A Khmer Wedding

This is a picture of the modern part of the wedding which took place in the evening complete with banquet music and dancing [ALL PICTURES PUBLISHED ARE WITH KIND PERMISSION OF THE BRIDE AND GROOM] 





Traditional Khmer wedding attire made from beautiful Cambodian silk

Hello to all my blogging friends
I will just update you on the weather forecast here in Cambodia it is 32oC and the sun is burning t'thack off as we say in Yorkshire or some such thing as I go about my daily chores I still have sweat dripping off my nose [not a good look I grant you] but I have to say infinitely preferable to being thigh deep in snow and ice so my commiserations to all of you who have to brave the M1 and M62 and every other road by the sounds of things to get to work and other such pleasures. They say timing is every thing and I have to say my timing in taking my gap year so far has been brilliant.
A couple of weeks ago I got my first invitation to a Khmer wedding it is wedding season at the moment in Cambodia and they are taking place all over the city As is customary in our country there is a formal part to Khmer weddings and less formal parts with dancing taking a prominent role.

This is Pros and Sochivy accepting their blessings

The wedding was of a work colleague Pros and his very beautiful bride Sochivy they had a combined traditional and modern wedding. The weddings in Cambodia are very colourful and joyous affairs in the traditional part which usually takes place in the morning the two families meet up and gifts are brought and this is the time that wedding rings are exchanged and specific songs are sung. After that monks offer blessings to the couple after which a hair cutting ceremony takes place. This is only symbolic nowadays but it represents the couple preparing to make a fresh start in a life together family and friends all take part in this bit of the ceremony and again songs are sung afterwards. This is followed by a pairing ceremony where the bride and groom have their right and left wrists respectively tied with blessing strings and they receive praises from their well wishers for happiness good health and success followed once again by 4 songs this time.
After the traditional part of the wedding is over a party is held and my case I was treated to a veritable feast ne banquet at least 7 course I stopped counting after 5! it was fantastic
I was sat at a round table of 10 people all of whom were friendly and kind and I tried out my faltering K'mai to my delight and relief I found that I was sitting next to a lady who had studied accounting in the UK in the 1990's for a year so her English was very good and she explained every thing to me.
During the banquet people kept arriving throughout the evening and just got fed as they arrived during which time the bride and groom and parents welcomed new arrivals
During the entire evening they must have changed their clothes 4/5 times and for one of her out fits the bride wore a very beautiful white gown. Indeed all her clothes were stunning but my favourites were the Cambodian silk traditional dresses just amazing.

My new wedding outfit which will come in very handy for all other formal occasions

Of course getting this invitation gave me a dilemma one familiar to my husband 'I don't have a thing to where!' So to remedy this I hot footed it to the Russian market and ordered a very nice made to measure traditional Khmer number pure silk I hope that you like it here I am just before I set off for the wedding.