One of the most beautiful things you can do in Thailand is get hitched! We did it last year and today is our wedding anniversary. It is such an exotic experience for the wedding party and guests. A Thai wedding is romantic, colourful and concentrates on the unity and love of family and friends who support the bride and groom on their future together. It is also incredibly entertaining.
The morning starts off with the groom, led by drummers and dancers, walking to the house where the bride-to- be, is being heavily guarded by close friends.
Traditionally he and his friends sip whiskey on the way.The brides closest friends make a barrier in pairs, with a chain made of flowers blocking the groom’s way. They only let him pass, when they feel he has answered questions correctly, or paid them enough bribe money (traditionally the groom carries several envelopes holding cash to give to stubborn friends of the bride.) My poor husband even had to dance Gangnam style on the third flower chain. Luckily all of his friends joined him and they were all quite impressive dancers, moving in time to the Thai drummer’s version of the Korean hit.
Finally the groom is allowed to see his future wife and offers her a bouquet of flowers.
After this fun and play, everyone then followed the Thai dancers and drummers down to the ceremony hall, to be blessed by Buddhist monks, who chanted, blessed water to be used in the second part of the ceremony and tied the blessed string around our wrists, binding us together for life. For the whole hour, our very dedicated friends sat on the floor and watched. Hands together in prayer position.
The next thing we did, was to take a small vase of blessed water, as did other guests, to a tree or plant in the garden and water it using the blessed liquid. Cute right?
The last part was the tear jerker. Connected head pieces were placed on our heads by our elders and then the rest of the blessed water was used for individual guest blessings.
Each guest or family took a large shell, filled with the blessed water and poured it over our adjoining hands and said some words of kindness, encouragement and congratulations. The happy tears flowed.
Finally the ceremonial stage was then over and the party began.
All of our guests dressed up in Lanna-style outfits, which added to the day’s atmosphere. If anybody needs a special wedding planned – let me know. Paleo Thai wedding – sounds fun!
