Wedding in Thailand

Ar is Wiwat's nephew and today he and Air (his girlfriend) are getting married.

As luck would have it, work decided to send me to India (actually not so lucky, it's not my favourite work destination), but the only flights available were via Bangkok.  So I got to attend the wedding at the last minute.

Groom's Procession

We had a very early start, 4:30am (urgle) and headed off to Air's parents place in a small town outside Bangkok.  The event started at 6:30am (so that it was still cool).  As the groom's family we formed a procession to back him up as he marched up the road to ask for Air's hand in marriage.

This is actually a Chinese tradition - hence the guys dressed up a Chinese lions. Very colourful and very loud and I'm glad I wasn't one of the neighbours that time on a Sunday morning! No idea why I am carrying two tall bamboo sticks, but everyone has to carry a gift.  They get really heavy after the first 20 mins.

Air and Ar - the Bride and Groom

Here are the bride and groom with the Chinese lions.

The next step was the wedding proper - very informal taking place in Air's parents house in the presence of all the older family members.  Essentially the couple asks everyone for their blessing and it's done.  No church, temple, priests or monks.

Ar's brother O at the Tea Ceremony

Later there was the tea ceremony - which is much more a Thai tradition. Guests drink a sip of tea with the couple and give them presents in return (in this case red envelopes of money, back to the Chinese style again).