flowers and plants. Special shout to Natasya, our cousin, for preparing the pretty sireh junjung.

Till Part 2 then! ;-)