Malay Wedding Drummers

This is part of the Malay wedding ceremony. I was lucky enough to be invited to a friend's (the bride's) wedding. The video covers a few highlights of the drummers. In the beginning the groom is approaching the reception hall where the bridge is waiting on a stage. The reception hall is filled with the bride's friends and family. The groom has to work his way to the stage, with the help of his friends, and the ritual includes paying his way to the bride. The mother-in-law sits next to the bride on the stage until she's satisfied with the gift's the groom's friend hands to her in small envelopes. Then he will sit by the bride and they will pose for photographs before leaving and going to the groom's reception.

(I'm not clear on a lot of the details as this was my first Malay wedding, but it was a lot of fun and the food was great! Also, pardon the weird focusing problem with my camera. The particular shade of red that the drummers were wearing and that was behind the bride seemed to throw off my camera's focus. It uses a red light to focus usually so that may be why it's screwed up.)

Blog post associated with this video: http://bit.ly/cD7yUi

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Malay
• Malaysian
• Malaysia
• wedding
• drummers
• bride
• reception

[whygothic]

I was told that in the Malay wedding, the bride + bridegroom are treated like king & queen of the day. Those men with kompang (handheld percussion) are replacing the nobat players (official court musicians, the nobat music is retricted to royals only).

[JuniorInvestigator]

@villagegirl4life Ya, I was really disappointed with that myself.  I'm glad you enjoyed it anyway!

[villagegirl4life]

@JuniorInvestigator That makes a kind of sense..what a pity it'd have been a near perfect piece otherwise. I still enjoy it nonetheless, thanks.

[JuniorInvestigator]

@villagegirl4life I checked my camera quite a few times after this and it's working fine. I think it has something to do with the particular shade of red the drummers were wearing. This was shot with a point-and-shoot Sony camera and the camera uses a red light while focusing for taking a still photo. I think that had something to do with it.

[villagegirl4life]

may I ask why does the film is constantly in and out of focus? Just wondering.

[JuniorInvestigator]

Well, that makes sense I suppose.

[retroglow]

Truth be told, I am not entirely sure ... but if I am not wrong, I believe they were passing something like tips to the Mak Andam for her support throughout the entire wedding :)

[JuniorInvestigator]

Ah I see. So what was the deal with the passing off of envelopes?

Ya, we did have a good time. ^_^

[retroglow]

Ah, the woman sitting beside my sis was actually the "Mak Andam", or the wedding beautician ... and not my mum :) I'm glad that you and Margee both had a pleasant time @ the wedding! - azlyn