The wedding of my niece and her groom culminated with a grand banquet…
…held at the sparkling new hall at this recently-completed building in town.
The door gifts…
…included a pair of lovey-dovey heart-shaped glass photo frames and a box containing personalised red velvet cookies and a slice of cake – if I’m not mistaken, it was the hati parek with its lovely rich taste of fruit (raisins or prune).
Upon the arrival of the newly-weds, they took their places at the pelamin (dais) and there followed the bersanding and menepung tawar ceremony…
…with the blessings by the distinguished guests and the immediate members of the couple’s families.
After that, the couple proceeded to the main table…
…where they were seated with the guest-of-honour, the bride’s paternal grand-uncle, my maternal uncle.
Dinner was served in what I always call “the dome” – I used to have that very frequently at hotel restaurants and other venues on my working trips here, there and everywhere in the peninsula prior to my retirement but this was the first time I had seen this here. Selections included the ayam masak merah (red-cooked chicken)…
…and the Sarawak’s own daging masak hitam (black-cooked beef)…
I loved the pineapple curry…
…and the acar ikan masin (pickled salted fish)…
…though the latter was a tad too salty. It would be good to soak the salted fish first so it would not be so salty in which case, I would be able to indulge in more of it. Hehehehehe!!!!
There were the acar limau (calamansi lime pickle) and fruits as well and to go with all those, we were given a choice of white rice or nasi kuning (yellow rice)…
I would say that I enjoyed the dinner very much, a nice change from the usual Chinese dinners at the hotels or restaurants.
In the course of the evening, the sister of the bride…
…gave a very delightful and entertaining speech.
Gee! I love weddings, I really do and I would say I enjoyed the evening very much, basking in all the joy and the splendour…and there will be another one coming up at the end of next week – I’m certainly looking forward to that.
In the meantime, here’s wishing the two of you again, Nadya and Helmi, everlasting love and happiness and all the best in the years ahead. Cheers!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Weddings are happy events… can see the smiles and joyful faces from all sides of the hall… Cheers to the Happy Couple and their family!
Yes, love was all around, everyone was so happy.
I wish them all the best. What beautiful photos! 🙂
Ummm…ok. I took most of the shots from a far distance…and the alternating coloured lights that are the trend here these days are such a pain – the blue one will make everything look quite horrible.
what a lovely malay wedding,
It was.
I think you love the curries more 😛
…than?
Pineapple curry & acar limau are both appetising dish to wash down everything especially after having all the meat dishes. Cheers to the lovely couple.
Thanks. The salted fish one was very good, too bad the fish was too salty. 😦
Food looks delicious! And congratulations again to the lovely couple! 🙂
Thanks again. Yes, dinner was good.
First picture looks very grand already, like in a high class hotel! Food looks so good, I love that daging masak hitam and pineapple curry.. Oohh and the nasi kuning too.. Are they refillable?
This place is grand too, exclusive..and almost brand new. Yes, the boys were always around, ready to serve at one’s beck and call. So very impressed that when I said thank you, they replied welcome…not like those stone-deaf and dumb part-timers that they engage at the classy hotel restaurants to help cope with the crowd at their grand banquets. They should give them proper training before setting them loose…and at times, they’re dressed rather shabbily too – gives such a bad impression. 😦
Congratulations to the happy couple. Thoughtful door gift
Thanks. Very nice.
The door gift is so nice…
Yes, very nice.
Usually in the Malay weddings, they serve food in dome. I like it that way than Chinese which contains so many dishes that we hardly able to eat by the 5th or 6th dish came.
Lovely door gifts for guests. I like hati parek.
You’re good, can last till 5th or 6th. These days, 6th is already the last one…7th is the fruit/dessert. In my case, after the first dish and the soup…so hungry, would eat a lot…and then full already. The rest, I would just nibble a bit.
Congrats to your niece on her wedding! =) I agree with Rose, though; for the last wedding I attended, there was so much food that I kept wanting to run into the toilet and soothe the uncomfortable stomach by throwing everything out. >_>
Don’t worry, STP; the pictures are quite good, even from where you were seated. I always believe that the lighting, not the distance, helps to make or break the quality of the pictures. If you had seen the very few photographs I took during (my) prom night, that one’s bad because it was taken in a dim area. =/
The changing colours of the lights were such a pain – they have those at every banquet venue now, it seems. Worst is blue – everything will turn a ghastly ghostly blue…like in those Chinese horror movies. For each shot, I had to wait for the lights to change to one that is nice enough…so I missed some of those “Kodak moments”. 😦
Thanks for your good wishes. Chinese dinners aren’t so bad now – 6 + fruit/dessert. In my younger days, there were as many as 12 and servings were huge! And a really “good table” was around RM150/$150 (colonial days) – these days, don’t expect too much for RM500. I hear in KL, even RM1000, not impressive.
Oh yes, I remember the “dome”. Had that at a conference lunch and also at my cousin’s wedding. But there was not enough food to go around and in this regard I prefer Chinese style hee..hee…
Big eaters, all? I remember the sit-on-the-floor ones, the 4-person set…you will get 4 pieces of meat – chicken curry, beef rendang…one each but they were big chunks. Of course I was happy when nobody else wanted to sit with me and my mum and I could eat everything. Hehehehehe!!!! This one, there was more in the dome and there were only 8 at our table for 10 so more than enough to go round. I would have gone for supper, otherwise.
But even at Chinese dinners – I remember at a classy hotel in Kuching, after the banquet, I went to the coffee shop restaurant behind the hotel…and lo and behold! Everyone was there!!! 😀 😀 😀 Expensive, so little to eat…and not nice, cold even. 😦 Sibu ones are ok…I guess.
The groom looks so dashing in his western suit and the blushing bride is so beautiful.
Yes, good looks run in the family, don’t you think? Hehehehehehe!!!!!
I never been to a Malay wedding.It looks so grand and nice. And…ah..the food were awesome! Yums! Look at all those daging and curry as well as nasi kuning.
Oh??? I thought you would have many Malay friends and you would have gone to many Malay weddings – considering that they’re the majority there, all your school or uni-mates. We do not have so many Malays or other races in Sibu – predominantly-Chinese. All my years in school from Primary 1 to Form 6, I think my Malay/Muslim classmates not more than 10…altogether, so many years.
Yes, food was good that night.
Congratulations to the beautiful couple!
Very interesting wedding dinner, i like the food. A bit too little? Do they refill it? I like that daging masak hitam.
Food was enough for 8 of us at the table, just right – rice serving, very little each time….had to ask for more but it was all right – service was very good.
They are so generous on the door gifts!
Congratulations to the newly wed!
Thanks. The gifts are expensive? Love the photo frames, very nice.
Lovely food! I quite like the Malay style wedding dinners.
Congrats to your niece and husband! 🙂
Thanks. Yes, it was indeed a lovely event – one more coming up this weekend.