i lost a sister and gained a brother

We were back home in Batu Pahat to hold the bride’s family Chinese wedding dinner. Also had a tea-serving ceremony, where me as the younger sibling has to serve tea to the newly-weds.

Sister's wedding - Suanie serving tea

I know I am chinless. Shut up.

Check out teh l337 body art thing going on…

Sister's wedding - bride and groom

And blue liquid….

Sister's wedding - blue liquid is weird

My folks were happy…

Sister's wedding - newlyweds with parents

I love my sisters…

Sister's wedding - sisters!

There’s another one this weekend. But my job as the n00bish amateur photographer is done. They are hiring a pro, maybe because I couldn’t stop drinking the red wine…

she dunnit!

Sister married - signing the marriage cert

One down, 827,500,000 single women in the world to go… 827,600,100… 827,700,250… 827,499,500… 827,699,800… 827,597,900…

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a new brother-in-law. Yay me!

On the 20th May 2006 at the the Brickfields Buddhist Maha Vihara, my eldest sister and WC, a really nice jolly fellow tied the knot. Literally.

Sister married - Blessing

It was a bright and sunny Saturday morning, I was to go there before 9.15 a.m. so I could take photos of the to-be life couple, guess who arrived first and sat around for 30 minutes?

-_-”

First they had a blessing performed by a resident Sinhalese monk. Some praying before the Buddha’s image, clasped hands, some orange string (note photo above), a couple photographers running around to take better shots, some offering of lotus candles at a massive joss stick pot…

Sister married - candles and incense

There were 5 other couples to be married that day, so we waited around for OUR to-be-married couple’s turn to sign the papers that would legally validate their decision to be get hitched.

During the proceedings, the marriage commissioner talked a lot of stuff. Now we understand why the rest took so long (we were the 6th in the line).

Listening to the marriage commissioner going on about washing cars together as a twosome, it sort of hit me that this is IT. The whole marriage thing… not to be taken lightly… you are now part of a couple… forevar and evar (at least that’s what conventional Asian me thinks how marriages should be)… by jolly, this is a pretty huge step for ANYONE (or I hope so). Watching as my sister repeated her vows and signed the marriage cert, I thought of her as a child, then as a teenager and now a married woman. Surreallllll…

I felt like crying. But I’m tough, me.

For lunch we went to a vegetarian restaurant somewhere in Kepong. We had the whole 8-course Chinese wedding feast, soy products-style. During the mock-prawns dish, my father, ever the practical man commented, “If they wanted something to look like prawns, they might as well serve real prawns.” Hear hear.

But it was a happy occasion, the company was great, my sister got married and my tummy was very filled. In another post I’ll write about how my dad, after a few months of not seeing me got angry with me ‘cos I grew to be so fat.

Now I have to get ready for some family photo thing, and then attend the food tasting for their coming Chinese wedding dinner.

Sister married - new brother in law, yay!

Congratulations, you two!

p/s : statistics are all mine.