[Part 1] Let Me Introduce You To My Culture: Malay Wedding

I just came back from my cousin's wedding. Contrary to past where it always an arranged marriage, my cousin picked his own wife. They have been together for 5 years now. They engaged for 2 years and now it is time to get married. Prior this reception, a solemnization event was held. This solemnization was called 'Akad Nikah'

Akad Nikah is a Traditional Malay Wedding Vows). It is the formal contract of marriage or also commonly known as the marriage solemnization or wedding vows.

I was not around for the Akad Nikah. I only manage to come for the reception.

Malay Background and Its Wedding

Malay is an ethnicity in Malaysia whereby majority of it is Muslim. Our ancestors comes from Indonesia who travelled to Malay land thus making our background connected to Indonesia in some way. Malaysia is a multicultural country where our culture is influenced by other cultures such as Indian and Chinese. In wedding, we get the influence from Indian wedding where we display the bride and groom at the wedding dais. This is to announce the bride and groom to people. At the wedding, we serve food and invite relatives, friends, neighbours and all the people we know which then make it a big event that often around 1000pax of guests.

My Cousin's Wedding

This is him with traditional 'Songket' - a fabric in the past that is worn only by royal family. 'Songket' history dated few hundred years back where it is said to originaly comes from India. Today, Songket is still used in Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia. It is hand-woven in silk or cotton that intricately patterned with gold or silver threads. The making of Songket requires at least 3 months to complete where it 100% handmade using simple threading machine.

Making Songket in Indonesia.

Back to the wedding, this reception is to hand over my cousin to his new family. So our big family gathers with the same color theme -purple. It is not a custom to do this, it is just for fun.

Today's King and Queen we called it ^_^

Our purplelicious theme

It is normal that on the wedding dais, guests will flocked the brides for a pictures. ^_*

This is part one I hope you enjoyed reading.

Jen