Hoem Sovannara and Leap Sokuntheary (Theary) were married in her childhood village home. This village was about 2 hours from Phnom Penh by auto on an island that can only be reached by a ferry which is large enough to carry a car and a few motorcycles across a large river. All of the students that live in the BEST CENTER attended as Theary lived in the dorm throughout her 4 years at the university. It was a beautiful wedding but not like any that I have witnessed near my home in Kansas, USA. There are many traditions at a Cambodian Wedding.
Not many years ago a wedding took 7 days, but now only 1 to 3 days. Most of the events at this wedding took place on Monday, January 29, 2018.
The Bride and Groom experience a long day on their special day. It includes at least 4 different matching formalwear outfits. These outfits were rented. There were also coordinated clothing selections for the bride and groom's attendants. There were several traditional ceremonies that primarily the family attended.
All of the weddings that I have witnessed have been held in large beautiful tents. You can see the one above that was set up on the grounds of the Bride's family home. In the cities, the tents are usually set up in the streets, which are merely blocked off to traffic for the duration of the wedding (and funerals also share this tradition). This can be quite disruptive to traffic as the streets are narrow. Sometimes even highways are blocked off to only one lane or worse.
January is a popular month to hold weddings as it is the dry season. But this year that did not hold true to this wedding. It rained all morning in the village. With no pavement in the village, it became quite slippery and muddy.
This was one of the better places to walk. As you can see, the women wear very beautiful and formal dresses. This year it was the fashion to wear long dresses which turned out to be quite a challenge to keep clean.
This is a tropical island with banana trees, mango trees and other fruits and vegetables. Notice the background in this photo. The village is in what I would call a jungle. What beautiful surroundings for a wedding or any other event!
People arrived from early morning to late in the day.
One of the first events was a parade of all the guests there who were provided with gifts of food which included fruit plates, canned goods, meat, candy, etc. We marched in two lines by couples, each couple carrying duplicate beautiful food plates which were wrapped with clear plastic. They were presented to the bride's family for the wedding. This is also the time that the groom officially asks the bride's hand in marriage.
All of the guest who arrived in time for the parade were then served breakfast in the large tent by caterers. You can see that the meals were served beautifully. We were also served lunch and dinner (which is shown to the right). Most guests also brought changes of clothing so that they could wear their most beautiful dresses in the evening.
One does not bring wrapped gifts for the bride and groom. Guests are provided with envelopes with their invitations (which are also beautiful by the way) to slip some money into and was to be given at the wedding. This money is usually used to help pay for the wedding which is quite expensive.
As the evening meal began a band had been arranged for across the road from the tent. Some of the dorm students ended up on the stage singing with the band. They seemed to really enjoy it. There was a relative of the bride in the group. You can see that especially the girls go all out to look beautiful for the event, including special hair dos and makeup. They were all beautiful. There was also traditional dancing in the street and professional traditional dancers on the stage.
This photo of Tom and Helen with 2 dorm students, Makara and Da, was taken in front of the homes in this village. They are built on stilts about 8 feet off the ground. There are tables for sitting or laying on under the houses. This area is used extensively for visiting, etc. Electricity has recently been added to this island as well and a fresh water source. During the rainy season it is not unusual for the island to flood. All outside supplies must come over on the ferry.
This photo was taken of the parents and grandparents of the couple. The inside of their home was decorated for several of the traditional ceremonies that take place, pledging care for each other and wishing the couple a good life together. These homes are usually rather bare inside, with plastic mats on the floor for sleeping and eating. Marriage appears to be a very important event for Cambodians to go to all of the trouble and expense to provide a memorable event for the couple.
I had to include the photos of the dorm students, at least most of them.
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