Sunday, July 22, 2007
We head to Nee Soon East CC for our JC classmate Siti’s wedding.
The celebration takes place in the multi-purpose hall. Tables placed around the hall in a way that an aisle is left down the middle of the hall for the bride and groom to walk to their places on the stage. Two long buffet tables occupy the sides the hall – one for the main courses, the other for the dessert. Geez what a spread of dishes! Pity I am unable to savour the pastries… bloated myself with the main course that allows me to skip dinner. The hall is decked out in the theme of gold. Each table has an interesting floral arrangement of roses dipped into bottles of green water, causing the rose petals to have a nice little tinge of green near the stem.
The joy of attending a Malay wedding is that it is a leisurely and easy-going affair. You can come at whatever time you like, you can eat whenever and whatever you like, and you can leave whenever you like. It is very casual. In contrast, for a Chinese wedding, it is a tightly-controlled eight-to-ten-course meal where yes, everybody treats it as a leisurely affair, coming at whatever time they like and then they spoil the party by causing dinner to begin late. And because each table is entitled to a certain quantity of food, overzealous folks at the table will attempt fastest-chopsticks-first and try to swallow as much food to be the overall heavyweight champion. And with the presence of alcohol some guests will just drink themselves silly and bawl and sulk and make the wedding the most memorable they’ve ever attended.
Probably the only problem at a Malay wedding is crowd-control, because people come at their own time, so at moments there might be a sudden surge in the crowd and there will be insufficient tables. Yet this problem is easily solved. Guests graciously finish their food and leave so that others may sit down and feast as well.
When we first arrive, we decided to eat first because there are quite a lot of people queuing up to wish the bride and groom well and to take photographs with them. The couple are seated on the stage, in front of this lavishly royal set that just makes the otherwise plain and boring hall look tremendously sumptuous.
Unfortunately the bride and groom leave before we have a chance to go up. And we foolishly speculate what might have happened
(1) She went to a dressing room backstage for rest and a change of clothes. But it’s unlikely she’d hang out in such a place – dressing rooms are CC auditoriums are either pathetic or non-existent.
(2) She went to an air-conditioned room in another part of the CC – now that might be possible…
(3) She went home to sleep…!
They re-appear until about an hour later – this time Siti is dressed in a gorgeous white gown – earlier she had been in a golden baju kurong. We’ve never seen our classmate look this stunning before!
Now we know why she must have taken so long. The dress is complicated to put up on the wearer.
Finally we get to meet the bride and groom, and take pictures with them!
I have to mention: Siti’s relatives and friends are really musically talented! They perform well at the karaoke set, rarely going off-pitch, and maintaining a good sense of rhythm. In fact we even thought the sound people were playing off CDs until we hear some off-key singing – and we realise it’s LIVE ENTERTAINMENT!
Speaking of Siti’s relatives and friends – the couple will host another function, this time for the groom’s family and friends. It’s an interesting piece of news – the first time we learn that Malay weddings organise two feasts, not just one!
¶ 7/22/2007 11:48:00 pm The celebration takes place in the multi-purpose hall. Tables placed around the hall in a way that an aisle is left down the middle of the hall for the bride and groom to walk to their places on the stage. Two long buffet tables occupy the sides the hall – one for the main courses, the other for the dessert. Geez what a spread of dishes! Pity I am unable to savour the pastries… bloated myself with the main course that allows me to skip dinner. The hall is decked out in the theme of gold. Each table has an interesting floral arrangement of roses dipped into bottles of green water, causing the rose petals to have a nice little tinge of green near the stem.
The joy of attending a Malay wedding is that it is a leisurely and easy-going affair. You can come at whatever time you like, you can eat whenever and whatever you like, and you can leave whenever you like. It is very casual. In contrast, for a Chinese wedding, it is a tightly-controlled eight-to-ten-course meal where yes, everybody treats it as a leisurely affair, coming at whatever time they like and then they spoil the party by causing dinner to begin late. And because each table is entitled to a certain quantity of food, overzealous folks at the table will attempt fastest-chopsticks-first and try to swallow as much food to be the overall heavyweight champion. And with the presence of alcohol some guests will just drink themselves silly and bawl and sulk and make the wedding the most memorable they’ve ever attended.
Probably the only problem at a Malay wedding is crowd-control, because people come at their own time, so at moments there might be a sudden surge in the crowd and there will be insufficient tables. Yet this problem is easily solved. Guests graciously finish their food and leave so that others may sit down and feast as well.
When we first arrive, we decided to eat first because there are quite a lot of people queuing up to wish the bride and groom well and to take photographs with them. The couple are seated on the stage, in front of this lavishly royal set that just makes the otherwise plain and boring hall look tremendously sumptuous.
Unfortunately the bride and groom leave before we have a chance to go up. And we foolishly speculate what might have happened
(1) She went to a dressing room backstage for rest and a change of clothes. But it’s unlikely she’d hang out in such a place – dressing rooms are CC auditoriums are either pathetic or non-existent.
(2) She went to an air-conditioned room in another part of the CC – now that might be possible…
(3) She went home to sleep…!
They re-appear until about an hour later – this time Siti is dressed in a gorgeous white gown – earlier she had been in a golden baju kurong. We’ve never seen our classmate look this stunning before!
Now we know why she must have taken so long. The dress is complicated to put up on the wearer.
Finally we get to meet the bride and groom, and take pictures with them!
I have to mention: Siti’s relatives and friends are really musically talented! They perform well at the karaoke set, rarely going off-pitch, and maintaining a good sense of rhythm. In fact we even thought the sound people were playing off CDs until we hear some off-key singing – and we realise it’s LIVE ENTERTAINMENT!
Speaking of Siti’s relatives and friends – the couple will host another function, this time for the groom’s family and friends. It’s an interesting piece of news – the first time we learn that Malay weddings organise two feasts, not just one!
