I photographed buddhist wedding a few days ago (Chinda and Hong, July 8, 2006). What a treat!
The day started like any other. First, I met the bride (Chinda) and the groom (Hong) in Old Montreal to do some wedding portraits. For that, Chinda and Hong were wearing traditional Western wedding clothes-- the big white dress, and the elegant black suit.
Then we all went back to bride's place. As soon as Chinda stepped in the door, a gang of aunties wisked her into the bedroom.
Off came the white wedding dress, on went the traditional wedding dress. Then the aunties congregated on the bed and started pulling gold out of their purses. Real gold. Ancient gold, passed down for generations.
First they wound long strings of golden beads into Chinda's hair.
Then they draped her with an ancient pentants, golden belts, over-the-shoulder chains, and giant dangly earrings.
"Wow, it's heavy," whispered Chinda, visibly wilting under all the weight. It didn't help that she's been on the go since 6:00 AM, and it was 110 degrees in the room.
When Chinda finished dressing, and everyone headed out to a Thai restaurant, where the ceremony was to be held.
By the time we got there, the aunties (who'd gotten there before us) were in the process of transforming the restaurant into a buddhist shrine.
They made two giant bouquets out from banana leaves and flowers, and surrounded them with eggs and rice, to symbolize fertility and fecundity.
During the ceremony, Chinda and Hong sat on one side of the flowers, while the priest sat on the other. Chinda's eyes were wet with tears by the end of the service, while Hongs face grew slowly more impassive. At the very end, the priest tied white threads around each of the the bride and grooms wrists, and it was all over.
