Thai Buddhist Wedding

Jason is the best man for an upcoming wedding and the bride's family is from Thailand. Although she is does not practice Thai and is a Christian, she went ahead with the family culture and had a Thai wedding. (Their formal wedding will be held next weekend.) Today was the big day for the Thai Buddhist wedding and honestly, I was eager to attend. I find learning other cultures to be interesting, if for the only reason to understand and learn more about other beliefs. We get their and they immediately take Jason back, because he is the best man, and tell him he needs to change shirts. Now Jason had NO IDEA he would have any role in this wedding and was completely taken aback by this. They wanted him to change pants as well but Jason wasn't having that. The biggest shirt size they had was a medium and his two color choices were the one he chose and gold - good pick babe! I had no idea he was even changing until I saw him walk in with the wedding party so you can imagine the surprised look on my face and the utter embarrassment on his. He did well I must say. He tried to move his arms a few times to no avail and succumbed to the fact that he had to sit still and breath easily.

I found the Monks to be quite interesting. Did you know they cannot eat past Noon? It's tradition for the bride and groom to feed the Monks their lunch and during their chanting I found it humorous to see them peak to watch their food being prepared in their bowls. No lie - they were hungry and anxiously waiting to see what would be served. And boy did they grub when it was time. I can't say I don't blame them since they don't get to eat again until the following morning.

Another thing I found interesting was the constant chatter among the guests. No lie! They talked amongst themselves, their relatives, spoke out to dictate what needed to be done/said next (the guests, Monks and other people helping with the service), cellphones rang without a care, people got up and down from their seats and came in and out of the room. It took about the first hour of the service for me to get used to all this and the music playing in the background and the chanting of the Monks for my ADD to slow down. It was very overwhelming I must say.

I feel very blessed to have experienced this wedding. I kinda wished we had brought Cameron along for the experience since it's not likely everyone gets a chance to have a hands-on up-close advantage of learning another culture like this. But pictures and stories will have to do for the kids.

Here is a picture of Jason in his handsome shirt =) I tried to get the gold Buddha statue and the starving Monks in the background. I do think it would be nice to just wrap a cloth around me and call myself dressed for the day! I do think it would be mighty comfortable!!